How do you speed up computer performance without breaking the bank? There are a few things you can do to get a little more life out of your old computer.

Remove Startup Items You Don’t Need

One of the biggest thieves of computer performance is the startup items that (un)helpfully configure themselves to start automatically when the computer is booted. Some applications will ask about this during the installation routine; others bury this setting in the “Easy Install” or “Standard Install” routine. Each application you allow to start up at boot time will take a little memory and a little processor time away from your computer. After loading several applications, your system may not have enough available RAM to run the OS properly or to run applications smoothly.

The end result is that the computer spends a lot of time “borrowing” memory space from the hard disk… a slow operation. The simple solution is to evaluate each of the start up items on your computer carefully and determine whether they really need to be on when you first boot your computer. If the answer is no, or you don’t mind the five seconds it takes to start an application when you do need to use it, forget about the app as a startup item. Your overall computer performance will improve and that can be worth a lot.

How do you get rid of startup items? Run msconfig by typing “msconfig” (no quotes) in the Run box. Choose Selective Startup and then uncheck everything that doesn’t need to run on startup. Don’t assume that because you don’t recognize something that it’s unnecessary. Know what you’re shutting off before you uncheck that box!

Once you’ve gone through the startup items and pared them back to a manageable level, restart your computer and see if you notice a performance difference. You can repeat this step a few times to make sure you have your startup items configured exactly the way you want them. If you find that you miss a particular startup item, you can always go back into msconfig and set the item to start up automatically.

Again, don’t arbitrarily turn things off in msconfig. Some items are necessary for the proper operation of the OS, and turning them off will have some unexpected results!

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In my last post, I gave a few “back to school” tips to speed up your slow computer. There are many more things you can do besides those basic tasks to get a little speed boost from your computer. Today, I’ll continue that theme and examine some other things that will help your computer remain in top form, no matter how old it is.

The Need For (Computer) Speed Is Universal

There’s nothing fun about dealing with a slow computer, especially when you have assignments due, or have a limited amount of time in which to get things done. If you’ve corrected all of the basic problems and cleared up any viral or malware infections that may be stealing processor time, there are a few other steps you can take to get more out of your computer for less money than you’d spend on upgrading.

Number one on the list is defragmenting your hard drive. This is probably a technique that should be considered “basic” but if you haven’t “defragged” your disk in awhile, you could be building up quite a performance delay. Defragmenting is done with a defragmenting utility, one of which comes free with the Windows OS. Defragmenter is in the System Tools collection, and will show you how fragmented your hard disk is and will put your files back in a neat order. Plan on defragmenting your disk once or twice each year, more often if you copy and delete a lot of files to and from your disk regularly.

Number two on the list is install more RAM or graphics/video memory. Your computer has a limit as to how much RAM it can address, so don’t add more than your computer can handle. Your owners manual should tell you how much RAM your computer can recognize. You can also find this information out from the BIOS information that’s displayed at bootup. If your computer has a separate graphics processor/card you may be able to get a performance boost by adding more graphics memory, making more memory available to graphics processing or by putting a new graphics card into your computer. This may be especially helpful if you use your computer predominantly for gaming.

Number three is a “don’t-do.” If you’re working with an older computer, consider NOT upgrading your system to the latest OS. The older your computer is, the less likely it is to meet the minimum requirements for newer OSs. Even though the system may load and operate, most of the computer’s processing resources will be devoted to running the OS, and not meeting the needs of the user. Just something to keep in mind when you’re looking for better performance.

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If you’re among the untold legions of students getting ready to go back to school, you’ll want to spend a few minutes making sure your computer is ready for the coming semester. The last thing you want to deal with is a slow computer during orientation week or worse, exam week.

Common Causes of Slow Computer

Before you pack up your beloved computer, scan it for viruses and malware. Clean up whatever you find, and that includes cleaning out the registry. Use a registry cleaner like RegCure for best results. Make sure you have the latest virus and malware definitions. If you don’t, download them or update your subscription to the A/V software. You may also want to check with your college or university. Sometimes, they’ve licensed A/V software for every campus computer, including personal computers that belong to students. Using the license that comes with being a student may save you a few bucks in the process.

Before you do anything else, back up your data. Seriously. Whether you run the built-in backup and restore, or copy your files to a thumb drive, or back your files off to a CD, back up your data. Don’t forget to back up your system data, too. Put your backup media – whatever you’ve chosen – aside for the moment. We’ll come back to it.

Run the disk utilities on your PC to search the hard disk for errors, corrupted files and other disasters. Fix or get rid of those. When your system is completely clean and free from errors, back it up again. Pack your backup media and take it with you. You may need it later in the year.

Pare down the number of applications you run at startup. Be especially wary of those apps that “volunteer” to load automatically during the app installation process. There are very few applications you need all the time; virus checkers and malware programs come to mind as good candidates for autoloading. Office applications and game programs should be loaded only when you’re using them.

One last note: most college campuses have open labs or public computing labs, and you may find yourself using these or transferring files back and forth via thumb drive, or via the network. Public workstations are a mixed bag. Colleges and universities usually have a specific upgrade schedule for their classroom and computing lab equipment. You may find yourself working on three-year-old equipment, or you may find yourself working on the latest hardware with a full complement of RAM. Comparatively, the computer you bring from home may seem speedy or downright pokey. Always evaluate software upgrades carefully and make sure your computer has the hardware it needs to run the upgraded software. If the upgrade is a must, you’ll need to upgrade your computer, too.

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