Start Your Year By Speeding Up Your Computer

Paul Watson, PC Technician

Wednesday, January 13th 2010

Start Your Year By Speeding Up Your Computer

If you still haven’t settled on a New Year’s resolution, I have one in mind: keeping your computer clean. Now “clean” can mean a lot of different things, so I’ll clarify what I mean. A clean computer has several benefits, not the least of which is improved speed. Yes, you can speed up your computer by observing a few housekeeping rules.

A Clean Computer Is A Fast Computer

“Clean” computing means making sure that your computer doesn’t have any nasty viruses, malware, root kits or other similar applications that will slow your computer down, limit the amount of control you have over it, or instruct it to do things that you have not authorized.

Don’t assume that you have a working anti-virus program simply because one is loaded on your computer. Make sure your A/V software is turned on, scanning your hard disk and updating its virus definitions. If it isn’t, there are a number of Web sites run by reputable A/V companies that will scan your computer for free. Make absolutely sure you’re dealing with a reputable company. Several free anti-virus scan sites are just scams that are trying to sell you useless software you don’t need.

Move all files off of your desktop and place them in the file system. Storing files outside the file system actually causes your computer to allocate additional memory to these files. It does this by taking away memory from your applications. A seriously messy desktop can really slow your computer down by forcing it to give away memory it would otherwise use on applications.

Get rid of programs you don’t need. Use the uninstall function rather than just throwing the files in the Recycle Bin. If you simply recycle the application, you’ll leave a lot of files and configuration information behind.

Get rid of files you don’t need or move them to some other form of storage, like a CD or DVD, or even a USB drive. You can keep these files close at hand, but out of your permanent file system. Reducing the size of your file system will also help speed up your computer.

Finally, after you’ve done your cleanup, run a registry cleaner like RegCure. RegCure will remove the abandoned code that uninstall routines are notorious for leaving behind. You’ll be surprised by what RegCure discovers and the impact a clean registry can have on the performance of your computer.

Photo Credit: Nate Bolt, via Flickr