Disabling Apps Can Speed Up ComputerDisabling Apps Can Speed Up Computer

Services v. Applications

What’s the difference you ask? A service is part of the operating system. It could include your network, the ability to log into a computer remotely, audio features, etc. These services are functions of the operating system. Programs may use them, or they may support features in applications, but they’re not applications by themselves.

Services do take up some system memory and they can be a little bit of a drain, but that’s not really where you’re going to get the speed boost from when you disable services. The speed increase comes from not having to load the darned thing in the first place, and not having to wait while the service performs its trick or times out.

There are good reasons other than speeding up computer performance for disabling services. Sometimes, services are just unnecessary and it’s good practice to disable those things you don’t need. Services can conflict with other services, so disabling an unneeded service may reduce the possibility that a conflict will occur. Further, some services aren’t very secure, and can be used by hackers to gain access to or control of your computer.

After you’ve disabled the unnecessary services, you can reconfigure applications that start automatically to wait for a manual start instead. Little utility applications, freebies, toolbars and other similar apps are big offenders in the auto-startup category. Shutting these pests down can give you an immediate performance boost.

To examine your startup items, type msconfig into the search bar and select it from the results. This is the System Configuration tool. The Startup Tab will provide a list of all of the applications that are configured to start at boot time. You can select the apps you don’t want to start automatically by unchecking the box to the left of the application’s name. You can also disable all startup items, but this is normally reserved for troubleshooting since there are a bunch of things you’ll want access to!

Once you’ve reconfigured your startup items, restart your computer and see if you’ve improved your situation. You may also get a significant performance boost from using a registry cleaner, like SpeedUpMyPC 2011, which runs in two minutes and can really give your PC a lift.

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Try This To Speed Up Your Computer

Your Computer Is Busy At Boot Time

When your computer first boots, there are a lot of services that must be started. Each service competes for a limited amount of CPU time and memory. The competition eventually sorts itself out, but while it’s happening, you don’t get to do much of anything, even though the computer may appear to be “ready.”

To cut down on competition for resources, you can configure some applications and services to start up after all of the boot-time festivities have concluded. This will reduce competition for resources at startup and speed up your ability to get going on the double. Use some common sense when you’re configuring these services. For example, if you’re working on a laptop and access to the network is a high priority, don’t configure your computer to boot your network services on a delayed basis.

To get into your services file, type SERVICES in the Run box. Select the Services control panel. You’ll get a list of services that are enabled at boot time, along with a brief explanation of what they do, and their startup status. Look at the services that are started automatically and determine which ones you need right away and which ones can wait. Choose the ones you want to delay, and right-click on the startup status.

Using the Properties box, switch their status to “Automatic (delayed start)” using the pull-down flag and see if that helps you get to work a bit faster. If you don’t like the results of your tinkering, pull up the Services configuration again and return your settings to their previous state. As long as you’re in Services, you may find some services that you want to disable altogether, or switch from Automatic to Manual. That can also speed things up a bit. If you’re looking at the services on the Standard tab, don’t forget to take a peek at the Extended tab for potential additional savings.

You may need to adjust your service configuration, but you may also get a pleasantly unexpected speed boost.

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Tips To Speed Up Your Computer

Little Things Can Make A Difference

What You’re Doing: Keeping unneeded files and data. Over time, your file system can become overloaded with materials you no longer need. Keeping track of where these unneeded items are takes up resources and space that you could be using for other stuff.

What You Should Be Doing: Pare down your file system and archive the materials you want to keep but don’t need to keep on your hard disk. Consider transferring this kind of data to a CD or DVD.

What You’re Doing: Keeping programs you don’t use. New computers often come loaded with “demo” software that either expires after a particular period of time, or is a locked version of the full package. Software publishers have agreements with PC manufacturers that permit the manufacturers to load these programs on the computer before it ships to the end user.

What You Should Be Doing: Eliminating unnecessary programs. When you go through your computer, remove all applications that you no longer need, or have never used. Demo programs take up space and resources. Remove whatever you don’t use, or no longer use. If you like to download shareware or freeware, but decide that what you’ve downloaded doesn’t suit your needs, uninstall it right away.

What You’re Doing: Letting regular disk maintenance slip. When you delete a lot of files, your hard disk becomes fragmented, making it harder for the computer to find the necessary storage space for new files and applications.

What You Should Be Doing: Defragmenting your hard disk. After deleting so many files, defragment your hard disk using the built in Defragment tool. This tool will enable your hard disk to optimize the placement of the data that remain on your hard disk and speed up access and write times. Even after you defragment, you’re still not done!

What You Should Be Doing: Cleaning your registry. After doing some wholesale deleting and defragging, you’ll also want to clean your computer’s registry. Each time you add programs, new entries get written to your registry. Not all uninstallers are created equal, however, and useless bits of program code are often left behind. A good registry cleaner like RegCure will help clear this information out and restore performance to your computer.

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Speed Up Your Computer: A New Year's Resolution You Can Keep

What Do Other Users Do To Speed Up Their Computers?

Assuming that you’re none of the above, you may want to know what other users do to speed up their computers. Believe it or not, the first line of attack for some folks is simply to replace the computer. In today’s economy, few people have the money to spend on “forklift” upgrades of their computer systems.

Replacing the computer is also unnecessary. There are several remedies that work wonders when it comes to speeding up the performance of your computer. If you observe these practices, you’re likely to notice a performance boost on your computer.

First, make sure you’re not running malware or viruses on your computer. Run a virus scan and make sure your computer is up-to-date. If your virus definitions aren’t up-to-date, or you find some viruses or malware, remove them immediately.

Make sure you’re not loading a number of programs you don’t need to run at startup. This is a favorite trick of application publishers. The more “auto-starting” applications you allow, the worse your computer performance is going to be.

At the same time, make sure your computer has enough memory loaded to run the programs you use. Keep in mind that minimum memory recommendations made by Microsoft apply ONLY to the operating system. If you plan to run some heavy-duty applications, consider upgrading the memory installed on your computer. Before you load up, find out the maximum amount of memory your computer will address. Don’t install more memory than your computer can handle. If your computer boots at all, the excess memory won’t do a bit of good.

Finally, do some regular maintenance on your computer. Regular maintenance includes keeping the file system pruned back, defragmenting the hard disk periodically and running a high-quality registry cleaner like RegCure. RegCure will remove orphaned code that is written into the registry. This “zombie” code can slow your computer down significantly. RegCure is trusted by millions of users around the globe to keep their PC computers running efficiently, and works in the background to make sure your computer performs the way it was designed to.

Photo Credit: Josep Mª Rosell, via Flickr

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