In the last couple of posts, I’ve talked about using the Task Manager to help identify applications, processes and services that may be consuming too many system resources and producing slow computer performance. There are a few other tools in the Task Manager that can also give you a clue about what might be happening on your system.

Performance Monitor

The Performance Monitor tab can be particularly helpful when trying to assess CPU usage. The Performance Monitor is found under the Performance tab and provides a graphical display of CP usage history and physical memory usage history. The CPU usage will vary quite a bit over time, depending upon what the computer is doing. The physical memory shouldn’t vary too much if no applications are running. If you’re running applications, the physical memory monitor will show how much available memory is being consumed in real time.

The Performance Monitor also gives you access to the Resource Monitor, which will show you the CPU usage, over the last 60 seconds, the I/O speed for the hard disk, the network utilization and the number of hard faults per second that are recorded by the system. This information can be useful, especially if one application is registering a significant number of faults.

Within the Resource Monitor are tabs that will provide additional information about processes, disk usage, network activity, memory usage and CPU usage. This information can be invaluable when trying to determine the source of a fault, or slow computer performance.

The Networking tab of the Task manager can show you the status of your network connection, and whether or not your computer is connected to a LAN or a wireless network. This can also help you troubleshoot slow computer problems that are related to your network connection.

The last tab in the Task Manager is the Users tab. With Windows computers, it’s important to remember that they can act as servers on a network. If other computers are allowed to attach to your computer, your computer may slow down as a result. Depending upon how your computer is set up, you may not realize that other users are attached. The Users tab can show you which other computers on the network are attached to yours, and give you the ability to disconnect other users, or log yourself off. You can also send a message directly to selected attached users via the Task Manager.

The Task Manager can provide you with a wealth of information about your computer, what it’s doing at any given moment and what resources are being used. Knowing what the Task Manager can show you can help you troubleshoot a slow computer.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve talked about disabling services that are set to start up automatically as a way to speed up computer performance. This week, I’ll talk about reclaiming computer performance by reconfiguring programs to skip the auto-start.

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.

Photo Credit: The Web President, via Flickr

If you’ve put off updating your slow computer because you’ve heard horror stories about Windows Vista, from my personal experience, I’d say that the tales of woe are overdone. I’ve used Windows Vista quite happily at home for about a year and during that time, have had very few problems. I will say that Windows Vista doesn’t necessarily behave as well in a networked environment.

Will Windows 7 Speed Up Computer Performance

I happen to be one of those people who think that Windows 7 will tend to perform more or less as advertised. I also think that users who expect to hang tight with an operating system that has been in office longer than any sitting president since FDR will be in for a rough ride.

Microsoft has improved many things in Windows 7, from its speed and stability, to its look and ease of use. Certain elements are still around – like the registry, for example. I expect the registry to behave much like the registries we’ve seen in other versions of the Windows operating system. I also suspect that there will still be a need for registry management tools like RegCure.

I think users can expect better driver performance and better driver policing on the part of Microsoft. Users will have drivers for the most common peripherals available right out of the gate. (Microsoft won’t want to break its corporate leg on the same step twice, especially since the company’s initial response to Windows Vista driver issues amounted to a permanent turn-off by most consumers.)

I believe you’ll see better performance from Windows 7 than you did from Vista. In most cases, Windows 7 outperforms both Windows Vista and Windows XP. That’s good for users who are looking for some guidance on whether to upgrade to Windows 7 or to update their computers.

My personal take on the upgrade v. update debate is this: if you’re working on a computer that’s three years older or more, you may get more efficiency out of updating your computer to a compact desktop model, like Dell’s Studio Hybrid computer that comes pre-loaded with Windows 7, rather than struggling with upgrading your hardware and then installing the new OS. The Dell Studio Hybrid (and others just like it) take up very little desktop space and can be had complete with OS for about $500. Given the cost of an upgrade, a low-cost update option would still allow you to use your old XP/2000/ME/NT/98/95 (or dare I even say Windows 3.x?) computer and allow you to get to know Windows 7 for about the same amount of money.

Photo Credit: Tripu, via Flickr

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In my last post, I talked about one way in which you can speed up computer performance by disabling the User Account Control warning messages found in Windows Vista and Windows XP. The change to the registry setting doesn’t speed up the processor in any way, but instead eliminates delays and interruptions. On the negative side, disabling the messages leaves you open to engaging in actions that are possibly dangerous to your computer.

Today, I have another registry change that will speed up your computer by eliminating a delay. Once again, I don’t advocate editing the registry if you’re a complete novice when it comes to using a computer. Editing the registry is highly effective at changing the behavior of your computer, but it makes the changes you ask for immediately, and there’s no way to “undo” what you’ve done short of restoring an unchanged copy of your registry.

I’ll again recommend that you back up your registry before you make any changes of any kind. RegCure creates a registry backup each time it operates and before it makes any changes to the computer. It will also restore registry backups if a change puts your computer into a bind.

Today’s registry edit will disable the autoplay feature that is turned on by default for CDs and DVDs that are inserted into the drive. In some cases, this feature is useful, but you may find that reading and playing a disc takes an unacceptably long time, especially if you don’t really want the disc to start playing in the first place!

This particular registry change won’t affect your ability to play discs you’ve inse rted. You’ll just have to start the discs manually. To disable the autoplay feature:

Start RegEdit
Within RegEdit, find:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer
Right-click New, then Key. Name the new key NoDriveTypeAutoRun. Press Enter. Right click the key you just created and select New/DWORD Value.
Enter a name for the DWORD Value and press enter.
Double-click the DWORD to open the Edit DWORD Value dialog box. Enter 000000FF into the DWORD Value box. Click OK and then close RegEdit. This change will take effect when the computer is restarted.

The computer will not autoplay discs that have been inserted in the drive. You’ll need to manually start each disc. To return to the default behavior (autoplay), use RegEdit to remove the registry key.

Photo Credit: In Veritas Lux, via Flickr