So, you got yourself a registry fixer and used it to clean up your registry, defrag your hard drive, tweak your start up menu and eliminate spyware and adware, and your computer is still running kind of slow.  Well, do not worry, there is one trick that is still left that might boost your speed. However, this trick will leave you without any visual bells and whistles, and could make a your computing experience a little bit drab.

Changing the visual settings

To make your PC a bit more visually stimulating, Windows has incorporated a pretty slick set of visual effects into their interactive interface. You have shadows under the pointer, icons that fade, animated windows and other cool features whose only values happen to be of an aesthetic nature and are really completely unnecessary when it comes to your PC’s overall performance. Windows does allow you the option to turn some or all of these features off you would rather have your processor’s power focused on more important things.

To change visual effects…

Go to the Start menu and click on the Control Panel. Click on the Performance and Maintenance Category then on the System Icon. The Windows System Properties menu should slide neatly into view replete with a nice outline and shadow underneath it. Now click onto the Advanced tab. Click on the Settings button underneath the Performance heading and this next window should pop neatly into view….

Now unless you were previously tinkering with your computer’s visual settings, most if not all of these options are probably checked, giving your Desktop a nice slick look. If you think such nifty visuals are pointless, then I recommend that you click on the the “adjust for best performance” option. This will pretty much turn off all the cool visual features and free up a ton of processing power for other, more important things.  If you want to keep some of these features, but not others (like who needs shadows anyways) then you should click on custom and then pick and choose which options you want to stick around and which can go away.

Kinda Dull

After trying this on my own PC, I found the result rather drab and dull. While the PC seemed to run a little bit faster, I found myself missing the bells and whistles that I once took for granted. While these visual effects are unnecessary when it comes to getting the job done, they do help make your desktop feel a bit more visually inviting and I found myself missing the look. I think that this option is for people who have a really weak processor and need to squeeze all the juice that they can get out of it and not for people with a decent power who repair their registry on a weekly basis, defrag their hard drive and keep their PC free of viruses, spyware and adware.

You can think of it as a sort of ships log…

Your Windows Registry is an extremely important system file that stores a huge collection of data pertaining to your computer. Like big brother in 1984, it keeps track of everything that goes on: where  all programs are stored, which dll’s (helper programs) are shared by whom, which programs are in your start up menu, and which programs need to fire up when you click on a certain icon, and much, much more. Everything you do on your PC is, in someway ot the other, stored in your registry. This blog entry’s URl  for example, is now stored somewhere in your registry, as are the dozen or so places online that you went before getting here. Anything that  you may have installed, or tried to uninstall in the past week or so is also lurking around in there somewhere.

A messy registry is a sign of an active PC…

The thing about Window’s registry, is that it tends to become cluttered with a lot of useless junk, especially if you are like me, a PC user who likes to dabble in a little bit of everything. I imagine that if you took a look inside my computers registry, it is going to look a whole lot like what my desk looked in the sixth grade, a big convoluted mess, with old papers and other junk stuffed everywhere (oh, wait my desk still kind of looks like that).

Why a messy registry can slow you down…

While the Window’s registry  will continually add new file paths and program changes to its log, it seldom, if ever cleans house and rids itself of unused file paths from deleted programs, bad entries  that lead to nowhere, or even corrupted kernals that just sit around and take up space. As time goes by, it becomes one big bloated mess that can slow your computer’s performance to a crawl as the operating system tries to slog its way through this disaster area of it’s own making.

How to fix it

Messing around with your registry can be tricky business, especially if you try to do it manually. Erase the wrong file path and you might find yourself unable to even boot your computer back up. A much safer route is to invest in a decent registry fixer that will automatically scan your registry and show you what is wrong, and what problems can safely be fixed without compromising your PC’s performance.  When using a registry cleaner, it is important to first make a back up file just in case you do something wrong and to always make sure you pay attention to what the cleaner is doing, and not just let it automatically fix everything.

A good registry cleaner could help you speed up your  computer, especially if you have a tendency to download a lot of different programs and use your PC for more than just checking your e-mail. Cleaning up all the clutter will enable your operating sytem to navigate its way through the registry and eliminating old or unwanted file paths will keep you from falling asleep as you wait for your PC to finish booting up.