How to make your computer faster for free

Wondering "How do i make my computer faster", but don’t have the cash to buy better hardware? Well here is some quick and easy tips on how to make your computer more efficient without dropping a dime!
1.) Defrag your hard drives.

I. Often windows will automatically do this once per day or per week or so. Mine does it every Wednesday night when I should be sleeping ~3AM. This way I know that all my files are organizing themselves relatively often.

II. To make sure your computer is doing this regularly, go to Start Menu>>Program Files>>Accessories>>System Tools>>Disk Defragmenter.

2.) Remove Spyware, clean up your temporary Files, fix your registry and clean out dangerous startup entries. These can all be done individually, but it can be time consuming. GLARY UTILITIES is an amazing program that does all of this with the program’s “1 Click Maintenance.” I swear by this program now. It is amazing. It regularly finds and removes several gigabytes of temporary internet files and the first time I ran it, over 400 registry errors were found and fixed. This program is free so I highly recommend that you check it out. Also, check out my TIGGITY POST on Glary Utilities for more about its capabilities.

3.) Remove unused programs from your hard drive. Chances are there is a ton of programs on your computer that you don’t use, and probably never will use. How about removing them and getting that extra storage space available so your computer has less junk to think about. Note: I highly recommend checking out the importance of each program on Google before removing it permanently. How about all of those crappy demo games that came with your comp, or old games you no longer play, or programs that you didn’t even know existed? Ya, you can do without those.

I. Go to Start>>Settings>>Control Panel>> then click ‘Programs’ or ‘Programs and Features’

i. A long list will open eventually and it will be a near comprehensive list of all of the programs that are installed on your computer. Again, I recommend removing only stuff you are familiar with and know your computer can function properly without. So click on any program that you can do without and then click the ‘Uninstall button at the top of the window. This is a great way to remove computer garbage and get your PC back to health.

4.) Change what programs automatically run at windows start up. Ok so you like Skype, Windows Messenger, Norton, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger etc, etc, etc. These programs can be set so that they do not load at windows startup, but instead ONLY WHEN YOU WANT THEM TO. You don’t need a bajillion programs launched at the same time as windows. Open Messenger when you want to, or Skype etc. This is really easy and reduces computer start up time drastically. There are two methods to do this:

I. (Automatic) Download and run Vista Services Optimizer if you are still using Windows Vista. Check out my EARLIER POST about this free software for quick instructions on how to use it.

II. ( Manual) Go to start menu>>Run>> and then type ‘msconfig’
Then click the startup tab. Here you can uncheck the programs that you do not want to launch at start up. This does not disable the program, it simply sets the program to load when you start it, rather than at windows launch. Here, again, be careful to make sure you don’t uncheck programs that Windows needs to launch at startup. Just type in the command and do a Google Search to see if it is vital at startup or not. Most of them that are here are probably not essential, but make sure before you uncheck them, please.

5.) Adjust the visual graphics that appear during Windows use. If you can do without mouse trails, and fancy windows minimizing and other effects that make Windows look cool, but are not necessary, then you can remove all of these and set Windows to max performance.

I. Go to Start>>Settings>>Control Panel>> click ‘Performance’ or ‘Performance Information and Tools.’ Then click on ‘Adjust visual effects.”

i. Here you will have options to ’Let Windows choose whats best,’ Adjust for best appearance, ‘adjust for best performance’ or create your own custom scheme. I recommend letting Windows choose, but if you really need that extra speed then create your own custom or adjust for best performance.

6.) Change your desktop background. Having a simple background color or design can actually make a pretty significant difference in performance when compared to a fancy landscape or large image from the internets or your digital camera. Simple, but it should work on low capacity computer.

7.) Disable the Bandwidth reserve in Windows. Windows reserves 20% of your bandwidth so that it has access to priority bandwidth when it might need it. Why not let it share in your regular bandwidth and allow those extra 20% participate all the time?! To do this, click on this link HERE. http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/tutorials/1757d1196149757-qos-bandwidth-reserve-limit-disable_reserved.reg?ltr=Q

I. Download the .reg file somewhere easy to access – I recommend your Desktop.
II. Right click on the icon and select ‘Merge’

III. Click Run
IV. Click Yes

V. Click OK

VI. For this change to take place, restart your computer.
VII. Feel free to delete the .reg file at this time. Also, if you would like to restore your reserved bandwidth for whatever reason, you can do that HERE http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/tutorials/1758d1196149762-qos-bandwidth-reserve-limit-restore_default_reserved.reg?ltr=Q


I hope you find these resources to be useful! I know i did. Enjoy!

99 ways to make your computer faster

Check out the Microsoft page for improving speed for more suggestions
Microsoft speed page

Have your computer increase available physical memory automatically with Cleanmem

It may seem kind of counter intuitive to install another program to reduce your memory used, but Cleanmem is only 2,064k or 2 MB ram, which is basically nothing. When I use it my used physical memory typically drops 30% or more immediately. Great success! All that extra memory can be put toward helping my computer run more efficiently and not be bogged down by programs that I’m not using right now.

Cleanmem can be set to automatically clear unused memory and cache as often as you would like. I have it set to do so every 5 minutes because I am constantly hopping around different tasks and don’t want to close them out myself in Task Manager all the time. If you do wish to do it manually, the task manager shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+Esc, not Ctrl+Alt+Del like most people assume.
The program can be got HERE and like all the programs I review, it is free!
Here is the User Interface and the options pages available with Cleanmem:

Double click on the Monitor Stats icon at anytime to have Cleanmem do an instant check on memory usage and remove unused memory to enhance performance immediately.

If there are certain programs that you never want to have cleared from your RAM, then it can be added to Cleanmem’s ignore list and will be exempt from being cleared. Additionally, if there are only certain programs that you wish to be monitored and removed from your RAM if they exceed a certain level that can be done through settings as well.
If you use multiple programs on a regular basis then Cleanmem will probably be of much use to you. I think its great. Enjoi!

Descrease Windows Start up Time: Vista Service Optimizer

Chances are, your computer launches more programs at startup than it needs to or should. Tons of programs, like Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, AIM, Chrome etc might be useful when you use them, but are they really necessary at Windows startup? Probably not. There are a couple of ways around launching these at Windows startup: adjust them using MS Config or the easier and safer method, by getting a small and simple program to determine what programs you should launch. MS Config is nice if you know exactly what you are doing, but if you don’t you could really screw up some important startup stuff. So if you aren’t super tech savvy but still want to minimize startup time and computer efficiency, this post is for you. Vista Service Optimizer is great for eliminating unnecessary startup programs without any risk of removing those your computer depends on. It was just updated on November 14th, 2011 so it is very up to date. It is customizable to each persons desires and at startup you can create a user profile, in which VSO asks you a few questions to best optimize your PC. Pretty cooool. So grab it right HERE and then proceed with me if you will.

On the last page of the Setup Wizard, I recommend unchecking the 2 options unless you want to sign up for extra stuff; I don’t.

Then open the program and it will look like this:

1.)

The first thing you should do is create a user profile where it will ask you several questions about what type of hardware you have connected to your computer (printers, Ethernet cables etc etc). So click on the ‘More Functions’ button and a drop down menu will appear. Select ‘User Profile.’

Answer the questions and then click ok. Now you are ready to let VSO do its work.



2.) Click ‘Auto Tune Up.’

3.) Click ‘Optimize.’ This shouldn’t take more than 15 to 30 seconds and then your results will show you how many unnecessary startup programs were disabled.
It is as simple as that!
Another thing you can do with VSO is the Service Diagnostics, which will improve speed in a similar fashion and may have the exact same result as the Auto Tune Up as it did with mine.

Now get back to whatever it is that you do on your computer, and do it faster than before!