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Discover Ways To Speed Up Your Home PC

Beginner's Guide To A More Responsive Computer. by SoftwareGuru Friday 16th January 2009 Many of Vista's cool features came at a price. The operating system (OS) which you use to interface with the computer is more resource hungry than Windows XP. That's fine if you've got 3GB of memory (RAM) in your computer but what if you don't? Here's a few tips which can be used to speed up your laptop or PC. The most obvious one is to add extra memory. You'll need to check whether you're using DDR2 or DDR3 memory. DDR2 RAM is very cheap so adding an extra Gigabyte or two shouldn't cost you more than €50. Note: check whether your mainboard takes DDR2 or DDR3 RAM. Older PCs will almost definitely be DDR/DDR2. Providing you buy the correct type, adding memory to your computer's mainboard is as easy as putting batteries into your telly remote. If you have Vista 32-bit then don't bother with 4GB or RAM because the OS can't see past 3GB. You'll need to run Vista 64-bit to obtain use of 4GB or more of RAM and that's not recommended for casual home users who mainly surf the net and use Microsoft Office.	Getting more done
More Techniques. PC owners with between 512mb and 1GB of memory and who use Vista 32-bit, may wish to consider using ReadyBoost. By using a USB flash drive, ReadyBoost can be used to improve your computer performance without having to add additional memory "under the hood." To prevent Windows errors it is best advised that the flash drive is left permanently attached. Laptop owners should therefore only use SD flash memory unless you don't mind having the USB stick forever sticking out of one side. Hard Drive Management Personally, I prefer to create a partition on my harddrive which is exclusively used for Windows' Paging File - otherwise known as Virtual RAM. The link mentions XP but don't worry, the walkthrough guide works exactly the same for Vista. Keeping your paging file separate minimises defragmentation and without getting too technical, your PC will run faster and become more responsive after a few hours of use. Partition Logic is a free program that can be used to shrink your current partition (ie. the space your OS is on) so that you can create a new, second partition for your paging file. Before (1 partition on 1 physical hdd): <------------Original C: Drive ------------> After (2 partitions on 1 physical hdd): <------------C: Drive------------><--D:--> Drive Label Example: C: Windows Vista + Programs D: PagingFile WARNING: if you don't shrink the existing C: partition first, you will wipe you entire harddrive by mistake. Back up all your valuable photos and files before doing anything! Once your new D: drive area is created, go into My Computer > Right Click D: > select Format. Don't select the fast format option unless it's a brand new, previously unused hard drive. Once formatted (and this will takes ages if the drive is 250GB or more), on desktop right click Computer icon > Properties > Advanced System Settings > Performance Settings > Advanced > Under 'Virtual Memory' click change. Take note of paging file size, deselect C: Drive, select D: Drive, enter paging file size previously used. Restart computer. You're done!
Advanced Techniques If you're not bothered about how Vista looks, one way to make your system more responsive is to take away some of the eye candy. I call it 'Go Old School' because it makes explorer look like Windows 98. But hey, it's FAST! Go Old School - Right Click My Computer > Properties > Advanced System Settings > System Properties > Advanced > Performance Using the list of graphical effects, remove them all. You're done. This is also what your desktop looks like if you press F8 during startup to access Safe Mode. Finally, many programs load themselves in the background at startup even though you're not using them which wastes resources. Remove them from startup. They will still work fine when selected. Background Tasks: Control Panel > Admin Tools > System Config > StartUp Updater programs are usually the main culprits. Only Windows Update should have this kind of preferential treatment. Any other program should wait until you use it to update itself. Finally, if in any doubt ask a neighbour or friend to help you speed up your PC. A slow computer is still better than a dead computer - and always back up your files!

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