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Speeding up your computer 
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If you notice your computer getting slower you may have to
tune it up or have it done by a professional. Seeing as how we are supposed to
be "Professionals" we will share with you a few tips for speeding up your
computer. These are some of the things that your computer tech would do and
charge you as much as $125.00 per hour and has been closely guarded lest the
knowledge become common and bite into their paycheck.
There a many software developers who have created programs
to attempt to speed up your computer, however many of the are not worth the space
they take up on your hard drive. Venture carefully when adding supposedly
helpful programs, plug-ins and toolbars to you computer. You will find that many
of them take over control of some portion or function of your computer. See our
section on Adware and
Spyware. You will most likely see ads on this site that promote software or
services, but just because they show up on this site does not mean that we
endorse them or have even tried them. Much of the advertising such as in the
cell to the right, is supplied by a third party and is supposed to be relevant
to what is on each page and changes from time to time.
Ready?
Good. We are presuming that most people are still using
Windows 98 as when we check our stats to see who has been to our site (and we
can), we have found that 78% are using Windows 98 so this is the method we will
address here and maybe later get around the other various operating systems.
Regardless which Windows version you use the methods will be similar but
for Linux users it is a whole different ballgame. Linux is generally used by
those who know more than most of us about the operation of computers. A
real smart bunch they are.
Follow the steps below in the order that thy are presented
for best results.
See legal before continuing.
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1. Without any programs running and preferably after a fresh start
up, Double click on the "My Computer" Icon on the desktop and then
select help. In the Help dropdown menu select "About Windows". In the
window that opens you will see 
or similar. Note the amount of memory. You should have at least 500,000 KB of
memory showing, if not then this is the first thing you need to do; buy some
more memory and have it installed. Secondly notice the System resources. In this
case they are showing 62%. If you see anything less than 85% on a fresh start up
then there are to many programs or utilities running in the background. You may
have allowed programs to install all types of programs in your "Startup" files (
you may have to uninstall some utility programs or non essential portions of
them to help raise your resources) or if you have one of the common computers
found at most retailers, you may have a whole host of programs installed
by them at the factory that are intended to solve problems for you, so you don't
have to call them. Unfortunately these programs are oftentimes the
problem. If you find this to be the case, call them to find out find out how to
disable them and we recommend that you do, or continue down the text and
find a home remedy.
2. Click on your Control key, your Alternate key and your Delete key all
at the same time. You will get a "close window" Dialog box. If you
have more than 4-5 programs listed in this box then you have too many programs
in your Startup process. You will need to modify your Startup utility. Click the
"Cancel" button and read on.
3. MSCONFIG: For this you need to get into a part of the computer that
not everyone should get into. However if you feel comfortable, then proceed.
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Click the Start button and go up to "Run" click it.
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In the box that
comes up type in "msconfig" and then click OK.
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You will get a
window that is called System Configuration Utility. Along the top are tabs like
in a file folder. Click on "General"
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If there is a checkmark in the
box in front of "Process Config sys file" or "Process
Autoexec.bat file" click on the boxes to UN- check them.
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Next click on the "Startup" tab at the top
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In
the window that comes up click to UN-check everything except "System
Tray"," ScanRegistry", "SchedulingAgent", and any of the files that have to do
with your antivirus service. (caution, some of the service such as Norton and McAfee will show up as Symantec or Computer Associates. leave these in.)
Just a note: You don't need any programs from your printer or messenger
services,. These can be activated when needed.
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When you are done click "apply" then "OK".
You will be prompted
to restart your computer, do so.
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See our Clean
your System Start Up for a picture and instruction on cleaning the look of
the Start Up utility.
When it has fully restarted and the hour glass has
disappeared then Repeat step Number 1 and 2 above. You may have to perform step number
3 to see if you were successful in removing the startup files as some of them
are very stubborn and require you to uninstall the particular program and the
reinstall it , if you need it, but watch carefully for a permission request
asking to be allowed to be installed in the startup menu. Don't allow this.
4. Uninstall unnecessary or undesirable programs and utilities. You do
this by entering your "Control Panel" in the "Start Menu" by
clicking the start button and going up to setting and clicking on Control Panel.
In the panel select "Add/Remove Programs" you will get a new window
that looks something like this:
Select the files that are unnecessary or causing problems and then click the
Add/Remove button. Some programs will give you the opportunity to modify which
portions of it are to be installed while other will be removed completely. On occasion
you may not be able to uninstall a file because it is "In use by
Windows". In this case use the multiple keystrokes described in step number
3 and in the close program menu select the offending program and select
"End task" Sometimes it will not close on the first attempt and you may
have to repeat this more than once, but make sure that you wait 8 seconds after
the Close Program window closes before trying again.
When uninstalling you may get a message stating that you have some "Shared
Files" and a request to remove them. It is best to tell it "NO"
or "NO to all" as these files may be needed by some other program, and
removing them will cause problems. You may be required to restart the computer
several times when uninstalling.. Remember that you can always reinstall the
same programs later but do not let it install to the "Startup" file,
or you will have the same situation all over again.
5. Click on the Internet Explorer Icon to bring it up. On the top toolbar
click on "Tools" then go down to internet options. Click on the
"Delete Cookies" button and OK, then the "Delete Files" and
OK. This one may take a little while. Clear History is optional but if nothing
else you should set the "Days to keep pages" down to 7 days.
6. Perform a "Disk Cleanup " by going to Start then Programs,
over and up to Accessories and then over and down to "System Tools",
then over to "Disk Cleanup". This will bring up a drive
selection box and then a list of file categories that should be removed from the
computer. Do this.
7.
Next you need to dump the Recycle bin. Click on the "Recycle Bin" Icon
on the desktop and in the window click "File" at the top and then
"Empty Recycle Bin".
8. This is a very important part. The registry (kind of like an index)
need to be purged of all erroneous entries pointing to files that are no longer
where they used to be. Correcting this will not only speed up your computer but
will also help to keep it from crashing. There are several utilities out there to
assist in this as it is beyond most persons abilities. If you have Norton
Utilities then you can run WinDoctor, but even better than that is Registry
First Aid . You can download the free trial version but it is worth it to
pay the few bucks they are asking for the fully functional version.
Straightening out your registry works a world of good. Compress the registry at
the end of this procedure and reboot.
9. To run a "Scandisk" follow the steps by going to Start then
Programs, over and up to Accessories and then over and down to "System
Tools", then over to "Scandisk".
Be sure to select "Thorough" and "Automatically fix errors". Click start and go find
something else to do for a while as this will take quite a while maybe even
hours depending on your computer.
10. Once Scandisk is finished you go back to system tools as described
above but this time select "Defrag" and start it and once again find
some thing else to do as this may take even longer than did the Scandisk
program. What this feature does is to gather all the fragment of related files and group
them all together. Norton also has a very good program for this called
"Disk Doctor: on the Utilities disk.
11. All computer programs and most hardware are in a constant debugging
process. Windows and its accompanying programs are no different and need to be
updated from time to time. If you have not been doing this then you may have
several hours of work in front of you, but again it is worth it.
Microsoft wouldn't spend the resources to create the updates if they weren't
needed. Click Start then go all the way up to Windows
Update Scan for updates and then review and install them. You may
not need the last 38 "Windows update" as they pertain to languages, but be sure to
look over to the left side of the screen and check for any updates including the
"Drivers Updates". When you are done with all the Windows up date go
to the top of the page and select "Office Updates" if you have the Microsoft Office
programs such as Word and Excel etc.
12. In the System Tools that you accessed thru Programs then
Accessories run the "Maintenance Wizard" to have the Disk Cleanup ,
Scandisk and the Defrag utilities run automatically at predetermined times so
long as your computer is turned at the scheduled times. This process will help
to keep the computer tuned up! You can always modify the scheduling of these
utilities by selecting "Scheduled Tasks" in System Tools
13. Repeat steps 1 thru 11 in about one week just to be sure and
then once a month there-after.
If you have any additional
tips on this subject submit them for publishing.
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