Windows Vista - i Need to know if there is any way i can speed up my comp

by tweaking it nothing serious just simple adjustments by stopping certain startup programs that i really dont need or removing bloakware and is there a certain way for me to even know what i need or dont need thanks for the help have a good day

1. Turn off UAC, or at least make it less annoying

Now, there’s a lot of talk about the new user account control policy in Vista, and all I can say is: as it is, it annoys the hell out of me and slows down my normal computer usage. Just why, oh why, does it have to flash my video card to a black screen, take 5 seconds and really just make itself a royal pain in the arse?

To turn it off, the easiest way is to go into the Control Panel and type in ‘UAC‘ into the search bar. It’ll bring up a search result of ‘Turn User Account Control (UAC) on or off’. Just follow the prompts from there.

To keep some of the security of the UAC, let’s just turn off the crazy annoying blacking out screen bit. To do this:

• open group policy (start | run | gpedit.msc)
• then navigate to Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Security Settings | Local Policies | Security Options
• Find the policy named ‘User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation’. Set this to disabled.

Much better, eh? You might say ‘but what’s that got to do with speed?’ Well, as I mentioned, it prompts me a couple times an hour at least and then takes several seconds to figure itself out. My productivity goes up, so it’s a speed enhancer

2. Disable Aero

I personally do not do this, as I am a fan of the graphical styles, but I realize it comes at a cost. It does tend to eat up both RAM and CPU usage (as well as video card usage). While it is turned off during gaming, you can still notice its effects during normal computer usage. When it is really cranking, it can use 15% of your CPU. Ouch. Vanity comes at a cost.

If you do like it, at least turn it down a couple notches. Some performance increases have nothing to do with strain on hardware, or amount of processing. Sometimes, things are designed to take longer than they should, though only maybe a fraction of a second, but the end result to the user is a faster machine. Minimizing and maximizing does an animation. Watch closely. Pretty quick eh? Still, it does slow you down, and, really, what does it add to your experience? I am all about vanity and aesthetics, but this feature has got to go.

Relish in the fact you will be increasing your productivity by 0.2 seconds per minimize/maximize.

• Open your start menu, go to run, and type in ’systempropertiesperformance’
• From the Visual Effects tab, uncheck ‘Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing’
• While you are here, might as well check out the other goodies you can disable.

3. ReadyBoost

ReadyBoost is one of the more innovative features of Vista. The idea behind it is to use solid state memory as a secondary memory cache (before hard drive caching). It does require a certain level of speed from your USB (or other) flash drive. Do a quick search on google for just the fastest USB flash drive you can get your hands on (don’t worry they are cheap) and buy one.

To enable ReadyBoost, just plug in a fast flash drive, and AutoPlay should come up with a dialog stating that you can use it for readyboost. If you have disabled it, you can just go to the properties for the drive and select it under the readyboost tab. Easy as cake. It is no substitution for RAM, but one can get a several GB flash drive for very little. Some sites have stated that the improvements are not as much as MS says they are, but even a minor improvement for such a low investment makes this worth your while. Do find the best drive you can for random reads/writes (the drive speed is usually rated for sequential reads which won’t help you much).

• What speed drive do I need? 2.5MB/sec throughput for 4K random reads and 1.75MB/sec throughput for 512K random writes.

• What size drive do I need? 256MB to 4GB, where as best performance is gotten at around a 1:1 to a 2:1 flash to ram ratio. So really, you should never try this with a flash drive smaller than 1GB-2GB.

4. Tweak Indexing Service

I personally don’t mind the new search too much. It still hogs a lot of resources though. To turn it off completely:

• Go to my computer, right click on C: drive, go to the General tab, and uncheck Index this drive for faster searching, select Include subfolders and files.
• If you want, you can just remove any extra areas of search, so you can keep your fast searching for some areas.

I personally find the indexing of control panel options and start menu items to be a blessing, so I would leave those alone. Just find items in the tree that you really don’t wish to be indexed (like your documents).

5. While you are at it, fix the rest of your search options

It is often that I do searches for text in files, like a method use in a PHP file, or maybe something in a java file. Regardless of the situation, Windows Vista has a very limited number of file extensions flagged for full text searching, which causes you to get ‘no results’ when you know there are some.

• Open Control panel and type in ‘indexing’ into the search box (or you can do this from your start menu, but many people turn it off).
• Select ‘Indexing Options’
• Select Advanced Button
• Select ‘File Types’ Tab
• In this list you will see a list of extensions. When you click on most of them, the bottom radio button will change from ‘index properties only’ or ‘index properties and file contents’
• Honestly, index properties only is pretty useless for what most people will use search for (i.e. really only search by date).
• Uncheck a box to have it removed from search. This can be done for a variety of extensions that honestly, you don’t want in search anyway. It will actually help your results.
• Change the radio button to ‘index properties and file contents’ to have these file types included in your searches (should be set for word docs, etc and any other text-based files you search for)

6. Get rid of the sidebar

Pretty self explanatory. It’s a heavy and ugly. If you use it, great, if you don’t reclaim some desktop space. Install googles version. Or yahoos.

7. Defender has a use?

Yes, windows defender actually has a purpose!

• Open it up
• Click on tools
• Click on Software Explorer
• This will let you select groups of items, the default is Startup Programs. Now you can see that oh, Open Office quickstart is there, and I can just disable it there.

Items in this list are very likely to be programs that are running 100% of the time your computer is on, so if you can live without them, kill em.

Almost to the end of part 1. The final page is filled with some more advanced things you can do, but they can take a bit of time…

8. Tweak your services

Well, this one is arguable. Many sites preach service tweaking as the end all of tweaks, and Vista does have a lot of services (like 130). However, a good portion of them are set to manual or disabled by default. Manual will only start the service when the operating system thinks it needs to use that program. However, Vista does have a lot of services set to Automatic by default that are not needed for many people. Granted, they are usually sleeping, not using any CPU, and if they use memory, they usually get paged out to disk pretty fast. But, regardless, it is fairly quick to do, and will gain you some improvement.

First off, how to tell what you should really be worried about. One new feature in Vista is the ‘Go to Service’ feature in Task Manager (or at least I never noticed it before). Open Task Manager, Processes tab, right click on a particularly heavy process, and select ‘Go to Service (s)’. This will jump you over to the services tab, and select all the services that are running under that process (multiple ones are usually running under svchost.exe, many of the others only map to one service).

It also works in reverse (select service, right click and go to process) I have something like 75 services running at this very moment. Many of them I have exactly zero use for. I do not have a printer, but print spooler is running and using a whole whopping 1MB of my ram at the moment. There are heavier examples, but even if you can remove 20 of these, is it worth your time? Well, yes and no. Like I said, many of them are already paged out, so they really aren’t affecting your system’s memory. There is added overhead because the scheduler still needs to manage them, but I cannot for the life of me remember how it is done in Windows.

Overall maybe minimal, but if you are going for every ounce of tweak-ness, give it a shot. I’d recommend http://www.speedyvista.com/services.html look for their cheatsheet or registry files pages so you can keep a copy of the default services around for when/if you mess it up and need to get back to default.

9. How to find out the next area for improvement – Tweak your programs

Well, you’ve gotten the operating system down to a certain point, what’s next? Well, figure out where your bottlenecks still are! There’s probably some software on your computer that just kills performance (or 6-7 of them). Don’t blame MS quite yet. Anyway, luckily for you Windows Vista has a simple tool included that can help you identify the problem and remedy it quickly.

• Open the task manager (many ways to get to it, easiest is ctrl+alt+delete then select Start Task Manager)
• Navigate to the Performance tab
• Click on Resource Monitor
• Expand the disk section and sort by either reads or writes column.

Additionally, you can check out cpu, memory usage and network usage in the same way. Now you will probably notice that your virus scanner is using 20x the resources of Aero, as it insists on scanning your RAM all the time, and scanning every damn file you read from, write to, or execute. But, what can you do? Try to find a couple programs that are too greedy, or running when they have no reason to be running (Example: itunes has a couple services installed that run constantly. Why? I’ve no idea why it takes 2-3 services running and several threads to just be looking out for when you just might plug in your ipod, because that functionality is already built into windows). Office also has a preloader ‘quick start’ service (as does open office) to make sure that things run ‘better’ for you. Even though you do have super fetch which should do it automatically without the need for any extra memory usage.

10. Not really a tweak but…

Ok, #10 isn’t really a speed tweak, but it’s something I’ve always found annoying on many operating systems. Many of us have 2 LCDs, and oh wouldn’t it be nice to be able to set different backgrounds for both? There are programs out there that do it, but here’s a way to just do it inside windows.

• Right click on the background and select Personalization.
• Click on Desktop Background
• Select a background image that is at least as wide as the combined resolution of both of your monitors (or scale the image up so it is big enough, else you will get tiling.. it takes some tweaking, so get out your photo editor of choice for this one.
• Select the Tile picture positioning option as shown below. This is the only option that will display your background image across multiple monitors

Hi,

By following a few simple guidelines, you can maintain your computer and keep it running smoothly. This article discusses how to use the tools available in Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) and Windows Vista to more efficiently maintain your computer and safeguard your privacy when you're online.

On This Page

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EQB	http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EQB
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#E6D	http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#E6D
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EVG	http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EVG
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EXAAC	http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EXAAC
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EDBAC	http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EDBAC

Free up disk space

By freeing disk space, you can improve the performance of your computer. The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk. The utility identifies files that you can safely delete, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.
Use Disk Cleanup to:

•	Remove temporary Internet files.
•	Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
•	Empty the Recycle Bin.
•	Remove Windows temporary files.
•	Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.
•	Remove installed programs that you no longer use.

Tip: Typically, temporary Internet files take the most amount of space because the browser caches each page you visit for faster access later.

To use Disk Cleanup

1.	Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.
2.	In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list. Choose the files that you want to delete.
3.	Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK.
4.	When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes.

After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner and performing better.

Speed up access to data

Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. The response time can be significantly longer.

Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.

When to run Disk Defragmenter
In addition to running Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals—monthly is optimal—there are other times you should run it too, such as when:

•	You add a large number of files.
•	Your free disk space totals 15 percent or less.
•	You install new programs or a new version of Windows.

To use Disk Defragmenter:

1.	Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter. Click Analyze to start the Disk Defragmenter.
2.	In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives. Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.
3.	To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment button. Note: In Windows Vista, there is no graphical user interface to demonstrate the progress—but your hard drive is still being defragmented. After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.
4.	To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, click View Report.
5.	To close the View Report dialog box, click Close.
6.	To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, click the Close button on the title bar of the window.

Detect and repair disk errors

In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.

As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.

If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.

To run the Error Checking utility:

1.	Close all open files.
2.	Click Start, and then click My Computer.
3.	In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.
4.	In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.
5.	Click the Check Now button.
6.	In the Check Disk dialog box, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.
7.	If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.

Tip: Only select the "Automatically fix file system errors" check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.

Protect your computer against spyware

Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission. From the Web sites you visit to usernames and passwords, spyware can put you and your confidential information at risk. In addition to privacy concerns, spyware can hamper your computer's performance. To combat spyware, you might want to consider using Microsoft Windows Defender, which is http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/spyware/vista.mspx, and is available as a http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx. Alternatively, there are other free anti-spyware software programs available.

Regards,
Megha

Go thr these links which will tell you various ways to speed up your computer with windows vista.

Good articles are there.................

http://www.speedupyourcomputer.windowsreinstall.com/

http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/top-5-ways-to-speed-up-vista-home-loading-and-stability-470827.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?Top-5-Ways-to-Speed-Up-Vista-Home-Loading-and-Stability&id=1363679

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=0qp3yYQfkAE

http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx

7. http://windows.about.com/od/troubleshooting/ss/start_programs.htm

One way you can speed up your computer is to prevent programs from launching themselves at start-up. Not only do the unwanted programs delay the start of Windows, they also continue to slow down your computer since they use system resources.

Use Disk Cleanup to:

1)Remove temporary Internet files.
2)Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
3)Empty the Recycle Bin.
4)Remove Windows temporary files.
5)Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.
6)Remove installed programs that you no longer use.

Speed up access to data

Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. The response time can be significantly longer.

Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.

When to run Disk Defragmenter
In addition to running Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals—monthly is optimal—there are other times you should run it too, such as when:
1)You add a large number of files.
2)Your free disk space totals 15 percent or less.
3)You install new programs or a new version of Windows.

To use Disk Defragmenter:

1.Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.
2.In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives.

Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.

3.To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment button. Note: In Windows Vista, there is no graphical user interface to demonstrate the progress—but your hard drive is still being defragmented.

After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.

4.To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, click View Report.

5.To close the View Report dialog box, click Close.

6.To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, click the Close button on the title bar of the window.

Go through thses links:
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx#EQB

2 practical tips that I have found useful in tuning my Vista PC from the bigger list here -
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/83EC0FFE-EE04-4D53-8B87-25D1F05C954E1033.mspx


1» Disable services you don’t need - see possible list of Services to disable here -
http://www.theeldergeek.com/services_guide.htm
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm


2» Turn off visual effects - over 20 of them; if you want speed over looks

To adjust all visual effects for best performance:   
1. Open Performance Information and Tools by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Performance Information and Tools.
2. Click Adjust visual effects.  If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
3. Click the Visual Effects tab, click Adjust for best performance, and then click OK. (For a less drastic option, select Let Windows choose what’s best for my computer.)

The performance of your pc can be increased if you follow the below steps:

1. Remove those programs which you don't use

There are some programs in your computer that you have not used and are unlikely to use them in future or you may have games installed in the past that you no longer play now. These installed programs consume resources and can affect your pc's performance.

To remove those programs, just follow these steps for windows xp (similar procedure for other window versions):

a. Select start and then click on control panel.

b. Control panel window will get displayed. Click on Add or Remove Program, and then on Remove Programs.

c. Select the program you want to remove and click on remove/change.

d. Follow the wizard to remove that program.

2. Defragmentation of your disk volumes

You may have noticed that when you open any folder. It takes some time (indicated by turning of the mouse pointer into an hour glass) to list the files in that folder. Similar is the case when you open any volume (e.g. C, D, E or any other volume). You can increase the speed with which folders can be accessed by doing the defragmentation of your hard disk volumes. Defragmentation of the hard disk volumes is referred to as the process in which disk fragmenter (a program) analyzes local volumes (some refer it as drives) and arranges files and folders in such a way that each occupies a single, contiguous space on the volume. As a result, your PC can access files and folders efficiently. Defragmentation process often takes large amount of time as it has to move each file and collect file's data at the contiguous (continuous) locations.

Follow these simple steps to increase your system's performance.

a. Click on start and then point to All Programs

b. Point to Accessories and then to System Tools.

c. Click on Disk Defragmenter

d. Click the volume that you want to defragment, and then click Defragment.

e. Upon completion of defragmentation, Disk Defragmenter displays the results in the Defragmentation display.

f. Click View Report to view the Defragmentation Report, which displays detailed information about the volume you defragmented.

After defragmenting your all drives, you will find that your pc's performance is increased to some extent.

3. Disk Clean up

Increase your pc's performance by removing temporary files, recycle bin's files, old chkdsk files etc.

For disk clean up, follow these simple steps:

a. Click on start and then point to All programs.

b. Point on Accessories and then to System Tools.

c. Click on Disk Cleanup

d. A window will pop up to ask you for drive which you want to clean up.

e. Select Drive and click ok.

f. Select the files you want to remove and click ok.

g. Repeat this process for all drives.

4. Cleaning your windows registry

The most important step towards improving your system's performance is to clean your windows registry. Windows registry is the part of an operating system which contains settings for all the hardware, software, users, and preferences of the PC. It is a database which stores settings and options for the Windows operating system like login information, applications installed and their configuration. How it can be optimized? For this purpose, you need to have a good windows registry cleaner. For more information on windows registry cleaner, visit http://www.windowregistrycleaner.net/

Here's my special recipe to clean that icky goo out of your computer's pipes, so Windows will start quicker, run more reliably, and go faster on the info-superhighway.

INGREDIENTS: Cyber Sludge Remover

1 tbsp Windows Updates
2 cups Virus/Malware remover
3 lbs Software Cleanup powder
2 tbsp Hard Disk Scrubber
1 slice Defrag
1 tsp Startup Weeder
1/2 cup Registry Shavings
2 cups Virtual Memory Sanitizer
1 Extraneous Services Remover

DIRECTIONS

Mix all ingredients together in large bowl
Sprinkle over monitor, keyboard and system unit
Click to restart

If only it was so easy! But actually, it's not so hard to take action on those items I listed above. Here's the scoop on how to implement each step.

Apply Windows Updates

If you run Windows and you use the Internet, you simply MUST stay up to date with the system patches that come out in response to the privacy and security exploits that are discovered every week. Failure to do so is an open invitation to hackers and crackers to invade your privacy and enslave your computer in a spam spewing network. To get the latest fixes and configure your system for automatic updates, open Internet Explorer, click on Tools, then Windows Update.

Clean out Viruses and Malware

Are you running a good anti-virus program, with automatic updates? Have you scanned your system for spyware, adware and other unwanted pests? If not, see my articles http://www.askbobrankin.com/how_can_i_avoid_computer_viruses.html and http://www.askbobrankin.com/spy_counter-spy.html for details on how to protect yourself from those risks. Viruses and malware can slow down your system a LOT, because they use your resources to generate popup ads, send spam, and often interfere with the operation of good programs.

Remove Unnecessary Software

You may have a bunch of software packages on your hard drive that are no longer needed, or they were gratuitously installed when you downloaded some other package. Toolbars, file-sharing programs, free email enhancers, online shopping "companions" and download managers are notorious for this practice. These uninvited guests can put a big drag on your startup time, cause web pages to load slowly, and generally bog down your computer. Go to Control Panel, then Add/Remove Software to see what packages are installed. Remove the ones you know you don't need, and do a web search to learn about the ones you're not sure about.

Scrub That Hard Disk

Both Windows and application programs tend to leave temporary files lying around on your hard drive, taking up space needlessly. A hard drive that is close to being full can cause Windows to act strangely, and will slow down or interfere with efficient disk access and virtual memory operations. And if you surf the web a lot, your temporary internet files folder can become quite large, causing Internet Explorer to slow down or malfunction. Cleaning up unneeded files, scanning for disk errors and defragmenting the hard drive can help to restore some zip to your system.

First, open My Computer, right-click on the C: Drive icon, select Properties, then click on Disk Cleanup. (Optional: Select the More Options tab to find and remove even more unwanted files.) To run a defrag, open My Computer, right-click on the C: Drive icon, select Properties, then Tools. Click the Check Now button to scan your disk for errors. When the scan is complete, click the Defragment Now button to run the defrag, which reorganizes your hard disk so Windows can find and access files more efficiently. (It's highly recommended that you close all running programs and disable your screen saver before running a defrag. Otherwise, updates to your files may trigger defrag to restart endlessly.)

Okay, Now Take a Breath...

We're more than half-way done with the process of cleaning the junk out of your computer. The rest of the steps may seem a little more geeky, and you can skip any or all of them if you don't feel comfortable digging a little deeper into the workings of the Windows operating system. But there is definitely bang for the buck here. Some of peskiest Windows performance problems can be solved by giving attention to these areas.

Slim Your Startup Selections

There are certain programs that Windows will start every time you boot up your system, and during the startup phase, they're all jockeying for a slice of your CPU. Extra or unwanted items in the startup list will defintely increase your startup time, perhaps by several minutes. To manage the list of startup programs, click on Start / Run, then type MSCONFIG. Press Enter, then select the Startup tab. If you see items in the list you know you don't need to run at startup time, UNcheck the box(es) next to them and press Apply. Some common examples are things related to AOL, RealPlayer, Napster, instant messengers, and video managers. If you're not sure about an item, no big deal. You can turn it off, restart your PC, and see if everything seems to work. If not, you can always go back and re-enable an item in the Startup list. This http://www2.whidbey.com/djdenham/Uncheck.htm may help you decide what to keep or drop.

Clean Your Registry

The http://www.download.com/3000-2094-881470.html?legacy=cnet utility from Microsoft, though no longer officially supported for Windows XP, cleans your system registry of unnecessary entries that are created when you install or remove programs on your computer. Sometimes an "orphaned" registry entry can confuse Windows during startup and cause a delay. And in general, slimming down your registry will make Windows run faster. Note: This program is no longer officially supported by Microsoft, but many users report that it works fine on Windows XP systems. You can also try http://www.snapfiles.com/get/regseeker.html which is a highly rated registry cleaner.

RAM and Virtual Memory Settings

When you run out of physical (RAM) memory, Windows will use a check of your hard disk to create virtual memory. This is a nice feature, because it allows application programs to access huge amounts of memory. The only problem with virtual memory is that it's a lot slower than real RAM. So installing extra RAM on the system board is a good idea because it's pretty cheap and easy to pop in. Find out how much your system will accommodate and install the maximum amount.

Extra RAM will probably do more to boost your overall system performance than anything else!

But getting back to Virtual Memory, it's wise to let Windows manage the amount, unless you are a Wizard, with a capital W. Go to Control Panel / System / Advanced, then press the Settings button under Performance. Click Advanced again, then press the Change button under Virtual Memory. If System managed size is selected, you're all set. If you want to fiddle with the Custom Size options, be my guest!

Turn Off Extraneous System Services

We're heading into uber-geek territory here, so be forewarned. Windows doesn't know exactly how you're going to use your computer, so it starts a whole bunch of system services that manage network connections, database access, error reporting, remote access and other nerdy-sounding things. You may not need all these services, and disabling some of them can reduce your startup time and system overhead. But choosing which ones to nuke is a bit daunting, unless you are an expert on Windows operating system internals. Here's my advice... look at these explanations and advice then disable only the ones that you're sure about. If you encounter a problem, you can always go back and turn a service back on.

http://www.pcnineoneone.com/blog/top-10-ways-to-speed-up-your-computer/

The list below describes the top ten ways you can speed up your computer through either general maintenance or hardware upgrades. I tried to list some things other than just the obvious ones most places always list. Now there are of course many more.

10. Check your initial hardware for possible memory, CPU, or hard drive upgrades.

9. Insure your paging files is set to one and a half times the size of the amount of ram installed. If you are using 2 gig or more of ram memory simply turn off the paging file. (To review your paging file right click my computer and choose properties -then choose the advanced tab - Then select the performance settings-slect the advanced tab and modify the virtual memory file size)

8. Run monthly system maintenance such as disk cleanup, disk check, or disk defrag.

7. Clean out your temporary internet files and cookies. (To do this open Internet Explorer and choose the tools menu- Select options- on the main page you can emty the temp files and delete the cookies.)

6. Empty the c:\windows\prefetch folder.

5. Scan your system weekly for spyware.

4. Delete any unused programs by using the add/remove programs utility.

3. Groom your Windows start up file by using the msconfig utility. (This can be done by going to start\Run and typing msconfig then select ok and choose the start up tab)

2. Update your device drivers. If you are using an OEM computer simply visit the manufacturers website for updated software and drivers. If using a custom built computer you will need to visit the hardware manufacturers support site one device at a time to obtain the latest software.

1. Turn off unnecessary services in the services manager.(To access this control panel go to control panel\administrative tools\services)

This little tid bit should allow you to boost your PC performance somewhat. The major improvements will come with hardware upgrades especially increases in system memory (RAM).

We have an entire free video set dedicated to speeding up your computer. You can watch these absolutely free right http://www.pcnineoneone.com/training_videos/.