When you start using a new computer it's fast and may impresses you as a big change from
before. On the other hand you may be disappointed at the relatively small increase in
speed. Even if fast, over time your machine may get bogged down.
After a few months you may wonder if it is worth computing at all, considering how long
it takes to do anything.
The truth is by default when your computer arrives it has many services and unneeded
programs that can be turned off or deleted without harm. Also with a machine that has
slowed over time, many things can be done to improve the speed. In fact, after a treatment
like here's, you'll be amazed what a tiger was under hood. If you were considering it, you
may decide to postpone the purchase of a new one. The various procedures and habits you
can perform and change are as follows:
Make Sure You Have Enough Memory
Choose Start Button → Start Menu → Settings → Control Panel → System →
General Tab
Before You Buy Computer Memory Upgrades, you can find out how much you have by
clicking on the System Icon in the Control Panel. The amount is on the first tab that comes
up, the General Tab.
With Windows 2000 or XP, you really should have at least 1 GB of memory and 2 GB is a
more comfortable amount. With Vista be sure to have 2 GB of memory you'll be much
happier.
Be Sure To Clean Up Your Desktop
Windows puts everything on your Desktop into memory, for rapid loading purposes.
If you have a lot of big files there, that means trouble. Apparently folders are not loaded.
Shortcuts apparently are loaded, but it stops there. The applications the shortcuts point to
are not loaded. Maybe downloaded exe files are though.
Make Sure You Have a Fast Enough CPU Chip
Only Windows XP and Vista, in the System Applet
again, will show you how fast your processor is. 1
GHz Processor is really the minimum these days. If
you have less than this, spare yourself some
frustration and buy a cheap new computer for $250-
$400 from Dell, HP, Compaq, E-machines, or
Gateway. You'll be much happier.
Uninstall Those Unneeded Applications To Free Up Memory
One last suggestion of the about.com article that sounds useful, is to uninstall unneeded
programs. The reason for this is apparently the registry settings made by installed programs
can eventually slow down your machine. A smaller cleaner registry is therefore useful. A
registry cleaner might be a good tool to use too after removing the unneeded programs. It
will be discussed again below.
Do You Know the Types of RAM?
Different RAM Types and its uses
Intro
The type of RAM doesn't matter nearly as much as how much of it you've got, but using plain old SDRAM memory today will slow you down. There are main types of RAM: SDRAM, DDR and Rambus DRAM.
SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM)
Almost all systems used to ship with 3.3 volt, 168-pin SDRAM DIMMs. SDRAM is not an extension of older EDO DRAM but a new type of DRAM altogether. SDRAM started out running at 66 MHz, while older fast page mode DRAM and EDO max out at 50 MHz. SDRAM is able to scale to 133 MHz (PC133) officially, and unofficially up to 180MHz or higher. As processors get faster, new generations of memory such as DDR and RDRAM are required to get proper performance.
DDR (Double Data Rate SDRAM)
DDR basically doubles the rate of data transfer of standard SDRAM by transferring data on the up and down tick of a clock cycle. DDR memory operating at 333MHz actually operates at 166MHz * 2 (aka PC333 / PC2700) or 133MHz*2 (PC266 / PC2100). DDR is a 2.5 volt technology that uses 184 pins in its DIMMs. It is incompatible with SDRAM physically, but uses a similar parallel bus, making it easier to implement than RDRAM, which is a different technology.
Check this site for information about DDR SDRAM memory and DDR Memory recommendations.
Rambus DRAM (RDRAM)
Despite it's higher price, Intel has given RDRAM it's blessing for the consumer market, and it will be the sole choice of memory for Intel's Pentium 4. RDRAM is a serial memory technology that arrived in three flavors, PC600, PC700, and PC800. PC800 RDRAM has double the maximum throughput of old PC100 SDRAM, but a higher latency. RDRAM designs with multiple channels, such as those in Pentium 4 motherboards, are currently at the top of the heap in memory throughput, especially when paired with PC1066 RDRAM memory.
DIMMs vs. RIMMs
DRAM comes in two major form factors: DIMMs and RIMMS.
DIMMs are 64-bit components, but if used in a motherboard with a dual-channel configuration (like with an Nvidia nForce chipset) you must pair them to get maximum performance. So far there aren't many DDR chipset that use dual-channels. Typically, if you want to add 512 MB of DIMM memory to your machine, you just pop in a 512 MB DIMM if you've got an available slot. DIMMs for SDRAM and DDR are different, and not physically compatible. SDRAM DIMMs have 168-pins and run at 3.3 volts, while DDR DIMMs have 184-pins and run at 2.5 volts.
RIMMs use only a 16-bit interface but run at higher speeds than DDR. To get maximum performance, Intel RDRAM chipsets require the use of RIMMs in pairs over a dual-channel 32-bit interface. You have to plan more when upgrading and purchasing RDRAM.
From the top: SIMM, DIMM and SODIMM memory modules
Memory Speed
SDRAM initially shipped at a speed of 66MHz. As memory buses got faster, it was pumped up to 100MHz, and then 133MHz. The speed grades are referred to as PC66 (unofficially), PC100 and PC133 SDRAM respectively. Some manufacturers are shipping a PC150 speed grade. However, this is an unofficial speed rating, and of little use unless you plan to overclock your system.
DDR comes in PC1600, PC2100, PC2700 and PC3200 DIMMs. A PC1600 DIMM is made up of PC200 DDR chips, while a PC2100 DIMM is made up of PC266 chips. PC2700 uses PC333 DDR chips and PC3200 uses PC400 chips that haven't gained widespread support. Go for PC2700 DDR. It is about the cost of PC2100 memory and will give you better performance.
RDRAM comes in PC600, PC700, PC800 and PC1066 speeds. Go for PC1066 RDRAM if you can find it. If you can't, PC800 RDRAM is widely available.
CAS Latency
SDRAM comes with latency ratings or "CAS (Column Address Strobe) latency" ratings. Standard PC100 / PC133 SDRAM comes in CAS 2 or CAS 3 speed ratings. The lower latency of CAS 2 memory will give you more performance. It also costs a bit more, but it's worth it.
DDR memory comes in CAS 2 and CAS 2.5 ratings, with CAS 2 costing more and performing better.
RDRAM has no CAS latency ratings, but may eventually come in 32 and 4 bank forms with 32-bank RDRAM costing more and performing better. For now, it's all 32-bank RDRAM.
Understanding Cache
Cache Memory is fast memory that serves as a buffer between the processor and main memory. The cache holds data that was recently used by the processor and saves a trip all the way back to slower main memory. The memory structure of PCs is often thought of as just main memory, but it's really a five or six level structure:
The first two levels of memory are contained in the processor itself, consisting of the processor's small internal memory, orregisters, and L1 cache, which is the first level of cache, usually contained in the processor.
The third level of memory is the L2 cache, usually contained on the motherboard. However, the Celeron chip from Intel actually contains 128K of L2 cache within the form factor of the chip. More and more chip makers are planning to put this cache on board the processor itself. The benefit is that it will then run at the same speed as the processor, and cost less to put on the chip than to set up a bus and logic externally from the processor.
The fourth level, is being referred to as L3 cache. This cache used to be the L2 cache on the motherboard, but now that some processors include L1 and L2 cache on the chip, it becomes L3 cache. Usually, it runs slower than the processor, but faster than main memory.
The fifth level (or fourth if you have no "L3 cache") of memory is the main memory itself.
The sixth level is a piece of the hard disk used by the Operating System, usually called virtual memory. Most operating systems use this when they run out of main memory, but some use it in other ways as well.
This six-tiered structure is designed to efficiently speed data to the processor when it needs it, and also to allow the operating system to function when levels of main memory are low. You might ask, "Why is all this necessary?" The answer is cost. If there were one type of super-fast, super-cheap memory, it could theoretically satisfy the needs of this entire memory architecture. This will probably never happen since you don't need very much cache memory to drastically improve performance, and there will always be a faster, more expensive alternative to the current form of main memory.
Memory Redundancy
One important aspect to consider in memory is what level of redundancy you want. There are a few different levels of redundancy available in memory. Depending on your motherboard, it may support all or some of these types of memory:
The cheapest and most prevalent level of redundancy is non-parity memory. When you have non-parity memory in your machine and it encounters a memory error, the operating system will have no way of knowing and will most likely crash, but could corrupt data as well with no way of telling the OS. This is the most common type of memory, and unless specified, that's what you're getting. It works fine for most applications, but I wouldn't run life support systems on it.
The second level of redundancy is parity memory (also called true parity). Parity memory has extra chips that act as parity chips. Thus, the chip will be able to detect when a memory error has occurred and signal the operating system. You'll probably still crash, but at least you'll know why.
The third level of redundancy is ECC (Error Checking and Correcting). This requires even more logic and is usually more expensive. Not only does it detect memory errors, but it also corrects 1-bit ECC errors. If you have a 2-bit error, you will still have some problems. Some motherboards enable you to have ECC memory.
Older memory types
Fast Page Mode DRAM
Fast Page Mode DRAM is plain old DRAM as we once knew it. The problem with standard DRAM was that it maxes out at about 50 MHz.
EDO DRAM
EDO DRAM gave people up to 5% system performance increase over DRAM. EDO DRAM is like FPM DRAM with some cache built into the chip. Like FPM DRAM, EDO DRAM maxes out at about 50 MHz. Early on, some system makers claimed that if you used EDO DRAM you didn't need L2 cache in your computer to get decent performance. They were wrong. It turns out that EDO DRAM works along with L2 cache to make things even faster, but if you lose the L2 cache, you lose a lot of speed.
Get And Keep Your BIOS Fine Tuned
In the BIOS (or "Setup") stop floppy seek, stop memory check (Fast Boot), and put the
disk on best performance setting instead of silent if you have it.
For a faster boot up enter your Bios, by clicking the Delete, F2, or F12 key or whatever
flashes on the screen when you turn on the computer. Next choose boot order, and remove
all entries except the first one which you should set to your hard drive. This will stop the
most of the time useless seeking of a floppy disk at boot time.
If you need to reinstall Windows or some other operation, you can always go back and
change this entry to floppy or CD. Also there should be a setting in your BIOS to make the
boot, quick.
Patch Your Computer To Keep It Updated
Go to Windows update on the top of your start menu and download all the patches for your
operating system, whether they are optional or critical.
Better yet, go into the Control Panel, choose Automatic Updates, Choose Automatic (your
screen might look different with a different version of Windows). Make it Every Day at a
time when you are not using your computer.
Generally if you have cable or DSL, despite the risk of infection, computers should be kept
on and attached to the Internet. This is to allow antivirus and security patches downloading
at off-peak hours.
Keep Your Antivirus Up to Date and Scan Your Disks
Bring your antivirus program up to date and regularly do a full virus scan of your
computer. Check your antivirus program as it will tell you when the last full scan was
done. You may be surprised to see it is not what you thought, but was done months ago.
If you don't have an up to date antivirus program, and don't want to pay for a new one,
there are several high quality free ones available to the private consumer.
They are: AVG, Antivr, avast, PC Tools antivirus, Comodo antivirus and the open source
ClamAV.
Also look into a new different kind of antivirus program ThreatFire which you can use to
supplement your other antivirus. ThreatFire doesn't look for the fingerprints or DNA of
known viruses. Instead it looks for suspicious behavior like key logging.
Also try the no longer free WinHki Anti-Virus, which acts as a supplement to normal Antivirus
program like above. WinHki calculates the checksums ( a mathematical calculation
extremely difficult to fool) of your files on initialization.
After that, whenever a virus changes a file it will be flagged by WinHki because the
checksum will change.
Make Sure Your Antivirus/Internet Security Programs Run at
Night
If you are noticing slowness in your PC and you hear your hard drive churning, it may be
because the antivirus is doing a scan during the middle of the day.
Reschedule it for the night. Also check to make sure it updates at night. While your at it,
look in Windows update settings in your System app in the Control Panel in XP or by itself
as an app in the Control panel in Vista. Perhaps it is updating during the day too instead of
the default 3 AM. That could be a real slower in performance.
Make Sure You Have no Spyware
Run at least a couple different antispyware programs. Perhaps most people these days are
buying full computer suites to use with their computers, which should include antispyware
programs, but it doesn't hurt to independently run stand alone anti-spyware programs.
The free ones are, SuperAntiSpyware (maybe the best of the free ones now), Spybot,
LavaSoft's Ad-Aware, Yahoo Toolbar with Anti-Spy, and "Bazooka Adware and Spyware
Scanner".
Note it's also a good idea to use the free spyware prevention tool, Spyware Blaster.
The commercial anti-spyware programs SpySweeper, SpywareDoctor and CA Anti-
Spyware (formerly Pest Patrol) are excellent. They cost $30-40.
Stop Unneeded Startup Programs
New installation of software often adds unneeded startup entries in any of several different
hidden locations. These programs will start when Windows starts and take up resources.
The best free program to deal with this problem, is in my opinion, Startup Inspector for
Windows.
If you use this program, be sure to select the "Consult" Button in the upper left of GUI.
This will make the program search through its database of startup programs and tell you
whether the software is necessary or can be safely removed from the bootup sequence.
Windows Defender is Microsoft's similar program. It's standard in Vista and can be
reached through the Control Panel. Click on Tools → Software Explorer, to see all the
programs that begin at startup.
Another good choice is Codestuff Starter. This free program has the additional advantage
of having a sort of Power Task Manager which will tell you all the programs that are
currently running and all their dll dependencies.
Additionally there is a new section on Services, so you can look through these semiprograms
that are running in the background and see if there are any you don't need. More
on services in a later step.
Unfortunately you will manually have to look up your entries in other resources to see
whether the software is necessary for normal functioning. You can also sometimes get info
about the manufacturer of the running program by double clicking on its entry in the
Startup list. The best database for checking whether programs are necessary is
http://www.castlecops.com/StartupList.html.
Defragment Your Hard Drive Regularly
Vista now includes an automatic defragment system that is enabled by default. With XP or
Vista (if you want to set it off outside the schedule) defragment your hard drive by
choosing Start → Programs → Accessories → System Tools → Disk Defragmenter.
This should be done every week if possible and can take several hour, so again do it at
night or while you are at work. There are some free disk defragmenter scheduler solutions,
so you can "set it and forget it." They are startdefrag, autodefrag and Lexun Freeware
Drivecare. There is also a Microsoft article that tells you how to use Scheduler to schedule
defragmentation.
Remove Those Unneeded Files
Hard disk begin to fragment files noticeably and slow down after passing the 50% full
mark. For this reason, it is said that the single most important investment one can make to
improve the performance of a PC is to purchase the largest hard drive possible.
This situation will change with the advent of solid state hard drives as the files don't
fragment meaningfully in these sort of devices. At any rate if you have a hard drive and it's
over 50% full, use a program like CCleaner or Microsoft's disk utility to get rid of
unneeded files.
Also uninstalling unneeded software can improve performance for disk space reasons and
because programs often install right click options which disappear after uninstallation. This
is valuable because menus are often built on the fly and take time to rebuild each time you
open them. With less options there's faster performance.
Move the Page File to Another Partition
The page file is your virtual memory. Windows uses your hard drive as a secondary source
of memory in addition to your RAM memory. If you move this file to another partition
then the one where Windows is installed this can increase performance.
You can change this setting here: Control Panel → System Applet → Advanced
Properties → Performance Settings Button → Advanced Tab → Virtual Memory
Settings Button → Click on the C drive and change the setting to no virtual memory and
hit the "set" button → move the selection to another partition and set it to 150% of the
amount of RAM memory you have in both the minimum and maximum amounts. Then
click the "set" button.
Stop File Indexing
By default, in order to speed file searches in XP and Vista, Windows indexes the entire
drive. However most people do not search very often and find that the overhead that the
process represents in terms of memory and CPU cycle does not justify the short time lost
looking for files that have not been indexed once in awhile.
It is true that this indexing is only supposed to take place during times when the machine is
not in use, but the system doesn't work perfectly and makes for continual noise from the
hard drive through out the time the PC is on.
At any rate to stop indexing is a bit of an involved process.
To start it, right click on your C: drive in My Computer or Explorer and choose
"Properties". Simply uncheck the checkbox "Allow the Indexing Service index this disk for
fast file searching" → In the next Window that comes up, choose the radio button next to
"apply changes to C:\, subfolders and files. That's the easy part.
Because it's applying the changes to all the folders, this process takes up a lot resources
and time. As a shortcut to all this you could stop the indexing service in XP by typing type
"net stop CiSvc" without the quotes. For a long time stop of the Indexing Service you
would need to disable it.
Type services.msc in the Run box → right click on the Indexing Service → choose
disabled from the Startup type drop down box. In Vista, do the same thing with the
command "net stop WSearch" and disabling the Windows Search Service.
A third way to do this in XP and VIsta is to go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control
Panel (Programs and Features in Vista) and choose Add/Remove Windows Components (in
Vista "Turn Windows features on and off"). There you'll find the Indexing Service which
you can uninstall. If I remember correctly with Vista, there is some Indexing that goes on
even if you have done all three of these things. This might be related to Vista's Prefetch and
Superfetch systems.
Turn Off Animations
In XP and Vista, some visual effects have been added to the basic Windows 2000
appearance. These can be removed to improve PC speed.
You can do this here:
Control Panel → System Applet → Advanced System Settings (in Vista) or Advanced
tab (In XP) → Performance Settings Button → Visual Effects → Adjust for best
performance.
You may want to restore the use of smooth edges for screen fonts and the showing of
thumbnails instead of icons (In Vista only).
Clean the Registry
Over time the registry gets clogged up with useless registry settings that slow a PC.
Freeware to fix this issue include PC Fixer, CCleaner and Toni Arts EasyCleaner among
others.
Stop Unneeded Services
Services are again programs that Windows starts up automatically at startup and run in the
background (some of them at least others are started when needed). Many of these are not
needed and stopping them can help speed up you considerably.
To get to services, click on the Start Menu and in the Run dialogue box add "services.msc"
and hit return. Now, consult one of the lists on the net, which list which services are
necessary and which are not.
Look at a program called WinServices. If you download the mini setup of version 2.1.4.0,
and choose Tools → "Program Settings" → Columns Tab → Select Activate
Recommendations → check "Suggested Settings" and "Safely disable", the program
will show which services you can disable. Use a little common sense here, for instance
Task Scheduler might be better left on. Check with the other sites.
Turn Off Fancy Desktop Backgrounds, and Screensavers
Elaborate background pictures and fancy screensavers can take up an enormous amount of
RAM memory and Hard disk space. For instance with hibernation activated, a file easily 1
GB in size is created in the root of the C: drive.
If you are low on hard disk space, this can be vital. These operations can be done by right
clicking on a blank part of your Desktop and choosing "Properties." Go to the Desktop Tab
and set the Background to "None." On the screensaver Tab, set the Screensaver to "None."
To turn off the Hibernation feature in XP only: Right Click on your Desktop → choose
Properties → Click on the Screen Saver Tab → Click on the Power Button in the
lower right corner → Click on the Hibernate Tab → Uncheck "Enable hibernation".
For Vista see this article in regards to hibernation: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929658.
ReadyBoost for Vista Speeds Boot Times and Other
Operations
With Vista, if you plug in USB or other flash memory, you will be given a choice to use the
device with machine as ReadyBoost agent. It's a little complicated and I don't understand
it, but, the PC uses the drive then for SuperFetch routines as cache memory, whatever that
means.
All you seem to have to know is that using USB memory as ReadyBoost can speed boot
times as well as other memory intensive activities that the PC would normally use the hard
drive virtual memory for. Your free memory can be 256 MB to 4 GB usable by the
machine.
You must tell the machine to set aside this amount and you will not be able to use that
memory while the card is plugged in the machine. Apparently also the machine learns
during each boot up so the boot up times gradually get faster. A Wikipedia article is here
and at the end of the Live Links/Additional Resources list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyBoost.
Note some flash memory is not fast enough to serve as ReadyBoost material.
Change Your PC Use Habits
Things that can speed the Windows experience is to rely more heavily on keyboard
shortcuts. Print out a cheat sheet for yourself for reference. Two links are listed below.
Another thing to do is to use Windows Quick Launch Toolbar. You display this right
clicking on the Start Button → choosing Properties → Choosing the Toolbars tab →
check the Quick Launch Toolbar display option box.
If you hold down the control button you can drag shortcuts from the Start Menu or desktop
and keep copies in their original locations. Another speed tip is when surfing and
downloading start many at the same time, you don't have to wait for one download to
finish before starting another.
Also you might try to download the free Opera Internet browser or Apple's Safari for
Windows. It is the fastest but will not display some of the pages IE and Firefox can display.
I use all three browsers about equally. Another thing to try is to set up category folders in
your Startup menu.
You can then drag the programs folders into the folders. This speed things because it takes
Windows some time to rebuild its menus each time you click on them. You can get to the
Start menu folders by right clicking on the Start Button and choosing "Explore".
There is a complication that not all the Start Menus are stored under your user name.
However if you work at it you can categorize most of your folders by dragging them
around and placing them in new folders. You can also right click on the folder and choose
cut, then paste them in your new folders.
Additionally if your right click on the Start Menu Folder and it does not give you the cut
option, it's probably installed in the Default or All user folders. Choose the "Open all
users" option instead to manipulate those folders.
Have Your PC health Assessed for Free at PC Pitstop
PC Pitstop will give you a wealth of information about whether you have enough disk
space, how fragmented your drives, whether you have enough memory and many other
things discussed below. This is an unbelievable free service and can be done anonymously.
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