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Improving PC Performance Without Upgrading Your Hardware

Boosting up the performance of your PC doesn't have to be difficult or expensive. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to do it.
By Kevin J. Vella 
Public Relations Manager 
Uniblue Systems Ltd
kevinjv@uniblue.net
http://www.uniblue.com/

Nine things that Chip Manufacturers and PC retailers don't tell you!

The most common reasons for PC slowdowns are viruses, spyware, too many temporary files, software conflicts, residues from unwanted (and uninstalled) trial downloads and other applications, and, sometimes, just too many applications running at the same time hogging all or most of your computer resources.

The following are nine things that Chip Manufacturers and PC Retailers don't want you to know or how to perform. Following this advice will drastically increase your PC performance and help you regain your sanity while saving loads of money. And, if your PC is three years old and can't afford to upgrade yet, you will be able to squeeze out some more juice out of the old thing!

1. Know What You Are Running:
Sometimes slow downs occur because you have too many programs open at the same time. Shutting down those programs that you are not using will immediately boost performance. 

2. Monitor Windows Processes:
If you press CTRL+AL+DEL you will call up Tasks Manager which lists most of the processes that you are actually running. 

Although limited, Task Manager will give you a reasonably good overview of what's running. But before ending processes to increase your performance please exercise extreme caution and learn what the processes do. Look at the article Maximizing PC Security to get a good overview of how you can do this. 

You will find that either there is too much running or there is something hogging your CPU and memory. With certain Windows Utilities you can even set-up your computer to run certain system configurations depending upon the type of application/s you are running at the moment. These utilities also give you an insight on resource allocation and, with the help of graphs, can help you identify which application and/or process is most likely to slow or crash your computer.

3. Have a Clean System: 
One of the most common reason (probably the most common) for slow downs is viruses and/or spyware. Sometimes even spyware residuals that have escaped your anti-spyware products can plague you for months. I had a problem with MSAA.EXE which was not caught by three spyware scanners - I eventaully figured out what I had running because of point #2 above! 

Virus and spyware authors just love creating menaces that hog your system resources and the only protection you have is to have everything up-to-date.

Make sure your antivirus software is up to date with current virus definitions. Then scan your computer for viruses. Make sure your Spyware software is up to date with current definitions - because of the way spyware works you should try and use at least two different programs to scan your system (scanners are usually free of charge and Microsoft have a free Anti-Spyware product which you should use). Firewalls are also an important security tool but beware as having an active firewall may slow performance. 

What you may do once you are 100% sure that your system is clean is turn off your security only when not connected to the Internet. This should help you increase your performance too. But remember to switch everything on before going online. Otherwise, you will be immediately at risk.

4. Update Your Operating System
Having the latest updates of Windows may not generally increase system performance. However, Microsoft are continually patching up any security loop holes or performance related glitches. So in the long run, your system will be better off with the latest OS updates.

5. Disk Clean-ups
Defragging and disc repairs are also extremely important. Defragging is the process of locating and consolidating your files and folders sitting on your hard drives. This can be done automatically by Windows and as a result your system can access these files and folders (and new ones) more efficiently and quickly. Regular defrags and disk repairs will keep your computer running at optimum levels.

6. Temporary File Management: 
Cleansing your temporary files including your Internet history including cookies gives you a larger amount of hard disk space to work with. This, in turn, gives more space for Windows virtual files (Page File memory). I go as far as limiting how much space Windows uses to create temporary files. For example, my setting is 1 Mb. In other words, at any point in time Windows is only allowed 1 Mb of space to store cookies, activeX controls etc.. 

7. Start-up Management
Next time you start up your PC just time how long it takes to boot and let you start using your applications. If you are lucky, start-up times should be no longer than seconds. In most cases, however, it takes minutes. 

The Windows Startup Folder tells you most of the more visible processes that are running in your system. However this is not enough - many installed applications start up processes at boot up that you don't even know about. Not that these are harmful, they're probably useful and required. However, by monitoring what is starting up, you have a good chance of finding out what should and what should not be started. Such utilities as performance optimizers (see #9 below) will automatically identify your start-up files and allow you to disable some or all of them. Again, exercise caution here. Be sure to disable only those start-up processes that are superfluous.

My start-up times (and as a result my CPU and MEM Usage) were very short until I installed a particular program which I needed. However I made the mistake of setting up the server version when I don't really need it - I confess, it wasn't a mistake it was a program that impressed me so much that I decided to install the server version because I thought that I would have more visible functionality. However I was wrong. To cut a long story short, I had some system files installed on my system which were needed if my PC were actually a server (and not a client). One particular process hogged my system and used a constant 10,820 K of my memory when working in the background. Reinstalling the version I needed improved my performance without my having to spend as much as one penny.

8. Caution: Download in Progress
Be honest, whatever they tell you about security (although very true and serious), you just can't resist downloading and trying out new products and utilities. It's fun! I just love scouring the Internet looking for some new utility to try out. 

A few weeks back I needed software that lets me sort out the myriad of documents I have on my PC. Thing is I didn't want to spend too much money so I started looking at Open Source products that are free of charge. Well, I must have downloaded and installed at least 10 different programs. I liked none so in a second round I found the one I wanted. However, when uninstalling all the programs I tried, I had to be very careful. The uninstall operation of most applications or programs almost always leaves residual files or folders in your system. No uninstall operation will leave your system the way it was - dlls, processes such as schedulers that kick in at start-ups, and other legitimate processes that, with the main program being uninstalled have no specific function except to hog your system unnecessarily. 

What I usually do after I uninstall and reboot my machine is use a Windows Utility (WinTasks) to help me identify the processes which are unnecessary and just block or delete them. Again exercise caution when doing this - make sure that you have all the program and its sub components uninstalled, then reboot, then try the manual clean up. If you are unsure, it is better to leave them in your system but making sure that they are blocked.

9. Use Performance Optimizers
Finally, if either you don't want to perform many of these things manually or you have exhausted all possible avenues, you may want to consider a Performance Optimizer. 

Even the more experienced users cannot manage to fully control and monitor all that is happening within their system without a small toolkit of software utilities that generally includes a sturdy performance optimizer. 

If anything these utilities do the work automatically. I use performance optimizers because they can do the job better and in as little time as possible. When I use a computer I am either working or playing some game - I just don't want to hassle myself tweaking and looking under the hood of my PC. Performance optimizers have been designed to inch their way into the system and help you boost your PC performance drastically. These utilities usually don't cost more than $25 to $30 and give you much more value than investing in RAM simply because they seek and solve slowdown problems rather than mask it. 

Sometimes RAM is necessary. But, I believe that following these nine steps and principles you can get much more out of your PC. Plus, performance optimizers go the extra mile because they improve your system's overall operation beyond any level that you can manage on your own steam; simply because operating systems are getting more complex by the upgrade and it is almost humanly impossible to keep track of all that goes on in your computer.

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.