How to Speed up your Computer

Well this is my first post in this blog. Let me begin with something very common. Computer running slow or computer freezing or pc hang, I am sure everybody reading this blog would have faced this situation sometimes or the other. And then comes the time consuming process of getting tech support over the phone or getting a computer technician.

Let me first of all inform you that i have been a part of DELL Technical Support and i have seen it all, done it all. So, the good news is that you do not need to spend 40 dollars to get support over the
phone for most of the problems. Well, that is true.

Had every Dell's customer been like me they would not have these call centres around the globe.

Here we will be taking such issus and ways to resolve them without calling tech support line...feels good??

PC RUNNING SLOW, FREEZING.. what do you do? no no don't pick up the phone..lets see what we need to do

1. Windows XP users - First and foremost we need to determine the cause of the problem. Well, there can be many - spyware, adware, virus, low memory and very rarely
a hardware issue.

Think!

Is it slow only while start up or is it slow while being online?

Start up - If computer is slow during start up you just need to disable unnecessary start up items. Watch this wonderful site to do this http://www.netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_xp.html

Have you done anything new?

Try removing any newly installed hardware, such as a printer, or uninstalling any newly installed applications, such as a computer game, and see if that resolves the problem. Make sure that your computer meets the minimum requirements recommended by the hardware manufacturer or software publisher before installing anything new.

Reboot your computer

Are you one of those people who leaves their computer on for days or weeks at a time? If so, temporary files will build up on your hard disk, taking up space in your computer’s memory and clogging up other resources. By rebooting, or restarting, your computer, you can clear out these temporary files and improve your PC’s performance.

Verify your system resources

People get computers for various reasons: e-mail, Internet access, games, word processing. Make sure your computer’s RAM (or memory), hard disk space, and other components are adequate for what you’re using the computer for.

Still the Computer is slow and freezing?
If the answer is yes its time to run a scan for virus/spyware/adware. There are many good security softwares available in the market. There are some free programs available on the internet namely AVG,AVAST etc. Download any of these and run a scan.

Remove any virus/spyware detected or quarantine them. If this does not help?

Try starting in safe mode

Normally, when you start your computer, Windows loads a huge amount of data into your computer’s memory. In safe mode, however, you only have access to basic files and drivers (for example, mouse, monitor, keyboard, default system services, and no network connections). Therefore, the processor is only running at a fraction of its capacity.

If your system is significantly faster in safe mode, one or more applications or drivers may be causing the slowdown in normal mode. If you’ve recently added new software or a new device, try uninstalling it or removing the hardware to see if your computer speeds up.

To start in safe mode:

1. Click Start, then click Shut Down.

2. Click Restart, then click OK.

3. As your computer restarts but before Windows launches, press F8.
On a computer that is configured for booting to multiple operating systems, you can press F8 when the boot menu appears.

4. Select Safe Mode, then press ENTER.

95% of the time its a virus/spyware issue so make sure that you keep updated with the security softwares and also run a scan regularly (atleast once in 2 weeks, once in a week is recommended).

If everything is fine just follow these to improve the performance -

1. Defragment Your Hard Drive
Over time, the data on your hard drive gets scattered. Defragmenting your hard drive puts your data back into sequential order, making it easier for Windows to access it. As a result, the performance of your computer will improve.

Visit this to know how to defragment

2. Clear Prefetch
Click Start, open RUN, type "Prefetch" without quotes and hit Enter key on the keyboard. Now Press CTRL and A at the same time to highlight all the files and then hit Shift and DEL key at the same time and then hit Enter key. This will boost the performance significantly.