SPEEDING UP YOUR PC WHY DOES MY PC RUN SLOW? Keeping your PC running as good or even better than it did when brand new is a relatively easy thing to do, but it helps to understand first why a computer runs slower than it should. MEMORY The single most common reason that a PC runs too slow is insufficient free memory. Your PC's memory is it's workspace. On the Computer Basics page we compared a PC to an office desk, with the top of the desk representing the memory. A large desk top, with not very much on it leaves you lots of room to work, so you can be more efficient. Memory is the same, if you have lots of it, and not much occupying it besides your Operating System's required files, then you have lots of room to work. If you do NOT have much memory, or if it is full of programs you do not need, then your PC has to work a lot harder moving things around, or send them back to the hard drive temporarily. This is what slows it down. Think of it like having to walk around with a backpack that weighs 150 pounds. You'd go a little slower than normal too. RESTART YOUR PC Each time you use your computer, your operating and your programs are loaded into the memory. During a session, you might open, close and reopen a dozen or more programs. The problem is... each time you close a program, it leaves remnants of itself behind in memory. Your memory gets cluttered up with this "leakage", leaving you with less free memory than you should have, resulting in poor performance. Simply restarting your PC will flush out the memory. CLEANING IT UP So how does memory get filled up, and how do we clean it out? Whenever you install a new program, it will often configure itself to automatically load a little piece of itself into your computers memory when the computer starts. If you install a lot of programs, these little bits can soon add up to a lot. Many of these items are represented by the little icons you see in the bottom right corner of your screen. Here is how you can find out what is running that you do not know about. Click your START button, click on RUN, and in the box that opens, type "msconfig" (without the quotes). You will see the System Configuration Utility come open, as shown below. Click on the Startup tab. The list that you see shows all of the small programs that have ever been installed that want to start automatically with your PC. They may be games, shortcuts to their main programs, spyware, Anti-Virus programs, or any number of things. NONE OF THEM ARE REQUIRED BY YOUR PC!! You can disable them easily, just remove the check mark on the left, and click okay. You will have to restart your PC for the changes to take effect. Use a little caution however. Read each line, if it looks like it refers to something important, like your your Anti-Virus program, then leave the check mark there (just as the one check mark left in the graphic shows, NAV - Norton Anti-Virus). For a good list of items you may find there and what they refer to, check this link. ADD MORE MEMORY Adding memory is very easy, and there is no other change you can make that will speed up your computer as much as adding more memory will. For best instructions, refer to page 4 of the Computer Basics section. How much memory is enough? If your computer came with 128 Megabytes of RAM memory, Windows XP will use almost 110 of it just to function normally. This does not leave very much left for you to run your application programs. Putting your PC up to 256 Meg will a make significant improvement, enough for most people. If you play high-end games, or work a lot with photos or video, then consider going to 512 Meg or 1024 Meg (usually referred to as 1 Gigabyte) To check on how much you have and how much is free, right-click on the task bar (across the bottom of your screen) and click on Task Manager, and the Process tab. You will get a screen like this: The important numbers are circled, the total memory on this PC is 490,996 or 512 Meg (22 Meg has been loaned out for video processing), with close to 200 Meg free. A system with 128 Meg will often report just 5 to 10 Meg free (it will read 5,000 or 10,000). YOUR PC's HARD DRIVE On page one I made a reference to your system sending items back to the hard drive temporarily if memory gets full? Adding more memory will reduce this, but not eliminate it. When a computer needs to do this, it uses a special file called a Paging file (in Windows 98 it was called a Swapfile). If your hard drive is getting full, and there is no room left for this Paging file, you are asking for trouble. Your hard drive should always have about 10% of its space free for this, or it will run very slow, may even freeze up and need to be restart. Periodically remove any programs you no longer use. The easist way is to go to the Control Panel (Start - Control Panel, or Start - Settings - Control Panel) and click on Add/Remove Programs. Remove any you don't use to free up space. Another good practice is to periodically defragment your hard drive. Whenever you delete a file from the drive, it leaves the space empty. When you create a new file of some sort, it will fill that space. What if the new file is bigger than the space? The empty space is filled, but the little bit extra is put somewhere else. Over time, little bits of files get get scattered all over the drive. Think of it like having 30 spice jars in your kitchen, but some in drawers, some in one cupboard, some in another. Hard to find one when you need it, right? Defragmenting is like putting them all back together in a spice rack, so you can find them easily and quickly. Click on Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Disk Defragmenter. Just click Degfragment to start the process. When done, the box will look like this: VIRUSES and SPYWARE Having a virus on your PC can seriously slow your machine down by deleting important files, and keeping itself busy in the bachground. Spyware often runs in the background also, contributing to slowdowns. Get rid of both! For details on how to do so, refer to the Computer Security pages. BEST PRACTICES To keep your computer running at top speed, follow these simple tips. Add More Memory! Disable Unnecessary Background Programs Remove any Viruses and Spyware Keep at Least 10% of Your Hard Drive Free. Defragment Your Hard Drive Every Month Remove Unused Programs Add More Memory!