How to speed up your computer

[Darklai]

I had made something similar like this before. It was my "Lag Help Guide" on my guild forum. (: I have some extra things you can include:

Virtual Memory
Virtual memory acts as extra RAM for your computer, used off your hard drive.
My Computer -> Control Panel -> Performance and Maintence -> System -> Advance -> Performance [Settings...] -> Advanced Tab -> Virtual Memory [Change]
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...ress/guide.jpg <- Image of the box

Depending on the free space of your HD, how much to set. Your computer will give you a recommended amount at the bottom of the box, which is what it most likely has allocated. If your computer has the HD space, double the recommended amount as your min, and multiply that amount by 1.5 to set the max amount. Once finished, press OK.

Also, remember... A clean desktop is a happy desktop. The less items on there, the faster it will be when you minimize and switch windows.

[Cardboardsnail]

Thank you. :)

Could you put the link to the picture in URL tags though? It's broken

[Rain]

Cleaning the dust out of your computer actually makes it run better? As in.. speed wise?

wow i never knew this. This would explain ALOT.. T-T

[Nikkey]

WHAT?! You can't do that! Putting a vaccuum to your computer could cause static electricity which could potentially damage hardware components.

My vacuumer is made out of plastic...?

Anyway, defrag, turn of all components not needed (I still have a pretty looking windows XP with windows 95 look. I still like it), turn on dual core(tri/quad as well) boosters,, clean your computer, and so forth...

[Darklai]

Thank you. :)

Could you put the link to the picture in URL tags though? It's broken

o.o You don't say... works fine fer meh.
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e7...ress/guide.jpg
Hope it works for you now. o.O

[Bacon]

1. This is just a quick tip for those who want to Zakum but are afraid they're going to lag out. Right before Zakum, I suggest turning off your computer and giving it a few minutes before you reboot. That way, the RAM will clear itself and you won't have weird things hogging your memory. The next step is up open up Task Manager and kill the 'explorer.exe' task. At first, you might be a little freaked and want to kill me because your desktop disappears. But don't worry, you can fix that. Killing the explorer.exe task will make it so your CPU uses about 1% of its power. Very handy when you're scared of lag, and your computer is going to run like the wind. After your Zakum run, just fire up Task manager again by using the 'Ctrl+Alt+Del' combo in Windows XP or the 'Ctrl+Shift+Esc' combo in Vista. Select 'File'>'New Task' and type 'explorer.exe'.

2. Another tip. Instead of using the MSConfig tool, I prefer using a little program called WinPatrol (which you can find here). This is a really nifty program that not only gives you the power to stop certain programs from running at startup, you can do many other things with the tool. You can use it as a task manager and see all the tasks which are running (without having the complicated Task manager Processes nonsense), and you can also choose to delay the startup of some programs. For example, if I want my chat client to run at startup but don't want it hogging my memory space when everything else is starting up, I can set the delay for my chat protocol to start a minute after everything else has loaded. This is an extremely useful tool and I think it's much better than MSConfig.

3. On the note of Virus' and Spyware, I suggest that you buy a few products. Virus' and Spyware are the main reasons most computers are really slow. I know, free things are always good, but some commercial products are really much better than the free products. I suggest getting NOD32 and/or Kaspersky. Both will rip your wallet apart, but I personally love both of those programs. If you feel like you want to stick with free programs, that's also fine. I just suggest getting a good Firewall (I prefer Comodo Pro Free as opposed to Zonealarm.)

When you're scanning your computer, update the virus database to the latest version, and then reboot your computer. As you're rebooting, press F8 or F12 to get into a thing called Safe Mode. (The button you press varies, but most of the time there will be a screen telling you what to press.) In Safe Mode, a lot of the program features are disabled, which means that virus' are isolated making it easier for your Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware program to detect. Hope this helps.

@Rain: Actually, cleaning your computer every once in a while really does help. While it doesn't guarantee your computer is going to run faster, it puts a lot less stress on your CPU and Graphics card. When you're doing heavy duty work, your CPU is generating a lot of heat, which isn't good for the CPU. If your computer is really dirty, that heat is trapped in your computer. How would you feel if you were stuck in a sauna with no way out? You'd probably burn to a crisp.

[Cardboardsnail]

1. This is just a quick tip for those who want to Zakum but are afraid they're going to lag out. Right before Zakum, I suggest turning off your computer and giving it a few minutes before you reboot. That way, the RAM will clear itself and you won't have weird things hogging your memory. The next step is up open up Task Manager and kill the 'explorer.exe' task. At first, you might be a little freaked and want to kill me because your desktop disappears. But don't worry, you can fix that. Killing the explorer.exe task will make it so your CPU uses about 1% of its power. Very handy when you're scared of lag, and your computer is going to run like the wind. After your Zakum run, just fire up Task manager again by using the 'Ctrl+Alt+Del' combo in Windows XP or the 'Ctrl+Shift+Esc' combo in Vista. Select 'File'>'New Task' and type 'explorer.exe'.

2. Another tip. Instead of using the MSConfig tool, I prefer using a little program called WinPatrol (which you can find here). This is a really nifty program that not only gives you the power to stop certain programs from running at startup, you can do many other things with the tool. You can use it as a task manager and see all the tasks which are running (without having the complicated Task manager Processes nonsense), and you can also choose to delay the startup of some programs. For example, if I want my chat client to run at startup but don't want it hogging my memory space when everything else is starting up, I can set the delay for my chat protocol to start a minute after everything else has loaded. This is an extremely useful tool and I think it's much better than MSConfig.

3. On the note of Virus' and Spyware, I suggest that you buy a few products. Virus' and Spyware are the main reasons most computers are really slow. I know, free things are always good, but some commercial products are really much better than the free products. I suggest getting NOD32 and/or Kaspersky. Both will rip your wallet apart, but I personally love both of those programs. If you feel like you want to stick with free programs, that's also fine. I just suggest getting a good Firewall (I prefer Comodo Pro Free as opposed to Zonealarm.)

When you're scanning your computer, update the virus database to the latest version, and then reboot your computer. As you're rebooting, press F8 or F12 to get into a thing called Safe Mode. (The button you press varies, but most of the time there will be a screen telling you what to press.) In Safe Mode, a lot of the program features are disabled, which means that virus' are isolated making it easier for your Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware program to detect. Hope this helps.

You don't have to shut down your computer for it to clear RAM
A simple reboot does the same thing
I'll add what you said though.
Thanks.

[Bacon]

You don't have to shut down your computer for it to clear RAM
A simple reboot does the same thing
I'll add what you said though.
Thanks.

Actually, it takes a few seconds before the RAM gets cleared. On some computers, a Reboot isn't enough. The time it takes for RAM to get cleared is about 5 seconds to a minute, depending on what type of RAM. This was discovered by people recently when they managed to get an encryption key out of RAM by freezing it.

Of course, I'm a pretty crazy person and a simple reboot will do for most people. Paranoia for the win?

[Cardboardsnail]

Actually, it takes a few seconds before the RAM gets cleared. On some computers, a Reboot isn't enough. The time it takes for RAM to get cleared is about 5 seconds to a minute, depending on what type of RAM. This was discovered by people recently when they managed to get an encryption key out of RAM by freezing it.

Of course, I'm a pretty crazy person and a simple reboot will do for most people. Paranoia for the win?

Extract encryption codes by freezing RAM?
It'd have to be frozen right on the motherboard or something (even then, I doubt they managed to extract codes)
RAM is volatile, meaning it loses all data when power is cut off

[Bacon]

I know that RAM is volatile, but it doesn't mean that it's going to lose all its data the moment you turn the computer off. Here is the article I was talking about. Quite an interesting read.

[Cardboardsnail]

I know that RAM is volatile, but it doesn't mean that it's going to lose all its data the moment you turn the computer off. Here is the article I was talking about. Quite an interesting read.

Hmm. That's interesting.

[Pockles]

Run windows kernal in RAM. Have atleast 256 MB of RAM.

Go to Start>Run. Type ‘Regedit‘ and hit enter.

In the registry editor go to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive and change the value to “1“.

Close the editor and restart Windows. Your computer should perform faster now.

PM me if your into registry hacks i have loads of reg files / tweaks ill share. Not a lot for new users but some.

EDIT: I do not claim this reg hack. I gathered it from other sites over the years.

[Cardboardsnail]

RegEditing... nah.

[Roxas]

Here's another post for the quotes galore;

Microsoft Bootvis.

BootVis, which Microsoft describes as a "performance trace visualization tool," actually performs the same tasks as the XP boot process, except that BootVis allows the information obtained during a single boot to be used for optimization, rather than monitoring the system over a period of several days.

In short, Microsoft Bootvis makes your computer run faster by gathering the scattered boot files in your hard drive.

This url prodives more explanation and a simple guide on how to use Bootvis. Or if you don't feel like reading, graphs and all that jazz, download it, go to Trace and click on Optimize System. Download here

[Cardboardsnail]

Here's another post for the quotes galore;

Microsoft Bootvis.

In short, Microsoft Bootvis makes your computer run faster by gathering the scattered boot files in your hard drive.

This url prodives more explanation and a simple guide on how to use Bootvis. Or if you don't feel like reading, graphs and all that jazz, download it, go to Trace and click on Optimize System. Download here

Microsoft's page says otherwise

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system...t/default.mspx

[Roxas]

Microsoft's page says otherwise

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system...t/default.mspx

That's what I thought but then I read this : http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/bootvis/

[Cardboardsnail]

updated

[Derimed]

I am lucky in that unlike most of the people here I use my computer to browse the web and type word processing documents. After quitting Maple the issue of speeding up was moot because my computer became a glorified typewriter.

[XTOTHEL]

Depending on the amount of ram available, not restarting might be a better option. Since all the maple data would be cached into ram :S.

[Cardboardsnail]

Depending on the amount of ram available, not restarting might be a better option. Since all the maple data would be cached into ram :S.

But that will mean slower everything else :p

It's not like you can't cache Maple data again after you restart