How Can I Speed Up My Computer?
The guide “How Can I Speed Up My Computer?” is extracted from Turbo Windows ebook – The Ultimate PC Speed Up Guide, see the details below:
Make Your Computer Super Fast with These Windows Tweaks
Most people know that adjusting Windows visual effects can speed up computer performance. But did you know that the sounds Windows makes on startup, shutdown, when you insert a USB stick, when you encounter an error, etc. don’t do system performance any good? Even though Windows sounds don’t affect computer speed as much as graphics, disabling them will still give you a small performance boost. Besides, I find Windows beeps really annoying, don’t you?
Disabling Windows sounds will not affect any other sounds on your computer. There won’t be any problems when you listen to music, watch videos and so on.
To disable Windows sounds, do the following:
3. In the new window, go to the Sounds tab
Set processor affinity for specific applications
If you have a dual or a multi-core CPU, you can set processor affinity for specific applications. Depending on your CPU, you can significantly speed up the performance of some programs. The speed increase may vary, but getting use out of your secondary processors is definitely worthwhile.
Setting processor affinity is very easy and can be done from the Task Manager:
Change application priorities
If you don’t have a dual or multi-core CPU, you can still speed up applications and overall computer performance by changing priority settings for programs of your choice. Basically, assigning high priority to an application will speed up the application itself, but might affect overall system performance. Similarly, assigning low priority to a resource-hungry application will speed up overall computer performance, but will slow down the application itself.
You can change application priority in the Task Manager:
Clean the Prefetch folder
Every time you launch a program for the first time, Windows creates a file that will make the program launch quicker the next time you use it. This little file gets put into a folder called Prefetch and is stored there. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, only up to a point. Just like any other folder, the Prefetch folder can get pretty cluttered as it accumulates files for different applications. As a result, all that clutter starts slowing down your computer, even though it’s meant to be speeding it up. The solution is to give your Prefetch folder a cleanup every now and again.
To clean the Prefetch folder, do the following:
Disable hibernation
Hibernation is one of the power-saving modes offered by Windows. It is a great mode if you want to reduce your power consumption, but don’t feel like switching your computer on and off and losing all your open documents, browsers, programs, and current settings. In short, hibernation is great if you want to reduce your electricity bills without compromising your productivity.
However, hibernation has some downsides, the main one being its negative effect on system performance. That’s because Windows reserves a hidden file called hiberfil.sys, which is roughly the size of your RAM. This means that if you have 2GB of RAM, your hiberfil.sys file is something close to 2GB. Now, that’s perfectly fine if you do use hibernation. But if you don’t, then this file is just a waste of space. You can free up this extra space by disabling hibernation. Here is how:
2. Click on the Start button and type cmd in the Search box (XP users will need to click on Start – Run and type cmd). Hit Enter. This will open the Command Line.
If one day you’d like to re-enable hibernation, simply repeat steps 1-4, but typepowercfg /hibernate on in step 3 instead.
Speed up file browsing
Do you ever use network folders and printer? My bet is you don’t. But did you know that Windows looks for them by default every time you open Windows Explorer, just in case you do? This is no big deal, but it can slow down file browsing. Disabling search for network folders and printers can make using Windows Explorer and browsing files much more enjoyable.
Windows XP
2. In the menu, click on Tools, click on Folder Options and go to the Viewtab
Windows 7
1. Go to the Control Panel and open Network and Internet
2. Click Network and Sharing Center
3. Select Change advanced sharing settings