Mar/Apr 2009 Article 4 Volume 15
Elementary, my Dear Watson!
Basic clues/tips to speed-up your PC
Aren't you tired of your PC running slow? This e-tip will give you some basics on what you can do on a regular basis to speed things up. I used the Watson/Sherlock Holmes theme and based it on some of my
own detective work on how to speed up my PC.
As we are well into this computer age, we must have our PC running optimally. It can be very frustrating when our PC is powered up but moving at a sluggish rate. These clues below are not a one-time quick fix but need to be done on a regular basis to maintain and restore health to our PC's.
Basic Clues
- Empty Recycle Bin: this can be checked just before powering down your PC for the day. Sometimes this has very large files in it and can bog things down. Remember, when a file is deleted it's been moved to the recycle bin and will remain there until it's permanently deleted by you.
- Add/Remove Programs: you can find this option in the Control Panel. You will actually see all the programs that are on your PC and often times there are programs listed that are never used and are wasting space. Using extra space on the hard-drive will slow things down.
- Disk Cleanup: this program is located in Accessories and then click System Tools. This MS Windows clean-up program will check your recycle bin for deleted files, will remove temporary Internet files and also compacts old files. I use this about once a week and have a shortcut to it for easier access. Windows Vista Users-click here
- Outlook Express: has an option to compact all folders. Anything that will help the hard-drive read files quicker is key to your processor running faster.
- Internet Explorer: this program has a handy feature; it likes to store web pages that will make the set-up of a website page load quickly. Have you noticed that when you visit a website for the first time it usually takes a bit for the page to set-up? Internet Explorer will then store this page in a history file so that next time you visit the site it will load much faster. There is one problem with this, all those pages are stored on your PC and will take up space and begin to slow things down!
Click on Tools and select Internet Options, then Delete Browsing History. You can select all the options or just delete the ones you want because, there is a section that stores online form data and you may want to keep that information stored so that you don't have to retype the information again and again.
- Defragment Hard Disk: I try to do this about once a month. This is also found under System Tools and can make a big difference on how your PC reads files. This will help windows arrange programs on your hard-drive, which makes it much faster for your PC to find programs.
Well, my dear Watson I think we have uncovered some basic clues to speed things up a bit. Another clue is that if you have the floppy disks for programs that you rarely use, a good idea is to remove them. You can always reinstall them at a later date if needed. Free space on your hard-drive is important especially for viewing graphics, websites, windows media player, photos, etc.
My dear Watson, taking a little extra time each week to perform these basic tasks will bring a better experience when using your PC not to mention at a faster speed.
Until next time...
Sherlock
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