Tuneup your System with 10 Easy steps to Improve Windows Performance

Having issue of computer speed slowing down? Are you tired of reinstalling your windows and restoring your pc after every few days? Try these simple suggestions for tuning up your system.

Even though there are many tune up utilities available to improve your pc's performance these days, but still if you want to work with old fashion way just follow these simple steps. These suggestions are harmless and do not require professional skills to speed up your pc. Leave anything you are not sure of how to do.

Backing up your system is always the best option before you start. Windows Xp, Vista and Windows 7 mostly offers many ways to solve the problems and try to fix things themselves but still if you are not satisfied by the results then do follow these steps to improve your system performance.

Startup programs affect your pc's performance dramatically. If a large number of programs are loaded on startup, they will use lot of resources of your pc and can be major cause of slowing down the performance.

It is a general exercise that many of startup programs are not necessary to be loaded on start. Many of startup programs are even those, which you don't even need for a long time. Many programs these days install themselves to startup and in system tray, resulting in high system resources usage.

Finding out the startup programs is real easy. Just click start button on lower left of your screen, click run and type msconfig and click OK. System Configuration screen will appear with various tabs. Click on startup tab to see what is in your startup tray and remove the check on all of the items you feel are unnecessary. If you are unsure of any item then remove it. In general practice it is seen that most of the viruses and Trojans load themselves on system startup without any name and have only program file added. Such programs are suspicious. Disabling them is good.

Remember that if you uncheck any program by mistake, it can be easily done any time by going again to msconfig and checking the program again.
Second Step: Cleaning your Temporary Files.

To rescue some unnecessary space being used, it Is always a good idea to remove your temporary files. This can be done either by deleting temp directory which is located in your windows folder, or alternately click on my computer icon, then right click on drive and click properties.

In General tab you will see a button clean up. Click that and it will open a dialogue box asking from you which files you want to remove. Check temporary files and click ok. It will remove all temporary files stored on that specific drive.
Third Step: Removing old software's.

Many people install many software's on their pc, most of which are trial versions and mostly not used. They remain on pc even after expiry and are not used. Removing such programs that are expired or are not being used from a long time is also a good exercise of improving your system performance and having extra disk space.

For uninstalling programs just click on start then go to control panel, select add/remove programs. A list of all installed software's will appear. You can easily select the one which are expired or are not being used from a long time. Click on the desired program and then click uninstall button. It will uninstall the selected software.

Remember this option can't be undone so do it wisely, as there is no turning back on this option.
Fourth Step: Manage your Files and folders.

As you use your computer regularly a lot of files and documents are created that contained information that becomes expired after some time. Sometimes you copy many songs and movies to your hard disk, watch them few times and then forget about them. Removing such files can help in rescuing your disk space.
Fifth Step: Internet Temporary Files.

As now the regular internet usage has become part of our lives, this process also creates a lot of temporary internet files called Cache, resulting literally thousands or even hundreds of thousands of files left on your hard disk. Such files also become unnecessary load on hard disk. It is wise idea to remove such files.

To delete internet files open your internet explorer, click tools then click internet options, in General click delete on checkbox under box of delete temporary internet files. In Opera click tools then click recent history and then click on how much time of history you want to delete. Click ok and all internet cache will be deleted.
Sixth Step: Email Archives and old emails

Deleting your old and unnecessary emails can also result in extra disk space and better performance of outlook. Make archives of your emails older than a year and before that remove all unnecessary emails from them.
Seventh Step: Check and empty Recycle Bin

Recycle bin contains many of your deleted files up to a certain time. Emptying your recycle bin regularly after assuring that there is no important file in it is a good way to clean up hard disk space.
Eighth Step: Running Scandisk

Scandisk for windows is another good option for clearing miscellaneous error of your hard disk that is created due to improper shutdowns and software clicks. Scan disk also tries to repair bad sectors and close them on repair failure, but this option is in thorough scandisk mode. Scan disk should be run after closing all of your running programs and without screen savers. Running scandisk in windows safe mode is also a good idea.

To start scandisk, click start, then click run, type scandisk in the box and scandisk will start. There are two options of scandisk, Standard and Thorough. Standard scanning is good for general pc scanning and for software errors and conflicts. Thorough scandisk is used if you are suffering from a major hard disk error either caused by bad sector or windows crash. Thorough Scandisk takes too much time for scanning, thus it should be used only when there is a suspicion of some physical hard disk error.

Scandisk also can be activated by clicking start button then clicking programs then accessories and then system tools and then scandisk
Ninth Step: Defragmenting your hard disk.

As hard disk continuously reads and write data, data starts to be written in scattered places. Also when any program is uninstalled or file is deleted the space being used by it is left empty. Disk defragmentation feature assembles all of the data in same place, resulting in fast processing and speeding up pc' performance. This feature can be used any time. Using it once in a week is a good habit for pc's performance.

To start window defragmentation click start and type defrag. Defragmentation takes time to complete, thus leaving your pc on for a night with defragmentation is always a better option. Disk defragmentation should be done after using scandisk. To open it just clicks start and run, type defrag there and defragmentation box will appear. Always restart your pc after defragmentation. Or you can click start, then click programs, then click accessories, then click system tools, then click disk defragmenter.
Tenth Step: Shutting down your windows properly.

Always shut down your windows properly and do restart pc with restart button while windows is running, especially when widows is Loading. Restarting your pc while window is being loaded or running can result in corrupting your files and even damaging your hard disk in some cases.

Maria Gates works as Microsoft Certified Trainer in Ohio

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