(Please click on Legal Stuff before using this Tip of The Week.)
Everybody wants a fast computer for the least amount of money. Unfortunately, you often get what you pay for because there are many little corners that manufacturers can cut in order to sell you that so-called latest and greatest PC for $499.
Fortunately, there are some things you can do on a self-help basis to squeeze the most performance out of your PC. The following tips apply to Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000, and Windows XP
1. Hard Drive Space: If you have less than 10% of free space on your primary hard drive, then your computer will start to slow down. You should uninstall applications and components that you never use and run the Windows Disk Cleanup option. You can access this by checking the properties of your C drive and click the "Disk Cleanup" on the General tab. Windows XP offers it as a Scheduled Task that you can set to run automatically.
2. Defragment Your Drive: Think of your hard drive as if it were a filing cabinet. If you routinely stuff files back into your filing cabinet without arranging them in alphabetical order, it's going to get messy and take you longer to find your files. In principle, the same thing happens to your hard drive as it opens and closes files. If files are too large to fit into a single hard drive cluster, it will save portions of them into available clusters even if those clusters are located in different sectors. Defragmenting your hard drive will rearrange files into contiguous clusters so your hard drive does not have to work so hard and this will speed up your data access.
3. Increase Your Boot-Up Speed: Windows 2000 or Windows XP do not require frequent reboots so you can leave them running most of the time. However, the junior operating systems such as Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me require occasional reboots in order to maintain peak performance. You can help the reboot process by changing the system BIOS settings to start the boot process from the C drive instead of first looking for a boot option in the A drive. If you boot your computer and notice that it hesitates a few seconds because your floppy disk drive light comes on, then it's taking time to look for a boot partition in the A drive. Consult your computer's operating manual or call your technical support to help you change the boot options in your system's BIOS to boot directly from the C drive.
4. Use 16-Bit Video: Using more than a 16-bit video option with one of those new LCD monitors is wasteful and inefficient. While LCD monitor's are great because they save space, their technology isn't quite as good as the old fashioned CRT monitors. They simply cannot show the nuances of colors at 24-bit or 32-bit and thus are not only wasteful, but you'll waste processor and memory speed in the process. Change your video display adapter properties to display a maximum of 16-bit if you're using a new LCD monitor. In fact, if your eyes are unable to tell the difference on a CRT monitor, you may be able to get away with this 16-bit color setting as well.
5. Trim Your Startup Group: Every time you restart your computer, there are applications that will automatically load and consume valuable system resources. Many of these applications are evident in your System Tray located next to your clock in the task bar. If you are using all of these applications that's well and fine. But sometimes there are a few that you can live without and thereby free up valuable system resources. You can use Microsoft's built-in "msconfig.exe" tool to trim your Startup Group by clicking "Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Information" and then clicking "Tools -> System Configuration Utility" and then using the "Startup" tab to identify and remove applications you don't need to run at startup time.
NOTE: While we have already tested and used this tool on our machines and are quite pleased, we always urge our clients to exercise good judgement before using any configuration tools with which they may not be familiar, read your operating system help files and to click on Legal Stuff before using any of our Tips of The Week.
6. Add More Memory: Perhaps the single best boost you can give your computer is to add more memory. Many computers came with 128 megabytes or less when purchased new. However, many of today's newer software packages and games recommend 256 megabytes or more for best performance. When your operating system runs low on system resources, it will start using the hard drive's swapfile and that's where things will start to slow down. Adding more memory allows programs to load and run without resorting to using your hard drive's swapfile.
7. Upgrade Your CPU and/or Motherboard: Your motherboard may be capable of running a faster CPU. For example, you may have bought your computer with the latest Celeron processor but it may have been capable of running a Pentium IV processor. Instead of buying a whole new computer, maybe all you need is to swap the processor. For those of you who are old enough to remember the days of the American muscle car, this would be akin to replacing your Mustang's stock six-cylinder engine with an aftermarket eight-cylinder engine. This is also a whole lot cheaper than buying a whole new computer.
8. Get Rid of Dial-Up: If your location qualifies for DSL internet access, get rid of that old modem dial-up account and sign up for DSL. There are many online multimedia experiences that you cannot fully appreciate using an old fashioned dial-up modem account. DSL service is coming down is price and can be had for as little as $29 per month in some parts of the country. Contact your local telephone or cable company to see if your location qualifies.
(If the Tip-of-The-Week generates additional thought-provoking questions on your part that you would like us to personally answer, give us a call at 895-5016 to set up an appointment, or consider using our online AskBrightIdeas.com service.)
