Want To Speed Up Your Windows Computer?
By John Dow

Being in the computer repair business, I often get asked, "How do
I speed up my computer?" This is a tough question to answer without
any knowledge of the computer and software that a user might have. 
But I do have a few recommendations that usually helps out most people.

Many users rarely turn off their computer. And that's OK for the most
part. One of the WinXP's claim to fame is that it better allocates memory
(ram) space and gives back the memory area when a program shuts down.

But there are a few programs that still don't play well in the sandbox. They
keep that area of ram reserved and so other programs don't have that
space to use when they are run. There are also other "resources" that can be held and limit space for new programs to run.

So I recommend that your do a cold boot (that is when you actually shut
down the OS and turn off the power - not just a re-boot where it instantly
comes back up). This totally clears all ram areas and can get rid of any bits
and pieces in both ram and other memory areas. Once a week is fine.

Now if you've had your computer for more than a year, there are 1000's 
if not millions of unused files just laying around your system. Most 
people know about clearing their browser cache, and maybe even using 
Windows XP Disk Clean Up through the properties of your C:/Drive. 
And both of those programs help.

But there are large amounts of files that are created by third party 
programs, installers, Java cache files, and etc. It's difficult to 
even find these files let alone clean them out on a regular basis. 
Several of the more active adware and virus programs use these areas 
to operate from too. So it's a good thing to clean these out periodically.

And then there's all the registry entries that go with these files. 
The registry is a database on your computer that is used by the system 
to register any software, hardware, and activities. On a brand new 
computer it is huge in both size and number of entries. But over time 
this database can become quite bloated and slow down daily operations.

Every time you do something to change your user, software, or hardware 
settings this activity is recorded in the registry database. Think 
about it for a minute, every single time you install, change, or even 
move things around it is recorded. The number of entries on any daily 
session can be in the 1000's.

Every day when you boot up, your system runs through every setting in 
the registry to know how, where, and what is on your computer. As time 
goes on, and new entries are made, this becomes a more time consuming 
task. And during the normal operation, the registry is checking 1000's of 
times for file locations, hardware driver aspects, and many of the 
different settings stored in your registry.

So the bigger the registry, the more computing power and time is needed 
to complete these checks. And this type of access is going on every time 
you click or type during your daily computing chores. Anything you can 
do to keep the registry mean and lean can improve the performance of 
your computer and your boot up time.

But doing a manual clean up of your files, and the registry can be difficult. 
Knowing what files and what settings are no longer needed is almost 
impossible. One of the reasons is the registry listings can be in multiple 
sections and many places. And it's about as easy to decipher as our 
wonderful tax laws. I get to do it often when repairing a computer but 
it's not a lot of fun nor is it always very straight forward.

But there is a good way to approach this clean up. There are some very 
smart folks over at a company called CCleaner.com. They have written 
a small utility called CCleaner and it cleans out the registry and 
deletes all the old inactive files everywhere.

Normally I'm not to wild about turning loose a program that deletes 
files and registry entries on any of my computers. But I've tested this 
utility on every computer in the shop and it works flawlessly every 
time. It's fast too. We use a couple of computers to test new software 
and hardware and they get cluttered up with old files and installations. 
Many of the uninstall programs don't remove all the files and registry 
entries.

We use CCleaner after all our tests now and it removes all the left 
overs fast. And the speed on boot up and day-to-day operations does 
speed up. It's a noticeable difference before and after you run CCleaner. 
They also have a support area and forum on their web site for any 
questions and issues that anyone would have using their software.

Many of the major computer sites and magazines have given CCleaner the 
highest marks for both reliability and results. That says a lot right 
there since most of these expert web sites are pretty thorough in 
testing and don't give out high rankings all that often.

I've added CCleaner to my basic recommendations of a good virus protection 
software and adware remover. It goes the extra mile in clean up that can 
really help any computer speed up both the boot process and daily operations.

If your computer is acting sluggish and slow, this would be an excellent 
utility to run. Always make sure that there are no pesky viruses or adware 
first. And always make sure you have the latest version of both virus 
definitions and any new adware protection. 

Did I mention that this great little utility is also free? That's right, 
it's free for the using. They do take donations so if you use the program 
and like it, why not go ahead and give them a few bucks for their great 
work. That's a good way keep this and other great software free.

You can get CCleaner at http://www.ccleaner.com. Just follow the 
instructions on the installation and operation and I'll bet you see a 
big difference afterward. Good utilities are hard to find, and free ones 
almost impossible. This is a great tool to help anyone clean out their 
system and get back some of the original speed of their computer.

You can find other ways to speed up and protect your computer on our Power Solutions CD that can have a huge impact. Small changes can net big results. If you spend a little time and effort, your computer can speed up dramatically.

If you have any questions, call me or send an email. 

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