GetEquipped.net - equip yourself

Im not going to pay some computer service firm over fifty bucks to speed up my computer the same way I can from home. This little step by step shows you some of the things they charge you for and how you can do it yourself. Save some cash!!

How to speed up your computer in 5 easy steps   New computers are cheap now a days. You can buy one for a couple hundred dollars new and be happy with it… for a while that is. But some of us have invested a thousand, even a couple of thousand dollars for a top notch computer but may feel like its just slowing down. You may be scratching your head in confusion and frustration, or even considering buying a new pc. Well, these 10 easy steps will hopefully leave you with a much faster and responsive pc, just like when you bought it, if not better.  1) Fragmenting  

Half the people I talk to don’t even know what this is. If you don’t, great, in a few minutes you’ll know all you ever need to know about it and why it’s so important. On your hard drive data is stored in multiple locations on the physical disk plate. If you have a couple of files associated with each other spread all over this disk its going to take a while to get them all together and then do what you want them to do.

  To defragment your harddrive all you have to do is go to your start menu, click on ACCESSORIES > SYSTEM TOOLS, and select DEFRAGMENTER. You should let your computer defragment over night. This will allocate your data in the appropriate locations. 2) Startup items Overtime your startup items (things that appear at the bottom right where your clock is on Windows XP, or things that run in the background right when your computer starts) can buildup to astronomical proportions. Without you even knowing! The best idea is to run lean, if you aren’t using half the items that are starting up, take them out of there and open them manually.  There’s a couple ways of seeing what’s starting up when you turn on your pc, but the most efficient way without getting too complicated (see the How to manually track spyware, virus, or trojans tutorial for this) is after your computer has booted up, simply hit CTRL ALT DELETE. Select TASK MANAGER and then the PROCESSES tab. You will now see all the applications running. 

What you want to do is organize them by memory usage by select the top right header for memory.

You may see a couple items up there that are using quite a bit of resources. To name a few popular ones AIM.EXELIMEWIRE.EXEICQ.EXEMSN.EXEQUICKTIMEWINAMP AGENT These programs are actually taking resources from your pc at startup and during the entire session your computer is on. I recommend opening all the programs you don’t necessarily need to start right away and going on their preferences or options and unchecking the “startup” option on them. This can dramatically save you startup time and performance. 

To read our advanced tutorial on how to remove startup items, including tracking spyware, Trojans, and viruses click here.

 3) X-Sweeper - free spyware and adware scanner
 Another major factor that can slow down your computer is junkware and spyware. My favorite free program to removing these is X-Cleaner. It’s all done online and is rather quick. You can check them out here http://www.spywareinfo.com/xscan.php  

4) Internet cache cleanup - cookies, history, temporary internet files

People usually forget to clear cookies, history, and temporary internet files which hinder performance significantly when on the web. I recommend doing this at least twice a month. It’s simple!

• Windows Control Panel - delete Temporary Internet Files:

1.      Click the Windows Start menu. 2.      Select Control Panel. 3.      Select Internet Options. 4.      Select the General tab. 5.      In the Temporary Internet Files section, click Delete Files. 6.      You do not need to select the clear offline content box. Select ok. 

• Internet Explorer - delete Temporary Internet Files:

1.      Open Internet Explorer. 2.      Select the Tools menu. 3.      Select Internet Options. 4.      Select the General tab. 5.      In the Temporary Internet Files section, click the Delete Files button. 6.      You do not need to select the clear offline content box. Select ok. 

• FireFox Mozilla – clearing cache:

1.      Open FireFox Mozilla2.      Click the Tools menu. 3.      Click Options. 4.      Click Privacy. 5.      Click the Clear button for Cache.  

• AOL - clear cache:
   

1.      Click Settings. 2.      Select the Index tab, and click Internet [Web] Options. 3.      Under Browsing History, where it says to Delete temporary files, cookies, saved passwords, and web form information, click Delete. 4.      The files may take some time to delete, wait until this process has been completed then click  OK.   5) Windows Reinstallation

 If you have done all these and feel your computer is just not how it once was, a rather simple solution to get it running like when you first got it is to reinstall Windows anew. You can go to our in detail tutorial on how to do that here.