Simple (and Inexpensive) Ways to Speed-up Your Computer (PC)

PART 1 – EASY

With computers and computer components getting cheaper and faster almost everyday, people tend to forget that there are a lot other ways of speeding up their computers without spending a lot on the latest parts or upgrading. So, if you’re one of those who just want a little more boost on performance, i have a few tips. Starting off from the simplest down to the bit obscure, here are the things that i use over the years get a little more from my hardware: 

1. Clean up your desktop.

This is probably the quickest way: try cleaning up your desktop (nope, not the table where you put your computer). Basically you’d want to remove (or just move) the files and shortcuts that are littered on your desktop. Windows would actually take some processing time just to process and display the icons for these files and links. So to reduce that, delete them or just create a folder on your desktop and put all your desktop items inside that folder. When you need those files, just open up that folder from the desktop.

 

If your desktop is like the smaller image above, then it’s time to do some de-cluttering. The above is actually pretty tame, with only having icons halfway through the desktop. I’ve seen people’s desktop full to the brim, i meant, to the edges. You can always use folders on your desktop! So, put most of your desktop files inside folders.

Personally, i only use my desktop as a transient location for my files. The files usually go into “My Documents” or “Music” or “Pictures” folders depending on their type and category. If i haven’t decided where to put them yet, I usually put them on the desktop. I have a folder there called “Temporary” that contains those files. Every once in a while, i do some cleaning up of that folder but at least i don’t have a cluttered desktop.

2. Remove ‘some’ of your Desktop Gadgets/Widgets, or temporarily disable them.

We have gadgets (or widgets) from Windows, Google, Yahoo and some others. These are those little windows that you add on your desktop displaying additional information like an analog clock, a calendar or even news from the internet. Unfortunately some of these little guys also slows your computer down. Some of them would eat away a few moments during your startup and some would eat during the whole time your using your computer.

I’m not about to discourage their use, i actually like them as you can see from my desktop from the previous pic, but please be particular with which gadgets you install. If you don’t need that gadget then don’t put them on your desktop.

Each desktop gadget usually gives you the option to remove or close that particular gadget. For Windows 7 gadgets, you just need to right-click on it and click on “Close gadget”. Or you can simply, move your mouse over the gadget and click the “X” button that appears on the side.

Now, if you don’t want to permanently remove your gadgets but want to have a temporary boost in performance, say when you want to play a very heavy game (resource-hogging games), you can temporary disable all of your gadgets.

There are more ‘normal’ ways to temporarily disable all your gadgets but here is a quick and dirty way: stop the process using Task Manager.

From the image above:
1. Right-click anywhere on a blank area on your Taskbar.
2. Click on “Start Task Manager”. This will show the Windows Task Manager window.
3. Hit the “Processes” tab.
4. Look for the process of your gadgets. Check the description to verify if it is the right process.
    For Windows 7 Gadgets it is called “sidebar.exe” and has a description of “Windows Desktop Gadgets”.

5. Select the process and right-click.
6. Click on “End Process”.
7. When prompted, click “End Process”.

Personally, i use desktop gadgets on my desktop computer, but I turn it off (don’t use at all) on my netbook.

3. Remove unnecessary gadgets (hardware).

Okay, don’t start removing just about any piece of hardware. Since this is a post about ‘simple’ ways to speed up your computer, I’m only referring to those devices that you plug in through (most of the time) the USB.

The good thing these days with gadgets (again, not to confuse with the desktop gadget mentioned earlier), is that most of them can be used instantly. This is the magic of plug ‘n play, brought mainly into mainstream by USB (and of course their respective software and OS counterpart). Since everything can be just plugged in, people tend to buy gadgets and insert them into every possible port they could on their computer. It’s so rampant that we now have devices that add more ports so we can put in many more devices! There in lies the problem since doing so actually slows down the computer. Well, it’s obvious: since it has more devices connected to it, the computer needs to do a little more work just to maintain the connectivity and usage of these devices.

To help reduce that computing time spent on these devices, it is better to simply remove them when not in use. Here are some common devices that people tend to forget to unplug even when not in use:

1. Flash drives (external USB drives).

2. Gamepads (360 Controller, Sidewinder, etc).

3. Joysticks/pads and other gaming devices.

4. External optical drives (DVD drives).

5. Web-cams

6. Wireless USB Connector/Dongle (Wifi, 3G, Bluetooth, etc).

Although most of these devices have an energy-saving feature where they get ‘somewhat’ turned off when not needed, they still consume a little power and some bit of processing time from the computer’s OS just so it knows that they are still there and that it could wake them up at the right time.

When all you want is to edit a file on your computer or just read a few websites, or you want to put most of your computer’s brawn on a particularly large presentation file that you’re editing or a game you’re playing, turn off or remove your other devices. You’re mostly okay with the mouse and keyboard combo.

As a reminder, follow the ‘safe’ way of removing your devices. Don’t just unplug them while you’re computer is running. There’s usually an icon on your Taskbar for your USB devices, similar to the following image:

On Windows 7, look for the above icon on your Taskbar (particularly, the System Tray). Right-click on it so see a list of devices that you can eject. Just select which device you want to eject, then wait for the prompt that says “it is now safe to remove your device”. After that, physically remove your device. Windows XP and Vista also has something similar to this: just look for the icon that looks like a USB plug and has a tool tip that goes something like: “Safely remove hardware”.

Of course, you always have the option of physically unplugging the device while your computer is turned off. Removing devices before you turn on your computer would probably shave off a second or two off its startup time.

4. Clean up your drive.

This doesn’t really have a direct effect on your computer’s performance, not unless you’re constantly browsing for your files. Then again, browsing for your files is a normal part of your computing. So, if you’ve got a drive that takes a tad bit longer to load (when checking out the contents in Windows Explorer), maybe it’s time to clean it up.

You can do the cleaning yourself, by checking out the files on that drive and deleting those that you don’t need. You could also use the “Disk cleanup” feature to give you some automated helping hand.

Here are the steps:

1. Open up Windows Explorer and select the drive you want to clean up.

2. Click on “Properties”.

3. In the Drive’s Property window, look for the button “Disk Cleanup” and then click it.

4. In the Disk Cleanup Window, check the boxes for the items to clean-up. Then click the OK button.

This might take some time, depending on how much files the disk needs cleaning up. Please do note that if you checked the “Recycle bin” in the Disk Cleanup list, you won’t be able to recover your deleted files (for that particular drive). So, before you do this, make sure to check out the recycle bin for any files you might want to recover.

5. Use Detailed instead of Thumbnail view.

Again, when you feel like you’ve slowdown while browsing for your files (or just looking at the contents of a drive), you can do a few tricks to speed it up a little. Start off by turning off the Thumbnail view! This is particularly useful when a folder your checking out is full of pictures and videos. When the thumbnail view is turned on, Windows would try to load some extra information from your files just to provide you with a preview, which slows down your computer. 

Thankfully, you can temporarily (and permanently) disable thumbnail view. Here’s the quick & temporary way:

1. For Windows 7: in Windows explorer look for the icon for “Change your view” as indicated by the picture above. Click the dropdown arrow to display your options.

2. Click on “Details”

Most of the items there are good with performance except for: Contents, Medium Icons, Large Icons and Extra Large Icons. When you’re squeezing performance out of your current hardware, try to avoid them. 

If your using Windows XP, the option should be under the “View” menu.

This setting applies only to the currently open folder. When you switch (or explore) to another folder, Windows would follow that folder’s setting. There’s a way to apply that to every folder but i personally don’t use that. I do like the customization for some of my folders.

6. Remove applications that you don’t or no longer use.

Often, we just install applications (what with the sheer numbers out there, it’s just enticing to try most of them out) and tend to forget them later. Having too many installed apps could actually slow down your computer. This is especially true when those apps run in the background or during the start up of your computer.

You could always go through each of your programs’ menu (Start Menu) and check if they have a “Uninstall” option, but the best way to do that is through the “Add Remove” or “Program Features” at the control panel.

If you’re on Windows XP, go to Start –> Settings –> Control Panel and look for “Add Remove Programs”.

If you’re on Windows 7, go to Start (Windows button) –> Control Panel and look for “Programs  and Features”. 
 

You’ll see a list of applications currently installed on your computer. Try browsing through the list and see if you recognize a program that you’re no longer using. If you find one, select it and an “Uninstall” option would appear near the top of the window. Just, click that and follow the prompts from the applications uninstall.

Just make sure that you (and no one else using the computer) is really using the application you’re about to uninstall.

Also, check the “Installed On” date to actually see how old the program is.

IMPORTANT:

Okay, this is just the first part of my computer tips to speed up your computer. I still have a lot more up my sleeves, so please do come back. Next, I’ll be posting about tips that are a little bit more complex than these (ranging from intermediate to advanced level).

And, please don’t ask me for benchmarks to checkout the speed increases. I’m only doing this on my free time but unfortunately, i don’t have that much free time.

Happy computing!