During the last 3 months I have been writing a lot of about how you can make the most of your PC. Based on feedback I get, it looks like PC performance is a major issue for many readers. This 5 step guide will help you to speed up your PC in minutes. Tips and tweaks provided are applicable to Windows XP and Windows Vista (unless else specified). I highly recommend that you use the following tips as your initial performance activity list when troubleshooting a PC performance issue.

Minimize the number of programs that run on startup

From time to time we install new software our PC. Some of those programs will run automatically when we turn on our PC (startup), causing a major degradation in our PC boot time and overall system performance. Moreover, spyware, adware and even malware (virus, trojans) might run on startup making your PC crawl. The Microsoft Windows System Configuration Utility (aka MsConfig) is a powerful tool that allows to select what programs will run automatically by default.

Usage is relatively simple:

• Click the Start button
• Vista Users: In the start search type msconfig and click Enter . XP Users: Click Run, then type msconfig and click Enter.
• Navigate to the Startup folder
• Uncheck any program you don’t want to run by default. Note: Make sure you don’t disable Microsoft programs.
• Click OK
• Reboot your system

Adjust your System Performance Options

 Windows operating systems feature a constant tradeoff between visualization richness and system performance. The “prettier” you system look, the more it consumes its resources and thus the more likely is to start crawling and consequently affects your productivity (and nerves ).

Both Windows XP’s and Vista’s basic configuration is optimized for best appearance. However if you set Windows to optimize performance, you’ll loose some (insignificant?) visual effects, such as the 3d toolbar, shadowed menus etc’, but you gain a lot in system performance.

Here’s how you can do it:

• Click the Windows Start button
• Right click Computer
• Click Properties
• Go to the Advanced tab
• In the Performance section, Click Settings
• Check the Adjust for Best Performance button

• Note: if you really want to display some of the advanced visual effects Windows offers, you should click Custom and select the required effects
• Click OK

Terminate non responsive tasks when shutting down

I explained this tweak here.

Shorten your operating system’s loading time

By default, Windows waits 30 seconds during the startup process before loading the operating system. You can safely decrease that time considerably, and thus speed up your PC boot time.  

Here’s how you can do it:

• Click the Windows Start button
• Right click Computer
• Click Properties
• Click Advanced System settings
• In the Advanced Tab, Start and Recovery, click Settings
• In the Time to display operating systems list setting, set a 5 second value instead of 30.
• Click Apply
• Reboot your PC. You’ll notice a boost in the performance of the startup process.

Defragment your hard disk

Defragmentation increases the speed your hard disk reads and writes information, thus improving your overall system performance. Therefore, it’s a good practice to defragment your hard disk partitions periodically (i would say, once in 2 weeks).

Here’s how to defragment your drive:

• Click the Windows Start button
• Right click Computer
• Click Explore
• Right Click each of your partitions (C, D etc’)
• Click Properties
• Navigate to the Tools tab
• Click Defragment Now
• Here you can schedule a Disk Defragmentation job or launch an immediate defragmentation job.

Comments are welcome, stay tuned for more advanced PC performance tips. 

[tags] Windows Vista, Vista, Windows tips, Windows Tricks, Windows XP [/tags]