Thread: How to maintain your Computer’s Speed and Efficiency

System Tools for Window's XP and higher
Everyone needs to know how to maintain your computer! Your computer needs monthly maintenance. Here are step by step directions on how to keep your computer at top speed and efficiency.

Things You'll Need:
Can of Air
Computer



First
Keyboard cleaning
Clean the computer’s keyboard. Turn your keyboard upside down and use the can of air to spray between the rows and keys. The can of air will blow out all of the mess out of the keyboard. Clean up any mess from the computer’s keyboard. Take a damp cloth and wipe down the sides of the keyboard.



Second
Vent cleaning
Clean any air vents on your monitor and computer with the can air. Check all sides of the computer and the computer’s monitor for air vents. Air vents are just a hole in the casing that helps your computer to cool down. We want to try to keep these air vents free from dust.



Third
Disc Clean up
Now you need to do a “disc clean up” on the computer. Go to Start, All Programs, System Tools, and click on Disc Clean up. Everything should be checked marked and then click ok. It may take a small amount of time if you haven't done a “disc clean up” in awhile on your computer or it’s your computer first time. (Note this is a bit different per Window version, these directions are for XP. You can still do this process but the step of getting to it may be different.)



Fourth
Run Box
Now double checks that the entire temp folders are gone from your computer. There are many ways of doing this. However the way I prefer, Start, click on Run. Type in "%temp%" this will pull up all temp folders left on the computer. Delete everything in this folder. Once in a while something won't delete. Just skip over it for now and delete the rest. When everything else is deleted, try to delete anything we skipped over before that would not delete from the computer. Don’t worry if some items still won’t delete from the computer.



Fifth
Defrag
Now defrag the computer. (Defrag is like having a messy room and putting everything where it belongs.) Go to start, all programs, system tools, click on defrag. This may take a very long time. If you have not defragged the computer before, the computer could take up to 24 hours to finish this process. I suggest defrag your computer just before you go to bed. It'll help waiting on it to finish. The time it takes the computer to defrag is determined on how much the computer has to defrag.



Sixth
CCleaner
CCleaner is a very useful tool that i use myself. Its a light weight application that deletes your browsers history, temp files, cookies etc, as well as your systems registry, unused file extensions etc. All this can speed up your system up quite nicely.



Seventh
Browsers
Downloading and using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer can speed up your browsing more than you think. I would recommend Firefox. However both were created to be as light weight and function packed as possible. Tweaks such as disabling your history from being remembered or it being deleted once you close your browser
Firefox: Tools -> Options -> Privacy. And then play about with the exceptions, settings etc. You can also use the other tabs in order to disable functions you don't need.
Google Chrome: Customise and control Google Chrome -> Options -> And do the same as Firefox
A great site for speeding up Firefox HERE (Link courtesy of EggNog)



Eighth - Thanks to RonWD
Add or Remove Programs
To find the add or remove window follow these simple steps
1. Click on "My Computer"
2. Click on "Uninstall or change a program" (W7)
3. Go through the list and see which programs you don't want or that you thought you unistalled.

Note: Add or Remove programs can be found in previous versions of windows by clicking on the start menu and then control panel.

That's it, old program files can slow down your performance as well.



Ninth - Thanks to Archi, konVILEuted and nitro420
Killing processes
Also make sure you don't have to many processes running at startup. You can see them by going to:

Start -> Run -> msconfig -> Startup tab

Here you can tick the startup programs.

And for the real professionals (don't touch this if you don't know what you're doing):

Start -> Run -> services.msc

To enable/disable pretty much every process out there.


Also while we're on the subject of msconfig here's a little hint that should prove helpful.
Go to the Boot tab and select Advanced options.
If you have more than 1 processor, select how many you'd like to use on startup.
I have 4 and using all of them speeds up the entire startup process significantly.


You can also do this through CCleaner. ccleaner -> tools -> startup


Note: You can also press Ctrl + Alt + Del all at the same time will bring Task Manager.

Note: Many viruses can disguise themselves as a process, on the other hand end a process can damage your system. If your not sure what process to end. Google that process to find out what it does and whether its vital.



Tenth - Torrent-Pirate
RegistryFix
Regitryfix is a great reg cleaner with thorough scans you system. Webroot Window Washer is another good cleanup utility. You can also use the advanced system optimizer which does a great job of scanning and removing junk files, has a reg cleaner and cleans your pc along with loads of other features.
Advanced System Optimizer - Performance, Power and Protection for your computer



Eleventh - nitro420
Clearing prefetch
The windows prefetch is a component of memory management that speeds up the boot process and shortens the time startup programs take to load. The only issue is that when programs are deleted either from msconfig or totally these files are still in the prefetch

start -> run -> prefetch -> control + a (select all) -> delete all selected items -> reboot pc

Note: For windows xp and higher



Twelfth
Uninstall programs
Over time, you may have accumulated programs on your computer that you do not use. Even if you don’t use these programs, they can slow down your system. If you have the original program’s installation disk or file, removing programs will free up space on your computer and may speed up your system's performance.
Vista users:
Star > Control Panel > Classic Panel View > Uninstall a Program.

XP users:
Start > Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs.



Tips & Warnings
Make sure you run an antivirus scan every month depending on how much you use your system. AVG is a good free antivirus scan.
Make sure your antivirus scan includes ad ware and spy ware. If it does not include these please download one.
You can also type "%temp%" in the address bar.
A great web site just found to remove trojan's for free Malwarebytes.org





Enjoy

Sam

If you have any tips you would like added here please post below

__________________________________________________ ________________________________________
Original source

Post below any tips you want added.

Thanks

Sam
~Reserved~

How about Add or Remove Programs?

-Add or Remove Programs

1. Click on My Computer
2. Click on uninstall or change a program (W7)
3. Go through the list and see which programs you don't want or that you thought you unistalled.

Note: Add or Remove programs can be found in previous versions of windows by clicking on the start menu and then control panel.

That's it, old program files can slow down your performance as well.

for windows:
be sure to get a registry cleaner. most of them can also defrag the registry. should give a nice boost.

Also make sure you don't have to many processes running at startup. You can see them by going to:

Start -> Run -> msconfig -> Startup tab

Here you can tick the startup programs.

And for the real professionals (don't touch this if you don't know what you're doing):

Start -> Run -> services.msc

To enable/disable pretty much every process out there.

Great suggestions, thanks for the productive post.
I'd also recommend disk error checking and sfc /scannow to prevent corruption and future problems.
A computer with a failing hard-drive is hardly efficient.

I don't think scanning your PC with an AV is necessary every day lol.
Once a week or several times a month at least would suffice.

Adding on to Archi's post.
In msconfig you can also select the services to disable/enable so going to services.msc isn't necessary.
I like msconfig because the "Hide all microsoft services" checkmark.

Also while were on the subject of msconfig heres a little hint that should prove helpful.
Go to the Boot tab and select Advanced options..
If you have more than 1 processor select how many you'd like to use on startup.
I have 4 and using all of them speeds up the entire startup process significantly.

Anyway i'll probably think of more tomorrow, i shouldve been dead asleep 5 hours ago.
Goodnight all

Thank you very mush

Thank you everyone for your posts. Can't believe i forgot about boot processors, ending processes and adding/removing programs lol.
No problem hossny

Sam

CCleaner is awesome. If you have not got it already. Do yourself a favor and check it out.