How to Make Your Computer Faster for Free

Find out how to make your computer faster for free

 

These methods can be employed on Windows XP, Vista and 7

There are two ways to speed up your computer, this will either include hardware or software improvements, of course upgrading RAM, Processors Hard drives all costs money, but there are lots of software tweaks to speed up your computer for free.

All of the applications listed below don’t cost anything and will make your computer faster for free

1. Run a disk defragment to ensure all files can be loaded in the fastest time possible.
Windows comes with a built in hard disk defragmenter that will make your computer faster for free, to access this go to the Start/Run menu and type dfrg.msc



Once loaded select the C drive and then Analyze, wait a few minutes for the report and then select Defragment, this can take around an hour if never run before. Once finished run every week or two to keep disk fragmentation down to a minimum.

2. Run CHKDSK /R this will check the hard drive for read and write errors and flag and fix any problems.
From the Start/Run menu type CMD and run this.

Now you will see a Black DOS screen, on this type CHKDSK /R you will be advised that it cannot run now and would you like to run the next time you reboot your computer, select YES to this.

3. Make sure that the graphics card hardware acceleration is set to maximum.
Run this from Display settings within control panel, under the troubleshooting section (also enable Write Combining if supported)

4. Run a registry cleanup using an application such as Reg Clean or Auslogics Registry Defrag
The Windows registry can quickly become large and bloated.

Every time you use your computer registry changes are being made, running a registry cleanup will make it nice and trim again.

5. Set Windows to run for performance rather than looks
As a default Windows runs with all of its bells and whistles switched on, this can really hamper performance on slower systems.

To change this go to Control Panel – System – Advanced – Performance/Settings – Adjust for best performance.

If you want Windows to still retain much of its original look select Custom and enable the bottom two options.

6. Lower the screen colors from 32bit to 16bit the visual difference is really unnoticeable.
A very simple yet effective way to eek out a little more performance, go to Control Panel – Display and change the colors from 32bit to 16.

7. Disable any hardware resources that you don’t need, this can include things such as modems, card bus slots.
Every piece of hardware running in your computer requires a driver, this in turn uses memory, so if possible disable any unused hardware, this is a pretty comprehensive subject so checkout our article below for more information on this.

8. Virus and malware, malware or virus’s can cause your computer to run slooooow.
Of course Viruses and other types of malware can cause your computer to run slow, everyone knows that, but did you also know certain large and bloated antivirus products can also slow down your computer?

9. File cleanup, Windows provides us with a built in program to do this.
If you go to My Computer or Computer and right click on the C drive and choose properties – you will see a disk cleanup option, run this and see how much space this can reclaim for you.

10. If your computer has a shared memory type graphics card if possible allocate the bare minimum to graphics so the rest of your computers applications can use more RAM.
This type of video card generally has its memory allocation within the BIOS, access this and you will be able to allocate more memory to where it’s really needed.

11. Setup a custom fixed page file.
by setting up a fixed or custom page file we allocate memory directly to Windows as opposed to it dynamically allocating it itself, this means more memory always available, plus we have the option to create a secondary fixed page file on another drive or partition to enhance page file performance still further.

As you can see it is possible to make your computer faster for free

Please see below for more information on each of the topics above.

Windows defragger guide - how to defragment your computer
Windows defragger tool - how to defragment your system, plus what’s the best defragmenting tool around to get the most from your computer, more..
www.computer-adviser.com/defragger.html

Windows CHKDSK - detect and repair errors on your hard drive ...
Windows CHKDSK should be your first line of defense when trying prevent or repair windows disk errors - windows checkdisk is easy to run with our guides.
www.computer-adviser.com/windows-chkdsk.html

Increasing laptop video card performance - improve sluggish slow ...
Within Windows, right click on the Desktop and select Properties – Settings – Troubleshoot – this will present the Hardware acceleration section – the ...
www.computer-adviser.com/laptop-video-card.html

A cleaner registry will make your computer faster for free
A cleaner registry benefits your computer - did you know applications and viruses all leave behind registry entries that can cripple and slow your pc ?
www.computer-adviser.com/cleaner-registry.html

Computer speed up - pc slow - how to make your computer run faster
Windows XP and Vista are very flexible operating systems when it comes to tweaking it to get the maximum performance. There are a number of very simple ...
www.computer-adviser.com/computer-speed-up.html

XP display problems can be varied but can usually resolved quickly
It is best to try to find a balance in between using colors as low as possible and as clear ... Note * only lower hardware acceleration as much as you need, ... If you find the current screen resolution is ideal, but you want everything ...
www.computer-adviser.com/xp-display-problems.html

Speed up boot time , find out how to make your computer boot up faster
Disabling Unused Devices Windows device drivers are another source of boot ... Select the hardware tab and Device Manager, Double click on each device ...
www.computer-adviser.com/speed-up-boot.html

checkout more more of our article to help make your computer faster for free

Best rated spyware - what’s the best software on the market today?
Best rated spyware software that’s free - which is the best of the best to remove malware - checkout totally free spyware removal programs more..
www.computer-adviser.com/best-rated-spyware.html

Computer repair tools -did you know windows has many built in pc tools
System restore - allows you to restore the computer setting to an earlier time. Disk cleanup - deletes files temporary/unused files and compresses unused files, make your computer faster for free
www.computer-adviser.com/computer-repair-tools.html

Windows page file - what does it do & how to customize it for your pc
The page file on your computer enables it to use more memory than just what the RAM can offer, but it can be slow, find out more about it, here..
www.computer-adviser.com/page-file.html

Microsoft Outlook error guide
Find out about common errors and how to fix them

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