Need Comp To Work Faster

cool_beans_3

Whats the best thing to do?

I dont want to spend a lot of money but Im finding my pc starting up quite slowly when I turn it on, whats the best/cheapest/easiest way to do this?

albertross_2

how much ram do you have, have you checked for malware, which operating system?

https://www.ccleaner.com, untick install yahoo toolbar when you install it.

cool_beans_3

Downloaded the ccleaner. When i go to 'clean' it says that it will permamently delete files form my pc. Is that right? I dont want to lose something I will need!

Mobeer

Also, try checking what applications you have running that you do not need. I've seen PCs loaded with masses of little programs that are not malware, but which are unused and taking resources to run.

C_Ronaldo

How can you check what programs are running or wot run on startup

cool_beans_3

Mobeer wrote: »

Also, try checking what applications you have running that you do not need. I've seen PCs loaded with masses of little programs that are not malware, but which are unused and taking resources to run.

How do I know what I need and what I dont?

albertross_2

the c in ccleaner stands for crap, which is what it is deleting.

how much ram? which os?

Cricri

Mobeer wrote: »

Also, try checking what applications you have running that you do not need. I've seen PCs loaded with masses of little programs that are not malware, but which are unused and taking resources to run.

You tell me. Last week one of my colleague was complaining his PC was starting slowly.
Yahoo!-whatever was installed, so was Google-you-name-it (e.g. desktop, toolbar, etc). All starting at startup. And Skype. And MSN. etc etc etc...

I desactivated those, few services, did a cleaning with ccleaner, and sure enough it boots faster.

If the PC is slower than it used to be, it's not a RAM issue (unless for some reason some memory sticks fell off the machine). You could try to defrag the drive once you cleaned it, including pagefile and registry hives. That might give you a tiny boost.

Oh, and if you run ccleaner, make sure to NOT remove old prefetch data in the "advanced" section, that will make your apps slower to start next time.

JonnyThunder

Oddly, thats quite a common complaint in our service - RAM dying in the PC. But usually it comes with other inherent problems.

I'd start by uninstalling anything you don't use - and BE RUTHLESS! Any little bit of kit you've only used once in your life - ditch it. With these many apps, there may be services / DLLs associated at startup. Once you've cleaned out your add/remove programs, do a defrag. Reboot and see how things go.

If they are still running like a dawg, i'd check processes and startup items. Like mentioned above, programs like Ccleaner will do the trick.

Honestly though - the key to having a wonderfully running machine is learning when NOT to install junk (especially toolbars / accelerators / permanent diagnostic tools).

JonnyThunder

Sorry, I forgot to mention earlier that there are other performance options you can tweak in XP to make it generally faster. The more prominent is to switch off "the glitz". Right-click My Computer and choose properties. Go to Advanced tab. Click the settings button under "performance". Choose Adjust for best performance and click OK.

Now, be aware this will make Windows XP look more like Windows 2000, but there is a considerable overhead on processing power when this stuff is switched on.

My team make the 'standard' configuration build for our organisation. As part of this, we have a number of services that we switch off too, including things like remote desktop and indexing. All of these things help towards a healthier running PC! I use this configuration on my games PC (which is still XP) while I run business apps in Vista. (at home, not at work! )