More Performance optimization - a How to

Diy-Computer-Repair can help!

Once we have the primary OS (Windows 2000, XP, or Vista) optimized there are some more Performance optimization tips that can be done to make your computer as fast or maybe faster than it was the first time you started it. Want to know more? Read on!

Startup, a lot of install programs dump their main program short cut into the startup folder. There are two startup folders you will need to look in to determine if you want a program to start automatically or not.

All users, and your profile, open explorer, when it is open it will default to your user profile, open Programs under Start Menu, go to Start up folder. Have a look at any programs in the folder, if you think you can do with out the program starting automatically then move it up to a higher folder or delete it. Do the same for the All users profile.

Next look at the tray on the main task bar, there are a lot of icons there, some can be turned off at the tray others will have to be turned off either in the control panel or through other means. Some of the icons (programs that are run as services) may not be turned off, the icon for 'Safely Remove Hardware' is one such icon. Turning off these icons will save you some memory depending on the service, there is no set memory usage size for these icons. If you need to know how much memory an icon is using you can open the Task manager, go to the 'Performance' tab look at the graph 'PF' under the graph is a number, this is the amount of memory all programs running at this time is using. Turn off the icon/service display, note the change now you know how much memory that specific icon was using. Although this may be nit-picking but if you have a lot of icons sitting in the tray waiting for you to click on them but never do it is a waste of memory that you could be using for your more important programs like Doom!

The next tweak concerns services, now this may not be something you feel comfortable doing then skip this section. You do not need every service that is running, how do I know? Because of experience of over 20 years fixing the problems that the OS and install programs cause.

To get to the services right click on My Computer, go to Manage on the menu, or go to Control Panel, open System. there are three main topics in the left window, select Services and Applications, then click on services. It is easier to use the standard view than the Extended unless you open the page up.

So now which ones do you turn off (Disabled)? And Why?

The next thing we want to look at is your display properties. You can gain back valuable video memory and processor speed with these changes. (Look at Themes in the chart above).

Your Theme, if you have a background that is a high resolution graphic this will consume most of your video memory, it also consumes up to forty percent of your processing power. So you will want to either turn off the background or change it to a less graphic intense background. I have found that a solid color is the best for a back ground. It is also easier on your eyes. Go to Control Panel, then open Display. On the first page select your Theme, then go to the Appearance tab. You can change the Windows and buttons style, Color Scheme, and the Font size. Look at the bottom right there are two buttons we will look at Effects and Advanced.

Under the Effects button I always turn off all options, The only one I an think of that would be of use also corresponds with the Font size in the paragraph above, Large Icons. If you increase the font size to large or extra large then it may make the Icons look out of proportion.

Under Advanced you can change the color of the background only. Because I used to work in a 'Data Center' where there are banks and banks of computers and they keep the lighting low I started to notice that bright blue or other colors bother my eyes so I use green, very smoothing in my opinion. Your back ground is important because of the contrast between the background and the document or program you are working on.

For your security I would recommend that you set the screen saver. You know your work habits and do not want the screen saver to come on while you are working and a long telephone call comes in. Then again you want it to be set at a short enough duration if you leave the computer unattended the screen save will come on. Be sure to select the option to lock the computer when the screen saver is on. Here is a small antecedent of a friend of mine:

My friend is normal computer user, in other words he was a typical business person that used a computer. He would often take his work and laptop home. One day something was going on and he left his computer on. His two year old decided that Daddy wasn't quite done working and started banging on the keyboard, moving and clicking the mouse. Need less to say he leaned his lesson, because jr deleted a lot of his current documents.

There are two more areas that you should consider optimizing:

Your hard drive would server you better if you defragmented it on a weekly or monthly basis, here is the link to my defragmentation page: Defragment your hard drive.

Your last optimization tweak is the policies. This is for the advanced user and not the faint of heart. Although these items can be undone the effects are wide ranging on the computer.

Do It yourself Computer Repair E-Book

Thank you for visiting my web site, and please come back again.

Reqires the free
Flash Player
download it here

Custom Search