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| How do I speed up my computer? Find the answer below. Get live help from 8am to 9pm Atl. Call 1-866-631-0985 or 506-386-6824. |
| How do I speed up my computer? |
You may be saying to yourself: hey this sounds an awful lot like the previous question entitled: Why is my computer so slow? Well you would be right. However, here we are going to go into more detail on how to actually speed up your computer by focusing on point 'b' from that question, i.e. too many programs loading up at boot or startup. It will be easier to follow if you print out these instructions.
One free program that will assist you in this task is Spybot Search and Destroy. As well as helping you remove Spyware, it also helps in dis-activating unnecessary startup programs. During the Spybot installation process, we strongly recommend that you un-check the default Tea Timer option. It`s a well intentioned part of the program, but it needs to mature before it stops being annoying as heck. Download, install and update it, then use the immunize function. Comeback here when that's done.
If Spybot is running, great. If not, turn it on. Keep in mind that although Spybot is a great program, it is also fat, and does not turn on or off quickly. However, the advantage with this program is that you do not have to have it running in the background to protect you. It does load some little add on programs in your browser to protect you. Ok, it should be turned on by now. Click on Mode at the very top and switch it to Advanced mode. Go to the bottom and click on Tools, then place a checkmark next to every tool option in the center part of the program. Back to the left-hand column, click on ActiveX. If you find any entries in the middle that have a red 'X', that means you have spyware installed on your computer. You want to get rid of it. Select and delete them. Also if your computer is infected you want to dis-activate your System Restore. Re-activate it only when you are pretty certain your PC is clean. This is how you do that on Windows xp: right-click on My Computer, click on Properties, System Restore, put a checkmark next to Turn off System Restore, click Apply. To re-activate carry out the same steps as before and remove the checkmark. Windows Millennium System Restore is similar.
Now go back to Spybot S&D, to the left-hand column and repeat the same process with BHOs, that stands for browser helper objects. Then click on the Hosts File option on the left, then click on Add Spybot S&D hosts list. This can be done quickly or take about a minute. Again in the left column, click on System Startup. Make sure you click on the vertical bar with the two arrows pointing to the left. This will open another window containing important information about each individual startup program that your computer has. Now to the middle of the window, you have three columns of startup entries. Click on each one and read the information that Spybot has on that entry on the right-hand side. This is important: 1) if it says 'virus', don't panic. Make sure you scroll down through the different possible meanings for that entry. Sometimes viruses use names of valid system entries. The way to tell them apart is to study their path, i.e. in which folder that they are located. If it is a valid system file in the right path, you do not want to dis-activate it. 2) If Spybot says 'No information available' about an entry, than it is up to you to research this entry on the net. While reading the search results on different websites, don't get suckered into clicking on links such as 'We highly recommend that you use our program to scan your PC'. They are just baiting you to purchase their program that is not going to solve your problem. 3) Now that you know which entries you can dis-activate go ahead and remove their corresponding checkmarks. You can also click on the Spybot S&D button at the top of the left column if you wish to carry out a full spyware scan of your PC. Once the scan is completed, remove the entries that are found, except for any known entries that you wish to keep, for example: Wildtangent is the on-board game console loaded with every HP computer. Even though Spybot S&D says it is spyware, it does not have any harmful effect on your computer. And if you wish to play those games, you might want to keep it installed on your PC. Therefore if there are any entries you wish to keep, you remove the corresponding checkmark next to their entry. You can also carry out an antivirus scan if you wish. Don't forget to re-activate your System Restore afterwards.
Check if your hard drive is fragmented and how much free space it has. To find this out: click on your My Computer icon on your Desktop. If you don't have this icon, click on Start then My Computer. Place your mouse on your C drive. It will let you know how much free space you have. Keep your hard drive at least 50% free. Move files to DVDs or CDs if you need to. To check for fragmentation level, place your mouse on your C drive, right-click it and then click on Properties, Tools tab, Defragment Now button and Analyze This window will also tell you in percentage how much free space your hard drive has. If may take about one minute to analyze the defragmentation level. Follow whatever recommendation is given. Now you can reboot your PC. Your PC is now on a diet and should only be running necessary start up programs. Go back to computer question index.
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