Boost your system’s performance
Many of us use Microsoft’s Windows 7
operating system on our home or work computers, but it’s likely we haven’t
taken advantage of all of its features. This month we’ll look at ways to boost
the performance of Win7. Whether you’re surfing the Internet, drafting your
family’s annual holiday letter, installing a program update, or playing a game,
the more you use your computer, the more likely it is that you’ll experience
slowdowns or an unstable system. Following are some tips for improving your
computer’s performance.
Eliminate Unnecessary Extras
Unless you customized your Win7 computer
when your placed your order, it is likely that the manufacturer shipped the
system with programs, games, features, or trial versions of software that you
rarely use. Deleting these unnecessary items can improve your computer’s
efficiency. To be effective, you need to uninstall all unwanted pro- grams via
the Control Panel’s Program And Features window. Open the Start Menu, click
Control Panel, select Programs, and click Programs And Features. Next, select a
program and click Uninstall. To deactivate a feature, click the Turn Windows
Features On Or Off option in the Programs And Features window. Deselect the
checkbox next to the feature you want to turn off and click the OK button.
One
way to improve your user experience is to uninstall unwanted programs and
system features that you rarely use
Free Up Hard Drive Space
Some system slowdowns can be attributed to
full or cluttered hard drives. Windows offers several utilities you can use to
free up space on your hard drive so your computer can access data more quickly.
Run Disk Cleanup
This tool will remove downloaded program
files, temporary Internet files, offline webpages, the Recycle Bin, temporary
files, thumbnail files, and more, freeing up hard drive space and improving how
your system runs. Open the Start menu, type Disk Cleanup in the Search field,
and then click Disk Cleanup. Next, select the drive you want to clean and click
OK. Click the Disk Cleanup tab in the resulting dialog box, select the
checkboxes for the file types you want to delete, and click OK. Next, click the
Delete Files button when Windows prompts.
Defrag your hard drive
Another option for boosting your system’s
performance is to periodically run Disk Defragmenter. (This tip is for users
who have the traditional hard drives; systems with SSD-based storage will not
benefit from defragging). A hard drive stores data in fragments. Over time,
these fragmented files can clutter the drive and cause the system to become
sluggish because your computer must search the entire drive for all the
necessary parts before it can open a file or program. Disk Defragmenter will
rearrange the data fragments and organize them in a manner that is more logical
so programs and files open quicker. To access Disk Defragmenter, click Start,
select All Programs, click Accessories, select System Tools, and click Disk
Defragmenter. Select a drive and click the Analyze Disk button to determine
whether the drive needs to be defragmented. If the percentage in the Last Run
column is greater than 10%, proceed with the defragging process on that drive.
ReadyBoost
This Win7 utility gives you a way to
improve performance without adding physical RAM, by using a USB flash or
external hard drive, SD card, or CF card. ReadyBoost lets you use the extra
drive as a cache to improve disk-read performance. When you plug a compatible
storage device into your computer, Windows gives you the option to speed up
your PC using ReadyBoost. If you select this option, you will need to choose
the amount of memory on the device to dedicate for storage; your device must
have at least 1GB of available space. To manually enable or disable ReadyBoost,
plug the drive into your computer, open the General tab in the Autoplay dialog
box and click Speed My System. In the Properties dialog box, click the Ready-
Boost tab and select the Do Not Use This Device or Use This Device radio
button, depending on how you want to use the drive; then click OK. Note that
the ReadyBoost feature may not be available if you have an SSD installed; some
SSDs may be so fast that they won’t benefit from the technology.
Need
to boost system performance? Run Disk Cleanup and remove downloaded program
files, temporary Internet files, offline webpages, and more
Check for viruses & spyware
If spyware or viruses make their way onto
your system, they could cause your system to become sluggish. To prevent this,
be sure to run reliable anti-malware or antivirus programs such as Microsoft’s
Security Essentials.
Regular Maintenance
Another option for boosting your system’s
performance is to periodically run Disk Defragmenter.
The next time you notice that a program
takes longer to load, try a few of the tips we’ve detailed here for a boost in
performance. You’ll want to perform some of these tasks regularly to avoid
hiccups when using Win7.
Disk
Defragmenter reorganizes the data on your hard drive in a logical manner so
your computer can retrieve the information quickly
