Optimize your PC

From MyWebber Wiki

Your computer acting slow recently, then waste your money on a new one because you can't spend a couple of minutes on a "tune up" or are simply not informed, so let's change that mentality around, learn a couple of useful things you can do and teach others your new found skills to others...

Contents 1 Check disks 2 Defragment disks 3 Scan for viruses 4 Use Google Chrome browser 5 Disk space 6 Startup applications 7 Antivirus settings 8 Internet connection

Check disks

• Used to fix physical disk problems due to wear and tear such as bad sectors

1. Repeat for each of your drives (ie. C:, D:, check your "My Computer" to see yours)
   1. Start > Run > enter cmd
   2. enter C: (assuming you have a drive C)
   3. enter chkdsk /f
   4. only answer y to "...next time system restarts"
   5. Restart your computer, remember to repeat these 5 steps for all your drives

Defragment disks

• Virtually orders your files sequentially for faster read access

1. Start > Programs > Accessories - System Tools - Disk Defragmenter
2. Anaylze each disk and if the analysis requires it, defrag them.

Scan for viruses

1. If you have an antivirus, update the lastest antivirus information
2. else download free AVG antivirus
3. Scan the disk(s) and remove any viruses
4. Restart system

Use Google Chrome browser

• Known to be faster and safer, you may not always be up-to-date with your Internet Explorer if you're not sure about your "legal" windows

1. Download the latest version of Google Chrome and make it your default browser

Disk space

• Your system uses your free disk space as virtual memory and if there's not enough room it has to continually shuffle files around

1. Make sure to have more than 10% free space on each of your disk(s)
2. You can quickly verify your free space using with Start > Programs > Accessories - System Tools - Disk Defragmenter
3. Remove programs you know you don't use
   1. Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs
   2. I recommend at least removing Google Desktop
   3. continue removing others...
4. Remove large files
   1. Start with movies (mpg,avi etc.) or music (mp3) that you don't use much
   2. Do a search for all large files: Start > Search > For Files or Folders
   3. Set the "at least" size to 10000 KB (means 10 megs) and sort the results by file size
   4. Delete the files that you know you have placed on your computer
5. Empty your recycle bin

Startup applications

• Over time many applications may have installed themselves in the startup folder which load when your computer starts

1. Right click on the Start button and click "Open" then go to: Programs > Startup
2. Delete the ones you know you don't need to start with your system
3. Repeat step 2, but this time right click on the Start button and click "Open All Users" then go to: Programs > Startup
4. Registry startup
   1. Start > Run > enter regedit
   2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\
   3. Delete the ones you know you don't need to start with your system
   4. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\
   5. Delete the ones you know you don't need to start with your system
5. Restart your computer

Antivirus settings

• Some antivirus software may be slowing your computer by checking file/software you execute

1. If your computer is still slow try disabling the scanning of "on access" of files, this can you usually be done by right clicking the antivirus software in the tray at the bottom right

Internet connection

• If your using wireless, you can compare your wireless connection to your wired connection (by plugging the network cable into your PC)

1. Use a website like SpeedTest.net to test the connections in the different states, and if the wireless is much slower than try moving locations and retesting :)