How to make my computer faster.

Every windows’ computer has a registry.  The registry controls the inner workings of your computer and is usually the culprit when your computer has started to slow down compared to when your first purchased it.

Basically your computers’ registry keeps track of all the programs and settings on your computer.  Rather then spend too much time here explaining the ins and outs of your registry, there is a great article about Demystifying the Registry at Ezine Articles.  Click here to read it.

However if you clean the wrong items out of your registry, then your computer may never start again without a complete re-installation of Windows.  The good news is there are several very good / safe and effective tools available that will accomplish the job for you.  You should clean / repair your registry once every 30 days.

To run a totally free repair on your computer from one of the most reputable Microsoft Gold Partners, click the banner below:

Is your browsing or surfing the internet slow?  If so, are you using Internet Explorer??  If so I may have some harsh truth for you.  Internet Explorer is a PIG!  It is like running peanut butter through a strainer.   Microsoft may make a lot of great programs – internet explorer is not one of them.  What is equally amazing and frustrating is they know this and have tried to make it faster and just can not seem to do it.

There are 2 real main alternatives to Internet Explorer and either of these can show you 50% or better surfing performance:

- Firefox.  This product has been a thorn in Microsoft’s side for many years.  Firefox is called “open source” because it is a free program and it is not owned and updated by one particular company – but rather many different sources.  The benefits of Firefox is it is faster and safer.  Sites just scream over Firefox and Firefox was built to keep out the normal viruses and spyware that Internet Explorer has an issue with.  The only bad news is some sites do not perform as well with Firefox.  To get Firefox, just type firefox into any search engine and you will be taken to the download area.

- Chrome.  Google realized the only way they could complete total world domination was to have their own browser.  So they created Google Chrome.  The good news is Chrome is even faster and safer than even Firefox.  They basically took all of the things Internet Explorer and Firefox did not do well – and created a better product.  The downside is there are still many sites that will give you a “browser unsupported” message if you go to their site with Chrome.  Most of these are secure sites such as financial institutions.  Google Chrome is also free.  To get a copy just type google chrome into any search engine and you will be directed to the download area.

If you plan on using either of these alternative browsers, keep Internet Explorer on your computer and use it for any sites that have an issue with Firefox or Chrome

There are 4 basic components that determine the speed of your computer.  They are:

- CPU or Central Processing Unit.  Think of this as your brain.   This is the Intel or AMD chip that is the brains of your computer.  Intel is the market leader with the most powerful chips in the world.  Intel currently holds about 80% of the marketplace.  AMD is a competitor to Intel.  Their market value is price.  If you purchased a rock bottom priced computer chances are it has an AMD processor.  What does this mean to you – nothing!  Years ago there was a compatibility issue with AMD and some programs but this is not an issue for consumer grade computers.   The bad news is CPU’s cannot be upgraded.  The good news is you rarely would ever need to if your computer is less than 3 years old.  Today’s computers have more processing power than you could ever need for 80% of all users.

- Memory.  Think of this as your memory in your mind.  All programs require memory to run.  Think of how you read.  Words come off the paper and into your mind.  Now how much can you remember without writing it down.  Can you remember things faster than you write them down or read them?  The answer is yes and the same is true for your computer – except they do not remember less with age!   If your computer is low on memory resources it then has to write it down on the hard disk (see below for hard disk explanation).  This operation can really slow performance down on a computer.  The brain is processing information as fast as possible.  It then hands it to memory.  If memory gets full then it has to write it to the drive and then read it back as it needs it.  The good news is memory is really cheap and if you need a memory upgrade is fairly simple.

- Hard Drive or disk space.  Think of this as a file cabinet.  In order to save information for later use it has to be filed away in the cabinet.  Does not matter if it is a word document, an excel program, or picture – it needs to go in the file cabinet (hard drive).  The good news is hard drive space is really cheap and most computer manufacturers are putting ridiculous amounts of hard drive space on computers.  Rarely does hard drive space or performance have any real impact on performance.

- Operating system.  Microsoft has proven that really good marketing can take a mediocre product and make it popular.  Put another way – Macintosh users are not looking how to make my computer faster!  Windows has it’s issues and it is those issues we will be spending the most time on fixing and tweaking.  Windows is very easy to “mess up”.  From registry errors, spyware, viruses and more.

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How to make my computer faster
Computers over time tend to start to slow down due to various potential issues.   If your c0mputer is slower today then when you purchased it – you first need to find out the source of the slowness, which is relatively easy to do.

First thing is determine if you are running any new / more resource heavy applications then when your first purchased your computer.

Examples of this would be:

- Database Applications

- Video formatting or converting applications

Applications that typically do not slow your computer down are word, excel, internet explorer, and email.   More later on how to check if you have an application resource issue.