5 ways to speed up your Personal Computer

By following a few simple techniques, you can speed up your computer and keep it running smoothly. This article shows how to use the tools available in Windows XP and Windows Vista to efficiently maintain your computer and protect your privacy when you're online.


Free up disk space

By freeing disk space, you can improve the performance of your computer, and for this purpose a tool called Disk Cleanup can help you free up space on your hard disk. This identifies files that you can safely delete, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.

You can use Disk Cleanup to:

• Remove temporary Internet files.

• Remove downloaded program files (such as Java applets).

• Empty the Recycle Bin.

• Remove Windows temporary files.

• Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.

• Remove installed programs that you no longer use.

Detect and repair disk errors

You can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility, as you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult, so the Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.

Speed up access to data

Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system, as when files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. So, the response time can be considerably longer.

Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk, so with your files stored neatly end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.

Protect your computer against spyware

Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission, so spyware can put you and your confidential information at risk. In addition to privacy factor, it can also effect your computer's performance. To deal with spyware, you might want to consider using Microsoft Windows Defender, which is included in Windows Vista, and is available as a free download for Microsoft XP. Alternatively, there are other free anti-spyware software programs available that you can use.

Use ReadyBoost

If you're using Windows Vista, you can use ReadyBoost to speed up your system, a new concept in adding memory to a system, it allows you to use non-volatile flash memory (USB flash drive or a memory card) to improve performance without having to add additional memory.