How to : Optimize Windows 7 for Better Performance

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A slow running PC is a terrible experience for anybody. I hate it, you hate it, we all hate it. We don'twant to wait for things to happen when we try and open a program, or click a link. Fortunately, muchof this is easily controllable by us as PC users. Here are some quick tips on how to speed things up.They are listed in the most efficient order to make the following processes go as fast as possible.

Delete programs you never use

The more stuff your PC has on it, the more stuff it has to search through to find what you want and even more of a problem, they may be running in the back round as well as checking for updates online every so often. Even with an older computer chances are there's tons of programs that were installed when your purchased your new machine and you never really wanted them anyways.

Limit startup programs

How many programs are running in the back round and every time you start up your computer? This can add a huge delay to both the startup process, and take up quite a big portion of memory with everything running in the back round. Microsoft offers a program called Autoruns for Windows that you can use to easily identify all the programs and processes that automatically start up with your computer. This program is designed for advanced users, to use it with care and make sure you know what the programs are before you disable them to make sure it isn't something important...unlike all those HP games and utilities nobody wants.

Clean up your hard-drive

All these unnecessary files you have sitting around slow down everything. Just like with un-used programs, old files will also clutter the hard-drive making things take longer. First, find all your old pictures, movies, music and the like and move it to a thumb drive or maybe an external hard drive. Not only will this ensure they will stay safe if your computer crashes, but it will speed it up too. Next you will want to run Disk Cleanup. You will find this in the start menu and searching for Disk Cleanup. You can run this for each hard-drive you have, and select all the files you'd like to delete after it searching through all the mess.

Defragment your hard-drive

Fragmentation makes your hard disk do extra work that can slow down your computer. Disk Defragmenter rearranges fragmented data so your hard disk can work more efficiently. This will sometimes be set on a schedule, but you can also run it manually the same way you searched for Disk Cleanup. Do this on each hard-drive to make the most of it.

Limit the programs you run at one time

Not surprisingly, running 12 programs and surfing 18 web pages at the same time has a bad effect on your computers performance. Make sure you close out of a program or a page when you're done, and if you absolutely need to run all these things at once then it would be a good idea to upgrade your memory.

Add extra RAM(Random Access Memory)

While I'm not going to run through the entire upgrade process in this post, upgrading your RAM is a great way to handle all those extra activities you can't live without while you Facebook/Twitter/Myspace/Skype all your friends at once. Adding extra RAM gives your PC the ability to handle all of these at once.

Turn off visual effects

Although things won't look as pretty, you can adjust the visual effect of windows 7 for performance rather than looks. This will free up some of that RAM you just installed and let you run AIM while you're doing all the other things.

To adjust all visual effects for best performance:

1. Open Performance Information and Tools by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type Performance Information and Tools, and then, in the list of results, click Performance Information and Tools.
2. Click Adjust visual effects. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
3. Click the Visual Effects tab, click Adjust for best performance, and then click OK. (For a less drastic option, select Let Windows choose what’s best for my computer.)

Check for viruses and spyware

Viruses and spyware can wreak havoc on your PC, and make your life suck. If your PC is suddenly runing slow, or has unexpected messages and pop-ups all the time you may be infected. Check into a free program like AVG, or if you want the best purchase yourself a copy of McAfee Total Protection 2014 and install it to make sure you don't have any future problems.

If you have any suggestions or comments add them below, thanks for reading!