14 easy steps to make your computer run faster.

STEPS TO MAKE YOUR COMPUTER FASTER.

1. Check your hard disk space. As a rule, you want to keep at least 15% of the hard disk space free to keep the computer running smoothly. Simply go to My Computer, right-click on Hard Drive, and go to Properties. There you’ll see a pie chart of your free versus used space. If it’s mostly full, you’ll want to start by removing unnecessary programs and files; it it’s not, you probably want to tackle the actual way your computer operates.
    
2. Remove any programs you do not use. Go to Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs (or Uninstall a Program, depending on your operating system) to find a master list of programs installed on your computer. Some things will strike you as useless immediately, in which case you can remove them right away. Others won’t look familiar to you and may require you some research.
   • It may help to see how often you use the program. If you right-click one of the column titles above your program list (ex. Name, Publisher, Size, Installed On, etc.), you should be able to add additional characteristics by which to judge your programs. For example, find Last Used On on the list of options and check it; a column displaying the last time you used each program will now appear and can also be used to sort your programs. Some programs will not have been used in years and may be candidates for deletion.
   • When in doubt, don’t remove anything you don’t recognize; it may be critical to the function of your computer,you can always leave a comment below and I will respond. – and if you delete twelve different things only to discover that your computer no longer works properly, it will be very difficult to determine where exactly you went wrong.
    
3. Delete files you don't need. Unless you have very little storage space on your computer or simply have an abundance of unnecessary documents, deleting small files won’t make much of an impact on your computer’s overall function. However, any large files like movies you never watch, photos you don’t need, or songs you never listen to can really gum up the works and should definitely be removed.
   • Don’t forget to empty your recycling bin.
    
4. Prevent unnecessary programs from starting when the computer boots. The more programs try to run while your computer initializes, the slower everything will be. Revise your startup programs by altering your system configuration via MSConfig.
    
5. Install an anti-virus program and a spyware scanner. The fewer bugs, viruses, and bits of adware your computer has to manage, the more time it will have to devote to other processes. While you’re at it, make a point of keeping Windows up-to-date; not only will this keep Windows itself in better shape, but some viruses ride in on Windows updates that are downloaded way after the fact (and therefore not monitored as closely).
    
6. Run a Disk Cleanup. This can clean up hundreds of megabytes of temporary files – sometimes even gigabytes (if you have Windows XP, Vista, or 7). It will also open a window in which you can chose what to delete. Go to My Computer, right-click the Hard Drive and select Properties, and then click Disc Cleanup (within the General tab). Check all the boxes except for the game files and setup files.To use Disk Cleanup:
   

   Windows 8 users

   1. Open Disk Cleanup by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, tapping Search (or if you're using a mouse, pointing to the upper-right corner of the screen, moving the mouse pointer down, and then clicking Search), entering Disk Cleanup in the search box, tapping or clicking Settings, and then tapping or clicking Free up disk space by deleting unnecessary files.
      
   2. In the Drives list, tap or click the drive that you want to clean up, and then tap or click OK.
      
   3. In the Disk Cleanup dialog box, on the Disk Cleanup tab, select the check boxes for the file types that you want to delete, and then tap or click OK.
      
   4. In the message that appears, tap or click Delete files.

   More information and instruction is available to help you to delete system files in Windows 8.

   Windows 7 users

   1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.
      
   2. When Disk Cleanup has calculated how much space you can free up, in the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list.
      
      
   3. Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK.
      
      • For more options, such as cleaning up System Restore and Shadow copy files, under Description, click Clean up system files, and then click the More Options tab.
   4. When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes.

   After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner, performing better, and potentially increasing your PC speed.

   Windows Vista users

   Watch the demo (1:00)
   

   1. In the Start menu, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.
      
   2. In the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box, choose whether you want to clean up your own files only or all of the files on the computer. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide the confirmation.
      
   3. If the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection dialog box appears, select the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK.
      
   4. Click the Disk Cleanup tab, and then select the check boxes for the files you want to delete.
      
   5. When you finish selecting the files you want to delete, click OK, and then, to confirm the operation, click Delete files. Disk Cleanup then removes all unnecessary files from your computer. This may take a few minutes.

   The More Options tab is available when you choose to clean files from all users on the computer.

   Windows XP users

   1. Click Start, and then click My Computer. Right-click Local Disk, and then click Properties. On the General tab, click the Disk Cleanup button. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean. Disk Cleanup will spend a few minutes examining your disk.
      
      
   2. In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list.
      
      
   3. Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK.
      
   4. When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes.

   After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner and potentially performing better.
   
    
7. Run a Disk Defragment. This will reconfigure the way the hard drive stores information for maximum efficiency. Go to My Computer, right-click the Hard Drive and select Properties, then go to the Tools tab and click Defragment Now.
    
8. Check for any disk errors. These will also slow your computer down. Go to My Computer, right-click the Hard Drive and select Properties, then go to the Tools tab and click Check Now under the Error-Checking area. When the dialogue box opens, check both boxes.
   • If you get a window saying that Windows can't check the disk while it's in use, click on Schedule Disk Check and then OK. It will run on your next reboot.
    
9. Turn off indexing. Go to My Computer, right-click the Hard Drive and select Properties, then unclick the box indicating that the drive should be indexed.
    
10. Clear your Prefetch folder. Windows saves a file of the program you are using to make it start up faster. After years of use, this folder gets stuffed with irrelevant programs.
    • Open Notepad and type:
      del C:\Windows\Prefetch\*.* /Q
      Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
      (Copy and paste this text to ensure you don’t make any mistakes.)
    • Save as faster.bat (the .bat extension will run it as a batch file).
    • Run it! Simply double-click the file to initialize. In a few moments, the command prompt will disappear and your programs should run more smoothly.
     
11. Change Prefetch Parameters. This a dangerous task to complete unless you follow these steps exactly. If you're not sure about anything, don’t continue.
    • Go to Start > Run and type regedit to initialize the registry editor.
    • Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SYSTEM>CurrentControlSet>Control>Session Manager>Memory Management>Prefetch Parameters to access the parameters.
    • Double-click EnablePrefetcher. Once the new window pops up, there should be a small, editable text box with the number 3 in it. (Windows allows 4 options: 0, 1, 2 and 3.) 3, the default, fetches everything.
    • Change this to 2. Your PC will boot a lot faster and your PC performance shouldn't be affected.
    • Click OK and then close regedit.
     
12. Add RAM to your computer. To see if you need more RAM, initialize the Windows Task Manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+DELETE. Under the Performance tab, find the area devoted to Physical Memory. If the Free amount hovers around zero but the computer is still slow, you may need to take your computer in to add RAM
     
13. Restart your computer. The computer usually needs to reboot to implement changes.
     
14. Defragment your hard drive. This should make the system boot faster.