99 Ways to Make Your Computer Faster

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99 ways to make your computer blazingly fastPosted by Aseem on Tuesday, February 10th 2009 10Feb

Over the last several years working in IT for various companies as a Systems Administrator, NetworkAdministrator, and Help Desk professional, I’ve written and learned about many ways to increase theperformance of not only my PC, but also of the many PCs on my networks ranging from Windows 98 toWindows Vista.

In this article, I hope to compile a complete list of all the different methods and tricks that I’ve used to getthe last bit of juice out of a slow PC. Whether you are using an old PC or the latest and greatest inhardware, you can still use some of these to make your PC run faster.

Note that since I write two blogs, Help Desk Geek and Online Tech Tips, I have previously written aboutmany performance tips already which I will link back to throughout. If I have not written about it, I’vethrow in a link to a relevant article from some of my other favorite sites. This list is in no particular order,just written in the order that I could think of them.

There are probably a lot of great tweaks and performance hacks that I’ve missed here, so feel free tochime in with comments! Enjoy!

1. Defragment your computer hard disk using free tools like SmartDefrag.

2. You should also defragment your Windows pagefile and registry.

3. Clean up hard drive disk space being taken up by temporary files, the recycle bin, hibernation andmore. You can also use a tool like TreeSize to determine what is taking up space on your hard drive.

4. Load up Windows faster by using Startup Delayer, a free program that will speed up the boot time ofWindows by delaying the startup of programs.

5. Speaking of startup programs, many of them are useless and can be turned off. Use the MSCONFIGutility to disable startup programs.

6. By default, the size of the paging file is controlled by Windows, which can cause defragmentation.

99 ways to make your computer blazingly fast http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-xp-tips/99-ways-to-make-your-comp...

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http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-xp-tips/99-ways-to-make-your-comp

Also, the paging file should be on a different hard drive or partition than the boot partition. Read here onthe rules for best paging file performance.

7. In Windows XP and Vista, the Windows Search indexing service is turned on for all local hard drives.Turning off indexing is a simple way to increase performance.

8. If you don’t care about all the fancy visual effects in Windows, you can turn them off by going toPerformance Options.

9. You can optimize the Windows boot time using a free program called Bootvis from Microsoft.

10. Clean your registry by removing broken shortcuts, missing shared DLLs, invalid paths, invalid installerreferences and more. Read about the 10 best and free registry cleaners.

11. One of the main reasons why PC’s are slow is because of spyware. There are many programs toremove spyware including Ad-Aware, Giant Antispyware, SUPERAntiSpyware, and more.

12. If you have a deeper spyware infection that is very hard to remove, you can use HijackThis to removespyware.

13. Remove unwanted pre-installed software (aka junk software) from your new PC using PC Decrapifier.

14. Disable unnecessary Windows services, settings, and programs that slow down your computer.

15. Tweak Windows XP and tweak Windows Vista settings using free programs

16. Disable UAC (User Account Control) in Windows Vista

17. Tweak your mouse settings so that you can copy and paste faster, scroll faster, navigate quickly whilebrowsing and more. Read here to learn how to tweak your mouse.

18. Delete temporary and unused files on your computer using a free program like CCleaner. It can alsofix issues with your registry.

19. Delete your Internet browsing history, temporary Internet files, cookies to free up disk space.

20. Clean out the Windows prefetch folder to improve performance.

21. Disable the XP boot logo to speed up Windows boot time.

22. Reduce the number of fonts that your computer has to load up on startup.

23. Force Windows to unload DLLs from memory to free up RAM.

24. Run DOS programs in separate memory spaces for better performance.

25. Turn off system restore only if you regularly backup your Windows machine using third partysoftware.

26. Move or change the location of your My Documents folder so that it is on a separate partition or harddrive.

27. Turn off default disk performance monitors on Windows XP to increase performance.

28. Speed up boot time by disabling unused ports on your Windows machine.

29. Use Process Lasso to speed up your computer by allowing it to make sure that no one process cancompletely overtake the CPU.


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30. Make icons appear faster while browsing in My Computer by disabling search for network files andprinters.

31. Speed up browsing of pictures and videos in Windows Vista by disabling the Vista thumbnails cache.

32. Edit the right-click context menu in Windows XP and Vista and remove unnecessary items to increasedisplay speed.

33. Use the Windows Performance Toolkit and the trace logs to speed up Windows boot time.

34. Speed up your Internet browsing by using an external DNS server such as OpenDNS.

35. Improve Vista performance by using ReadyBoost, a new feature whereby Vista can use the free spaceon your USB drive as a caching mechanism.

36. If you have a slow Internet connection, you can browse web pages faster using a service called Finch,which converts it into simple text.

37. Use Vista Services Optimizer to disable unnecessary services in Vista safely.

38. Also, check out my list of web accelerators, which are programs that try to prefetch and cache thesites you are going to visit.

39. Speed up Mozilla Firefox by tweaking the configuration settings and by installing an add-on calledFasterFox.

40. Learn how to build your own computer with the fastest parts and best hardware.

41. Use a program called TeraCopy to speed up file copying in Windows XP and Vista.

42. Disable automatic Last Access Timestamp to speed up Windows XP.

43. Speed up the Start Menu in Vista by hacking the MenuShowDelay key in the registry.

44. Increase the FileSystem memory cache in Vista to utilize a system with a large amount of RAM.

45. Install more RAM if you are running XP with less than 512 MB or Vista with less than 1 GB of RAM.

46. Shut down XP faster by reducing the wait time to kill hung applications.

47. Make sure that you have selected “Adjust for best performance” on the Performance tab in SystemProperties.

48. If you are reinstalling Windows, make sure that you partition your hard drives correctly to maximizeperformance.

49. Use Altiris software virtualization to install all of your programs into a virtual layer that does not affectthe registry or system files.

50. Create and install virtual machines for free and install junk program, games, etc into the virtualmachines instead of the host operating system. Check out Sun openxVM.

51. Do not clear your paging file during shutdown unless it is needed for security purposes. Clearing thepaging file slows down shutdown.

52. If your XP or Vista computer is not using NFTS, make sure you convert your FAT disk to the NTFSfile system.


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53. Update all of your drivers in Windows, including chipset and motherboard drivers to their latestversions.

54. Every once in a while run the built-in Windows Disk Cleanup utility.

55. Enable DMA mode in Windows XP for IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in Device Manager.

56. Remove unnecessary or old programs from the Add/Remove dialog of the Control Panel.

57. Use a program click memtest86 or Prime95 to check for bad memory on your PC.

58. Determine your BIOS version and check the manufactures website to see if you need to update yourBIOS.

59. Every once in a while, clean your mouse, keyboard and computer fans of dust and other buildup.

60. Replace a slow hard drive with a faster 7200 RPM drive, SATA drive, or SAS drive.

61. Changing from Master/Slave to Cable Select on your hard drive configuration can significantlydecrease your boot time.

62. Perform a virus scan on your computer regularly. If you don’t want to install virus protection, usesome of the free online virus scanners.

63. Remove extra toolbars from your Windows taskbar and from your Internet browser.

64. Disable the Windows Vista Sidebar if you’re not really using it for anything important. All thosegadgets take up memory and processing power.

65. If you have a SATA drive and you’re running Windows Vista, you can speed up your PC by enablingthe advanced write caching features.

66. Learn how to use keyboard shortcuts for Windows, Microsoft Word, Outlook, or create your ownkeyboard shortcuts.

67. Turn off the Aero visual effects in Windows Vista to increase computer performance.

68. If you are technically savvy and don’t mind taking a few risks, you can try to overclock yourprocessor.

69. Speed up the Send To menu in Explorer by typing “sendto” in the Run dialog box and deletingunnecessary items.

70. Make sure to download all the latest Windows Updates, Service Packs, and hot fixes as they“normally” help your computer work better.

71. Make sure that there are no bad sectors or other errors on your hard drive by using the ScanDiskorchkdsk utility.

72. If you are not using some of the hardware on your computer, i.e. floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, USBports, IR ports, Firewire, etc, then go into your BIOS and disable them so that they do not use any powerand do not have to be loaded during boot up.

73. If you have never used the Recent Documents feature in Windows, then disable it completely as along list can affect PC performance.

74. One basic tweak that can help in performance is to disable error reporting in Windows XP


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75. If you don’t care about a pretty interface, you should use the Windows Classic theme under DisplayProperties.

76. Disable short filenames if you are using NTFS by running the following command: fsutil behavior setdisable8dot3 1. It will speed up the file creation process.

77. If you have lots of files in a single folder, it can slow down Explorer. It’s best to create multiple foldersand spread out the files between the folders.

78. If you have files that are generally large, you might want to consider increasing the cluster size onNTFS to 16K or even 32K instead of 4K. This will help speed up opening of files.

79. If you have more than one disk in your PC, you can increase performance by moving your paging fileto the second drive and formatting the volume using FAT32 instead of NTFS.

80. Turn off unnecessary features in Vista by going to Control Panel, choosing Uninstall a program, andthen clicking on Turn Windows features on and off. You can turn off Remote Differential Compression,Tablet PC components, DFS replication service, Windows Fax & Scan, Windows Meeting Space, and lotsmore.

81. Install a free or commercial anti-virus program to help protect against viruses, etc. Make sure to use ananti-virus program that does not hog up all of your computer resources.

82. Completely uninstall programs and applications using a program like Revo Uninstaller. It will get rid ofremnants left behind by normal uninstalls.

83. If you know what you are doing, you can install several hard drives into your machine and set them upin RAID 0, RAID 5, or other RAID configurations.

84. If you are using USB 1.0 ports, upgrade to 2.0. If you have a Firewire port, try to use that instead of aUSB port since Firewire is faster than USB right now.

85. Remove the drivers for all old devices that may be hidden in Device Manager that you no longer use.

86. A more extreme option is to choose a faster operating system. If you find Vista to be slow, go withWindows XP. Switching to Mac or Linux is also an option.

87. One of the easiest ways to speed up your PC is to simply reformat it. Of course, you want to backupyour data, but it is the best way to get your computer back to peak performance.

88. Speed up Internet browsing in IE by increasing the number of max connections per server in theregistry.

89. If you use uTorrent to download torrents, you can increase the download speeds by tweaking thesettings.

90. If you have a desktop background, make sure it’s a small and simple bitmap image rather than a fancypicture off the Internet. The best is to find a really small texture and to tile it.

91. For the Virtual Memory setting in Windows (right-click on My Computer, Properties, Advanced,Performance Settings, Advanced, Virtual Memory), make sure the MIN and MAX are both the samenumber.

92. If you search on Google a lot or Wikipedia, you can do it much faster on Vista by adding them to theVista Start Menu Instant Search box.

93. If you have a custom built computer or a PC that was previously used, make sure to check the BIOS


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for optimal settings such as enabled CPU caches, correctly set IDE/SATA data transfer modes, memorytimings, etc. You can also enable Fast/Quick boot if you have that option.

94. If you have a SCSI drive, make sure the write cache is enabled. You can do so by opening theproperties of the SCSI drive in Windows.

95. If you have a machine with an older network card, make sure to enable the onboard processor for thenetwork card, which will offload tasks from the CPU.

96. If you are using Windows Vista, you can disable the Welcome Center splash screen that always popsup.

97. If you already have anti-spyware software installed, turn off Windows Defender protection.

98. If you are running a 32-bit version of Windows and have 4GB of RAM or more, you can forceWindows to see and use all of the RAM by enabling PAE.

99. Buy a new computer!!! Pretty easy eh?

I’m sure I have missed out on lots of performance tweaks, tips, hacks, etc, so feel free to post commentsto add to the list! Enjoy!

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21 Comments Already

Pliggs Said,February 10th, 2009 @1:37 pm


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Wow, that’s a long list, better get started.

Thanks for compiling.

Binny V A Said,February 10th, 2009 @3:22 pm

Nice list - but you missed one - hide the common tasks in the explorer window.

Deyaa Addeen Fahmy Shedeed Said,February 11th, 2009 @11:22 am

Thank you both, welldone.

Will Said,February 11th, 2009 @7:37 pm

Wouldn’t it be much easier and faster to just back up all your data and then reinstall windows?

Of course if you have a lot of software installed, try this:1) Resintall windows2) Install all the software just the way you like it3) Make a backup image of the hard drive

Now whenever Windows starts to get slow, you can restore from the backup image and it’s as good asnew!

Brian Said,February 12th, 2009 @12:15 am

#98 is incorrect. Doesn’t matter what you do, any 32-Bit OS will only see about 3.2-3.4GB, not the full4GB.

Syahid A Said,February 15th, 2009 @7:19 am

New blog Aseem? Cool post!

benevolent anarchist Said,February 15th, 2009 @1:36 pm


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please explain how removing files from a hard disk improves speed? (you can’t) and this is the sort ofmisinformation that causes people to delete files or even un-install software for no reason. please studyCS101 before posting garbage like this. hint: everything occurs in WS.

christina Said,February 15th, 2009 @9:29 pm

I think many of these are becoming less true the better of an OS you get. If you are still working withWindows XP- These things will make a WORLD of difference. It will feel like a new computer. If you arerunning OSX then many of these are either pointless or well automated. (or, Windows 7, I find that theytook care of many of these issues BEAUTIFULLY in the update… This list is why Windows 7 will be thebest Windows yet… but it’s still in beta)

TechnicalBard Said,February 15th, 2009 @10:55 pm

You have the incorrect link in #65 - it’s links to the same URL as #64.

edwest Said,February 15th, 2009 @11:19 pm

I would like to see hard evidence on whether defragging for today’s hard drives (large) for the averageuser (not a whole lot of data) is truly helpful. Techs in my computer shop argue it is not under thosecircumstances.

Aseem Said,February 15th, 2009 @11:54 pm

@Will - I wrote reformatting the computer as one of the tips, however, I think it’s also something not a lotof people know how to do. These small little tweaks can go a long way for a non tech-savvy computeruser.

@Brain - Are you sure? Then what is PAE exactly for?

@Syahid - Thanks man! Two blogs going now!

@benevolent - What exactly are you talking about! Are you saying that installing 100 apps on a computerwill not slow it down? I don’t know what kind of computer you have been using, but getting rid of junktemp files and useless programs has worked wonders…why do you think people uninstall all the preloadedsoftware from a new PC (hint: to make it fast!)

@christina - I agree with you…these tips are mostly for Windows XP and Vista…which still can haveloads of problems in terms of performance. Windows 7 should be a lot better…

@TechnicalBard - Thanks, I’ll fix that.


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@edwest - Well if you are a user without a lot of data and have a huge hard drive, then you are correct.It’s really only useful if you have a lot of files (small or large) and your hard drive is not that big.

Mike Said,February 16th, 2009 @3:09 am

I use Linux, so I don’t have to do any of this crap.

bob Said,February 16th, 2009 @6:51 am

You could just condense this to one item. Get Linux.

Dan Said,February 16th, 2009 @10:34 am

Re benevolent anarchist’s post - I agree that removing programs from your hard drive will not in itselfmake the PC faster. I use the analogy that the hard drive is like a bookcase, putting more books on itdoesn’t affect the speed at which you can read a book once you’ve picked it off the shelf.

The only way uninstalling programs will speed a PC up is if the program you removed was loaded up atboot time. The PC will boot faster and you’ll have more memory available. Also, reducing the number offiles on the hard drive will have a positive effect if you’ve got indexing on - less files means less to index.

But if the program isn’t loaded up at boot time, and indexing is off, I can’t see how uninstalling it willmake the PC any faster at all.

Alf Said,February 16th, 2009 @12:27 pm

Cleaning the prefetch folder doesn’t do anything to improve performance. In fact, it has the effect ofREDUCING it. http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000619.html

computeryah Said,February 16th, 2009 @1:25 pm

Good !Thanks …

Timothy Said,February 16th, 2009 @2:24 pm


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http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000619.html


Wow, what a list! I didn’t realize you could even do some of these things. Very helpful. Thank you!

Aseem Said,February 16th, 2009 @2:26 pm

@bob, @Mike - I should have named this 99 ways to make your Windows computer blazingly fast.Definitely Linux users would not have to worry about these issues.

@Dan - I would also say that having more programs means that your registry is more cluttered, whichmeans Windows loads slower since it is always accessing the registry. And yes, taking a book off the shelfwould take the same time for any book, but finding the book is what takes more time when you have morebooks.

@ Alf - Interesting point. I will read into that. I might add your point to my tip as a counter argument.

rae Said,February 16th, 2009 @10:16 pm

1 ways to make your computer blazingly fast:Using Linux.

Jason Bartholme Said,February 16th, 2009 @10:28 pm

Great list of tips. There was about 15 different tips that I was able to apply to my XP and Vista machinesimmediately.

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Aseem Kishore writes two blogs about technology and the Internet. He has also been working as an ITSystem Analyst for the last 8 years...read more »

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Jason Bartholme: Great list of tips. There wasrae: 1 ways to make your computerAseem: @bob, @Mike - I should haveTimothy: Wow, what a list! I didn'tcomputeryah: Good ! Thanks ...Alf: Cleaning the prefetch folder doesn't do

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