When your computer starts, it loads lots of applications and services. Some of these applications are actually listed in the Start Menu’s Programs list! To find them and delete them, follow these instructions:

1. Click Start and go to ‘All Programs’.
2. Go to the folder named ‘Startup’.
3. In here you will see a list of applications. Work out which ones you want to delete.
4. Right click the one you want to delete, and then click ‘Delete’.
5. If asked to confirm, click Yes.
6. Now go back and do it for the rest of the unwanted startup applications.

The deleted items will end up in your recycle bin, so if you accidentally deleted something you need you can restore it from there.

Protect your computer from viruses!

Unfortunately, one of the most common problems that home users experience is virus and spyware infections. Getting rid of these infections can be a pain in the behind, but rest assured there’s lots of ammunition for you to use.

The best way to remove an infection is to not get one in the first place. Read up on how to protect your computer from viruses and spyware.

Note that you should always back up your documents before attempting operations involving malicious software removal.

1. Use System Restore

If you have a spyware infection, System Restore could be your best friend. If the problem occured recent enough that you still have an earlier restore point available, you should try restoring to that date to see if it removes the spyware.

2. Use Anti-Virus & Anti-Spyware Software

If you don’t have anything installed, you should install a free suite such as AVG Internet Security. Use your anti-virus & anti-spyware suite to scan the computer for infections, if any are found you should be able to remove them.

3. Try Virus & Spyware Removal Tools

There’s lots of removal tools available on the internet, here are some of the well known and respected applications you can download for free:

• Ad-Aware Free
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• Windows Defender
• Norton 360
• McAfee

If anyone has any other tips, feel free to leave them in a comment.

Whether you want to clear your browsing history because it’s causing your computer to run slowly, or because you’ve been looking at wedding rings – it’s a task easily achieved in most browsers.

In Internet Explorer, you do the following:

1. Look for the Tools menu. If you have Internet Explorer 7+, the Tools menu is on the right hand side of the screen with a ‘cog’ icon.
2. Click Delete Browsing History…
3. Click Delete history… and then click Yes to confirm your action.
4. You can do the same with Temporary Internet Files to save space on your hard disk.

And that’s it! For internet addicts, deleting your history once a week can help keep your computer healthy.

Note that to speed up your computer, you may have to mix any number of the solutions. I’m starting with the most innocent causes of a slow computer, read over them all to see which you think you should try first. Some of these solutions costs, but are a wise investment over all.

1. How much RAM do you have?

Is your computer slow like a turtle?

Click Start, and you see the ‘My Computer’ link? Right click it, and click on Properties. Give it a few seconds to load, and then look for the heading Memory / RAM. How much RAM you have directly affects how much your computer can handle simultaneously. Note down how much you have.

Next, right click your taskbar and click Task Manager. When the Task Manager appears, select the ‘Performance’ tab. Under the ‘Memory’ graph, you’ll see a figure that tells you how much memory is currently being used.

The memory will be measured as MB or GB. 1GB is 1024MB. If you’re using more RAM than you have, or you have less than 100MB of RAM left, then you’d definitely benefit from a RAM upgrade. Check out this article which explains why RAM is important and what it does for your computer.

2. How much hard disk space left do you have left?

This is something many people just don’t consider, or over consider. You need a couple of GB of disk space left for your computer to run optimally. A full disk becomes fragmented too easily, and fragmentation drastically reduces to speed at which your computer can access files.

Click start and click My Computer. Look for the Local Disk drive or the C: drive, right click it and click Properties. Look for the Free Space heading to find out how much space is available on the drive. If there is less than 2GB of space available, you may need to consider uninstalling some applications, deleting some files, or upgrading your hard disk. But before that you can try the Disk Cleanup Wizard to see if it has any temporary files it can clear – you might be surprised how much space this can save you.

3. Is your computer clean of infections?

If your computer doesn’t have anti-virus and anti-spyware protection installed, you’re at risk – and you’re putting others at risk. If your computer had an application running in the background that watched everything you do, and could ultimately send anything you type to someone you don’t know, would you trust your computer? The majority would answer no. Anti-virus and anti-spyware, despite actually slowing your computer down some because of the overheads created by scanning files, keeps your computer running as efficiently as possible whilst not sacrificing the importance of security.

If you constantly get pop-ups involving gambling, removing spyware or pornography, consider installing anti-virus and anti-spyware protection. AVG provide free security software to home users, you can read our step by step guide for installing AVG by clicking here.

4. Have you backed up your documents?

Although backing up your documents won’t speed up your computer, it’s something people often forget to do. Spyware, hard disk failure, faulty RAM – there are many reasons a computer can fail, and you can bet that if you haven’t backed up your documents, you’ll be kicking yourself for a long time. Backing up is easy, click here to find out how.

That’s all for now. If you liked these tips, you may want to bookmark this page as I plan to expand them in the future.

There is an epidemic of slow computer syndrome, it’s caused primarily by the constant bulky packages we install as consumers. Buy a printer, install the drivers – and the boat load of sofware that comes with it. Even Windows is bloated full of useful tools that you’ll probably never use.

So I want to focus on how to speed up your machine, or rather stop it from running so slowly. We’ll be looking at how you can reduce your computer’s work load, and give your computer more resources to help it better manage the work load it has.

1. Defragment Hard Disks

This should be part of some kind of monthly maintenance. Running deframentation on your hard disks can be done every night, every week or every month – the more frequently you run it, the less time the process will take to complete. Disks ‘naturally’ fragment, and fragmentation causes slower disk access. You can defragment your disks easily.

1. Click Start.
2. Click All Programs.
3. Click Accessories.
4. Click System Tools.
5. Click Disk Defragmenter.
6. In Windows XP, click the C: drive and click ‘Defragment’.
   In Windows Vista, you can check ‘Run on a schedule’ to schedule the defragmentation process. Alternatively you can just click ‘Defragment now’ if you’d like to run the process manually.

2. Tidy Startup Menu

Your startup menu is a folder with shortcuts to applications that Windows loads when it starts up. Often, none of these applications are actually required and can be started manually by loading them from the Start menu. You can delete applications from the Startup folder easily:

1. Click Start.
2. Click All Programs.
3. Click Startup.
4. Right click the application you want to prevent from loading at startup, and click delete. Confirm deletion if prompted.
5. Sometimes the start menu will close after this operation, you can repeat from step 1 to delete other applications from the Startup folder.

3. Use MSCONFIG to disable hidden startup applications.

Windows has a list of applications that load at startup that isn’t readily available, you can use the MSCONFIG tool to disable these applications.

1. Hold down the Windows key and hit R. This should bring up the ‘Run’ prompt, if this doesn’t work then click Start and press Run.
2. Type MSCONFIG, and click OK.
3. Along the tabs at the top of the window, select Startup.
4. In this list, applications that are ticked will load at startup. To prevent an application from loading, simply untick it.
5. If you’re not sure what an application is, Google the name of the application. Google will usually come up with information on the application in its results where other people have disabled it.
6. If you have any problems, you can repeat the process and tick the applications to re-enable them.

If Windows doesn’t have enough disk space, your computer will grind to a halt. A simple way gain space is to use the Disk Cleanup utility.

1. Click Start.
2. Click All Programs.
3. Click Accessories.
4. Click System Tools.
5. Click Disk Cleanup.
6. When the Disk Cleanup window appears, you’ll see that it has provided an overview of the space it’s going to restore and which files will be deleted. None of these files should be any of your personal data. But just in case, you can untick anything you’re paranoid about.
7. When you’re ready click OK.
8. When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the files, click Yes.

5. Clean & Maintain Your PC With Anti-Virus Software

There are many products out there, some well known products would include Norton 360 and McAfee Internet Security. But you don’t have to spend a fortune to be well protected, there are other products out there that are offered to home users for free. Grisoft’s AVG is one such example, and comes highly recommended. To download the free edition of AVG, go to free.grisoft.com.

• You should run a virus scan with your anti-virus software to kill any infections.
• It’s also important to keep anti-virus software installed at all times, this unfortunately can slow your computer down which is the opposite of what we’re trying to achieve – but a virus would also slow your computer down and put your privacy at risk. Unless you know exactly what you’re doing, there is always the risk of infection.

6. Use Third-Party Internet Browsers

Windows comes with Internet Explorer, but you don’t have to use it. Using another browser such as FireFox or Google Chrome reduces the risk of infections because they are either 1) more secure or 2) not as targeted as defacto IE.

• I recently reviewed Google Chrome praising it for its speed and smart design – you can download it at www.google.com/chrome.
• FireFox is available from www.mozilla.com/firefox.
• Other browsers include Safari, Opera, Avant and others. No doubt I’ve missed some.

7. Shut Down Applications You’re Not Using

Just like chucking stuff out of the trunk of your car to get better mileage, shutting down applications lightens the load on your PC and helps it run smoother. If you’re not using that messenger, MS Word or any other application you have open, close it.

• Closing an application removes its footprint in memory which allows other applications to make use of that memory.
• It also frees up processing time that would have otherwise been spent processing an application that is idle.

8. Use Vista’s ReadyBoost Feature

This is for Vista users only –  there is a great feature called ReadyBoost. Buy yourself a decent USB flash stick and Vista should prompt you allowing you to use it to speed up your computer.

• ReadyBoost makes use of the space on your USB flash stick by storing frequently accessed applications there. Flash memory is much quicker than your hard disk because it has no moving parts.
• ReadyBoost can make your computer start up quicker.

 
9. Update Your Drivers

A driver is an instruction set for your computer’s hardware. Anything you buy will have drivers, sometimes the drivers are built in to Windows, but usually you’ll find an installation disc that installs the drivers for you.

Sometimes, the drivers for the basic devices in the computer such as the graphics card aren’t installed or are damaged, this causes Windows to revert to a generic driver. The generic driver doesn’t take advantage of the graphics card features because it was built specifically for compatibility.

• Check your manufacturer’s website for the latest drivers for your PC.
• Running Windows Update at www.windowsupdate.com sometimes allows you to download the latest drivers.

10. Upgrade Your RAM

Your computer has two types of memory – storage memory, and temporary memory. The storage memory is your hard disk. The temporary memory is called RAM, which stands for Random Access Memory. Adding more RAM is like giving your computer a bigger work surface, it allows it to do more at the same time without having to shuffle through everything.

RAM is cheap these days, and finding the right RAM for your computer is straight forward.

• You can contact your manufacturer for a RAM upgrade.
• CRUCIAL provide a tool called the memory advisor which will ask you questions about your computer to find the right type of RAM. You can use the tool by clicking here.