- Less errors + crashes
- 1-click repairs + backups
Tom M., Utah, USA
If you have an aging PC, do you ever find yourself dozing off waiting for a program to start? Has booting your computer become such a slog that you don’t even turn it off anymore? Or maybe you’re shaking your fist, yelling, “Speed up my PC!” along with some French at your machine?
That’s the sad thing about Windows PCs. Sacrebleu. As great as they are, after two or three years of moderate to heavy use, a typical PC seems to just lie down and give up. But while your PC may never be as speedy as it once was, you can speed up your PC with some maintenance. Here’re some of ways I speed up my PC, some of the best answers I’ve found for how to make my PC faster.
Badware check
If you’re not already running a good antivirus/antispyware program, this could explain all your PC speed woes. It doesn’t matter how safe you try to be online. Viruses, adware, and spyware have a way of sneaking into PCs via very clever ruses. So it’s best to bite the bullet and invest in a security program. There are plenty of light but highly effective ones out there, like Spyware Doctor.
Simplify your programs
First, run “msconfig” through Run in your Start menu. In the configuration utility, go to the Startup tab and uncheck any programs that you don’t need running every time your PC starts up.
Then, go to the Add/Remove Programs wizard in your Control Panel, and get rid of any programs that you never use. If you’re not sure what some of the programs are, just Google them to make sure they’re safe to remove.
Meanwhile, if your computer is aging, it’s best not to overtax it by running too many programs at once. Pick the program you need to use, and stick with it until you’re done. Whenever I’m stumped for how to make my Vista PC faster, I always find I’m just running too many programs.
Routine maintenance
Windows comes with two crucial utilities, Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter, preinstalled in the system. These are there for a reason. If you don’t use them, things can deteriorate fast. Try to run both of these tools (in the System Tools section under Accessories in the Start menu) at least once a week to make your old PC faster. If your Disk Defragmenter takes an incredible amount of time to run, that’s a sign that you don’t run it often enough.
Software updates
Make sure you allow Windows to make all its automatic updates. These provide security boosts in addition to driver updates, which do make a Windows PC faster. Meanwhile, keep your browser updated. Whichever browser you use, the latest version is likely to be the lightest and fastest.
Because updating your drivers is such an important way to speed up your PC, better registry repair software will do it for you. download PC Health Advisor — which, I’ll admit, is one of my fav — helps you update drivers, finds programs to open file extensions, cleans your registry, removes malware, defragments the disk, all while offering one-click repairs and backups. If you try PC Health Advisor — and I recommend it — , click here to download PC Health Advisor.
