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Re-Discover Your Computer's True PotentialJan 07 '01 Write an essay on this topic.You thought your computer just seemed slower than when you bought it because you were comparing it to the newer faster units, and while this may be somewhat true, chances our your computer is actually slower than when you bought it. Why? There are several reasons. If you were looking to place blame, you can place it largely on the shoulders of Microsoft along with poorly written uninstall programs made by third parties. Well now its time to take your computer back. It's time to start getting your money's worth. So Why Is My Computer Slower Than It used To Be Good question. Well a typical windows installation starts to fall apart as soon as your run it. There is no one cause; this effect takes place on several different levels. For starters, right out of the box your pc vendor (assuming you bought a store-bought model) has probably installed tons of stuff on your computer that you never intend to use that nevertheless start-up with your computer every time you run it. To complicate matters, many of the programs you install will also (without asking your permission first) set small "loader" program to start at boot time for you consuming even more resources. These are essentially the entire program itself condensed into icon form and dumped into your system tray (the thing in the bottom-right-hand corner of your screen...you know..with the clock). They take up just as much resources as if you were running the program in full so that when you do actually want to run the program it simply springs into existence (because it was loaded all the time) to make you think the program is faster than it is. Thats all very well in theory, but get about 10 of those running at once in your system tray and nothing at all will pop-up nice and quickly. If that weren't bad enough, your computers hard drive will start to become fragmented. Essentially fragmentation is when parts of the file are stored on one part of the hard drive and the other part is stored somewhere completely different thus causing your poor hard drive to spin like a washing machine on crack in order to get the information it needs. When your first your pc home, all the data on your hard drive is lined up in neat little rows on the hard drive making it simple to retrieve files. But every time you delete a file it leaves a gaping hole. Then you install something else, windows attempts to fill in the hole but needs more space and writes the remainder to the end of the line (or the next hole when things get bad). But wait, It gets worse! Every time you install a program it will generally generate a set of "keys" in your registry. These are used to store data the program needs in order to function. Like for instance, what websites you've been visiting (nothing naughty I hope) in Internet Explorer or Netscape. This is all well and good except that when it comes time to un-install this program or install a newer version, often the uninstall programs fail to remove old unused keys. Over time, your registry inflates like Oprah at an all-night buffet. The larger your registry becomes, the longer it takes for data to be retrieved from it. I had no idea! What can I do about it? Glad you asked! There are two approaches. The simple approach and the drastic approach. I'll leave it up to you to pick the one that suits you. First, the simple approach. Fortunately, windows provides you with the tools to fight back. Under Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, you will find a lovely disk defragmenter. Its actually not the best you can do, but its free so unless you feel like shelling out the cash for Norton Utilities, it will do the job just fine. So the first task is to defragment your hard drive. But wait, before you do that, use this super bonus tip to get an even greater performance boost. Super Bonus Tip: While defragmenting your hard drive windows can't move certain files because they are essential to the operation of windows and windows must be absolutely sure they stay where they are on the hard drive. The largest of these files is called the "swap file". Its basically a dump file on your hard drive where windows puts all the information it needs that it isn't using right at that second, and doesn't have room for in the RAM. Whenever this file is too small, windows resizes it and unfortunately this causes it to become terribly fragmented over time. Since this file doesn't normally defragment, this can be bad. So what can you do about it? Stop it from resizing! Unless your in a big crunch for space and won't have room to have your swipe file at a constant size using up much of your hard drive, you might as well just set it to one size and leave it like that. One rule of thumb, I've been told, is to have it set to double how much ram you have but at a minimum of 128 or a maximum of 256. Personally, I just say set the thing to 256 and be done with it. To set it, you need to go to control panel, system, click on the advanced tab, then click on the virtual memory button. Just make maximum and minimum sizes the same number. That will stop it from getting worse, but if you want to undo all the fragmentation thats already occurred, follow this super duper bonus tip. Super Duper Bonus Tip: If you don't have much ram, you will have a hard time making this work. But if you disable swap filing entirely then defragment then set it back to a permanant size, virtually your entire hard drive will be defragmented so it will grab a section of completely free space at the end of your drive. The problem here is that if you have not too much memory, disabling swap filing may mean you don't even have enough to boot windows. I would only try this if you have 128 megs of memory. If you have less you can always set min and max down to a small number then jack it up after defragging is done. Just be careful. Now, to take care of all those nasty programs that are slurping up your precious memory. Goto start, run, and type msconfig. Msconfig is an included utility in all non-NT versions of windows which will allow you to disable all the programs feasting upon your precious resources. Click on the startup tag and start disabling programs with checkmarks by them that YOU KNOW YOU DO NOT NEED TO START UP. For instance, you do not need Real Networks Start Center to start up every time. A rule of thumb is to simply disable programs that you know for sure what they are. If the name doesn't sound familiar its safer to just leave it alone. Icq, AIM and many other startup programs are often to be found here and are rip for termination. That's All Well And Good But I Want My System Very Clean Ok, lets get drastic then. I know some people who swear by this, but its always seemed a bit much to me. Basically, just back up all your important programs, and files (don't forget savegame files for games, I always see games and I think "I'll just re-install" only later do I realize what I've done, make sure you get every file that you want to not lose). You're gonna want a cd-writer for this. Floppies aren't gonna cut it. Now, format your hard drive, reinstall windows, reinstall your favorite programs, then get the stuff you backed up off cd and have a fresh system with all your favorite files but with that "just-out-of-the-box" speed. Fresh hard drive, fresh registry, a little bit of cleanup on your start-up programs and you're good to go. Drastic enough for you? If you're looking for a good set of utilities that can do all this for you, I would consider Norton Utilities. They aren't free, but they are probably the best your money can buy. Otherwise, have fun and enjoy your new-found speed. Just don't sue me if you accidently delete your Masters Thesis or something.  |
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by texas-swede
