10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Your Windows XP

1. Defrag Disk to Speed Up Access to Data

One of the factors that slow the performance of the computer is disk fragmentation. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. To speed up the response time, you should monthly run Disk Defragmenter, a Windows utility that defrags and consolidates fragmented files for quicker computer response.

* Follow Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
* Click the drives you want to defrag and click Analyze
* Click Defragment

2. Detect and Repair Disk Errors

Over time, your hard disk develops bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult or even impossible. To detect and repair disk errors, Windows has a built-in tool called the Error Checking utility. It’ll search the hard disk for bad sectors and system errors and repair them for faster performance.

* Follow Start > My Computer
* In My Computer right-click the hard disk you want to scan and click Properties
* Click the Tools tab
* Click Check Now
* Select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box
* Click Start

3. Disable Indexing Services

Indexing Services is a little application that uses a lot of CPU. By indexing and updating lists of all the files on the computer, it helps you to do a search for something faster as it scans the index list. But if you know where your files are, you can disable this system service. It won’t do any harm to you machine, whether you search often or not very often.

* Go to Start
* Click Settings
* Click Control Panel
* Double-click Add/Remove Programs
* Click the Add/Remove Window Components
* Uncheck the Indexing services
* Click Next
4. Optimize Display Settings

Windows XP is a looker. But it costs you system resources that are used to display all the visual items and effects. Windows looks fine if you disable most of the settings and leave the following:

* Show shadows under menus
* Show shadows under mouse pointer
* Show translucent selection rectangle
* Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
* Use visual styles on windows and buttons

5. Speedup Folder Browsing

You may have noticed that everytime you open My Computer to browse folders that there is a little delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing speed, you can disable the “Automatically search for network folders and printers” option.

6. Disable Performance Counters

Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC’s performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea.

* Download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List(http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/existing/exctrlst-o.asp)
* Then select each counter in turn in the ‘Extensible performance counters’ window and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox at the bottom button below

7. Optimize Your Pagefile

You can optimize your pagefile. Setting a fixed size to your pagefile saves the operating system from the need to resize the pagefile.

* Right click on My Computer and select Properties
* Select the Advanced tab
* Under Performance choose the Settings button
* Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
* Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.

Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.

8. Remove Fonts for Speed

Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.

* Open Control Panel
* Open Fonts folder
* Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:\FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.

9. Use a Flash Memory to Boost Performance

To improve performance, you need to install additional RAM memory. It’ll let you boot your OS much quicker and run many applications and access data quicker. There is no easiest and more technically elegant way to do it than use eBoostr (http://www.eboostr.com).

eBoostr is a little program that lets you improve a performance of any computer, powered by Windows XP in much the same way as Vista’s ReadyBoost. With eBoostr, if you have a flash drive, such as a USB flash thumb drive or an SD card, you can use it to make your computer run better. Simply plug in a flash drive through a USB socket and Windows XP will use eBoostr to utilize the flash memory to improve performance.

The product shows the best results for frequently used applications and data, which becomes a great feature for people who are using office programs, graphics applications or developer tools. It’ll surely attract a special attention of laptop owners as laptop upgrade is usually more complicated and laptop hard drives are by definition slower than those of desktops.

10. Perform a Boot Defragment

There's a simple way to speed up XP startup: make your system do a boot defragment, which will put all the boot files next to one another on your hard disk. When boot files are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster.

On most systems, boot defragment should be enabled by default, but it might not be on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently. To make sure that boot defragment is enabled:

* Run the Registry Editor
* Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction
* Set the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y.
* Exit the Registry
* Reboot

Hope you find these 10 tips useful. Have a nice day!

5 Tips For Buying A Laptop.

5 Tips for Buying a Laptop

Buying a laptop is a major investment decision. As such it is not one that you should make lightly. Below are 5 tips that will help prepare you for making the best and most well informed decision when buying a laptop.

Tip #1 Size Matters

Buying a laptop is a matter that requires some thought. Consider the size and weight of the laptop. How often will you be carrying your laptop? Your answer will help determine which size and weight will best suit your needs. If you will be carrying your laptop frequently, a lighter model will be preferable.

The keyboard is another area to consider when buying a laptop. Why is the size of the keyboard important? A larger laptop will have a slightly larger keyboard area. But keep in mind that if you worry about your fingers or wrists taking on too much stress from typing on a keyboard that is too small, you may want this to be a main factor in your purchasing decision,

Tip #2 Choose Your Mouse

A laptop it will come with a built in touch pad, an alternative to the mouse, whereby the pad is controlled by the user’s finger movement. For some people, this type of pad is uncomfortable and not easy to work with. Before purchasing a laptop, determine what mouse options are available. Test each one and determine which one best meets your needs.

Tip #3 Wireless Options

Today, when many people think laptop, they think “wireless”. No doubt people want to make sure that their laptop computer will be able to access the Internet with a wireless connection. Many try to account for this by ensuring that their laptop has potential upgrade options, such as room for an expandable PC card or a USB port. However, since so many laptop users are looking for wireless connections, many of today’s laptops come pre-wired for wireless Internet. All you need to do is activate your wireless Internet service, and your laptop will take it from there. So depending on your needs, choose your laptop whether it is capable of expanding or if it is already configured for wireless Internet.

Tip #4 Check for Ports

Peripheral equipment will be connected to your laptop through USB ports. You will make your life much less complicated by ensuring that your laptop has adequate ports. Connecting equipment such as printers, scanners, and digital cameras will be much simpler if you have the ports readily available. If you are not sure, thoroughly read the specs for any laptop that you are considering purchasing.

Tip #5 Check Your Budget First

Finally, when buying a laptop, beware that you do not overspend. First create your budget and stick to it. When you think that you have found the laptop that you want, do not rush into it. Wait a day and check over your budget, requirements, and see if you are still as excited about the laptop in the morning, as you were when the sales clerk was showing off its specs. If you still feel that it is the laptop that you want to purchase, then go for it.

To me ram is the best and cheapest way to upgrade any computer or laptop.

So be a ram lover! He he!

Remove Spyware Programs – Getting Help

Spyware are programs that automatically download to your computer when you enter an infected website. The files are downloaded in different ways. When you enter a web site that has these types of programs on them they will automatically download to your pc the minute you enter the site. Many times you don't know they are downloading onto your computer. In order to remove spyware, you will need spyware removal software.

Another way these programs get downloaded to your pc is when you are downloading files or software from a site that has these files. I spent the past 16 years as a systems analyst for a very large company. From this experience I have found that it is helpful to have some sort of spyware removal software on your computer.

It is quite common that many sites that offer free downloads infect your PC with spyware. Once a spyware file is downloaded to your PC it monitors your activity as well as were you go on the web, all your keystrokes, and many other things. The information that the spyware file gathers gets automatically sent off to its host site without your knowledge.

Adware infections are very similar and can slow your computer down the same as the spyware. You may suspect your infected by adware when you keep getting redirected to other sites and receive tons of pop ups.

Spyware programs, once loaded on your computer can really slow your pc down to a snails pace. Sometimes they cause such problems that you can no longer even use your pc. Proper removal of the spyware is crucial in order to clean up your pc.

It is important to choose reliable spyware removal software that will effectively remove spyware and these unwanted spyware files from you computer. It is also important to make sure you have the most up to date spyware removal software on the market.

When choosing what sites to go to on the web you should be safe and carefully choose what site you are directing yourself to. Popular big name companies and such are usually very safe sites to visit. Remember not all sites that offer free software are sites that will infect your computer. However I have noticed that many sites that do offer free stuff to download like games, movies, and free software are many times the source of these spyware files.

Surf the Internet safely and be careful what sites you surf and buy your self a good spyware protection program. One program I have had great success with over the years is NoAdware. The software will remove adware and spyware from your pc. I will post another article soon with a review of the NoAdware spyware removal software. If you would like to see the software please visit my website. If your computer is infected your only choice is to remove spyware files from you computer. If the spyware stays on your computer it will slow your pc right down and in some cases it will prevent you from surfing. Some of these programs make instant changes to your computer settings and also your browser settings.

This one is free I love it!

Please visit some of these sites ad aware or yahoo has a free one with tool bar anti spy.