The second part of our quick tips section.
- Still in the system properties window. Disable error reporting. This sends error reports to Microsoft. Click on the error reporting button at the bottom of the screen. Check the box that says “Disable error reporting” and uncheck the box that says “but notify me when critical errors occur”. Click on ok and apply.
- Turning off harddrive indexing. Windows XP makes an index of all the files on your harddrive to speed up file searching. Using this option will slow down your pc and unless you use it a lot you can disable this option. Open “My Computer” or press the Windows key and E. Then right click on each of the drives and select properties. Uncheck the box that says “Allow the indexing service to index this disk for fast file searching” under the General tab. In the pop up window select the box that says “Apply change to (drive letter):\, subfolders and files” and click on ok. After you have done each drive I would recommend to reboot.
- Uninstall unwanted programs. Besides increasing your available space on your harddrive it will decreases the number programs to start up. Go to the Control Panel, then select Add/Remove Software to see what packages are installed. Remove software you don’t want or use. In the top corner there is a dropdown menu called “Sort on”. Here you can select different sorting options. Besides “Name” you can also sort the list on the last time you used the program. Programs which aren’t used that often are probably safe to remove.
- Uninstall windows components. Remove windows components which you are not using. Besides saving you valuable hard drive space it reduces chances of having programs with security issues on your pc.
- Microsoft Bootvis. Microsoft BootVis is a program which analyzes your system during the startup of Windows and can optimize start up and shutdown times. It was originally developed for developers to analyze boot times and see where there are slowdowns. You can download BootVis here.
- Microsoft PowerToys puts Windows XP on steriods. You can download Microsoft PowerToys here.
These quick tips will help you to get your pc back into shape.
- Defragment your pc regularly! Every time data is written of removed from your hard drive the windows file system gets fragmented resulting in performance degradation. Defragmenting your file system results in better arranged files which makes the harddrive access files faster. I recommend at least once a week or after big changes in software removal or installation.
How? Click on start select all programs, accessories, system tools, disk defragmenter. Select the volume (partition) you want to defragment and click on the defragement button.
- Msconfig. Click on Start , Run and type “msconfig” and press enter. The last tab is called “Startup”. Here you can disable programs which are started automatically. If you are not sure what a program does you can leave it untouched.
Also if you are infected by a virus you can find the virus (most of the time) as well in this list. To disable a virus it is better to startup windows in safe mode (press F8 key during startup) and then disable the program in the “Startup” tab because otherwise it can reactivate the program automatically.
- Scan your registry regularly for errors. A common cause of Windows crashes, error messages and performance problems are the result of an inconsistent registry. See our page with free registry cleaners for more information and download links.
- Scan for malicious programs on your pc. These programs also called spyware, adware, keyloggers, dialers and worms decrease system performance and even more importantly send information to other people. The following programs can be used to scan for these programs: xoftspy, noadware, Adware Alert.
- This one is really a no-brainer. Activate automatic updates for Windows. You can activate these settings by going to the security center. Software bugs are constantly found and fixes are released regularly to fix these bugs. Besides performance enhancing fixes there are important security fixes which are released.
- Adjust Windows Visual Effects. Select system from the control panel or right click on the “My Computer” icon and select properties. Select the “advanced” tab and click on the settings button at the performance section. Choose the option Adjust for best performance and click apply and then ok. Now there are no effects and this frees up memory. It is also possible to disable a few settings. You can use the custom setting for this.
