Registry Clean and Repair

The need to optimize Windows performance is ever existant. Unfortunately, although Windows runs fairly well “out of the box”, very quickly it will begin to slow down. This is entirely related to how much you use the machine. Some heavy users report their PCs running to a crawl within just 6 months (I can confirm this myself!).

So What Can You Do?

Well, there are a few options open to us in this situation. Let’s take a closer look.

Hard Disk Space

One thing you must do is ensure that Windows has enough hard disk space to properly manage your system. If you have less than one gigabyte of free space then your computer must already be running incredibly slowly. It would surprise me if this were not the case.

You should have at least 5GB of free space on your system and ideally 10GB.

Pagefile

Windows makes use of a reserved area of hard disk space called the “pagefile”. This is a kind of working space for Windows to use as it needs to. When you switch back and forth between programs, Windows does the behind the scenes work here.

By default, this is set to 1.5x the size of your memory. In fact, you’ll get much better performance if you increase it to around 3x your memory.

If you know enough about computers then you can even put this on another partition for greater performance.

Get Rid Of The Fancy Stuff

Those new graphics in XP and especially Vista may wow you at first but you will soon tire of them. They are a huge drag on Windows performance and you will really see this as you use your computer more and more and it ages over time. I highly recommend switching all of this cosmetic stuff off – quite often it actually makes you work less efficiently anyway.

Old Registry

The registry is a central database designed so that applications did not need to waste time and space by having their own records – instead, the registry stores the key configuration data and makes it available for all apps to use.

Sounds great in theory but the reality is that this much written to area of Windows deteriorates very, very quickly.

There are a number of ways to fix this problem but the best by far is to use a registry scanner. Want to know how many registry errors you have right at this very moment? Then you can get a free scan here.

Lose The Desktop Icons

I know it sounds crazy but it is true. One of the easiest ways to optimize Windows performance, not by a huge amount but a little, is to get rid of the icons on your desktop.

Of course, some cannot be moved as they are placed there by the system. But the rest can easily be moved. Here’s a handy tip: create a folder on the desktop called “Desktop Icons” or something similar and then move all the icons here.

Overall, this will mean less of a load for Windows to handle in terms of redrawing the graphics on your screen, and lead to improved Windows performance for you.