Does anybody knows how to optimize pc's performance without spending money? I use Windows XP Home and I'm fed up with my pc's slow performance, I know adding more RAM will make it go faster, but I don't have any extra cash to spend right now.
One word...... Defrag. Defragment your hdd at least weekly. You'll notice an increase in speed across the board. The next step would be to stop the programs that are running in the background that aren't neccessary. Look at Windows task manager, to see whats running. Go to "msconfig" and deselect the programs that you don't regularly use. If pennies are going to be spent, then it's RAM that gets the first call. Try to get to the "magic mile" of 1 gig or more. Run a registry cleaner such as this ONE. Crap cleaner is freeware, and won't harm your system. Run CC in issue mode to delete all uneccessary file extentions and short cuts etc..... It will "ask" if you want to backup your reg files, just reply yes and it will save the deleted files within the program. (just in case)
my pc is really crappy: Intel Celeron 2.6Ghz 512MB DDR PC 3200 RAM 64MB Integrated Video Card 40GB Wester Digital I use Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0
First off in the hardware dept for performance issues with your comp that i see is the hdd, my guess is it is a 5400rpm model replacing it with a larger 160GB-500GB hdd 7200rpm will make your head spin i guarantee it OK there's a number of things that can be done tho running ccleaner is not as safe as has been mentioned as it can pickup entries that are not in use as the prgorams are un-active and mark them for deletion so becareful Downloading Tweakui from microsoft would be a good start. There's a number of registry tweaks and boot tweaks that can be done but will take to long to go thru use the link below as a start,register yourself and select newsletter emails of [techrepublic daily digest] and [IT news digest] as they'll have a stack of tips and pdf's downloads n stuff ,cnet is also a good place for articles and downloads http://downloads.techrepublic.com.com/download.aspx?&tag=nl.e101&docid=173565&promo=100511 EDIT 1: There's a number of running proccesses that can most probably be shutdown on startup like qttask.exe= quicktime player,jusched=musicmatch, etc,you can use the tools button in ccleaner to remove those registry entries,also look in the all programs list in the startup folder and delete any shortcuts [they can be put back by drop n drag],also changing from the xp theme to classic style can also improve performance on startup and general use EDIT 2:It's not necessary to have more than 1 virus scanner or spyware scanner or any other programs that duplicate,the best way is to have 1 virus scanner,1 realtime spyware scanner = spyware terminater while using a manually started like adaware by lavasoft etc
another thing uninstall any programs ye do not use.. after each program uninstalled reboot... more, c-drive error checking do a check disk,go to my computer right click on c-drive,select properties then tools,(error checking)click check now,in check disk options click check auto fix file system errors. it will tell ye when ye restart it will check ye c-hard drive for errors.. more that some time takes a while on this scan,it will check your protected files and see if any corrupted files or any changed files... start run input==just like it printed here==> sfc /scannow
