Filed under: Registry Cleaners
can u really make your pc run better by downloading software off of the internet,specifically free software?
August 16, 2010
5 thoughts on “can u really make your pc run better by downloading software off of the internet,specifically free software?”
Comments are closed.
Clean Registry and Optimize PC
Yes, it’s possible.
But be careful, there’s a very large amount of SpyWare out there that markets itself as being able to speed up your computer (and in the end does the exact opposite).
especially the free ones!!! most of those free spy ware removers are written by people who are doing it to extend their education in programing and that’s why they’re free. my computer guy told me that he only uses the free ones…my computer is 4 years old and runs like the day i bought it.
It can help. Some anti virus programs require more resources than others. For example, my computer was slower than heck when I used AVG anti virus and when I switched to Symantec, I noticed the speed increase dramatically.
As you will appreciate there are many reasons why your computer is running slow:
I have listed the most obvious, some of which you may have already tried but for completeness they are mentioned here.
First of all make sure you do not have any malware in the form of viruses or spyware. Run your anti virus and anti spyware programs in order to clear out any beasts.
If you do not have any protection these are exceptional and available for free:
Anti virus I suggest:
http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
Anti spyware I suggest:
http://www.superantispyware.com/
Remove junk & temporary Internet files by running Ccleaner – free for download from:
http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/
Your hard disk(s) may be fragmented. Windows has a built in defragmentation program but you can download a third party program for free:
http://www.auslogics.com/en/software
Your registry may be cluttered or corrupt. Ccleaner mentioned above also has a registry cleaner but how about downloading another very good free registry cleaner:
http://www.eusing.com
You may have too many programs kicking off at start up. These free downloads allow you to control what applications run at start up:
http://www.glarysoft.com/quick-startup
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml
Your hard disk may be getting full. You need at least 15% of free space for it to operate efficiently. Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs & remove any applications you no longer use. How about removing all those pictures & music that is filling up your hard drive?
How about overheating? Clean all the vents on your computer with an air duster (can of compressed air). If a laptop, operate it on a hard surface so that air can flow freely around it. For a desktop, open it up and clean inside with the air duster.
Finally, after you have done all the above may need to upgrade your RAM. So that you get the right type of RAM for your system do a free scan at Crucial to determine your RAM.
http://www.crucial.com/ for USA
http://www.crucial.com/uk/ for UK
Good luck with your quest and I hope these suggestions improve your system.
wdw
Yes it helps. The program I recommend CCleaner cleans your registry and traces of your online activities. Registry cleaners make your system more stable and less prone to crashes as well. Take a look at several other things you can do to increase the "speed" of your computer.
1) Clean up the disk. Uninstall unneeded programs (especially those that run at startup and/or put something in the system tray), run Disk Cleanup, and defragment the drive. This is a good first step that will almost always take a few seconds off boot time and application loads for any computer.
2) Stomp auto-starting programs. Click Start > Run and type "msconfig" at the prompt. Click the Startup tab and look at all that junk that loads when you launch your PC. Do you really need "Adobe Reader Speed Launch"? Probably not. Turn off anything else that looks useless, but be careful not to disable your anti-virus and important system components.
3) Run a full anti-virus and anti-spyware scan. I would recommend using AVG Free Anti-virus, Spybot – Search and Destroy spyware remover and Ad-aware spyware remover. These programs are all free.
4) Clean up the registry. CCleaner, available at http://www.ccleaner.com is free and worth running. It will also remove unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.
Those are the easy and free things you can do. If your computer is still slow you need to move on to the bigger guns.
1) Upgrade RAM. This is the one killer trick that will make almost any computer run faster. With an older PC, you will rarely have enough RAM to run today’s memory-hogging operating systems and applications, and adding a high-capacity stick or two of quality RAM will give you a quick speed boost. Adding RAM is fairly simple, even for a novice, and you should be able to do the job in 5 or 10 minutes.You can run a free test at http://www.crucial.com and find out what kind of RAM (memory) your computer needs.
2) Reinstall Windows. If the above tricks haven’t helped, it may be time to wipe the slate clean and start again, reformatting your hard drive, reinstalling your applications, and restoring your data files from a backup. You’d be surprised how much more responsive a freshly reinstalled Windows system can be, as you’ve wiped out years of temp files, garbled registry entries, old versions of software programs that have been upgraded repeatedly, and all sorts of other electronic junk. Reinstalling is easy if you have the "recovery disk" that came with your PC, and only a bit more involved if you’re using a retail copy of Windows XP. Just be sure you back up everything you want to take with you before you pull the trigger!
3) Upgrade your hard drive. This is a more complicated solution, but if you’re reinstalling Windows (per the prior tip) you might consider upgrading to a bigger and possibly faster hard drive, too. Hard disk storage is a performance bottleneck on every machine, and magnetic disks degrade over time. Some performance issues could be caused by a failing hard drive, even, and upgrading to a new model could really put some zip back in your system. As a bonus, you can use the original hard drive for backups or occasional storage, if you put it in an enclosure.