A few months ago, my PC took over 10 minutes to start up. Now it just takes about a minute. Want to know how I did it? Here’s how:
1. Upgrade Your RAM
Yeah, the most obvious tip but people hardly upgrade it. RAM these days is very cheap, especially if you buy it through Amazon or eBay. When I checked Amazon, the price of 1 GB RAM was around $20-$30.
2. Get Rid of Unneeded Software
Most PCs come shipped with unneeded software. Uninstall all of them. I’m sure there are better alternatives to those software. For example, my PC came shipped from hp with lots of bloatware such as HP Image Zone, Norton AntiVirus 2004, Record Now! CD & DVD Burning software etc. I uninstalled all of them and replaced them with better software like Picasa and Nero.
3. Keep Only One Browser
This is part of the getting rid of unneeded applications but I decided to separate it because so many people have 3, or even 4 browsers installed on their computer. I used to do this; I used to have Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Now I only have Mozilla Firefox. Yes, I even removed Internet Explorer!
Now you might be wondering how do I update Windows without Internet Explorer, right? Here’s how I do it, and you can too: To update Windows from within Firefox, just download the IE Tab add-on. Using that plugin, you can access IE only sites like Windows Update with ease.
4. Get an All-in-One Solution for Your IM Needs
I’m guessing that most of you have at least 2 IM clients installed. Uninstall all of them. Instead, get Digsby. Digsby is an All-in-One solution for your social media and IM needs.
5. Limit the Programs that Start Automatically
The programs that load automatically after your Windows starts can severely cripple the load time. To reduce the number of programs that start auto-load, download Revo Uninstaller. Disable the autoloading of applications carefully though. The rule of thumb is that if you don’t know what the app does, don’t disable it.
6. Delay the Startup of Your Remaining Autoloading Programs
Even after you’ve disabled the autoloading of most programs, there still is room to improve. The thing is that when your PC starts up, all your startup apps are fighting to run at the same time, which creates a bottleneck. To mitigate this effect, you can delay the launch of each of your startup program by a few seconds or minutes. Startup Delayer is an awesome app that does this.
7. Tweak Windows’s Display & Animation Settings
Right-click on “My Computer” > Go to the “Advanced” tab and click on “Settings” under “Performance”. Now uncheck the checkbox next to “Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing”. Disabling them won’t make your PC behave quicker per se but it will fasten the minimizing and maximizing of windows.
8. Disable Desktop Shortcuts
Shortcuts on your desktop are a waste. Not only do they increase your computer startup time, they also are an inefficient way to open stuff. There are more efficient ways to access applications, such through the Start Menu, the Quick Launch menu, or through software such as Launchy. To hide desktop shortcuts, right-click on your desktop, go to “Arrange Icons by” and uncheck “Show Desktop Icons” by clicking on it.
9. Check for Malware, Spyware, Viruses Regularly
The most important tip I can give you is to 1) have a firewall, 2) have an anti-spyware app, 3) have an anti-virus app, and 4) Regularly scan for viruses, spyware etc. If there’s a virus or some spyware slowing down your computer then none of the above tips can help you. You’ll first have to disinfect your PC. I use Ad-Aware 2008 as my anti-spyware app and Norton Internet Security 2009 as my firewall and anti-virus app.
If you follow the nine tips that I wrote above, I can guarantee that your PC will run 2x or even 3x faster.
PS: You can use Boot Timer to measure how much time your PC takes to startup fully.
