TIPS TO SPEED UP PC (part 1)

If you're searching for a way to make your pc faster you are at the right address here at Speed Up PC. We have many tips on how to speed up your computer and how to improve the loading times of your hardware and software. Did you notice that the more you use your PC, the slower it gets over time? Do you long for the fast loading times you had when you'd just installed Windows or bought your new computer? If your answer is "Yes" to one of these questions, you probably often asked yourself; "What can I do about this?" Well, now you can do something about this! On this site we give you free tips on how to make your pc faster. All these tips can be done manually by you, you can make your own personal computer load faster today! There's no need to call in the help of a computer specialist or a computer fixing service to fix your PC.

1. Automatically Login To Windows

When your PC is located in a trustable environment and you only use 1 account to log in to Windows, a good way to speed up your Windows startup is to automatically login to Windows. Below is explained how to automatically login for the three major Windows versions.

CHANGE WINDOWS 7 THEME

• Click Start in the lower left corner of your screen and click on Run
• Type CONTROL USERPASSWORDS2 and push Enter on your keyboard
• Uncheck Users must enter a username and password to use this computer and click OK
• After that fill out the login information for the account you want to automatically login with in the Automatically Log On window

Automatically Login to Vista

• Click Start in the lower left corner of your screen and type netplwiz in the Search box, after that press Enter on your keyboard
• Follow the last 2 steps of Change Windows 7 Theme

Automatically Login to XP

• Follow all the 4 steps of Change Windows 7 Theme

Note: Watch out with automatically logging in to Windows if your computer is exposed to people who you don't trust. If you're unsure about people logging in, do NOT follow the above steps. 

2. Change Windows Theme 

Not many people know that you can speed up your PC/Windows simply if you just change your theme. Especially in Windows Vista it can give you a significant performance boost. In most cases you will get the best performance when you select the "classic" theme. This theme is based on older versions of Windows and has less animations and graphics, making your PC faster because it needs to load less. Below is explained how to change themes for the most common versions of Windows.

Change Windows 7 Theme

· Right-click in a blank area on your desktop screen and click on "Personalize" in the menu that pops up

· In the "Personalization" window that pops up, click on the Windows Classic theme

· Not happy with the theme? You can always change it to another one by following the same steps

Change Windows Vista Theme

· See first step "Change Windows 7 Theme"

· In the Personalize Appearance and Sounds window that pops up, click on Theme

· In the Theme Settings window that pops up, find the Windows Classic theme and select it

· Click OK or Apply to make your theme settings official in Windows Vista

· See last step "Change Windows 7 Theme"

Change Windows XP Theme

· Right-click in a blank area on your desktop screen and click on Properties in the menu that pops up

· Select the Windows Classic theme in the Themes tab in the "Display Properties" window that appears

· Click on "OK" or "Apply" to make your theme settings official in Windows XP

· See last step "Change Windows 7 Theme"

A big note should be added to the above tips: If you choose appearance over performance and you are NOThappy with the way the Windows Classic theme looks, you can always change your theme to a more suiting one by following the same above steps.

3. Delete Registry Keys 

If you delete certain registry keys in Windows, also called registry entries, it can give your PC a speed increase, although in most cases a minor one. Not many people know there is a way you can do this manually. Although removing registry keys by yourself is a time-consuming process, it gives you total power over which keys you delete or not. This comes in handy when you need to delete a certain registry key of a certain program. Below is explained how to delete registry keys Windows 7, Vista and XP.

Backup Your Windows You Delete Any Registry Keys

The first thing you should always do when you delete or edit something in the Windows Registry is making a backup of it. You can do this the following way: 

· Click on the Start button in the left corner of your Windows screen
· Type regedit in the command line(if you don't see the command line click on Run)
· Click on File in the top toolbar in the Registry Editor window that pops up and select Export
· Now save a backup file of the Windows Registry to your harddisk

How To Delete Registry Keys

· Follow the first 2 steps of "Making a Backup Of Windows Registry Before Deleting"
· Click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER to delete registry keys for your own Windows user account
· Click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for deleting registry keys which affect all users on your computer
· Click on the Software folder to delete registry keys for programs
· Find the program(s) you want to delete the registry keys for
· Right-click on the folder of the program you want to remove the registry for and click Delete
· If you want to delete specific registry keys of a program, click on the folder of the program, right click on the specific registry key and click Delete
· Close the Registry Editor and restart your PC to see the changes take effect

Remember, never delete a registry key when you aren't sure of if you can delete it or not. Some registry keys are needed for crucial programs that you need to keep your PC running safely, or keep running at all. Always try to find out which key you are deleting and which programs it's used for. When you think you made a mistake and you want to correct it you can always use the backup of your registry that you made.

4. Disable Indexing Service

Before you learn how to disable the indexing service we'll explain you a little more about it. Windows has a build-in file indexer which is crawling the data on your harddisk(s) non-stop when Windows is running. This service is used so users can search for files faster. This Indexing Service can cause Windows to run slower as it needs a lot of resources, especially on PC's with not enough RAM. Learn below how to disable this Indexing Service.

Disable Indexing Service in Windows 7, Vista and XP 

· Click Start in the lower left corner of your screen, type services.msc in the Search field and press Enter on your keyboard
· In the list that pops up, search for Windows Search and double-click it
· In the window that pops up find the Startup type section and select Disabled from the dropdown menu
· Then click on the Stop button to stop the Indexing Service

5. Windows Registry Tweaks 

On this page we will show you one of the registry tweaks that will automatically change various registry entries that will speed Windows up. The good part is that when you make a .reg file you don't have to manually change/create all the registry values by yourself. See below how to do it make the registry tweaks:

MAKE THE "REGISTRY TWEAK" FILE

· When editing the registry, you should always make a backup of it. Open up the Regedit tool and click File and Export in the menu. Now save the file, it will contain a backup of your entire registry. You can use this file later to retrieve old registry values.

· Now open up the Notepad application which comes with Windows and copy & paste the following text into it:

· Save the file as tweak.reg in a folder of your choice
· Execute tweak.reg(by navigating to the map you saved it in) and click Yes to apply the changes to the Windows Registry
Note: When you want to change the registry back to your old values, use the backup you made with step 1

How Did I Speed Up Windows? 

With the .reg file you just created and executed you have changed different registry entries that will speed up Windows in various ways. Below is explained what you changed and how it will effect Windows. 

MenuShowDelay: Reduces menu display times
LowLevelHooksTimeout: Ends services automatically when they are not responding
NoInternetOpenWith: Stops the "Windows Cannot Open This File" window from popping up when a file type is unidentified
LinkResolveIgnoreLinkInfo: Windows attempts to connect to the original network resource when you access the shortcut, while creating a shortcut to a resource on a mapped network drive, and altogether remapping the same drive to a different network resource.
NoResolveSearch: Stops Windows from searching disk(s) to resolve a shortcut
NoLowDiskSpaceChecks: This will stop Windows from checking out if you have low disk space
NoResolveTrack: Stops Windows from using NTFS when it resolves a shortcut
HungAppTimeout: Reduces the timeout waiting time of any application to 1 second

6. Remove Programs in Windows

A very good way to speed up your PC is to remove programs from Windows that you hardly ever use. The more programs you install, the slower your PC gets over time. If you never remove programs that you don't need, you are setting yourself up for a slower and slower PC. Use the following method to remove these programs from your PC forever.

HOW TO REMOVE PROGRAMS IN WINDOWS 7, VISTA AND XP

· Click on the Start button in the bottom left corner of your screen
· Click on Control Panel whereafter you click on Programs and Features
· Look at the list of programs that follow and decide which program(s) you don't need anymore
· Select the program(s) you want to remove and click on Uninstall

Remember: never remove programs when you aren't sure if you need them or not. Some programs that you need to run Windows could have weird unknown names, always watch out that you do not remove a program without checking where it's needed for.

DELETING REGISTRY KEYS

When you uninstall a program, in most cases the registry key of this program will be deleted automatically. However, sometimes this is not the case. Find out how how to delete a Windows registry key manually.

7. Scan Your PC

If you surf a lot or exchange a lot of files with different people over the internet it's a good idea to scan your PC once in a while. Some of the files or websites you've been visiting may have installed viruses, adware or malware without you knowing it. Not only can these installs be dangerous to the security of your PC, it can also slow down your PC quite a bit.

There are various free virus scanners out there. One of the best scanners available right now is Avast Antivirus scanner. You can download it here. In the future we will add more information on how to scan your PC in the best possible way.

8. Speed Up Windows Shutdown

A reason why you are able to speed up the Windows shutdown is because after using Windows for a while it takes longer and longer to shut down. This shut down time can be reduced by changing certain values in the Windows Registry to speed up the process. Below is explained how to make a file that will automatically change all the necessary registry entries that will speed up Windows shutdown.

MAKING A "SPEED UP WINDOWS SHUTDOWN" REGISTRY FILE

Below we are gonna show you how to make your own registry file which can speed up the shut down time of Windows. This file can change all the necessary registry values at once, so you won't have to manually change all registry entries yourself. Follow the steps below: 

· First make a back up of the Windows Registry, you can do so by selecting File and Export in the menu of Regedit. Then save the file in a map of your choice. This will backup your entire registry in one file.
· Now open up the Notepad application which comes with Windows and copy & paste the following text into it:

· Save the file as shutdown.reg in a map of your choice
· Navigate to this folder and double click shutdown.reg and click Yes
· You now have changed all the necessary registry values to speed up Windows shutdown

Note: If you are unhappy with the changes you made, use the backup of your registry you made in step 1 to bring back your old registry values

What Have I Changed?

Below is explained what you changed to the registry (with the registry file you have made above) and what the different values do.

WaitToKillAppTimeout: Ends user processes automatically when shutting down Windows
LowLevelHooksTimeout: Ends services automatically when they are not responding
AutoEndTasks: Makes ANY task you have running end automatically when shutting down Windows
HungAppTimeout: Reduces the timeout waiting time of any application to 1 second
WaitToKillServiceTimeout: Prevents Windows from timing out when services are not responding

9. Speed Up Windows StartUp

The biggest reason to speed up the Windows startup is because one of the biggest annoyances many people experience is waiting on their PC's to start up Windows. In some cases starting up Windows takes as long as 5 minutes(or even longer). Not many people know that there are a few things you can do manually to make Windows start faster. Below are some of the best tips to speed up your Windows startup.

REMOVE PROGRAMS FROM STARTUP

The first and most important thing you could do to speed up Windows startup is remove or disable programs from starting up when you boot Windows. There are two ways to do this manually.

The first method is the most effective way:

· Click on the Windows Start button in the left corner of your screen
· Type run in the Search field
· Type msconfig in the Run command line, this will load the System Configuration tool
· Click on the "Startup" tab
· In the list that you now see, uncheck every program that you think ISN'T necessary to load at the Windows startup
· Click "Apply", then "OK"

The second method is easier but less effective:

· Click on the Windows Start button in the left corner of your screen
· Click on "All Programs"
· Click on the "Startup" folder
· Remove all programs from this folder that you think are NOT necessary to load when Windows starts

All unnecessary programs that were slowing Windows down while starting up are disabled from loading at the startup now. You can enable these programs at any time, just follow method 2 and click enable instead ofdisable.

CHANGE WINDOWS THEME

Another way of speeding up your startup is changing your Windows Theme. Find out how to do this in ourChange Windows Theme guide.

REMOVE PROGRAMS

A third method to speed the Windows startup is to remove unnecessary programs from your computer and registry. Wanna know how to do this? Read our Remove Programs in Windows guide.

10. Turn Off Windows Features

A good way to speed up Windows is to turn off Windows features that Windows installs and runs automatically without asking you to do so. Below is a list of the 4 most important ones you could turn off:

Disable Media Features
Disable Tablet PC Components
Disable Windows Search
Disable Internet Explorer

HOW TO MANUALLY TURN OFF ALL WINDOWS FEATURES OF YOUR CHOICE

The above 4 Windows Features are the most important ones to disable but you can manually disable all Windows Features if you want. See below how to do this.

· Click on the Start button in the bottom left corner of your screen
· Click on Control Panel whereafter you click on Programs and Features
· Click on Turn Windows Features On or Off
· Uncheck the Windows Features you want to disable
· Click OK

Remember: never disable a Windows Feature when you aren't sure if you need the feature or not. Only disable a feature when you are 100% sure you do not need/want it.

11. Disable Visual Effects

Windows has a "Visual Effects" section where you can enble or disable the visual effect settings of Windows. By disabling most or some these effects you will usually speed up Windows as it needs less graphic power to load basic Windows features. See below how to disable visual effects in the latest Windows versions.

Visual Effects in Windows 7

· Click on the Start button in the bottom left corner of your screen
· Click on Control Panel whereafter you click on Performance Information and Tools
· In the window that opens you click on Adjust Visual Settings
· Disable the visual effects of your choice. Usually the more you remove, the faster Windows will get

Visual Effects in Windows Vista

· Click on the Start button in the bottom left corner of your screen
· Click on Control Panel, then you click on System
· Click Advanced System Settings, under the Advanced tab, find the Performance section and click on theSettings button
· Disable the visual effects of your choice. Usually the more you remove, the faster Windows will get

Visual Effects in Windows XP 

· Click on the Start button in the bottom left corner of your screen
· Click on Control Panel whereafter you click on Performance and Maintenance
· Click System, under the Advanced tab, find the Performance section and click on theSettings button
· Disable the visual effects of your choice. Usually the more you remove, the faster Windows will get