The later versions of Windows operating system like Vista and Windows 7 give more importance to visual appearance. The Windows OS is mainly a GUI based OS and it is no wonder that Microsoft wanted to provide one of the best experiences for its users. However, you have to compromise on the performance to enjoy enhanced visual appearance offered by the GUI operating system. It is possible to boost PC performance by reducing the visual impact on your computer.

Visual Appearance And User Experience

Typically, you may miss out on animation and other graphical formats, but you won’t experience any degradation in the user experience. The Aero theme and graphical animation are added to add to the oomph factor of the operating system. After a few times of using your computer, you will barely notice these animations as you use other programs and applications.

Why Visual Appearance Affects Performance?

Any graphical program is resource intense and to enhance visual appearance, Windows operating system uses up video card, audio and CPU power. By reducing visual appearance, you will be able to free up these resources which can be used by the actual memory intense processes.

How To Modify Visual Appearance To Boost PC Performance?

To change visual appearance so as to boost PC performance, open Control Panel. Click on System and choose Advanced tab. Go to Performance and click on Settings. You will find Visual Effects tab with a few different options. Selecting Adjust for Best Performance will reduce the resources used by visual themes and thereby, it enhances your PC’s performance.

The Windows system registry is like a database of file access points, pointers and other basic components referred by the Windows operating system. Every time you invoke a Windows program or application, the operating system will first access the registry to find out the location to seek. As you continue to use your computer, this Windows registry becomes bloated, causing operating system delay.

What Causes Windows Registry Bloating?

Every application and program will make changes to the windows registry and hence, it becomes one of the most accessed part of the operating system. When you install and uninstall applications, numerous entries are added to and removed from the registry. However, conflicting registry entries are very common because the third party programs that you use are not designed to handle registry in an optimal method. As a result, conflicts arise in the registry and the size of the registry will be increased.

Registry Bloating Effects

Sluggish computer is often the result of registry bloating. Experts suggest that you can boost PC performance instantly by removing entries that result in registry bloating. Blue screen of death and hanging operating system are all effects of faulty and unwanted entries in the registry.

Using Third Party Registry Cleaners To Optimize Computer

Cleaning windows registry is not a tough task anymore as there are third party registry cleaning tools that generally perform an excellent job. With the push of a button, you can clear registry and make it tight and compact so that operating system delays can be avoided.

When you use your computer regularly, adding and deleting files, fragmentation of hard disk is meant to happen. As a result, the file will be scattered across the hard disk which makes the reading and writing process time consuming.

Why disk fragmentation is bad?

When the file is not continuously located, the operating system has to dig deeper to obtain the entire file. Defragmenting hard disk will bring the files close together so that operating system can read and write files easily. Disk defragmenter utility will help you to boost PC performance with a few clicks.

When to use disk defragmenter?

Windows operating system also contains some disk utility tools that can help you to boost the performance of the operating system. It is your responsibility to use the associated tools regularly to keep your PC clutter free. Many experts suggest that you use disk defragmenter at least once every week. This will keep the files tight and intact. When free disk space totals to less than 15%, then it is crucial to run disk defragmenter at the earliest.

Disk defragmenter defragments disks

Click on Start -> All programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk defragmenter. Then, select the hard drives you want to defragment. Click on Analyze disk button first. You will be notified about the time taken for defragmentation. Then, click on Defragment Disk and wait until the process completes. You should not disturb the process until it completes. This will take several minutes and you should not run other programs while disk defragmentation is running.

The idea of using a faster PC is exciting, but when your computer is old, you are forced to work with slower performance. Over a period of time, several junk files and folders start to accumulate a lot of space in the primary hard drive, making it difficult for the operating system to fetch files quickly.

What are TEMP files?
The TEMP folders in the Windows operating system is meant to speed up the operating system by providing instant access to files required currently. When the size of this folder increases, it not only occupies a major portion of the disk space, but also results in slower operating system.

How to clean TEMP files?
To boost PC performance, you have to remove junk folders from time to time. Windows operating system comes with a PC disk cleanup utility which helps you to remove the unwanted files. The Disk cleanup utility will delete items in the temporary folder. All the files and cookies that were stored during your previous internet session will be removed. Temporary data stored by the applications and programs that you have accessed recently will also be removed.
Effects of cleaning Junk files
Deleting junk files in the temporary folder will not create system inconsistency because after all, the temporary files are meant for temporary usage only. There are third party tools that help you to boost PC performance by performing deep cleaning of temporary files. Once you clear the junk files, you will be able to see a difference in the PC performance almost instantly. It is always a good practice to schedule the disk cleanup utility to run for at least once in two weeks to keep the clutter out of your PC.

Would you want to work with a PC that takes eternity to function? I think not. However you cannot avoid a deteriorating computer performance. It happens with years of use. To prevent this issue and boost your PC’s performance, here are some maintenance tips.

Maintain a Healthy Registry
Cleaning your registry is an essential task that will boost the performance of your computer. The registry is used as a centralized database in all Windows operating system, to store all software and hardware configuration, user preference data, and systems settings. Eventually, when the registry grows so huge and the files get fragmented. This situation increases access time to data, slowing down your PC. A regular scan is necessary to find obsolete, unwanted and erroneous information and delete them. Use reliable and user friendly registry cleaners tool to help you maintain a healthy registry. You can find many of these tools available in the market, so you go over their features and read user reviews. Then download the tool that will best suit your requirement.
Modify Your PC’s Visual Effects

Visual effects like fading menus and animated Windows eat up a great amount of system resources, slowing down your PC. If you are fond of having these visual effects, but would like to speed up your system, then your display preferences must change.

Perform Malware Scans Regularly

Run anti-virus and anti-spyware programs to detect and get rid of malware. The viruses, Trojans, spyware and adware degrade the speed of PCs and also cause damages to your system and files. Malware scans should be done on a regular basis.

Your PC is very slow. From being a trusted companion, it has turned into something that is not as active and as full of life like before. Using your slow computer has become frustrating and tiresome, but you can’t entertain the prospect of buying a new unit or some upgrades because of the high price tag. And you’re asking yourself what can you do to remedy the problem. Actually, there’s a lot you can do, and here are some of them.

Download A Maintenance Program

The good news is that it’s free. This is a more comprehensive way of boosting your PC. There are many of these tools available, but be careful in selecting. Unknowingly, you might install malware into your computer when you opt for free programs. There is one brand that you can trust – the Advanced SystemCare Free – which is an all-in-one tool to maintain your PC. This is not just a maintenance tool, but can also do difficult clean-ups, for example guarding your PC from performance-sucking malware, or cleaning the registry of old files. On top of this, the tool takes care of the issues in a fraction of time you’ll need to handle the problem manually. This program has a one-click feature where you can do all the required tasks with just a mouse click.
Make An Update
All PC users should know that when you are trying to improve the performance of your PC, maintenance can go only to a certain extent. Even the best maintenance can not make your computer to perform faster than when it was build originally. Years of use and the hardware limitations will make it slow, naturally. Maintaining your computer will substantially increase its life span, but you must accept the fact that time will come when you need to consider an upgrade.

Overtime, PCs tend to function slower than they were newly bought. Part of the reason is the emergence of new technologies and applications, but mainly, the lack of right maintenance saps performance from your computer. If you’re a PC owner, don’t wait until it has come to a point where nothing can be done anymore.

Maintain Your PC Regularly.
It is a normal thing for a PC to slow down in performance as they age. A computer is a complex technology and as such, it needs regular maintenance to keep it in top shape. Owning a computer is like owning a car – absence of regular maintenance makes the issues harder to fix. When you notice your computer begins to run slowly, there are ways to restore them to their former performance, as follows.

Clean Up Your Hard Drive
As you use your hard drive regularly, fragmentation may occur. The computer hard drive does its best to put bits of related data together. However, when the disk fills up and files are created, then moved, and then deleted, this task of the hard drive becomes more difficult. So the farther apart these data are, the more time it will need for the drive to find everything and do its function.

De-fragmentation is easy to do with the modern versions of Windows. The tool will reorganize the hard drive so you can access your files easily. If your computer is 1 or 2 years old, de-fragmenting it can improve its speed, even for simple tasks like organizing photographs or just browsing the Web.

it may be because of the number of programs that start at the same time that you turn on your PC. And even if you are not using them, these programs continue to run in the background, making the memory overloaded.

Manage All Startup Programs
To do this, simply click “Start”, then “Run”, or just type “Run” into the search box. A “Run exe” result will appear, click it. Type “miconfig exe” into the Run box, click “CLK”. A “Startup” tab will pop up in “System Configuration” window, click it. And then click the “Startup item” tab so you’ll get an alphabetically organized startup items. Select and uncheck the programs that you don’t need as you turn on your PC.

Use Disk CleanUp Tool
Click “Start”, type “Disk Cleanup” in the search box. As it appears on the box, click it. To make the “C” drive to scan, click “OK” then click the checkbox of any item if you want to delete the listed data upon scan completion. Finally, click “OK” to start the disk cleaning process.

Turn Off Services That Are Not Necessary

Click “Start”; click “Run” Type “misconfig exe” on the Run box. Click OK. A “Services” tab will pop up in the System Configuration window, click it. Click the “Service” tab to list the services alphabetically. Unclick what you do not need at start up to turn it off. Click “OK”. Restart your computer by clicking “Restart”.

Even if your computer is state of the art, it will tend to run slower over time. You notice that the programs are getting stuck and the operating system is slow to load. In these and other cases, you need to find a way to un-clutter your PC and boost its performance. Here are some suggestions.
Run Your Anti-Virus Program
You may not know it, but your computer might have contracted some worms and virus that suck the bandwidth quietly to the extent that your PC runs at a snail pace. A short system scan might not remove these viruses, but a full scan with your computer on a Safe Mode will wipe them out.
Run Spybot or Lavasoft’s Adware Program

When pop-up ads appear randomly, or when your web browser shows a new shiny and useless toolbar, there’s spyware in your PC that should be swept away. These tools are free to download, and they will get rid of spyware and the clutter, so your computer will be performing at faster speed.
Perform a Defragmentation
This task will free up your computer memory. Because defragging the hard drive may take a while, you can do it overnight. Then, add more memory. If you have only 256 RAM, you can upgrade it to 512. If you have more memory, your machine will run faster. The new computers built today have no less that 1 GB of RAM, so they are faster than the earlier built computers.

Remember, if your computer is slow and you want it to run faster, don’t be tempted to work on it yourself, unless you are sure you know how to do it.

Windows 7 boots way faster than other Windows products. However, there is a way to speed this issue up further and this has already been discussed by Microsoft. This trick also deals with those that use multicore processors. The first thing that you should do would be to type “msconfig” in the Windows 7 menu search box then hit enter. If you get a UAC prompt, then click Continue. With Windows 7, there is no prompt of this sort. Choosing “Advanced Options” under the “Boot” tab starts this.

Check the box that is labeled “Number of Processors” to select the number of processors from the box that drops down. Click “Ok”, then restarting your computer is all that remains. This process makes a big difference in the timing of Windows 7. To be frank, those that do not have multi core processors cannot use this trick to speed up Windows 7 boot time. Speeding Windows 7 up can also be accomplished via other methods too. The increase of speed will surprise you once you have gone through the above suggestions. It is not always a complex or complicated matter.

So if your boot time is not as fast as it should be, take a look at the procedure outlined above. This can help you only if your computer runs a multi core processor. If it doesn’t then you will have to search for other ways to speed up the boot time for Windows 7. It is still much faster than Windows Vista or XP.