The Error Checking utility is provided to check for and repair any disk errors. It is a tool provided by Microsoft that should be used just like the Disk Defragmenter and Cleanup utilities. These tools are designed to help you optimize the performance of your PC. The Error Checking utility will check the files that are stored on your computer for integrity as well.

Over time using your computer can cause bad sectors to develop on your hard drive. These bad spots can slow your system down. Sometimes bad sectors can even prevent data from being written to your drive. The utility that checks for these errors can repair or section off the portions of bad space allowing your system to perform flawlessly. It will also check for misplaced folders and files. This utility should be run weekly to prevent the loss of data.

The amount of RAM you have in your system is also important in how fast your computer will operate. While most systems allow you to expand and add RAM some do not. ReadyBoost is an alternative that you can use if your system is running the Windows Vista or 7 operating systems. ReadyBoost allows you to use a flash USB drive as virtual RAM for your computer. This lets you improve how your computer performs without having to add internal memory.

These are three things you can do to try to improve how fast your computer runs. If they do not work then you may consider buying a new computer.

When you are running your usual compliment of operations – for example reading your e-mail in more than on inbox and checking on several other thing all at once – you may find out that your PC just slows down considerably. Not only is this frustrating (especially if your PC is not that old) but can also be damaging your PC as well. It seems like the problem here is that the “Virtual Memory” or RAM is too low. This is something that you would not expect in a brand new or fairly new PC, yet it can happen.
In this case there are a couple of options you have. One thing that you need to do is to check out the system specifications/specs to see exactly how much memory you have. You want to be looking specifically for the amount of RAM. Once you know exactly how much RAM you have you might want to also limit the number of windows you have open and tabs in your browser windows. Close anything that you absolutely are not using at the moment.
Sometimes it is better to re-open a window once you have finished other matters than it is to have everything slowed down. You might also want to consider buying some more RAM memory sticks/cards for your PC to help eliminate the problem and improve your PCs speed. You need to know that upgrading the RAM is not always going to be cheap and might be told that it is better to buy a newer PC instead.

The question of being able to do more to prevent computer slow downs and improve the speed gets asked in more ways that you can imagine. All you really can do is to be very, very careful and vigilant in your online activities and watch what you download/install. Sometimes even this is not enough to stop someone that really want to mess with you from doing so. You can only watch your activities, make sure that what you are downloading and installing is clear of viruses and whatnot and keep up your computer maintenance.

Sometimes this is enough to get the job done. Other times you are going to need to go to other lengths to improve the speed and performance of your PC. You need to make sure that you have the RAM – virtual memory – capabilities that allow you to do everything that you need/want to. You also need to have plenty of Hard Drive space available. Having enough memory available is a key here along with you routine maintenance. If you do not have enough RAM virtual memory or Hard Drive space this will slow your computer down.

If it is low memory that is slowing your PC down you are going to need to think about doing two things. They are: Deleting some programs, files and documents you do not need/use and; Looking into Upgrading the RAM with extra Memory Sticks and Hard Drive with an External Hard Drive. These are some things to think about doing to improve your PC speed.

If you have a slow computer, you have a maddening problem at hand. Computer users become confused with regards to the sluggishness of the computer. The reasons behind the sluggishness can be different.

Gather the malicious information on your computer. Bear in mind when the computer runs for a longer period of time, you have to have the update information about the security software. As it is the updated anti-virus software you have on your computer, you can be confirmed that your computer is well protected from virus. While your PC is running slowly, it can have a virus or Trojan program taking up the resources. Have the Anti-virus to verify and clean up the malicious files on your computer.

In your computer there can be many running programs and processes. While opening the computer, these can start mechanically. You had better not load many programs at a time. The PC has to work hard and therefore the computer becomes slower. To improve the speed of your PC, you can follow the tips chronologically. Click Start, move to Setting. Again Go to Control Panel, find the Add/ Remove Programs and finally Highlight the programs.

The inadequate RAM causes the sluggishness of your computer. You can find better software to optimize the RAM and CPU using rate. The windows based machines do have the registry base which trails the program information. If the base is corrupted, have registry tool to intensify your computer performance. Hoping, your PC has to run faster right away.

If it takes five, ten or more minutes for your computer to boot up what can you do? You might want to upgrade the amount of RAM you have in your PC. Today you can find 1 GB of RAM for thirty dollars or less and that is cheap for the boost of power it provides to your PC.

But, even if you do not want to spend any money you can still make your computer boot and run faster.

Start by removing any unnecessary programs on your computer. If you purchased your computer from a mass retailer then it, more than likely, has a lot of programs installed that you may never use. These programs could be ones that will play or copy your Cds and DVDs, backup software, photoshop programs, anti-virus programs and more. Go through the list in Add/Remove programs and see which ones you are using and which ones you want to un-install.

Next, pick a browser and stick with it. There is no real reason to have Firefox, Safara, Opera and Internet Explorer. If there is one browser us use all the time remove any others you have on your computer. You can even get rid of Internet Explorer. If you do be sure to install the add-on for IE that will download your Windows updates.

The same goes for your Instant Messenger programs. Do you really need more than one? If not, get rid of them.

Keeping your system free from unnecessary and software that is redundant will help your computers speed.

Terminating running programs can alter your PC speed. It can boost up its pace and improve PC performance. There are many programs running automatically at system start up. To speed up your PC, you can follow this method. Click Start menu, and go to Run then type ‘msconfig’. You can now terminate unnecessary services and applications that run automatically at start up, then reboot. Remove unused desktop icons, and decrease font size, or adjust graphic settings to speed up your computer.

You can also remove useless DLL files in the memory to increase the speed of your computer. DLL files occupy lots of space and can slow down your computer. Click the Start menu, go to Run and type in ‘regedit’. Try to find the registry entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion Explorer. Open a new DWORD function and name it as “AlwaysUnloadDLL”. Modify the data as “1”.

You can download registry cleaners to increase the speed of your computer. This way you are cleaning invalid and missing DLL files of the system. Remember that DLL files are needed to run programs and you may accidentally delete important DLL files in the process. Consult somebody who knows PC’s if you are a newbie .

You can also increase your RAM (Random Access Memory) and speed up your PC. RAM is required by programs to work. If you do not have enough RAM space to operate them, your computer starts to act sluggish and the response from your computer becomes utterly frustrating. Upgrade your RAM.

Computers are tools that are meant to help you. They can perform tasks faster than you can do them manually. That is why when systems become slow it frustrates the user as it takes longer to perform routine tasks than necessary. No one wants to waste time waiting for programs to load or navigate to web sites.

Having an adequate amount of RAM is important for your computer to perform it operations fast. RAM is space that is used to write data to. It is re-writable space and is replaced by data as needed or lost if you reboot your computer or your system crashes. RAM is the memory used when your computer boots up.

Most often RAM is a fixed amount within the computer. Today, however, there are flash RAM cards that you can buy to increase the amount of RAM that is in your computer. Adding RAM to any computer usually helps to increase its speed and performance.

So Just How Much RAM Does Your Computer Really Need?

The amount of RAM a computer needs will depend on the operating system and the programs you have installed. If you have an XP system the minimum RAM requirement is 128Mb with 256 MB the recommendation for best performance. But these recommendations are for if you are only using your computer with simple programs, surfing the internet and sending email. If you use more intensive programs that use a lot of resources you may find that you need even more RAM than recommended.

Have you ever ask yourself that question? What can you do besides being annoyed as your computer seems to get slower and slower every day? The first thing to check is the speed of your processor. Is it capable of handling the programs that you are running on your PC? Do you run multiple programs at a time? The more programs you have open will stress any processor especially older, slower models. With today’s multi-media websites and demands that you place on your computer you need to have the fastest processor you can afford.

RAM is another consideration when it comes to how quick your computer performs. Temporary memory or RAM is what your computer uses to perform calculations. Computers perform thousands and thousands of calculations. If you do not have enough of this type of memory you will notice your programs running slowly.

In addition to the processor and RAM the other components that affect your computers performance include your graphics card and drivers. If you play games or run media programs then you need to be sure that you have a graphics card capable of handling the load. Many times the standard card is not enough to accommodate many of today’s demands. Also if your hardware drivers are not up to date that can affect how fast or slow your computer runs. Be sure to keep your software and drivers up to date.

Lastly unnecessary programs and programs running in the background can also cause your PC to be slow. Be sure to uninstall any programs you no longer need or use and to edit your startup process to only start the programs that are absolutely necessary to begin when you boot up your computer.

If you own a Windows Vista or XP computer there are some cool effects that they have included that will make your folders and files more pleasant to look at. Animations in menus and windows that are transparent are other features that are unique to these versions of the Windows operating system. However these cool features takes a toll on your computer and how responsive it is. You can right click on your My Computer icon and click on Properties. In the Advanced Tab under Performance go to Settings and you can switch off any of these effects that you don’t want to use.

The Page File is another area that you might want to tweak. Windows can use up all your computers available RAM. When this happens it uses Page Files created on the hard drive to use as virtual memory for your computer. If your Paging File is set too low your system can run slow. Again in the Properties tab of the My Computer icon on the Desktop go to the Performance in the Advanced Tab. Find the Advanced tab under Settings and here is where you can change your Virtual Memory settings.

There is a option that will allow Windows to determine the recommended setting for your system or you can customize the size yourself. It is recommended that the setting is one and one half times the amount of RAM you have in the system. However, if you have a lot of RAM it may be unnecessary to change this setting.

One easy way to get a faster computer is to buy a new one. But that is not an option for many people. The next thing is to upgrade individual components for your computer. If you upgrade your RAM or graphics card or even increase the size of your hard drive you can help improve how your computer performs.

The graphics card may actually have a greater impact on the performance of your PC that you might think especially if you play a lot of games. If you purchased a stock computer from a store it probably did not come with the best graphics card. It is a good idea to either order a computer with a graphics intensive card or replace it with an ATI Radeon or Nvidia GeForce card.

The power supply unit or PSU is another overlooked piece of hardware. But, before you replace the PSU, graphics card or RAM you need to be sure what you are buying is compatible with your system before you purchase it.

If you are a super user you can try the over-clocking hardware technique to try to squeeze the most speed and power from your system. You have to be very careful if you try this as you may cause damage to your hardware components if you do no do it correctly.

If you need to add RAM to your system and you are not able to internally you can try the ReadyBoost option that uses a USB memory stick to increase your computers RAM.