Slow computers are very irritating and counter productive. Waiting up to five minutes for a computer to boot up, over 60 seconds to bring up a software program, or waiting 2-3 minutes to connect to the Internet is frustrating. Considering that most people use their computers more and more every day this wasted time can add up too.



Two very specific problem areas can cause a slow computer. One is hardware issues, the other is software configuration. And one big area that we have no control over is software bloat. When windows first came out in 1995, there were around a million lines of code, and it took up a few megabytes of hard drive space.

The latest version of windows, Vista, can take up to several gigabytes. The most popular office suite, Microsoft Office, is the same story. As software enhancements occur, more and more code and hard drive space is eaten up. Any files created become larger and hardware demands become greater.

Another huge factor with computers that run any windows OS is the registry bloat. Every single aspect about the user, software, hardware, and operation is recorded in a database call the registry. So as you use your computer and software more and more (adding software) this database swells in size. And the more settings, the more time it takes for this database to be loaded and executed.

Let's take the easy path first in speeding up your computer. Most people are running either Windows XP or Windows Vista. Each have recommended hardware requirements for efficient operation. We'll ignore the manufacturer's recommendation since they under estimate based on my experience.

Since you already own the equipment, we'll skip the processor upgrades since they are not for normal user upgrades. Although the chipset is important, upgrading can be a very technical and are a user-unfriendly situation. If you are buying a new machine, go for the fastest chip and RAM available in your budget range. Right now that's at least Duo Channel RAM with a chipset of four-digit number of 2000 and above (my last purchase was a Quad processor with a 9500 designation).

You want to add the fastest RAM your motherboard will allow. You will need to check with the memory supplier (or computer/motherboard manufacturer) to find out what that might be, but the higher the number the better. DDR is the most cost effective and compatible RAM and will really speed up the response of most computers.

Video cards come in all sorts of flavors, some cost as much as the computer itself. But you can get a pretty decent PCI (check to make sure you have an open PCI slot) video card for around $70 online. The GeForce 9500 with 512 DDR3 RAM is a good choice for most business users.

Windows XP computers should have a minimum of 512 megabytes of RAM, and a video card (or shared video chipset on the motherboard) with dedicated RAM of 128 megabytes. Windows uses resources for both areas of RAM in almost every operation. Better would be 1 gigabyte of RAM and a dedicated video card with 256 megabytes of RAM.

Windows Vista (32 bit) computers should have a minimum of 2 gigabytes of RAM and a shared or video card with 256 megabytes of RAM, the 64 bit version minimum would be 4 gigabytes of RAM and a video card with 512 megabytes of RAM. Since there is very little 64 bit software out there, I'm not even sure the 64 bit is necessary yet.

Now comes the software configuration part, which can get a little more complicated. When your computer first boots up, there are certain software programs that start up due to whatever operating system you may be using. Some of these programs are necessary for basic operations, some are used to help with other applications that are installed. Then you can have another group that are installed by the user for a special purpose.

The three most common user installed programs are instant messaging, news alerts, and weather status. Each one of these can be a tremendous resource hog. All three together can really slow down the boot process since they mount huge amounts of real time information as they start up.

So if you want to have those boot up with your system, then you need to have the resources. More RAM, faster chipset, and a dedicated video card with RAM or expect a wait. No way to avoid the slow down although you might find ways to optimize each if you do a little research. That may help some but the bottom line is they require quite a bit of power.

There are what we call services (processes that run to help common programs to work faster) that are automatically started when you install some software programs. Depending on your activity, you may want to eliminate these.

You can see the different programs, services, and processes that are running and starting in automatic mode with a utility called Msconfig that comes with Windows. Msconfig can be started by going to the run command and entering the name, and then pressing enter. You can access the Windows help file to get more information on Msconfig.

Once Msconfig starts you'll see a panel with several tabs. Each tap represents the services, boot information, and processes currently running. Unfortunately the naming conventions don't always allow you to see what service or process belongs to what application. This makes it a challenge to decide what you might want to remove or not load upon boot.

And if you get a little carried away, you can definitely shoot yourself in the foot and stop a necessary function of Windows or other software. And now you have a real problem since Windows may not boot again without this service or process running. So I advise extreme caution whenever you make any adjustments.

Another easy solution to speeding up your computer is to reboot every once in awhile. Theoretically Windows loads files in RAM when you start up a new program, then unloads the necessary files when you close down the application. But that's not always true and sometimes you can have RAM areas cluttered up with software that you no longer need.

A reboot every once in awhile ensures you have as much RAM available as possible. Having too many programs open at one time can impact the speed of your computer too. Depending on your resources available, having 5 or 6 large applications (like MS Office, Photoshop, accounting software, etc.) open can be a real slow down too. They all are very RAM and video intensive programs.

Windows Vista has a new feature called Aero that allows transparent windows (you can see through each window to the underlying window) and this is a very big resource hog. You can turn it off, by doing this:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

2. Click Appearance and Personalization.

3. Under Personalization, click Change the color scheme.

4. In the Appearance Settings dialog, click Windows Vista Basic, and then click OK. Or, you can click Windows Standard, and then click OK.

That takes a big load off of your video card and resources. But great looking graphics is part of the reason to have Vista so for many that may not be an option. But it can speed up operations in Vista computers. Vista also comes with auto indexing turned on (this is where the OS keeps track of any file for faster retrieval).

Vista users often complain about the hard drive churning all the time, even when the computer is sitting idle. This can be caused by the Windows Search service. Vista has an indexing scheme that constantly keeps track of files and locations. This can be a never-ending battle with so many files in the OS alone.

The best way is to stop Windows Search is to disable the service. Run Services (just type “Services” at the Start Search bar), right click on the Windows Search service and select “Properties”. Then click on “Disabled” for the start type, then you can stop this service by right clicking on it and selecting “Stop”.

The last recommendation I can make to speed up a slow computer, and the most radical, is to back up all your data and do a system restore once a year. That's right, clean out all those cobwebs, remnants of activities, and software installs. You do get to sit and watch all the system updates of the OS, re-install all your software, and then restore your data.

But you will have a very clean registry and a fast computer. Be prepared, it will probably take at least a few hours to do the whole routine. But for many people, it is well worth the time and effort to speed that computer back up and save time everyday.