Speed up your PC or laptop Part 1 - System Configuration

One of the most common things that I hear from friends, family and colleagues is that their computer/laptop is running really slow and they ask if I can speed it up. The answer is usually yes - with ease.  You see, in the majority of cases it is software related and their are many programs out there to help clean and declutter your machine.  This is an easy method and is ideal even if you are a novice or have very little computer experience.

The first thing I do is always check what programs and services start when you boot up your machine.  The guide will be written using windows 7 but the process is the same for other operating systems.

Hit the start button and type in "msconfig" without the quotes and press enter.

Now from the tabs at the top of the system configuration box click 'startup'.

This will bring up a list with tick box's at the side.  These are things that are set to start when you boot up your laptop or PC.  What I normally do is just untick everything but the things I want.  As you can see from the image below, I have left on the Microsoft Security Client as you should leave on any security that you are running for example, AVG, Norton, Kaspersky etc.

Once you have unticked all that you need, click apply and then select the 'services' tab.

It is important in this section that you tick the box towards the bottom 'Hide all Microsoft services'.

A similar process to the above can now be applied and untick everything that you do not want to run.  I have everything turned off here but if you are running any antivirus software, some of those services may be located here.  If you cant gauge from the manufacturer column what program the service belongs to, a simple Google of the service will give you any information that you require.

Once you are happy, click ok and then either restart your machine now or just shut it down when you have finished.  One thing to note, after changing the System Configuration you will be presented with a notification when you next start up to tell you something has been changed.  You can simply tick it to not show you again and press OK.

Any changes that you have made in this section are easily reversed.  It is just a matter of bringing of the System Configuration and ticking the box's that you want to activate.

The next steps will involve downloading two programs to help make your PC/Laptop run smoother and speed everything up.

Click the links below to move on to the next section:

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 2 - CCleaner 

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 3 - Auslogics Disk Defrag

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 2 - CCleaner

Following on from Speed up your PC or laptop Part 1 - System Configuration, we can now move on to the next step.  This will involve downloading a program that will help remove clutter from Windows and will also remove anything bad or broken from the registry so that Windows can run much smoother.

The first thing to do is download the latest CCleaner.  Clicking that link will open up a new tab that will start to download the latest free version of CCleaner.  Save the file, install it and then open up the program.

Unless you're more advanced with Windows it will be best to leave the settings as they are.

Click 'Analyze' for it to scan your system and then press 'Run Cleaner'.  If  a box pops up regarding deleting files from your computer just press OK, unless of course you wish to double check what its going to delete in which just press cancel and then evaluate what areas have been scanned.

This process may take a little while depending on how cluttered the system is.  

Once it has been completed click the 'Registry' tab on the left and then 'Scan for Issues'.

If the scan has found any issues then click 'Fix selected issues'.

You will then be asked if you wish to back up your registry, this is best.  I just navigate the save to my documents and press save.  Then continue with the fixing and fix all issues.

I tend to do this process every couple of days just to make sure nothing is building up.

After completing this, it is time to move on to the final step. Or alternatively, if you haven't already completed step 1 then you can also do that.

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 3 -Auslogics Disk Defrag

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 1 - System Configuration

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 3 -Auslogics Disk Defrag

The final step in speeding up your PC/Laptop is to have all of the data on your hard drive organised in a way that Windows can access it much faster.  Imagine trying to find a book that you want to read in a library that has been organised by a 5 year old.  Running a disk defrag is the equivalent or sorting the books into alphabetical order.

What you first need to do is click, save and install Auslogics Disk Defrag. Take care when installing to make sure that you are not agreeing to install any third party software.  Sometimes there are options to install other programs and if you just blindly click through you are installing optional extras.

I should point out that there is a disk defrag built in to Windows, but I feel that this one is faster and much better.

Once the program is installed then open it up.

Press the 'Defrag' button and it will analyse and defrag your hard drive.  If you have more than one HDD then you can select multiple ones.

Once this has been done, if you have followed the previous 2 steps then reboot the computer and you will notice the difference in speed.

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 1 - System Configuration

Speed up your PC or laptop Part 2 - CCleaner