rob’s log

So, I haven’t posted in a while… we’ll just skip over the mass of personal events that deserve journaling for today…

Here’s my list of common performance fixes and tweaks I notice most people can do, to get your computer moving good again.

1. CCleaner - A good all around cleaning app, clears up some space on your hard drive, and clean up your registry (warning: there is a default option to delete all your cookies - most people don’t actually want to do this)
2. Decompress - Many people turn “NTFS Compression” on all their files without realizing. Mostly, by way of an app called “Disk Cleanup WIzard”. There are rare instances where ntfs compression is a good thing, and it should certainly never be done on your Windows directory as this will slow it down immensly.
1. Easy-Slow Way: Go to My Computer, Right-Click C: and goto properties (follow suit if you have more than one hard disk). Uncheck the box that says “Compress drive to save disk space”, also uncheck the indexing service if it’s checked. A prompt will ask you if you want to apply it to subfolders -> yes, you do. (This does take a few hours)
2. Harder-Scheduled Way: Create a scheduled task (Start>Control Panel>Scheduled Tasks>Add Scheduled Task). Hit next pass the info message. ‘Browse…” to C:\Windows\System32, select compact.exe (might just say compact), Hit OK, Hit Next. “Perform this Task” -> “One Time Only”, Hit Next. Pick a time for this to run later, Hit Next. If you have a password type it both places (if not leave it blank), Hit Next. Select “Open advanced…”, Hit Finish. Under Run, change it to “C:\windows\system32\compact.exe /u /s:c: /a /i /f /q“. Hit OK, you’ll have to do the password bit again.
3. Defragment - Fragmentation occurs on all hard drives, for most any operating system under the sun. It occurs most often as when large quantities of files are added and removed, especially if those files are big - like all you files sharers out there. Goto Start>Programs>Accessories>Disk Defragmenter. Click Analyze. If says to Defrag then do so, or…
1. Create a scheduled task (Start>Control Panel>Scheduled Tasks>Add Scheduled Task). Hit next pass the info message. ‘Browse…” to C:\Windows\System32, select defrag.exe (might just say defrag), Hit OK, Hit Next. “Perform this Task” -> “One Time Only”, Hit Next. Pick a time for this to run later, Hit Next. If you have a password type it both places (if not leave it blank), Hit Next. Select “Open advanced…”, Hit Finish. Under Run, change it to “C:\windows\system32\defrag.exe c: /f“. Hit OK, you’ll have to do the password bit again.
4. Tweak Performance - A couple of easy windows tweaks to get things running smoother Right-Click My Computer>Properties, Go to Avanced Tab, Click Performance.
1. Remove Slow Animations - Uncheck everything saying slide or fade, you won’t miss them all that much.
2. Adjust Your Paging File - Select the Advanced Tab, and hit Change…, (I agree with the author of TweakGuides.com on this). Set your initial and maximum paging file to 2048MB is generally good for most all users, on most all systems.
5. Clean Up Your Start Menu - Go to Start>All Programs, if you see a lot of stuff (like 2-3 columns), then it probably takes a long time to load. You can delete those things by right-click start and then click ‘Explore All Users’. Make sure not to get rid of shortcuts you may need, and do keep the Accessories and Startup folders the way they are.
6. Get Rid of Startup Apps - Goto Start>Run…, Type “msconfig”, Click the Startup Tab. Go thru the list carefully. If you don’t recognize something - use google. In general, nothing needs to startup with your computer. However, you may want things like your mouse driver, anti-virus app, and specialty applications you use to start up. But, everything here is typically expendable.
7. CheckDisk - If your drive access is still slow, and your computer is a little older you may want to check the disk for problems. Goto Start>Run type “chkdsk /f”, and prompt will ask you if it’s ok, say yes “y”. It runs on your next reboot.
8. AntiVirus - If you have a virus, or just for online safety make sure to have an anti-virus app on hand like AVG Free
9. Beyond these and it will probably require some serious diagnosing and work.