3 Easy Steps to Speed Up Your Windows Computer

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

For a while now, I’ve been the person my friends go to for tech support. They’ve got a virus, or just lit their computer on fire or something – whatever it is, they call me and panic, hoping I can somehow, magically, just fix it.

More than anything, though, the problem I get is this: “My computer’s slow!” It’s taking them 3 1/2 hours to boot their computer, and 11 minutes to open a browser – it’s not a pretty picture.

I always, always, fix this problem in exactly the same way. To help those out who didn’t go to my high school, here’s my dirty little IT secret: it’s these three things that fix it all. For any Windows computer, here’s what I use.

(A small disclaimer: Any of these apps, when used improperly, can be harmful to your computer, because they’re all dealing with the internal files of your computer. I’ve never had an issue with any of them, but do be careful when you use them.)

Revo Uninstaller

The first thing I do for anyone with computer problems is download Revo Uninstaller, a free app that simply uninstalls software on your computer. The native Windows method of uninstalling applications, the “Add/Remove Programs” menu, is terrible. It uninstalls the program, but leaves traces of it all over your computer.

Revo does it better. Once you’ve installed it, it shows you a list of all the installed software on your computer. Clicking a program and selecting “Uninstall” brings up a menu letting you choose how majorly you want to uninstall the program. I recommend the “Moderate” setting, which not only uninstalls the program, but then scans your computer for leftover files, registry entries, and other things that didn’t go away.

If you’re like most people, you’ve got a ton of software you totally forgot existed on your computer. Revo finds it, gets rid of it, and convinces your computer it never existed.

nCleaner

nCleaner is there for all the crap stuff that’s on your computer that you’ll never need, use, or notice. And it just so happens to take up tons and tons of space.

nCleaner, once you install it, gives you a bunch of options – “Clean System,” which gets rid of things like old, unused files, history and cache files (which are one of the biggest space- and speed-hogs you’ve got), as well as unnecessary registry entries; “Find Junk,” which deletes things like log and temporary files, as well as empty files and folders; “Tweak,” which adds a bunch of cool, simple features to Windows like “Enable fast shutdown” and “Disable Hibernation”; and “Startup Man,” which lets you control which apps start when you boot your computer (a big speed-boost, when you see how many things try to start when you boot your computer).

This is certainly the most dangerous app to run, because it’s deleting a ton of files and folders from your computer – it freed up 11GB of space on one friend’s computer! For the most part, though, it’s incredibly smart, and has never given me an issue. nCleaner’s there for getting rid of the clutter Windows is so good at creating, and giving you back your computer.

Spybot Search and Destroy

Spybot Search and Destroy finds all the spyware, adware, and malware on your computer. Usually, these are programs that get installed when you download a corrupted song, video, or file – they run in the background, generally annoying more than harmful, but can slow your computer way down.

Using Spybot, you can both protect your computer against these problems (The “Immunize” section), or find them and fix them (the “Search and Destroy” part). Spybot searches through your entire computer, and then blasts away anything it finds. Spyware and adware can slow your computer down all by themselves, but Spybot makes them easy to nuke.

For optimal computer awesomeness (that’s the technical term), I’d update and run all of these programs about once every three weeks. It’s amazing how much can pile up in that amount of time, but an hour with these three applications will free up space, speed up your computer, and make your whole experience a whole lot better.

I’ve probably just cost myself some “I need you to fix my computer” calls – I think I can live with that.

Got any other tips for how to speed up, and generally improve, your computer’s performance?

Photo: iStockPhoto

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