Tweaks

Just recently I've become a little obsessed with getting my PC and Windows XP to run as quickly and efficiently as possible. I've found some really good, simple tips which do not require any great knowledge of what makes your computer tick, but which will make a great deal of difference to how it ticks.

Before you do anything though set up a restore point. Click Start > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore and just follow the wizard. Now if you mess anything up you can simply roll back your system and have another try. As an additional precaution, if you are not really sure about any of the following tips, then leave things alone.

Step one is easy. Open Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs. Run down the list and uninstall anything you don't need. Most PCs come with a whole load of programmes you'll never use so dump them. Then delete all the unnecessary shortcuts on your desktop.

Now, to free up a load of memory you should change the default settings for your Recycle Bin and System Restore. Right click the Recycle Bin icon and select properties. You'll see a slide bar which controls the amount of memory your system reserves for the recycle bin. The default setting is something like 12% which is just stupid. Slide it all the way down to 1% and click Apply. You run Disk Cleanup (Start > Accessories > Stystem Tools > Disk Cleanup) once a week anyway (right?) so 1% will be plenty on room. Then right click the My Computer icon either on your desktop or from the menu and again select Properties. Click the System Restore tab, slide the little bar down to 1% and click Apply.

Just going back to System Tools for a second, as well as Disk Cleanup you should also Defrag your C Drive at least once a week. The Defrag programme under System Tools is slow and uses too much virtual memory but solving this problem is easy. Open up Notepad (Start > Accessories > Notepad) and type DEFRAG C: Save this to your desktop as DEFRAG C.BAT and you now have a simple batch file which will defrag your C drive when you double-click the icon. Full details can be found here.

Next follow this link. You'll find six pages of really simple things to do to your system that will make a significant difference to the way it operates. I was quite frankly astonished at the improvement it made to the speed at which my PC runs. I cannot speak of it highly enough.

Windows XP does not come with a Registry cleaner like Win98 or WinME but it really could do with one. This page will tell you all you need to know about cleaning and optimising your Registry and contains links to two simple tools that will do the job for you.

Wasn't that easy? Hasn't it made a difference?

You can find many more advanced tips at TweakHound, Help With Windows and More Than 50 Ways to Tweak Your Windows. Go explore.

Two more tips. I take it as read that none of you use Microsoft's Internet Explorer. If you do, stop today. I use Opera and Firefox and they both kick IE's arse. There are links on my sidebar to both. Firefox is probably the better of the two, but I prefer the tabbed browsing feature in Opera so use this when I'm doing research as I always seem to end up with dozens of pages open.

This page gives some fairly easy tweaks to make Firefox load and run more quickly, while this page contains a whole load of advice for Opera 8 users. If you get any problems with Opera 8 crashing (and I did) you need to download Java Runtime 5.0 Update 4.