Computer column: Faster, Part II

By Bruce Richardson

Speed up your computer Part 2

Generally, the number one reason why a healthy computer is slow is because of your anti-virus programs.

Now, we all know that you need some protection out there, but here’s what happens: You have recently purchased a computer.  Windows Vista has a Fire Wall and Windows Defender automatically installed, but in the ‘off’ position.  The maker of the computer usually gives you a 30 day subscription for a leading Anti-Virus program, and it is in the ‘on’ position. 

Your friend tells you about the free AVG software, so you load it up. You also load up a ‘spybot’ download, and an ‘adware’ killer. I see a lot of machines like this, people have 4 or 5 anti-virus programs and their machine is a slow as a slug. 

You can tell yourself by how long it takes your computer to boot up and be ready for you. Each one of those programs get initiated at start up, checks for updates, scans recent files…and when you have 5 of these programs running at the same time, it is slow going.

What is going on is that each program runs all of the time. Each one is looking and checking things when you move from site to site, or page to page and it eats up your memory and processor. I won’t tell you that one is better than another, but I will tell you that, at most, you need only two.  Pick two and uninstall the rest. I say two because you should have one anti-virus program, and one program to take care of adware cookies.

I also have to remind all of you that Internet Explorer is the slowest Browser of them all, and that you do not have to live with it. Currently, Google Chrome is the fastest browser – but it is a beta version.

Check out Firefox, and also Safari. The revised Safari is much better than it used to be. It was designed for the Mac world, but works on a Windows machine as well.

I mention the browsers, because Internet Explorer is the standard browser to attack for hackers and is the primary reason for constant updates from Microsoft and anti-virus software makers.

Regardless of the Browser you select, stay away from adding toolbars.  All of them chew up the speed of the computer. You don’t need the Yahoo, Google, Ask toolbars.

I am a fan of everything Google, except the Google Desktop. The Google Desktop programs runs all of the time indexing files on your computer…ugh; in the guise of finding things for you quickly.

Quick hits: On XP and Vista, run Disk Cleanup – it is in Accessories/System Tools, this will delete temporary files, downloaded program files, old set up files. Do this once a month.

After Disk Cleanup, run the Disk Defragmenter, which shakes up your hard drive and puts it back in order.  Schedule this to run weekly “after hours”.

On Windows XP you can get rid of the fancy Windows graphics which take up to 100MB of memory each time you run the machine. Go to the Control Panel then System.  On the Advanced Tab, click the settings button on Performance. The default setting is ”Let Windows decide….”, select the radio button  for Best Performance. This will deselect things like Shadows under the mouse cursor.  If you don’t like the results, you can always change it back.  

You can also do this in Vista, but I wouldn’t recommend it as Vista is a highly graphical interface.

An interesting trick for Vista users: you can use a flash drive for more memory space. This would work out best for a desktop that has a spare USB port. Put the Flash Drive in the port, then go to My Computer and Right Click on the drive and select Properties. There is a new Tab here labeled ReadyBoost.  Click on “use this device” and try it out.

There are some other things that you can do, but are for advanced users only.  Some of them are covered by those programs that you can buy that will work with the Registry and Services and Processes that are not for the faint of heart. You would do just as well to remove old programs that you no longer use. Take care of your machine and try to run it lean and mean for a happier computing experience.

Bruce Richardson is the owner of Purple Tree Farms in Ocean Shores. Bruce is a Web Designer and Technology Consultant; he can be reached at 360-500-3643.  His website is www.purpletreefarms.com.