Step 4: System Resources

There are two different types of memory. Read Only Memory (ROM) or your hard drive (C:\), that stores the files it needs for programs, and Random Access Memory (RAM), the "power" your computer sets aside to use at random for your computer to run programs at will. The more RAM your computer has, the faster it runs. Here we will change a few things on your computer to maximize its utilization of available RAM.

First I want you to look down the lower right corner of your computer by your system clock. How many icons do you have by that clock? Click the left arrow to show them all if necessary (Windows XP/Vista users).



Each of these icons are loading a program right on startup! This is why your computer takes so long to start up. They also continue to run, in the background, eating up your RAM. Do you need all these programs running all the time? Daily? The answer is most likely no, and we are going to do what we can to minimize the number of icons that show up by your system clock.

I have to describe how to do this one instead of helping visually with graphics because not everyone will have the same set of icons. We all have different programs installed on our computers.

One at a time, double click each icon, or go to "Start, All Programs" to open the program that the icon is associated with. If you put your mouse over the icon and hold it there for a second, a little pop up display should tell you what program the icon belongs to. Once open, go into the programs "Options" or "Preferences" and find where it says "Open this program when windows starts" or "Show this icon in the system tray" or both! You may have to do a little digging, but again, be assertive! You want no more than three or four icons by the system clock at any given time. Not all programs will have the option to remove from startup but be sure it is not available before you give up. Common offenders are RealPlayer, QuickTime, etc. Icons that you will not need to get rid of are things like your computer's volume speaker, the safely remove hardware icon, and your anti-virus. You DO want your anti-virus running all the time!



Once your system clock icons are as few as possible, go to "Start, All Programs" and then to the "Startup" folder. Anything in this folder also loads every time you start your computer. You can delete these, (especially Microsoft Office) they are only shortcuts and you will not delete the program. Right-click and select delete from the drop menu. You will get a dialogue box informing you that it is just a shortcut and that you are not deleting the program, click "Ok." You want this folder empty!



Once your "Startup" folder is empty, there are a couple of things to remember in general. One is try not to open and close programs repeatedly. Most programs have memory "leaks." Just because you close a program does not mean you have gained all of that RAM back. Some, but not all. Make sure to restart your computer once a day, to clear your RAM, in a sense you are "wiping the slate clean" or "clearing the chalkboard" by restarting. Also, make sure you do not install so many programs that you take up all the space on your computer. Always make sure you have at least 300 MB of space left on your hard drive at all times. You may check this by double clicking "My Computer," right-click on the (C:\) drive, and go to "Properties." It will tell you how much space you have left in a blue and pink pie graph. If you are running out of space on your hard drive, go to "Start, Control Panel," and select "Add or Remove Programs" and uninstall any programs you do not use. I strongly recommend that you do not remove anything that you do not know what it is.

There are a few more extras that you can do to speed up. Some of them ruin the entertaining extras of your computer, so these are more optional. They are not necessary unless you need drastic measures to speed you up. A good idea would be to skip these optional ones, complete the rest of the steps in this tutorial, and if your computer is still running slowly to come back here and try these after you have determined you still need more speed.

1. If you have a CRT Monitor, turn off your screen saver. Monitors made after 1991 are better and screen burn-in is no longer a problem. Your screen saver is a timer, and it uses RAM to run every time you stop typing or moving the mouse. If your monitor is an LCD you will need a screensaver.

2. Leave the desktop as a standard single color with no background, picture or pattern. Stay away especially from using an animated .gif on your desktop.

3. Keep away from using fancy or animated mouse cursors - there can be a 25% increase in speed by disabling these.

4. In Microsoft Office, turn off the "Office Assistant" (the paper-clip guy). The assistant takes an incredible amount of RAM.

6. Right click on your desktop and select "Properties." Click on the "Settings" tab. If your Color Quality reads "32 bit" or "24 bit", change it to "16 bit." Click the "Advanced" button. In the new window that appears, click the "Troubleshoot" tab (If you are running Windows 98, look for a tab that says "Performance" instead). You should see a "Hardware Acceleration" slider that is probably all the way to the right. Drag it one notch to the left. Click "Ok." Depending on your video card, the above fix should show a big improvement. Note, however, that on certain older video cards, you won't have a "Troubleshoot" or "Performance" tab in which to change the "Hardware Acceleration" setting. In that case, you will not be able to perform the above fix.

If you are new to computers, you should now go to step 5. Only comfortable users should attempt the portion below.

Keep it easy, take me to Step 5!

Note: Use of this site assumes your agreement and is in no way responsible or claims any sort of liability for your computer. Although this information is necessary for computer maintenance and does resolve the majority of system problems, this site provides no guarantee every issue will be resolved due to the vast array of potential problems an end user may be experiencing.

There is one more step you can take to control what your computer loads on startup. Go to "Start, Run," type "msconfig" and click "Ok."



The "System Configuration Utility" will come up. Select the "Startup" tab. There is a list of programs under "Startup Item" that your computer also loads every time your computer starts up. If you had any problems removing icons next to your system clock, here is the heart of where this occurs, and you can remove those stubborn icons here. Some items are obvious what program they start up, like Yahoo (ypager), RealPlayer (real), or QuickTime (abbreviation QT as a lead in). The "Command" heading shows where that startup file is located, that will help you identify what program is starting up by what folder it is in. Put your cursor between the "Command" and "Location" headings, wait for your cursor to change, click and drag to widen the "Command" heading so you can read most of what is there. You want to uncheck as many of these startup items as possible, except your anti-virus and other necessary programs. However I do not suggest unchecking anything that you cannot figure out what program it belongs to. Make sure you can identify what program it belongs to before unchecking it. Certain printers and other similar hardware may lose some functionality. If that happens, you can come back here and recheck those items to restore them.



Click "Ok" and a dialogue box will warn you that your changes will not take place until you have restarted. Click "Restart." Once you have restarted, you will see the following dialogue box:


Check "Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when windows starts" and click "Ok."

Subsequent boot up times should be fairly fast. Next we will clean out junk file folders.