A Quick and Easy Way to Speed Up Windows

Please don't expect to go from a medium-crawl to lightning-fast by using this little trick; it isn't that spectacular. But it should make a noticeable difference in the way your computer responds. As stated, it's quick and easy, and better yet, it's reversible. If you don't like what you get from it, or if you think it's just not worth what you lose, you can change it back just as easily as you set it up.

First, go to your Control Panel. In case you have never done anything like this, you get to the Control Panel by left-clicking on Start in the lower left-hand corner of your screen. Your computer may do something slightly different, but on mine a window pops up, divided into a left side and a right side. I have Windows XP, by the way, on my desktop computer. My laptop has Vista, so I know it's a little different and yours may be too, if you have some other version of Windows, but what you're looking for should still be fairly easy to find. On the left side are things like Internet Explorer, my e-mail, and the last few programs I've used. On the right side are some useful tools and locations on my computer; one of them is the Control Panel. Click on Control Panel and a window will open.

In the Control Panel you'll see things like "Add or Remove Programs", "Display", "Internet Options", and so on. Near the end of the list you will see "System"; left double-click on this icon and a small pop-up window should appear, labeled "System Properties", or something similar. The initial view is general information and the "General" tab is at the front. There is some useful information here, but you want to click the tab that says "Advanced". Don't let that scare you; you're almost there.

Left-click the Advanced tab and you will see that the first section is marked Performance. Inside this section is a box labeled Settings; left-click on it. When you do, it will open another pop-up window. Mine has three tabs; Visual Effects, Advanced, and Data Execution Prevention. Everything you need to look at is on the Visual Effects tab. You'll see that there are some options here with bullets, mine has four. By default, mine was set at "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer", and yours probably is too. This is because Microsoft wants to show off all of the neat little things it can do to give you a more pleasant experience, visually. Note that there is also a list of options with check boxes beside them. It's likely that all of the boxes are checked.

This is where Windows hides a lot of the little bells and whistles that are built into the program. Things like "Fade or slide menus into view", "Show shadows under mouse pointer", and "Smooth edges of screen fonts". If you want all of those things going on that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that because it's just a matter of personal preference. But, each one of those check boxes represents a little bit of your available memory that's devoted to the listed task. Read the list. If there are some things you really can't live without, left-click on the bullet marked "Custom" and uncheck, by left-clicking the check boxes, the ones you don't really want. If you're like me, and performance is more important than a polished look, left-click the bullet marked "Adjust for best performance" and it will turn off all of that stuff.

Whatever you choose to do, left-click the button at the bottom marked "Apply", then the one marked "OK". This will close the pop-up. Left-click "OK" again for the System Properties window and close the Control Panel. You will notice a different look, I think of it as a more "mechanical" look, but you should also notice that your programs respond just a bit faster too; not astonishingly so, but noticeable. If you really can't stand the appearance, (it's really not that much different, even though it takes a little getting used to), you can go back and set things the way they were in just a few seconds. Follow the steps, and when you get to the Performance tab, left-click the bullet that says "Let Windows choose...", then continue with the steps to the end.

In summary; Start --> Control Panel --> System --> Advanced --> Performance --> (make a choice) --> Apply --> OK --> OK --> close Control Panel