How to Keep Your Windows PC Running at Maximum Performance

1. Analyze and Defragment your hard drive. Over periods of time frequently used files on your computer may become fragmented. Defragmenting your hard drive will allow windows to easily access your files in the correct order and will make many tasks run alot faster. You can defragment your hard drive by going to the start menu>all programs>accessories>system tools>disk defragmenter. It usually takes a few hours for your hard drive to become fully defragment. So it is best to run this sort of thing overnight if u have work to do on your computer during the day.

2. Do a Virus Scan. Virus's will cause chaos on your pc and cause your personal information to be leaked to undesired sources. There are many popular virus scanners on the market today. I recommend Norton AntiVirus. But there is a very large selection on many websites, Go to www.majorgeeks.com and select Anti-Virus software and they will give u a large selection to choose from.

3. Make sure you are firewalled. Firewalls will help you keep all of your information safe from the internet and also keep you safe while you are using the internet from various hackers. In Windows XP there is a preinstalled Firewall that comes pre-installed on your system. This firewall in my opinion will keep you safe but it does lack on options. I recommend www.majorgeeks.com again to find various firewall software to choose from. My choice of firewall software is Zone Alarm, Which gives u many options with your ports and all of your ingoing and outgoing connections to make sure that your internet is protected.

4. Remove unwanted startup programs. Removing unwanted startup programs will dramitcally decrease the time it takes for you to start up your computer and log on to Windows. If you have to many programs trying to start up at once it will lag your computer when it trys to start all of its general system processes. To remove unwanted startup programs just go to start>run>msconfig and then select the startup tab. Then uncheck the unwanted or unrecognizable programs that you have on your startup list. Remove as many programs as possible from that list and the more your computers startup time will speed up.

5. Adjust Windows Visual Effects. Adjusting the Windows visual effects will also show a noticable increase in performance on your PC. The easiest way to do this is go to your Control Panel, Select Performance and Maintanence, Then click on the Visual Effects thing. Then a new window will come up allowing you to Adjust the visual effects to your preference which u can make for better preformance or visual quality.

6. Remove all Adware and Spyware. Many sites that you may visit or programs that you download will come attached with Adware or spyware. These 2 things are very dangerous for your computer and will slow it down dramatically. I recommend that you use AdAware software to scan and remove Adware and Spyware from your computer. The AdAware software can be downloaded from www.lavasoftusa.com.

7. Broadband Internet. Nowadays, It is not very common to see someone using dial-up internet. But i thought that i would include this because it is a very essiental part keeping your PC running at maximum performance. Having broadband internet such as cable and DSL will dramatically increase your internet surfing and downloading speeds when compared to dial-up. If you do not yet have broadband internet then you should defiantly check out www.dslreports.com and look for a internet service provider close to your area.

8. Keep your desktop clean. It is important to keep your desktop clean and free of unwanted icons. You should only have the essiental program shortcuts on your desktop. The more icons that you have cluttering your desktop can defiantly slow down preformance when switching between different tasks. Unwanted icons can easily be deleted off your desktop and you will not be deleting the program itself, Just the shortcut icon.

9. Make sure you have the latest drivers. It is important to keep all of your computer hardware up to date with the latest software drivers. Video cards, Sound Cards, and Motherboards are things that you will want to search for the newest drivers available for your particular hardware. Hardware manufacters such as www.ati.com , and www.nvidia.com host drivers on thier websites for download and you will notice significant video improvement if you upgrade the drivers of your video card.

10. Upgrade your memory. This is a very simple concept. Upgrading the memory on your PC will allow you to run more things at a faster speed, and will also increase loading times between the system and programs. I suggest www.newegg.com when looking for memory to install in your PC. I also recommend atleast 1GB of ram to keep your PC running at maximum performance.