How to speed up most Windows computers, step-by-step
A customer, Katlin, called. Her old computer was crawling along. She had very little computer experience, it was in our best interest to make the computer run better, so that she could complete the new computerized time clock software installation. Computers need a good "tune-up" at least once a year. Please realize that you to these things at your own risk, we are not responsible if things go bad. That being said, these are the steps we suggested she take:
Close all your programs. Click on start, select the RUN command. Type MRT and hit enter. This launches the Microsoft Malicious Software Repair Tool. Follow the prompts and run this utility. Just do a quick scan. If it finds any suspect files, delete them.
Run Windows Update, reboot, run it again, reboot, etc, reboot until they are done. I also select the CUSTOM updates..
www.windowsupdate.com
Once it's updated, remove whatever antivirus program you have, and reboot. We suggest replacing it with Microsoft Windows Defender, which is free. From your program list, find your current antivirus program, look for a link that uninstalls it. If you cannot find the program and uninstall utility, do it this way: Go to the Control Panel, then select Add/Remove programs and find your antivirus program there. Click on it, tell it to remove everything. Ignore the warnings. Once it is done, restart your computer and continue. Open Internet Explorer again. It's okay, you are not at risk unless you go "surfing" or open emails before you do this next step - Click on this link:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17
I would run the suggested scan after you do the rest of these things (run the scan tonight).
Go back to the Control Panel. Remove those unused programs from add/delete programs in the Control Panel. Remove stupid things that got loaded in error, programs you never need, widgets you never used. But do not delete something that you are not certain of.
Tip: If you are unsure what it is, open up IE and type the name of the program in the "google box". The google knows everything. Example: What is bobstoolbox? In the event you see a program named bobstoolbox. It might be something you need, or it could be "bloatware."
Next, using Internet Explorer, download, install, and run both parts of this freeware: I would not add it to startup, I would uncheck all the little boxes, just install the basic version, then run it. http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/8818/ You want the option at the upper right, it's about 2.83 mb.
Run this utility. Skip the analyis, just click on the option to the far right, lower box. It cleans out all the unused old files. Then run the Registry utility - in that order, then reboot. It will ask you to save changes, say yes, take the defaults. This is a powerful, valuable utility. Do not let it install extra programs, Google or Yahoo toolbars, desktop shortcuts, a startup shortcut, etc. Make sure nothing extra is checked.
Download, tell it to replace the existing Windows defragment utilty, and run this:
http://www.piriform.com/defraggler
This may take some time, it's really important to let it do it's thing. Again, do not let it install extra programs, Google or Yahoo toolbars, desktop shortcuts, a startup shortcut, etc. Make sure nothing extra is checked.
Tonight, run Windows Defender, have it do a deep scan. Leave in on overnight. In the morning, follow the prompts, complete the steps, then reboot your computer and enjoy the new speedy pc!
If you want to take it to the next level, download, install, and run this little utility called Speccy. Speccy inspects your system and tells you how much disk space you have, what kind of RAM (and how much), what kind of motherboard, etc. You can print them out, then you know more when you go talking to your computer salesman/repairman:
http://www.piriform.com/speccy Lastly, do not let it install extra programs, Google or Yahoo toolbars, desktop shortcuts, a startup shortcut, etc. Make sure nothing extra is checked.