CLEAN PRE-FETCH FOLDER

Every time you launch a program for the first time, Windows creates a file that will make the program launch quicker the next time you use it. This little file is stored in a folder called Prefetch. Like any other folder, the Prefetch folder can get pretty cluttered as it accumulates files for different applications. As a result, all that clutter starts slowing down your computer, even though it's meant to be speeding it up. The solution is to give your Prefetch folder a cleanup every now and again.

To clean the Prefetch folder, do the following:

1.   Click on Start and type prefetch in the Search bar (XP users: go to Start - Run, type prefetch in the Run box). Hit Enter
2. The Prefetch folder will open
3. Now simply highlight everything in the folder by pressing Ctrl+A and hit the Delete key.

POWER OPTIONS

Power options can be tweaked for increasing the performance of PC. Follow the below given method to unlock its full potential.

1. Go to ‘Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->Power Options->Edit Plan Settings’
2. Click on ‘Change advanced power settings’
3. Collapse ‘Processor power management’
4. Change the value of ‘Minimum processor state’ to a higher one than the default value.
5. Change ‘Switchable Dynamic Graphics’ and ‘Graphics power setting to ‘Optimize performance’ and ‘Maximize performance’ respectively.
6. Click Ok button.

The above procedure will increase the clock speed of processor to its maximum capability. Some processors may auto control their clocks, But this trick works on most PCs.

PC SELECTION

Four factors to take care while selecting your brand new laptop are

1. Performance
2. Portability
3. Screen Size
4. Thickness

1. Performance

Performance is a concern for most people in the hunt for a new laptop. But the fact is that most users are not aware of what should be the performance needed. If you go behind performance, you will end up in expensive laptops. But the fact is that, you may not be using its full potential in its lifetime.

Here are some common tasks that will benefit greatly from more powerful hardware.

• Audio/Video de/encoding and editing
• Photo editing
• Programming
• Editing large spreadsheets, documents and PDFs
• Games

Some people don't frequently perform any of these tasks, and if that sounds like you, a basic laptop should suffice.

Users who want a computer that can handle several of these workloads at least several times a week, on the other hand, should start thinking about the benefits of an Intel Core i5 or i7.

2. Portability

Battery life is a commonly quoted statistic that holds just as much weight as a computer's performance. Usually the systems are capable of providing 80 % of the battery backup as promised by the manufacturer. But for intensive workloads such as gaming it could drop to 40-50 %. But the good news is that there are many laptops which will retain the battery for up to 5 hours with ease. Some ultra-books can even achieve up to 13 hours.

3. Screen Size

Display size of laptop varies from 10.1" to 18.4". The size of the display naturally determines the size of the rest of the laptop, which in turn determines what that laptop can do.

Let's break down laptops into categories based on their display:

• 10.1" - Netbook. Extremely portable, but difficult for people with large hands. The small size of the chassis limits hardware to CPUs with poor performance.
• 11-12.9" - Small ultraportable. Still easy to carry, and easier to use. Faster hardware can fit, but there are still limitations on performance.
• 13-14.1" - Large ultraportable. Easily fits in all but the smallest bags, but difficult to use on an airplane and most forms of public transport. CPU performance can be excellent, but GPU performance iGIMs often lacking.
• 14.2-17" - Mainstream laptop. Somewhat portable, but it won't fit in some bags. Performance is solid and some models offer excellent GPUs. A good all-rounder.
• 17" or more - Desktop replacement. Won't fit in all but the largest backpacks. The best mobile hardware will fit, including high-performance GPUs. Most gaming laptops and high-end multimedia laptops are in this category.

4. Thickness

Products with a thick profile are considered outdated or unattractive, and sometimes ignored entirely. Now a day’s Ultra-books which has a thin profile has become trendy. Thin laptops are attractive, weighs less, portable. But thick laptop on the other hand can fit in high performance hardware inside. It also has better cooling mechanism and better battery backup.

OPTIMIZING WINDOWS APPEARANCE

Turn off wallpaper and disable screensaver.

Both the wallpaper and the screensaver are not needed by your PC and only have an aesthetic value. True, screen savers were a necessity for old CRT screens, but now they are pretty much obsolete, just like the screens that required them.

Switching your wallpaper and screensaver off is super-easy:

Windows XP:

1. Right-click somewhere on your desktop and click on Properties
2. Go to the Desktop tab and set the background to None. You can then choose a background color

1. that you like best.
2. Now go to the Screensaver tab and set it to None. Click Apply, then click OK.

Windows 7:

1. Right-click somewhere on your desktop and click on Personalize
2. Click on the Desktop Background icon, then select Solid Colors in the Picture Location drop-down box and choose a background color that you like best
3. Click on the Save changes button
4. Now click on the Screen Saver - None icon to disable the screensaver
5. Click OK.

Adjust color scheme and visual effects

Remember that the pretty Windows is not the fastest Windows, especially if you have the "eye candy" Windows 7 with Aero and transparency enabled. So, if in your book performance is more important than looks, you should consider choosing a more minimalistic look. Here is how:

Windows XP:

1. Press the Windows key + the Pause/Break key to open System Properties
2. Go to the Advanced tab
3. Locate the Performance section and click on the Settings button
4. Now select the Adjust for best performance radio button.

This will make your Windows look very minimalistic and even out of date. If you don't mind that, then simply enjoy the performance gain. But if you'd still like XP to look more like XP, simply select the Custom radio button and select the visual effect you like.

Windows 7:

If it's the first time you are customizing Windows 7 appearance settings, you will need to switch Aero off. Yes, it looks nice, but it's also exceptionally resource-hungry. Here is how you can disable Aero:

1. Right-click somewhere on your desktop and go to Personalize
2. Now you can select a less resource-hungry theme, such as Windows 7 Basic or Windows Classic.

 If you want to keep Aero, but still gain some performance, click Window Color in the same window and uncheck the Enable Transparency box. You can also use the Windows XP method described above to adjust Windows 7 for best performance.  

MULTIPLE DRIVE CREATION

Creating multiple drives is a helpful strategy to improve overall speed of a computer. Most of the time computers come equipped with an OS and a single drive. But creating multiple drives in a system will improve efficiency of virtual memory and paging. Also it helps in the classification of drives and efficient defragmentation.

Creation of multiple drives can be done using following method.

1. Click start button
2. Type ‘Computer Management’.
3. On the search results select the same.
4. In the ‘Computer Management’ window, Select ‘Disk Management’.
5. Select the single drive.
6. Right click on the drive and select ‘Shrink Volume’.
7. On the windows opened, select the size of new drive to be formed.
8. Click on Shrink.
9. Now you will be able to see a newly unformatted drive.
10. Right click on the drive and select ‘New Simple Volume’.
11. Click next after choosing the needed size.
12. On the Assign Drive Letter or Path page, specify whether you want to assign a drive letter or path and then click Next.
13. Use the Format Partition page to determine whether and how the volume should be formatted. If you want to format the volume, choose ‘Format This Volume’. Be sure to check ‘Perform a quick format’. Click next.
14. Click Finish.

 Congratulations, now a new partition is created.

KILLING RUNNING PROCESSES

One thing that all operating systems have in common is that they rely on hundreds of processes to run correctly. Basically, there are three main types of processes that can be running on your system - a) essential and non-essential system processes; b) processes run by applications installed on your computer; c) viruses and malware. Ideally, you'd like to have as little of the non-essential processes as possible because having too many running processes reduces your PCs speed. And you definitely don't want any viruses and malware!

To check which processes are running on your system simply launch the Windows Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc and go to the Processes tab. You will see the list of all processes running on your system and information on how much CPU and RAM they are consuming. The Task Manager also provides a PID and shows under which user profile the processes are running.

So, now you know what's running. But how to find out what exactly are all those processes, which ones are essential and which ones are not? While some process names are very straight-forward and you won't have any problems identifying the programs that run them (for example, Skype.exe), some process names won't give you any clues. But don't despair - there are plenty of ways to find out.

Manager displays running programs, processes, services, shows you which files are locked by other files, and allows you to unlock them.

Process Explorer allows you to expand process trees and view which services are part of which process. This is especially handy when you are researching a process like svchost.exe and need to know which tasks a particular svchost.exe instance is responsible for.

Now, if you want to disable unneeded processes, it's best to manage them either by disabling the software that runs them on startup or simply disable unnecessary Windows services that are responsible for running these processes. This approach is a lot better and safer than killing the process in the Task Manager. But if you are sure a process is run by a piece of malware, it's best to kill it immediately and run a scan with up-to-date security software. Here is how you can kill a process in the Task Manager:

1.  Open the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc
2. Go to the Processes tab
3. Right-click on a process you wish to stop and select End Process.

UNINSTALLING UNUSED SOFTWARE

When you buy a new computer you may notice many applications pre-installed in it. These may include trails versions of antiviruses, shareware programs or multimedia applications. If you find these programs to be useless you should definitely uninstall them, as they will only slow down the computer and also take up precious hard disk space.

Uninstalling programs is really easy. Here is how you can uninstall software via the Control Panel:

Windows XP:

1. Click on Start and go to the Control Panel
2. Click on Add or Remove Programs and wait for the list to populate
3. To uninstall a program, highlight it and click on the Remove button (sometimes Change / Remove)
4. Confirm your action and wait for the program to be uninstalled. You may need to restart your PC to complete the removal.

Some programs may give you a warning that removing some components of the application can make other programs run incorrectly. If this happens, simply click No to All and proceed. The important components will not be deleted.

Windows 7:

1. Click on Start and go to the Control Panel
2. Now click on Uninstall a program
3. You will get a list of installed software. Highlight the program you want to uninstall and click on Uninstall or Uninstall/Change
4. Confirm your action and wait for the program to be uninstalled. You may need to restart your computer to complete the removal.

Alternate method using software:

You can use the Uninstall programs feature in Advanced System Care.