32 Ways to Speed UP Your PC

Details

Category: Tutorials

Published on Thursday, 05 March 2020 09:56

Written by Ben

Hits: 2719

Introduction

In this article i will go over all of the possible ways to highten the performance of your computer and getting the best out of it without the need to but a new one. This article is a bit long and could've been even longer had i included the ways in which to apply these ways. The methods of applying the mentioned ways described in thios article will be published in seprated articles.

1. Delete unused software

Though first in order in this article, that would be one of the last resorts taken to speed up your computer since it is better to have certain software installed on your machine, ready to be used at a click of button. Since the removal of software leaves behind a lot of “leftover data” both in the shape of files, folders and registry keys, it is best to do so before going ahead with the next steps of cleaning up described further in this article.

In some cases, some software and certain applications take too much space relatively to the size of the partition or disk, and part of these applications come along with their own background services and startup applications. So by removing software that aligned with the latter described, you remove plenty other of performance inhibitors as well.

In addition to space and background processes, the frequency of usage would also be a factor in deciding whether or not a piece of software should be deleted. This is very true in cases of games for example due to their high storage space usage and in contrast, a relatively short completion time.

2. Remove Unnecessary Applications From being Started Up

In many cases , installed software and applications also install some “by products” in the form of background services and applications that continuously work in the background without the user even knowing about it. These “by products” are often presented to the user during the installation process of the parent software as an optional bundled software or as an optional supplemental service. These suggestions are usually ignored by the average user and he/she end up just approving and clicking NEXT, eager to finish with the installation process, often mistakenly thinking that these optional add-ons are a crucial part of the parent software.

Good examples for these kind of “by products” are:

• printer agents running in the background, checking up on your printer's various statuses like toners levels for example.
• Anti-Malware software that were downloaded only for manual scanning of your computer, end up installing an agent running in the background
• Remote control software that were intended to be used once during a remote support session and ended up adding themselves to your application start up list
• Various update agents for Chrome, Firefox, Adobe software, Java, Microsoft Office etc
• Smartphone sync and backup software

3. Check For Multiple Anti-Virus, Firewall and Anti-Malware Running          Agents

In many cases, everyday users and some power ones unknowingly install additional software that is included in bundled installations. These bundled software install themselves in a similar way to the one described in the previous section. Most of these security solution software are anti-malware ones that come in the shape of browser extensions and site advisors. Many users don't pay much attention to the possibility of having overlapping solutions and continue with the installation process, ending up having unnecessary redundant security solutions.

In cases when a user decides to move over to a different security solution software, the newly chosen solution's installation process would identify the presences of the current one that is already installed in the computer and would ask the user either to remove it through the installation process or ask for the users themselves to manually remove it and then start the installation again (Manual removal usually is resorted to due to the inability of the installation process to remove the current solution by itself). If the installation process of the new security solution software fails to identify the presence of an already existing similar one and the users themselves do not remove it as well, they might end up having more than one security solution on their computer.

4. Scan For Spyware,Bloatware, Malware and Viruses

Scanning for viruses:

Besides data corruption, data theft and software malfunctions, viruses and malware could cause Windows installations to become very slow over time. The aforementioned bad stuff that these kind of software could inflict on a given machine is more than often done silently in the background in order to avoid detection and give the infected machine's user the sense that all is well. These hidden bad stuff that occur in the background consume computing power off of itself and slow it down, like a host infected with parasites.

Use your anti-virus scanner to perform a full scan of your system. If there is an option to included archived files – choose it, though it might make the scan be longer.

If you don't have an anti-virus solution or not able or interested to purchase one, there are a few good ones out there for free. A few examples would be

• Zone Alarm Free Antivirus – my personal choice.
• Avast Antivirus
• Bitdefender

Scanning for Spyware:

These type of hazardous software is less dangerous than viruses and worms but it has become considered over the years to be almost as damaging given enough “digital freedom”. It is a well known fact that spyware slows down computer systems. There are many free solutions out there that would be sufficient enough to keep your computer systems safe and clean of spyware. A few examples are:

1. Spybot Search&Destroy
2. Spyware Hunter
3. Spyware Blaster
4. Malwarebytes

5. Check The Running Power Plan

Unless changed by the vendor, after its installation, by default, Window uses a default power plan called Balanced, which means that power to the CPU would be determined by the usage of the user. More usage means a higher CPU frequency and this means more power driven towards the CPU. When the computer is not in use, or at the very least, in a low usage, this power scheme makes the CPU frequency drop, in favor of saving power.

This method of power saving works well and is very useful especially when using a laptop while working outdoors or when being the road very often. However, sometimes it fails to detect high usage by the user and in worse cases, just causes the CPU frequency to stay on a constant minimal one.

Therefore it is advised for PC users to change their used power plan from Balanced or Low Performance to High Performance. Laptop users' recommend power plan depends much on their method of using their computer and might vary from time to time depending on the circumstances of their workload, location and access to a power port.

Many known computer manufacturers publish their own power plans for Windows based computer systems. These power plans are usually already present in the version of Windows bought with the laptop. If that is not the case, many of these manufacturers make these power plans available for download on their websites.

6. Check The CPU Frequency

This section is very much related to the previous one but not entirely. Unlike previous generations of processors, both from Intel and AMD, the frequency of a CPU does not hold much significance anymore like other important features such as; number of cores, number of logical cores, instruction sets and built-in hardware support for specific uses.

Despite the aforementioned, a modern CPU would not be so effective and “fast” if it would run on let's say, 100MHZ, no matter how much advanced modern instructions sets and a big number of cores it has (That is, unless it has like, 1000 cores. In that case a 100MHZ core speed would result in a 100GHZ CPU chip speed, but, as of 2020, the average consumer doesn't have access to this kind of hardware, yet). Therefore it is very important to check if the CPU frequency is running on at least 80% of its maximum limit.

CPU frequency is a value than changes constantly and there are many attributes that influence this value. These attributes are mainly the:

• Usage of the user (Running applications)
• CPU temperature
• Running power plan

7. Check The RAM Usage

A significant amount of modern end-point computers these days have, relatively speaking, a lot more RAM than computers that were modern 2 decades ago had. 8 Gigs of ram is considered in a lot of cases a minimum amount of RAM just to start with. If RAM is the food, applications would be the appetite. This appetite has grown in a megalomaniac scale for certain applications and software to the point that not any amount of Ram would be sufficient enough for them, one example would be Chrome browser.

On a typical machine, when available RAM gets consumed and leaves no free RAM, the operating system starts using the hard drive, as a virtual RAM by using its page file or page files if there's more than one configured. These files are limited in size due to pre-configurtion of either the files themselves or the partition they are in. In older machines that used mechanical hard drives as the primary operating system disk, this course of action slowed performance significantly. With the advent of faster static hard drives, otherwise known as SSDs and faster interfaces such as M.2, Mini-PCI-Express and NVME performance issues when operating systems use this method got reduced. Yet, the RAM pathways and the RAM itself still perform better than using page files.

Usually there is one main culprit for a mega RAM appetite.

8. Install More RAM

If you have gone through the previous section and did everything you could to free up RAM to no avail, then perhaps it is time to add more RAM to your machine. In many cases a RAM volume upgrade would not be considered as a Taboo. Certain users, their methods and lines of work require the usage of RAM consuming applications and software. A few examples would be engineers, technical writers, video and music editors and high end gamers.

After deciding to get more RAM, One doesn't just walk down to the nearest store and asks for more RAM. Increasing the RAM amount of a given machine needs to be planned ahead and a purchase of the wrong type of RAM modules could result in money and time spent in vain and in worse cases damage to the motherboard, though I have yet to have seen cases that ended that way.

Prior to purchasing RAM modules the following's specifications need to be inspected thoroughly:

• Motherboard
• Motherboard's Chipset
• CPU currently installed on that motherboard

9. Install Faster RAM

In most cases, computer motherboards can support the usage of various ranges of RAM speeds, AKA frequencies. The exact supported frequencies could be read in the motherboard's manual. If the manual is lost or out of reach, you could often find a digital version of it in the motherboard's manufacturer's website. Besides, there are plenty of online websites that might have it on their servers as well.

The following tip is not recommended, but doable: If the motherboard manual is absolutely unattainable and there are no online records of someone else successfully using the same RAM frequency module with that same motherboard, then the only way of knowing if a certain motherboard would support a certain RAM frequency would be to go “no nonsense” style and just plug the RAM module onto that motherboard and hope for the best. If the motherboard beeps, usually twice in a row, and no display output is being shown on the monitor connected to that motherboard, then it means the motherboard doesn't support that RAM frequency.

In many cases the effect of the newly installed higher frequency RAM module/s is very noticeable and performance improvement is felt well. It is worth performing this course of action especially in older computer systems that were originally bought with RAM modules of the minimum frequency their motherboard supports, sometimes, just to keep the price of the overall computer as low as possible. By the time a RAM upgrade is needed, RAM modules of different frequencies in the range that the motherboard supports have probably gotten cheaper, making the return of investment very affordable.

Besides faster RAM frequencies, RAM timings could also be a big factor when upgrading RAM. In general, the lesser the timing value, the faster the RAM module is. Gamers usualy are the ones who are really fond of these values and would pursue RAM modules that are only have faster frequencies but have lower timings.

10. Upgrade the CPU

Every computer motherboard with a removable CPU tray mostly supports more than a single model of CPU. It has been like that for decades now and will probably continue to stay the same regarding desktop PCs and servers. In the laptop arena however it seems that manufacturers tend to favor soldered CPU motherboards, making future upgrades impossible for the average user and improbable and unaffordable for the tech savvy one (Unsoldering a CPU is not a small task, neither is soldering it back). Most of today's new and modern laptops come with a soldered CPU, therefore this tip is aimed mostly for desktop PC owners.

Like the RAM that came with the computer you purchased, its CPU wasn't probably a high-end one at the time of purchase due to various reasons. One of those reasons is the possibility that the vendor simply wanted to keep the price of the overall computer at a certain tier. A same computer with the same RAM but with a better CPU would've probably cost higher and, over time, by the time an upgrade is being thought of, a higher end CPU that is supported by the motherboard have had its price reduced, making the upgrade affordable.

Knowing which CPUs a motherboard supports can be sometimes very tricky and cross referencing a number of data sources is needed. Those data sources would be:

1. The motherboard's manual
2. The motherboard's Chipset specifications
3. Confirmation of successful upgrades from the web, typically from tech forums.
4. References from independent online upgrade databases like http://www.cpupgrade.com

I would start with the motherboard's manual. Then go to one of the online databases and check what high-end CPUs a motherboard supposedly supports. From there I would look online for proven successful upgrade testimonials, usually in various tech forums. The chipset would be investigated as well just to be on the safe side.

11. Add an External Video Card

Adding an external video card to a computer system results in several advantages. A major one would be a processing load being transferred from the CPU to the newly added video card. Though a major part of today's modern CPUs have built-in video cards, these video cards use a fixed amount of the computer's own RAM as video memory. Even in cases of older CPUs without a built-in video card that are installed on a motherboard with an on-board video card, this video card still uses the computer's own RAM. This RAM amount could be changed however through the BIOS/UEFI settings. Yet, it is better not to sacrifice any amount of RAM, even a minimum one, to be used as video memory.

An external video card eliminates this problem by taking over graphical processing for the most part by using its own on-board RAM which is also usually significantly faster than the RAM installed on the motherboard. This in turn takes the load off of the CPU which means more processing power for the CPU to perform other tasks and less heat generated by it when not needed to process graphical data.

A high-end video card is not really needed in this case, unless hard core gaming is planned. A low-end and a cheap video card would suffice to perform the mentioned above and a performance increase would be quite noticeable.

12. Update Windows/Linux

Believe it or not, sometimes Windows updates do make things a bit better, safer and faster. Same goes for Linux distributions. A good piece of software is never built in one day and a road would always need maintenance ones in a while. Updates are also meant to keep your operating system safer than it was before their deployment. A safer and a patched operating system means less chance of unwanted software finding their way into it, reducing the chances of slowing it down due to hidden malicious hidden background process.

13. Upgrade Windows/Linux

This would be the next step after updating Windows/Linux. An operating system upgrade doesn't just come with an extended support in the forms of updates and patches but also brings improvements made after learning from previous versions. Parts of these improvements are a more efficient code and features change, which usually lead to better overall performance of the new version of the operating system.

14. Update Drivers

New drivers are developed mainly to keep certain hardware compatible with new operating system versions and to fix bugs found in current and previous versions of those drivers when interfacing with the operating system and certain applications. In some cases, an updated driver may contribute to the overall performance of a given computer system, making it more stable, compatible and efficient.

15. Update UEFI/BIOS and Firmware

Besides annoying bugs, BIOS and firmware updates would make your overall system more stable and compatible with future software updates and upgrades and possible performance oriented hardware upgrades. It is recommended to update the UEFI/BIOS prior to making any hardware upgrade such as a CPU and RAM upgrade in order to avoid any possible compatibility issues.

16. Disable Fastboot In Power Options

Fastboot option in Windows is known to cause a few issues and it is recommend to disable it due to this reason. The correlation with performance issues is not 100% confirmed but for those of you who don't really care if your computer boots up 3 seconds faster than your others it might be not such a big deal to disable it.

17. Consider using a RAID-0 Array

RAID-0 Array is a performance oriented hardware based storage method that needs 2 hard drives for its configuration. This method basically uses 2 hard drives as one by stripping them into a one logical disk. This new logical disk's size equals the amount of the 2 drives it is made out of.

RAID-0 Array works by using the new logical disk as a single unit. Each time writing of data needs to be done to that single unit, it is done by writing to only one of the drives in the array, at a time, essentially splitting the data that is written between the drives. The same is done when reading data. This action reduces much of the reading and writing jobs needed to be done on each one of the drives, making the overall performance of the logical RAID-0 drive faster.

In other words, instead that one disk would read and write an entire piece of data, now this disk needs to read and write only part of it while the other part of that piece of data is being read and written by the other disk in the array.

Is RAID-0 a Good Solution?:

RAID-0 Arrays are fast, especially when using SSD disks. However, their Achilles heel is quite a painful one; if one of the disk in the array fails – the entire data stored in those disks and the logical drive is lost and is rendered recoverable. This solution would fit those who are very much aware of this issues with RAID-0 and would be willing to take the risk.

RAID-0 is a cheap and a simple solution since it only requires 2 disks for configuration. If a hard disk S.M.A.R.T monitoring software is installed and used by a RAID-0 user that would be a good start in keeping a tab over the health of the disks in the array. Daily sync and backup jobs would also be a strongly suggested course of action for those who use RAID-0 arrays since an unplanned failure that would not be detected by a S.M.A.R.T monitoring software, like power surges, could happen regardless of the array's disks' good health statuses.

18. Upgrade To an SSD

If your computer uses an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) as its primary disk then it is very much behind in terms of technological advancement. Sold State Drives, are also known as, SSDs, have revolutionized the tech world and freed the last bottleneck remained in computer systems – the hard drive (The other two were the CPU and the RAM).

If compatible both physically and logically, an SSD upgrade could present a giant performance leap for many computer systems, old and new alike. The passage from an HDD to an SSD could be done in two ways:

1. Discarting the HDD (Or reusing it as a secondary drive) and installing an SSD with a clean installation of an operating system,
2. Migrating the whole data present on the old HDD to the SSD, essentially cloning the HDD.

There are many types of SSDs out there and one must not confuse SSD disks and the type of interfaces they come with. The older interfaces are SATA1,2 and 3, and M.SATA. The newer interfaces are M.2 SATA and M.2 NVME.

1. Consider Using an NVME PCI-E card with an NVME SSD on It

SSDs mounted on PCI-Express expansion slots are a great solution for users who's computer's motherboards have only SATA interface connections. An SSD PCI-E card or an NVME SSD mounted on a PCI-E card could result in a significant performance boost to a given computer system. The downside in this course of action is loosing an expansion slot otherwise would've been used either with a video card or with other types of cards.

19. Minimize the usage of Chrome

No offense, I like Chrome, I personally use Chrome and from a personal experience I can support the claim that sometimes, for some users, it is best to change their primary browser from Chrome to other alternatives out there, Or at the very least, use more than one browsers for different purposes in the best combination that produces best performance results for both ones (or more).

Combination examples:

• Using Chrome for day to day browsing
• Using Firefox for Youtube and heavy video streaming

Chrome uses a lot of RAM and CPU resources. The tabs you open the of these resocures are going to be consumed by Chrome. The same of course goes for other browsers as well, but it seems that Chrome in particular is very fond of RAM and CPU cycles, especially when using Chrome for video streaming.

20. Increase the Size of Your Page file

Page files are meant to be the backup plans for RAM when it becomes fully occupied. It is suggested by many advanced users to keep the management of the page file in the hands of the operating system. However, some advanced users would tamper with it and modify its size.

A nominal size of a page file would usually be at the same size of the RAM installed on the computer. Another approach is to set the page file to be twice the size of the amount of RAM installed on that particular machine. So for example if a user has 4GB of RAM in a machine, the recommend page file size would be 8GB. This approach leaves a lot of room to spare but its primary noticeable effect is the loss of of a lot of disk space.

In a lot of cases, users would just experiment with various page file sizes while trying to maneuver between saving disk space as much as possible and between enhancing the overall system's performance and stability.

21. Check For Unknown Scheduled Tasks

Ever had the repeating DE-ja-vou kind of a feeling when working on your computer at a certain hour and exactly at that certain hour, for some reason, your computer works slowly than usual? If so, then there's a good chance an unknown scheduled task is running at the background.

During an initial installation of certain software, especially maintenance and anti-malware software, the installation process also adds a permanent re-occuring scheduled task. These tasks could be split into three kinds of tasks mainly – Update check ups, scanning jobs and maintenance jobs. Some tasks are scheduled to be performed at the same time, causing conflicts and reducing the overall performance of the computer even more so.

• Update check ups – These tasks mostly don't consume a lot of computing power, it is the installation of the updates themselves which slows down the system a bit rather than their download to your local computer. It is recommend to keep these tasks operational and scheduled only for important security software such as anti-viruses, anti-malware, firewall and anti-spyware software.

• Scanning Jobs – These tasks are done mostly by the the security related software mentioned above. These tasks could be disabled but bare in mind that besides real-time scanning for security vulnerabilities that is built-in with security software, you would have to manually start scanning your computer for in-depth security scans. These scans are highly recommended to be performed at least once a week on a given computer system. The most recommended course of action with these kind of tasks is to reschedule them to times when using the computer would be highly unlikely like for example during night time or lunch break, as long it is on of course.

• Maintenance Jobs – These tasks are mainly file defragmentation (For HDDs), Registry maintenance, Back up jobs and junk file disposal jobs. They are not critical and disabling them wouldn't expose your computer to security hazards but it would slow it down over time. Therefore , like with the scanning jobs, it is best to just reschedule these tasks to times when the computer is less likely to be used.

An important note – When rescheduling a task, make sure it would not overlap with other tasks. A Combination of two or more tasks running at the same time could result in a conflict, besides a reduction in performance

22. Decrease GUI Appearance Level in Favor of Performance

If you are not a big fan of Windows' slick and smooth UI (User Interface) along with the experience it delivers, performing this action wouldn't be a regrettable one. Though many of the modern CPUs these days are delivered with built-in video cards and could handle Windows' GUI quite well without any much of a hassle to the overall performance of the computer, disabling these GUI features could contribute a notch of a performance enhancement for an already slowed down system.

This course of action would take a bit of a load off of the built-in video card or the external one. It would not however fire up your computer into space in terms of performance enhancement. Of course, older computers without built-in video cards in their CPUs and without external ones would benefit better from this change.

23. Make Sure Write Caching is Enabled

Write caching is a Windows feature that uses your RAM to collect write instructions that were sent to hard drives and caches them until the slower hard drives can be written to later on. The effect is an overall improved performance. Usually this feature is turned on by default by Windows for permanent disks connected directly to the motherboard's storage interface connections.

This feature however is not turned on by default for USB based drives and other external ones. If using these kind of storage media is a necessity for your work and these disks are considered permanent ones, then turning this feature on should increase performance when using them.

24. Disable Unnecessary Services

This course of action would need to be done very carefully since disabling some service could cause the operating system not to boot up in the right way or worse and not boot up at all. Identifying unnecessary services could be tricky for the novice average user and even for the advanced one.

In most cases the services interface in Windows would show a description of a selected service, giving the user a general idea of its purpose and what it does. Easily unnecessary services that could be identified are ones that are related to software that is no longer installed on your computer for example.

25. Check Temperatures

Electronic parts and components perform better when heat generated by them is efficiently dissipated and to a certain degree perform even better when cooled down. A computer is no different and therefore it is important to check if its temperatures are too high, especially during summer times.

Besides the a temperature sensor within the CPU, a typical computer would also have temperature sensors on its motherboard, its power supply unit, within its storage devices and within its video card/cards. Those temperatures need to be as low as possible. If one of these component would not be sufficiently cooled enough, it would radiate its heat and affect the others and might cause a general temperature increase of the entire computer system.

There are plenty of ways to keep tabs on the temperatures of the computer. Windows doesn't have a built-in feature with a graphical interface for this purpose yet but there are plenty of software on the internet for that very purpose, some are free and some are proprietary. It is worth to note that a lot of today's motherboard and laptop manufacturers publish freely their own monitoring software that monitors various sensors including temperatures.

26. Check If Your CPU is Thermal Throttling

This section is related to section 6, 26 and 33 of this article. Thermal throttling is a feature that is aimed at reducing the CPU's temperature by reducing its frequency. It is essentially a fail safe mechanism provided to avoid frying the CPU if its cooling solution fails to do its job properly. This feature is also present in modern video cards with the same purpose in mind.

If your computer is running very slowly and dissipates air hot enough to heat up a room in a cold winter day then there is a good chance that your CPU is thermal throttling to keep itself alive. This could be confirmed by opening Task Manager and going to the Performance tab and checking the CPU frequency. If the frequency is lower than usual or has dropped below 1GHZ then this could be an indication that the CPU has been thermal throttled.

Thermal throttling being activated is a good indication that the computer's case needs to be opened and inspected. If the first thing that meets you eyes and your nose, is a giant pile of dust surrounding the CPU cooler then now you know why the CPU was thermal throttled. Time to clean your computer and perhaps change the CPU's thermal paste.

27. Defrag Your Disks

File defragmentation has a 90s and early 2000s sound to it, but it is still relevant. I am not a storage expert, however I do know that more than one software developers out there offer SSD defragmention using a method called Trimming. Not a significant performance improvement was noted however, at the same time I did not conduct thorough comparisons of before and after the Trimming process.

HDDs are still around and will continue to be around for a long time due to their low prices and higher capacities than SSDs for the most part. Since they are very much in use with conjunction of SSDs, they sometimes present a bottleneck in a system. For example, if your operating system is installed on an SSD disk and your are running a big database off of an HDD disk and querying to it – it might perform better had the files been defragmented.

28. Clean and Defrag Your Registry

Crudely speaking, Windows Registry is essentially a big database in which it keeps records of structural data and configuration of itself. If not maintained well, Windows registry might accumulate records that are obsolete and not in use. Since Windows registry is very big and complex and requires a fair amount of training in order to be tampered with by the average user, it is best to use software that was designed for that very purpose.

Usually those pieces of software can also defrag the registry.

A few good examples are:

• PC Tools Registry Mechanic
• Auslogics Registry Defrag
• CCleaner
• Smart Defrag

29. Clean Junk Files and Clear Space On Your Hard Drive

As in real life where a cleaner environment means a healthier one, the digital medium needs to be clean as well in order to be healthy and optimal. Unnecessary files put a strain on read/write times of the hard drive, when scanning for malware and when the system audits itself. Less free space on your hard drive means less space for a possible page file expansion, less space for more frequently used software and more time when backing up and syncing.

Every Operating system produces junk and obsolete files. It would be very time consuming to try to find them and to try to decide if whether are they obsolete or not. This is why it is recommend to use a junk file scanner. A few good examples are:

1. Ace utilities
2. Ccleaner
3. BleachBit
4. Ashampoo WinOptimizer’s Drive Cleaner
5. Comodo System Utilities
6. IObit Advanced SystemCare

30. Export some applications, software and services to the cloud.

Let the cloud handle the load! As global communication speeds become more and more efficient and therefore faster, more and more companies offer cloud based services for the everyday average user. By using Cloud based services you're basically use other people's computers' computing power to handle processes otherwise would've been done locally on your own computer. In some cases, this solution is quite justifiable.

Using cloud services could not only prevent your local computer from getting slowed down but it could also save you money by not upgrading it or replacing it all together.

Cloud services include:

• File conversion
• File storage
• Online Autocad variants and alternatives
• Online Office apps like Office365 and Google Apps
• Online based gaming
• Online video editing – A fine example would be Youtube built in video editing interface
• Online audio editing
• Online translation
• Using Google Earth online app instead of the downloadable software

As you can see, the internet is teeming with these kind of solutions. Some are free and some are proprietary. Again, for some individuals or groups and even companies, it would be cheaper to pay annually or monthly for cloud based services rather than to upgrade an entire array of end-point computers or locally hosted servers.

31. Migrate to a user friendly GUIed Linux Distribution

In some cases it is best to switch from a Windows based operating system to a Linux one. Linux as a whole has gone through a significant adaptation to users preference of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and a few “face lifted” distributions have been released over recent years and have become very popular due to that reason.

Some of these popular GUIed distributions come with their own “Application Stores” which are basically a user friendly graphical interface for browsing and installing applications and software in Linux. Some GUIed Linux distributions are both user friendly and light as well. These two facts would make choosing them over Windows a fine decision since a lot of average users use their personal computer mostly for internet browsing, social media and video streaming; tasks which a lot of Linux distributions would be more than enough to handle with.

A few good and popular examples are

• Uubntu
• Debian
• Mint
• Fedora

32. Clean The Insides of Your Computer

Computers accumulate dust, its a fact and given enough time, thick enough layers of dust would accumulate over electronic parts and their heat dissipation units. This accumulation causes heat dissipation deficiency and ends up causing the electronic parts to become warmer when operating and less efficient and could result in overheating, permanent damage to computer parts and a possible shortening their life expectancy.

The majority of computer systems these days use active air based cooling solutions in order to dissipate heat and to keep their insides cooled. These solutions are often the cheapest and easiest to maintain since they are consisted mostly of two main components – a brushless motorized fan and a heat dissipation block with cooling rods.

Even computer systems that don't use air based active cooling like water cooling and TEC based cooling are assisted and completed with air cooling. Radiators for example, which are used in water cooling solutions for computers, use active air cooling products like cooling fans to keep the water flowing inside them cooled. Any dust and debree that would accumulate over these radiator rods would decrease cooling efficiency.

Therefore it is advised to clean the insides of your computer as often as possible. Cleaning methods would vary depending on available tools, but over all, in many cases, a vacuum cleaner with a brush head and some wipes would do a fine job. Other more thorough methods are:

• Using a professional electrical computer air blower
• Using an air compressor – My personal choice
• Using a compressed air can
• Using a manual air pump

Summary:

I really hope these written tips would help you in getting more out of your computer systems. A slow machine doesn't always mean that a new one needs to be acquired to replace it. This list was written after experiencing similar performance related issues myself on my own machines and using these tips fully or partly had contributed vastly for performance enhancements.

• < Prev