Speed Up a Slow Windows 8, 8.1, 7 or XP Computer

Having a slow computer is not something most users fancy, but that is what most of us end up with after prolonged usage despite having the latest hardware. Understandably, there are also a few of us who are trapped with a low-end PC and are forced to get as much out of it as possible. This article caters to both these type of users as it not only explains how to make your computer as fast as it was when new but also how to reduce the footprint of your system to utilize your PC's current system resources in the best possible way.

First thing first. Make sure your PC isn't infected by a virus, worm or other malware

Anyone who has used an infected computer will verify how painfully slow a computer becomes when infected by a virus. More tech savvy users will counter that an infected computer's speed depends upon the type of malware. To be honest, it does. However, based on my personal experience, I can say that while some malware are designed specifically for making computers slow and unresponsive, most malwares tend to decrease a computer's performance. 

If your computer is infected, the first thing you need to do is deep scan your entire hard drive to remove all traces of the virus. Also, scan your secondary storage devices to make sure that they are clean as well. Additionally, make sure to follow best security practices to avoid getting infected in the future.

Remove unused and unnecessary programs

Now that we are sure that your computer is not slow because of a virus, you need to get rid of all the unnecessary programs that you have installed on your PC. To remove these programs, go to Programsin the Control Panel and uninstall your unnecessary programs one by one. If you are like most Windows users (including me) and are having a tough time figuring out which programs to uninstall as all of them seem important, follow this rule: If you have not used the program in the last month, it probably is unnecessary. It is better to uninstall that program given that you can reinstall it whenever required. It also is a good idea to remove all the useless software that came bundled with your computer. If you want, you can remove unused Windows features as well to further tone down your operating system.

Try faster alternatives to your everyday programs

If you use applications that require too much computing power to operate, you are better off replacing them with applications that do the same job as them but faster. Few resource hogging applications that you can replace are:-
1) Most resource intensive antivirus software can be replaced with the lightweight Microsoft Security Essentials.
2) Microsoft Office can be replaced with OpenOffice, an open source alternative that also has loads of amazing additions.
3) Adobe Reader can be replaced with the free Foxit Reader.
4) The newer versions of Internet Explorer are pretty fast. However, if you have been using an older version, it is time to upgrade IE or replace it with either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. This will also give you faster internet speeds.

Remove unnecessary startup programs

Startup programs are the programs which start automatically each time a user logs on. Not only do they result in a slow startup, but they also run persistently, until you close them manually, continuously consuming valuable system resources (CPU and RAM) while they are running. So, disabling unnecessary startup items results in both a faster startup and a more responsive computer, as these applications not running continuously means more RAM and CPU will be available for the operations you perform on the computer.

To disable unnecessary startup programs, type msconfig in the search bar in Start menu (in Windows 7and Windows Vista) and on the Start screen in Windows 8 and 8.1. On Windows XP, type this in theRun dialog box. This will start the System Configuration utility. Click on the Startup tab and disable all the applications that you think are not essential on your computer's startup. Restart your computer to see the changes. Keep in mind to not disable your security products as that will make your computer more susceptible to getting infected.

Restart your computer often

This is assuming that you continuously use your computer for long periods of time. Each time when you close a running program in Windows. it frees the memory that the program was occupying. However, it may so happen that some parts of the memory do not get freed which results in less system resources available to you to use which ultimately results in a slower PC. When you restart your computer, these occupied spaces in the memory get freed. Although, this memory issue has been somewhat fixed in recent versions of Windows, it still is a good idea to reboot your computer at least once a day.

Check your hard drive for errors

Over time, as you use your computer, chances are that some errors might creep in your hard disk which negatively affect your computer's performance. The best way to solve this issue is by using the inbuiltDisk Check utility available in all versions of Windows. To use it, execute chkdsk /r in the Command Prompt. Remember to open the Command Prompt as an administrator. It might prompt you to restart your computer. Execute Y to restart your PC. The chkdsk/ r command scans your computer's hard drive for errors and recovers readable data. Depending upon the size of your hard disk, this step might take some time. This step might increase your computer's performance phenomenally if there are a lot of errors on your hard drive.

Make sure you have enough free space

System speed is not only dependant upon CPU and RAM. If your hard drive is above 95% full, you will notice that your system hasn't been running at the fastest speed. This happens because Windows require empty space for swap files to increase in size and also as space for temporary files. It is imperative that the more cluttered and filled a hard drive is, the more difficult it is to read. To solve this issue, delete unnecessary data or move it to external storage devices.

Repair protected Windows system files

As you use your computer, it is possible that one or more system files get damaged or get corrupted which might effect your system's performance in a negative way. Thus, it is important to check that all your system files are original and behaving as they should. The best way to check your operating system's files is through the System File Checker. To run the System File Checker, open Command Prompt as an Administrator and execute sfc /scannow. This command will check all your system files and if it finds that some of them are modified or corrupt, it will replace them with the original. This step can take anywhere between 5 to 15 minutes but is one that you should perform especially if your system has ever been infected by a virus.

Disable unnecessary visual effects

The visual effects that make your computer look beautiful also slow it down considerably. So, if you want to get the best performance out of your computer, you should disable all these visual effects. To disable these visual effects:-
1) Press Windows Key+R to launch the Run dialog box.
2) Execute sysdm.cpl.
3) Go to the Advanced tab in the following Window and click onSettings in the Performance section.
4) Then encircle Adjust for best performance. If you want to use visual styles and themes, check it (located at the very end of the list).
5) Click on Apply to apply the changes.

Disabling these visual effects could lead to a considerable improvement in your system's performance especially if you are on Windows 7 or Windows Vista and using the Aero interface without a graphic card.

Do not run multiple antivirus programs

Make sure that no more than one antivirus program is running on your PC. An antivirus's resident protection takes a lot of resources. So, having more than one antivirus program would bring about a significant reduction in your computer's speed.

Disable sound schemes

Whenever you perform an action in Windows, a sound is played to indicate it. Although it leads to a better user experience, it also contributes towards slowing your PC down. To make your PC a lean work machine, you should disable these sounds. To disable these, open Sounds from the Control Panel or alternately type mmsys.cpl in the Run dialog box. Go to the Sound tab and select "No Sounds" from theSounds scheme dropdown list and click Apply.

Update Windows and make sure that you are using the latest drivers for your hardware

Having all the updates ensures that your computer is running the best possible version of your operating system and your hardware is being utilized by the best possible code. Also, an updated operating system makes you more secure against future intrusions by performance reducing malware.

Use a Registry Cleaner to keep your Registry in good shape

The Windows Registry is a place which keeps information about all installed programs and active system files on your system. Over time, as you install and uninstall programs, the Registry can get filled with useless entries which might increase its size making it difficult to read. This happens because most uninstallers don't remove the program's Registry entries during an uninstall. Also, the larger the Registry is on your computer, the more time Windows will take to start.

To solve this issue, use any free Registry cleaner to remove useless entries. Depending upon the number of entries in your Registry and its size, you might see a significant increase in your computer's performance.

Delete Temporary Files

Temporary files are stored in your computer as Windows operates. They are files that contain your recently accessed files list, log files, your internet history, form history, cookies and temporary internet files. Over time, the number of these files increases and cleaning them becomes important. You can use CCleaner (mentioned above) to clean them or the inbuilt Windows Disk Cleanup utility by executingcleanmgr.exe in the Run dialog box. You can also schedule a disk cleanup to ensure that it happens automatically.

Disable Windows Search Indexing Service

The Windows search indexing service scans all the files and folders on your system and stores information about them in a database to make searches faster. Naturally, this results in consumption of resources. If you don't use Windows Search often or are willing to trade faster searches for a faster computer (as you should), disable the indexing service. To disable it, execute services.msc in the Run dialog box. In the work area on the right side, locate Windows Search service and double click on it. In the following Properties dialog box, selectDisabled from the Startup type dropdown and click OK. Restart your computer. Your searches will be slow but your computer will be faster than ever.

Check Device Manager to look for hardware conflicts

Open Device Manager to see that all the connected hardware are functioning properly. If you find a hardware conflict, take the necessary steps to resolve it. If the conflict cannot be resolved, disconnect the problematic hardware until you find a solution.

Change to High Performance power scheme

If you are running your computer on a battery and notice that it is running slow, change the power scheme to high performance to increase system speed. Keep in mind that it will increase the amount of power consumed by your computer. To change the power scheme, open Power Options from the Control Panel. You can directly search for Power Options in Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 from the Start Screen/Menu.

Check if your computer is overheating

If your computer is overheating, then it is possible that it is causing your computer to run slowly. This is because most modern processors slow down when the computer is overheated to allow the computer to cool down. 

To prevent your computer from overheating, make sure that the cooling fan works properly and that there is no dust clogging the air vents as it will prevent air flow which will result in poor cooling. Clean your computer's case with a light brush and place it somewhere where it can be effectively cooled by air. If you use a laptop, a cooling pad might be of help.

Defragment your hard drive

When Windows stores a file on your hard drive, it does not look for a single place to store your file as a whole. Instead, it stores the fragments of the file randomly, i.e storing them at whatever empty space it can find the quickest. Due to this, the fragments of a single file can be scattered all across a hard disk. A hard drive that has many files distributed like this is called as fragmented. Naturally, this results in slower file access times because Windows needs to find all these pieces and put them together (something like a jigsaw puzzle) before the file can be accessed.

This is what defragmentation corrects. When you defragment a hard drive, the scattered pieces of a file are put together and stored on the hard disk in continuous cells (assuming a hard disk to be made up of a large number of cells with each cell representing a particular storage space).

To defragment your hard drive, you can use the in-built Windows Disk Defragmenter utility. It can be searched on the Start Screen in Windows 8 & 8.1 and is located at Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools in older versions of Windows.

Use ReadyBoost to increase the speed of your Windows computer

If you are running a computer that does not have enough RAM, using a flash drive with the ReadyBoost technique can and will give you significant improvement in speed. As with ReadyBoost, your flash drive becomes a cache that stores files that you might immediately require giving you faster access times than if those files had been stored on a hard disk. 

Keep in mind that ReadyBoost depends upon the condition of your flash drive and was intended to increase speeds of devices which were short on RAM. If you already have a sufficient amount of RAM, chances are that you might see very little to no improvement in speed by using it. 

Reinstall Windows

This is one of the more drastic methods and should only be used if all the methods mentioned above fail to bring any significant increase in your computer's speed.

If you haven't reinstalled Windows in a really long time, it is possible that because of constant use, the system has got bogged down with useless clutter in a way that no amount of tweaking will fix its condition. Then, reinstalling Windows is the only option.

Reinstalling Windows brings about a definite increase in speed but gives you a new PC without all your software and customization. Modifying it according to your needs will take a lot of time though but that is something you must sacrifice for a faster PC.

If you use Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, you can refresh your PC without affecting your installed apps and settings. To refresh your Windows 8 PC, open Update and Recovery by going to Change PC Settingsfrom the Settings button that appears when you move your mouse pointer to the right side of your screen. Under it, click Recovery. Then under Refresh your PC without affecting files, click Get Started.

Upgrade to a solid state HDD

Although solid state hard drives are a lot faster for writing and reading data than older optical hard drives, their heavy price is something that keeps them out of the range of many. Still, if you do manage to get one for your PC, the change in speed will be immediately visible.

If all else fails, get more RAM

RAM or the Random Access Memory contains all files of the currently running programs that are immediately required by the computer. Accessing files from the RAM is much faster than doing the same from a hard disk. This means that more the RAM you have, more the programs you can run without compromising on speed. RAM upgrades do not cost much and are one of the best ways to speed up a slow computer.

Create Bootable USB Drives to Install (Almost) Any OS

With the advent of ultra portable laptops, optical drives are becoming a thing of the past. Although not having optical drives allows manufacturers to make lighter devices, it causes problems to users when they want to fresh install operating systems, as most of them are still available in the form of CDs, DVDs and downloadable ISOs. For users of these devices, the only option then remains is to use a flash drive to install the operating system of their choice.

Not surprisingly, there are also a few of us who prefer installing operating systems from flash drives for its faster speeds. There are also a few of us who prefer to keep live operating systems on our flash drives to access computers without having an OS by simply plugging in our devices.

With such a lot of users needing to create bootable USB flash drives, it appears imperative that OS manufacturers provide an inbuilt way to create them with each DVD and CD they provide. However, that is not the case with all operating system manufacturers.

In fact, most of the users are left hunting for third party applications that can create a bootable USB drive for their specific operating system. To add to a user's misery, the OS manufacturers that do provide an application for this make them OS specific (like the Windows 7 USB/DVD tool) and do not support ISOs and DVDs of other OSs. Some of them fail to work even if the original ISO/DVD is slightly modified (slipstreamed etc.).

Use Rufus to create bootable USB media

If you too are one such user looking for a solution, you can stop looking and try Rufus, an open source tool to create a bootable USB drive from any bootable ISO. 

Rufus is small in size (nearly 615 KB) and claims to be faster at creating bootable USB drives than most applications of its type. Rufus is also portable which means that you need not install this software to use it. Just double click on the executable file and the application will start working. Rufus also allows you to add fixes to use your bootable flash drives on older computers having BIOSs which do not support booting from them.

Strangely however, Rufus can only create bootable flash drives from ISOs meaning you need to have an ISO image of the CD or DVD of the OS of your choice. 

I do not think this should be too much of a problem considering how easy it is to create ISOs from DVDs and CDs.

How to use Rufus?

1) When you start Rufus, the first option that you will see is Device:. It contains all your connected USB drives. If you plug in a USB drive after starting Rufus, the drive you have connected will shortly be available here.

2) You will not need to modify the Partition Scheme and target system type, as the default choice is suitable for making the USB drive work on both UEFI and legacy BIOS computers. 

Rufus in Windows 8

3) Change the file system from FAT32 to NTFS from the dropdown menu. This is the file system with which your USB drive will be formatted with. Do note that older computers will not boot from a flash drive formatted as NTFS. Do not modify the cluster size. Enter the name you want for your USB device in theVolume label box.

4) Check the Create a bootable disk using checkbox if it is not already checked. In the dropdown menu next to it, select ISO image. Click on the button right to it to locate your ISO image.

Do note that Rufus will format your USB drive deleting everything on it before making it bootable. So, make sure that it does not contain any important data.

5) Click on Start to format your USB drive and extract all files of the ISO to it.

To install the OS, restart your computer and select your USB device as the primary boot option in the BIOS boot menu. 

Compatibility
Rufus works on all the latest versions of Windows and can be used to extract the following ISOs to a bootable USB drive:-

Google Tricks, Easter Eggs & Secrets

Google's engineers love to hide some pretty cool tricks at the most unexpected places. Add to that Google's policy of giving 20% of working time to its engineers to do what they want, and you have a search engine filled with lots of entertaining Easter eggs and tricks.

Sadly, most of these tricks are still a secret, but every now and then, Google employees leak these cool insider pranks and the whole world gets to know about them. Here, I have created a list of all such known Google tricks and Easter eggs that are still "working."

Google in 1998
Search Google for "Google in 1998" and you will be taken to the past to a search results page that shows how Google looked in 1998.

Kerning
Kerning means adjusting the spacing between characters. So, how would you expect Google to describe it? Literally, off course. When you search Google for Kerning, the spacing of the word Kerning is changed as compared to that of other words. This only works with personalized results disabled.

Conway's Game Of Life
Conway's Game Of Life is a game that indicates how cellular life evolves based on the initial configuration. If you search Google for Conway's Game of Life, you will get a results page with the game running in the background.

Jason Isaacs
Just search for Jason Isaacs and Google will return a page saying Hello to him. This only works on Google UK. This is a reference to Kermode and Mayo's Film reviews which greets Jason with hello every week.

Bacon Number {Actor Name}
Kevin Bacon is a famous hollywood actor who was quoted as saying that he has worked with everybody in hollywood or somebody who has worked with them in 1994. This led to many websites being launched about his claim in 2007. Bacon seeing this immense response launched a charitable website called Six Degrees, which is based on a theory that everyone in hollywood has worked with Kevin Bacon through a chain of six acquaintances or less. An actor gets as many degrees as he is distant from Kevin Bacon's movies in terms of people in the chain of acquaintances.

Google too has now involved Six Degrees of Bacon in its search results. For example, searching Google for Bacon Number Johnny Depp gives Depp's Bacon number to be 2.

Google knows how to celebrate the holidays
Searching Google for a holiday will make Google return a page decorated with items representing that holiday. For example, searching Google for Christmas returns a page decorated with Christmas lights. This also works for Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Halloween and Festivus. These Easter Eggs based on a festival are only activated when that festival is near.

Zerg Rush
Search Google for Zerg Rush and you will see the O's of Google attacking the search results page. They will attacking every result one by one. There is a health bar which indicates how injured a search result is. You can also kill these O's by clicking on them. They also have health bars which indicates their health. You get points on the basis of how many O's you kill. The aim of this game is to beat as many O's as possible.

Askew or Tilt
Ever had the chance of searching Google for Askew or Tilt? If you have, then you already know what comes up. If you haven't, do it now and you will see the search results page literally tilt to give you a better idea of what these words mean. This will work only if you use latest browsers which support HTML5 and CSS3. So, Internet Explorer users, use Firefox, Google Chrome or Safari for a while to use this.

Do a barrel roll

'Do a barrel roll' in its true sense means to do a 360 degree spin. Google takes practical demonstrations way too seriously for this one and literally spins the search results page to give you a clearer idea of the meaning of this phrase. Don't believe me? Go search Google for Do a barrel roll now and see your world turn around.

This Easter egg is apparently a tribute to Star Fox, a video game series developed by Nintendo, because searching Google for Z or R Twice also does the barrel roll, just like in Star Fox. Many bloggers interpreted a lot of different things from this, but Google clarified that this fun trick was created by a Google Engineer solely for the purpose of entertaining users along with showing the power of new HTML5 and CSS3 technologies. Like the previous Easter egg, this will only work in modern browsers. 

Binary, Octal and Hexadecimal Number systems
Another one of those literal Google Easter eggs. If you search Google for "Binary", "Octal" or"Hexadecimal" (without quotes) with Search Plus Your World disabled, Google will show the number of results in the same number system. For example, searching Google for hexadecimal will return the number of results like in the image below.

Why Facebook is Blue in Color?

When you open Facebook, the first thing that you notice is the blue color it uses. Ever wondered why is Facebook so blue in color and not changing its color scheme?

Ever since they started as 'thefacebook', Facebook has stayed with the blue color. Although major changes have been made in the Facebook theme since then, the major unchanged thing has been the blue color.

Facebook from its early days when it was known as  thefacebook

An exciting fact: In its earlier days, thefacebook.com required you to have an  .edu email id to join.

Everywhere from its login page to Facebook groups, you find only blue.

Facebook Login Page. All Blue!

The reason for this is that  Mark Zuckerberg, the young founder of Facebook is red-green color-blind and blue is the richest colour for him which he confirmed in an online interview with Leo Laporte.

Another important commercial factor for using blue color is the fact that most colors tend to distract the viewers. Blue on the other hand acts as a transparent background to the main content as visible to the human brain due to which most popular websites tend to use the blue color. It can easily be called a webmaster's favorite color. Blue color is also sometimes referred to as 'Nirvana' for the brain.

All these factors make blue a prominent color on Facebook. 

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows Computers

While most of us are already aware of obvious keyboard shortcuts like “Alt+F4” and “Ctrl+C”, there are some obscure shortcuts which most of us tend to overlook. These keyboard shortcuts are not only useful for the average PC user but for advanced users as well. This article contains many such amazing keyboard shortcuts which if used properly could save a lot of time and effort. So let's get started.

Windows key+D: This shortcut is the keyboard equivalent of “Show the Desktop”. It is useful for quickly minimizing every open window when someone walks in and you are doing some private work.

Ctrl+Shift+Esc: This shortcut directly starts the task manager. While Alt+Ctrl+Del was used to bring out the Task Manager in Windows XP and earlier versions, in Windows 8.1, Windows 8 and Windows 7, it just brings up the lock this computer screen.

Ctrl+Click: This shortcut is useful for opening a link in a background tab. This is useful when you have to load a page without leaving the current one.

Alt+Print Screen: takes the screenshot of the current active window as opposed to just Print Screen which takes the screenshot of the entire screen.

Shift+Click for Yes to All and No to All: If you have a lot of dialog boxes asking yes and no question, just shift+click Yes or No on one to yes all or no all.

Ctrl+C on an error dialog box to copy its contents: Suppose your computer is giving an error message and you want to copy its contents to send to the support guy, what do you do? Just press Ctrl+C while the dialog box is highlighted and its contents will be copied to your clipboard.

Ctrl+T: This keyboard shortcut opens a new tab in internet browsers.

Ctrl+Shift+T: Reopens the last closed tab.

Ctrl+Shift+N: This shortcut opens a new incognito window in Google Chrome.

Ctrl+Shift+P: Opens a new private window in Mozilla Firefox.

Alt+Enter after writing the domain name in the address bar of your browser to insert .com automatically.

Shift+Enter inserts .net domain name extension.

Ctrl+W: This shortcut closes the current tab in your browser quickly.

Ctrl+Backspace: This shortcut deletes the last word you have typed. It is useful in case you typed in a wrong word and want to delete it quickly.

Ctrl+Left or Right Arrow key: This shortcut allows you to move the cursor one word at a time instead of the default one character at a time.

Ctrl++: This shortcut allows you to zoom in web pages in web browsers. Useful when text on a web page is too small to read properly. Ctrl+Scroll wheel can also zoom in documents, file thumbnails and icons in Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Ctrl+-: This shortcut does the reverse of the previous shortcut.

Ctrl+0: Reset the webpage's zoom.

Windows key+M: Minimizes all the open windows.

Ctrl+L: This shortcut allows you to quickly jump to the address bar of your web browser.

Windows key+Pause/Break: Quickly open the system properties dialog box. 

Ctrl+Shift+Delete: This shortcut opens the option to delete your browser's history, cookies, cache and other details that it stores while you browse the internet. This shortcut is extremely useful for the privacy conscious.

Windows Key+L: This shortcut locks your computer.

Ctrl+H: makes the history appear.

CTRL+B: Bold CTRL+U: Underline CTRL+I: Italic.

Alt+Select: This shortcut allows you to select rectangular blocks of text in Word processors, something that is not possible with simple select.

F2: Allows you to rename the selected file.

Holding Shift while inserting a device with removable storage prevents automatic run.

Ctrl+F: This keyboard shortcut opens the Find option in any program.

Ctrl+S: If you are working on a software and want to quickly save your progress, this shortcut will come in handy.

Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End: Useful for quickly going to the top and bottom of a page.

Ctrl+P: Useful for printing the current page.

Space Bar: While viewing a web page in a browser, pressing space bar moves the page down.

Alt+Tab: Useful for quickly cycling between running applications. Press along with Shift to cycle backwards.

Ctrl+Tab: Cycle between tabs in your browser.

Ctrl+F5: Clears the cache and refreshes the current tab.

Shift+Right click: Open alternate right click options.

Alt+Double click: Open the file's properties. Alt+Enter can also be used for this.


These are some keyboard shortcuts that I found extremely useful. If you know some more useful keyboard shortcuts, do mention them in the comments.