Tips to increase performance of a Windows computer

Question

What are some general guidelines to increase the speed/performance of my Windows machine?

Answer 1

Well, of course, the higher RAM and CPU speeds you have, the better the speed of your computer will be. If upgrading these aspects is not an option, I recommend downloading and using auslogics registry cleaner and disk defragmentor regularly. I use them both and they work like a charm. The are much faster than the windows defaults and give you a general idea of when they will be done, a nice feature.

Answer 2

Overclock CPU, overclock GPU, overclock RAM... Overclock keyboard, if needed. But don't forget to overclock cooling too.

Answer 3

Use ghost imaging software like Norton's Ghost. Save a base installation with all the most necessary applications and files you'll need if you had to re-install windows. When your computer is running slow, re-ghost the base image and "boom" you're back to square one as far as the OS is concerned.

In the meantime, save all your files on an external USB hard-drive or in cloud disk space. Make sure all your files are backed up at all times, so you can re-ghost an image within an hour and "boom" your computer is good as new!

I haven't found a better way to do it.

Answer 4

Multiple cores (4), multiple gigs of ram (4), multiple hard drives (2), multiple hundred dollars video cards (2), minimal software installed, minimal background activity, minimal drive fragmentation and minimal swap/paging reliance should set you up by an order of magnitude.

Answer 5

Run JkDefrag as a screensaver.

Answer 6

1. Only install what you need
2. Defrag frequently
3. Remove unnecessary software from boot
4. Keep your computer cool
5. If you don't need DirectX or custom win32 software, use Linux!

Answer 7

Staying off superuser.com improves my performance :)