The Kingdom Come

First, be very, very careful. If you googled how to improve your computer or make it faster, you probably got many pages of suggestions and many of them are scams. Some even will put viruses or spyware on your computer.

After many years of trying different programs to improve my computer's performance, I have found a few things that really help. From time to time, I have been asked by friends for advice on how to improve their computers. Well, I've decided to put all of that advice into one article.

Before anything else, you'll want to know how to use your task manager.

TASK MANAGER

This is what tells you what programs are running on your computer and how much of your computer's performance each is consuming. To bring up the TASK MANAGER, press the ctrl, the alt, and delete keys at the same time. Typically it will initially show what applications are running. What is more useful is the PROCESSES. Click the tab that says, PROCESSES. You should see a list of a bunch of weird file names with numbers by them, perhaps even fluctuating numbers. Now click the column that says CPU (In this case, cpu = computer processor usage). Now the numbers should really be fluctuating because it should be showing the top consuming processes along with how much "cpu" each is using. Look in the IMAGE NAME column to see the name of the process. Typically, the top two processes should be your browser (iexplore, firefox or such) and System Idle. If something else is at the top, there is probably a problem. Determine what process that is.

There are a couple reasons why it is important to know how to open and use your TASK MANAGER:

1. You may need to "kill" a task/program that isn't closing any other way. Do this by clicking on the task in the list on TASK MANAGER and then click the END PROCESS button. Say yes or OK if it prompts for confirmation. This is especially handy if you are browsing on the Internet and a strange pop-up suddenly comes up and asks you a YES/NO CANCEL option. Sometimes hackers make it so no matter what option you select, it will download a virus to your computer. The best way to stop it is just "kill" your entire browser process and start over (avoid that site).
2. You may need to look at the processes to determine what is making your computer run so slow. Sometimes you can see that it is your anti-virus program running its scheduled run, or updates downloading. At least you'll know.

IMPROVE PERFORMANCE

There are 3 really good FREE programs to have on your computer.

ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
First, many computers come with McAfee anti-virus trial. It eats up a lot of your computer's performance and it ISN'T free. I suggest uninstalling McAfee and replacing McAfee with AVG free anti-virus. You can download it here:

AVG = http://free.avg.com/us-en/download-free-antivirus

ANTI-SPYWARE SOFTWARE
A bigger and more common problem with computers today is the loads and loads of spyware that infects them. Spyware typically isn't trying to damage your computer, it is simply a little program or file that gets downloaded to your computer to watch what sites you visit. This way advertisers can target you. You should periodically remove spyware from your computer. The best program I've used is SPYBOT. You can download it here:

SPYBOT = http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

Make sure to also use the "Immunize" feature to stop spyware from downloading in the first place.

REGISTRY CLEANER
Simply put, a registry is the place on your computer where records are kept, records of programs on your computer and how those programs are to run. Sometimes your registry gets cluttered with old records or disorganized records which can really slow your computer down. Typically, you don't want anything weird having access to your computer's registry since it could change even how known programs function. However, I found a really good registry cleaner and it's FREE and doesn't do anything odd to your registry. CCLEANER should be ran about once a month or more. I typically only run the registry cleaner part of the program, though the program has ability to delete all your old cached webpages, cookies and passwords if you want. You may not want to do that unless you don't ever auto-login to any website. You can download CCLEANER here:

CCLEANER = http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

CCleaner also offers a defragger for FREE. It is good to once in a while "defrag" your computer. Defragging reorganizes your files so they are "closer together" so your computer doesn't take as long going from one file to another.

Lastly, you want to make sure you empty your "cache" or browsing history once in a while. When you visit webpages on the Internet, every picture you see is technically downloaded to your computer even if you don't tell it to. This can eat up a lot of your computer's performance. Google has some good official information on how to clear your cache, depending on which browser you are using. Check out: http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=32050

Well, I hope to hear this has helped.