It is common for people to want their computer to run faster. In this article you will learn “how to make my computer run faster” by doing a few maintenance items and making a few minor and totally optional low cost upgrades.

How To Make My Computer Run Faster:
“This article is intended for people running Microsoft Windows XP who need an answer to the question, How to make my computer run faster?. If you have a different system such as Microsoft Windows 98, then this article will not be very helpful for you. If you would like for me to write an article based on Windows 98, please comment below and I will write one up or just answer your questions directly below in the comment form.“

Here are some other quick references you might want to bookmark in addition to this article with helping you answer the question, How to make my computer run faster? These references came direct from Google.

• 4 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer’s Performance
• How can I make my computer run faster? - Ask Leo!
• How to Make Your PC Run Faster and Better- Speed up Startup
• Desktops: Computer runs slow, how do I make it faster?
• Howstuffworks “Does adding more RAM to your computer make it faster?”

Before we decide to invest any money into your computer, lets take a look first at a few things that you can do to help the computer run faster by matter of optimizing and maintenance.

1. How many people are logged into your Windows XP system. If you have quite a few users logged into your Windows XP system you will notice that your Commit Charge may be extremely high. Try logging off the other users and you will see the Commit Charge decrease almost instantly. In this picture, the example computer has only 512 megs of ram and with only one user logged in, you can see how much of the available memory is being used just for that one user. People who use share your computer start to realize that it is quicker for them to leave their user account logged in and instead of “logging off”, they tend to “switch users”, because next time they use the computer everything is already loaded. The problem with this, is that it slows the entire system down and hogs most of the system resources for the other people that are trying to login. Ask the people that share the computer system with you to log off instead of switch users. If people are unwilling to do this, here is a little tip that will quickly log off extra users from your own screen name. From your desktop, hit ctrl + alt + delete. This opens up a windows just like the one in the screen shot above. Click to the user tab, and highlight the users you want logged out and click the logoff button at the bottom of the window. Fairly quickly you will start to see a performance increase. If doing this will totally make the other system users upset or angry, the only other option you have is to invest a little money and perform a memory upgrade. Not to worry though, adding more memory to your computer is really a good thing and is very inexpensive.
2. What programs do you have running in the background. Have you installed a ton of added software on to your computer system? You should be very cautious about what software you install. A lot of free software can contain spyware and other bugs that hog all your system resources. Even more, a lot of software is designed to continue to run even though you aren’t using it. I would strongly consider removing unused or expired software from your system. If you would like to see what software you have installed on your system simply click the Start Button, Control Panel, and then Add/Remove Software. This will open up a window which displays all the programs you have installed on your system. Remove only the programs that you clearly remember installing and don’t use. Please be very careful because you don’t want to accidentally remove useful programs. If you don’t know what the program in question is, write it down on a piece of paper, and then go Google it and learn more about it. Investigating software isn’t difficult, and Google does a great job delivering relevant results. You might be surprised with what you find. As an added note, in life you tend to get what you pay for (there are some exceptions) and with software that philosophy isn’t much different. Before choosing software, think long and hard about what will make your life easier. Again, break out a piece of paper, and write down some elements that you wish you could do. And, yet again… turn to Google to investigate the software options, and then after doing the research, finally you can purchase the software online and save money compared to purchasing at Best-Buy or Wal-Mart.
3. Other things to consider: If your computer is too far gone, you might want to consider backing up your important data (such as pictures, music, videos, files) onto CD-R or better DVD-R and doing a complete system restoration. Most retail purchased computers include a system restoration disk. Performing this task in many cases can be an instant fix towards making a computer run faster. However, you have to be very careful and back up all the data you want to keep because doing a system restore will wipe out all of the information written to the hard drive and put the system back into a clean state, just as it was when you first purchased it. Prior to doing a system restore, I would contact your manufacture, and 9 out of 10 times, you will find someone that will walk you through the steps. If all else fails and you decide to do this and need help, contact me or comment below and I can help you with it. I personally enjoy doing system restorations on my system because it puts the computer back the way it was when I first purchased it. Keep in mind, after doing a system restore, the first site you should visit is the Windows Update site. It is very important to keep your system current with all the Microsoft Windows updates and security fixes. Another thing to consider is routine maintenance on your system such as doing disk defragmentation and assuring that your system is set up on NTFS instead of FAT32. I won’t talk about these items here in this article, I might touch on them later, but be assured that they are talked about a lot already… again, Google is your best friend. It’s not hard to learn and educate yourself about your computer system. Take your time, read, and ask questions. But don’t forget to search.

If you should have any questions about “How to make my computer run faster“, please feel free to ask by leaving a comment below. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
- Garry Conn