Sweat Your Assets - Windows PC Performance Troubleshooting and Optimisation

Our customers and prospective customers frequently come to us and beseech that we propose either upgrades or whole new PC"s that testament solve their happening non-performance nightmare with an aging PC. It"s quite amazing how sometimes as the debate and understanding of requirements and problems experienced proceeds we discover that in fact the PC they already have may just still have a few laps around the succession left in its tired chassis.

Times are Uncertain - cause you really need that upgrade or new PC?

Our customers and prospective customers often come to us and ask that we suggest either upgrades or whole dewy PC"s that will solve their current non-performance nightmare with an aging PC. It"s quite sensational how sometimes as the argument and understanding of requirements and problems experienced proceeds we discover that actually the PC they already gain may just still hold a few laps enclosing the circuit left in its distressed chassis. In this article we will explain how you can diagnose your performance woes, streamline and tune them up. You"d be surprised just how much more you can get out of what you have.

Tip! Before making any serious system changes such as some of these are its crafty to take a backup or restore point of your system before everyone change. Then should you subsequently acquisition something is "broken" you can restore back to a previous working configuration.

Analyse the problem before implementing the solution...

Use monitoring tools regularly - get in the habit of watching Task Manager and lookout for tasks and processes that are hogging your system commemoration or CPU. Task supervisor displays both in the process view as you can see below, you can besides category by clicking on the column headings. Even provided you only use the Internet and eMail both these applications are renowned for memory leaks and processor bound loops (see an explanation of these problems in the next section).

Monitor Unrestrained Disk Space - effect you have at least 20% disk space, preferably 30% or augmented should be free. If you don"t the file step struggles to drive as it needs some space in order to allocate and deallocate files the operating system and applications require while in use. Imagine walking into a corridor all-inclusive of boxes and you need to order them all by colour, in a room 70% filled you"ve got 30% free lunch space to temporarily put things in while you move other stuff around, in a room 99% full you may have no room at all to use as a interim store. Use our earlier tip for reducing disk space consumption by eliminating unused installed programs or disk interval is cheap these days with 1TB at under 100, upgrade your disk.

New Software invariably uses more Memory - finally, if you need an upgrade the one that makes the biggest difference in 80% of cases is simply adding more memory. RAM is now quite cheap and you should assent to 2GB to be the minimum of practical RAM to have installed. Every bit you upgrade it endeavor to paired it or you"re unlikely to really notice the difference. On 32-bit systems there is dinky advantage to having amassed than 3GB of memory but usually it makes concept to upgrade to 4GB due to the size of memory kits available. If you longing more than 4GB you will also charge to upgrade to a 64-bit operating system. You can see your memory utilisation by consulting the Task Manager, ctrl-alt-del presents you an option to start the task manager.

In a regular example 2GB of physical recollection is installed, of which roughly 1GB is available, although windows is misleading us a bit here as it will always constitute decided some memory remains available or it will simply cease to function. So don"t look for 0 available free recall as an indicator that you necessitate more, it never will be allowed to span 0 as windows will swap a process out into the page file to autonomous more memory up. There is 1.11GB of memory currently consumed (in the page file "PF Usage", Commit Charge - Total). The page file is actually virtual memory on disk as tasks become active and inactive they may be swapped into and out of memory into the page file, hence that pause sometimes when you switch to another task as the disk is accessed to bring it back out of the page file. Activity in the page list and virtual memory is complex and I won"t go into any more of that here as it doesn"t maintenance you with performance issues. The explanation point to remember is whether Windows is swapping memory out to the page data on disk then your system will be going a portion slower as you can be sure however flashing your disk is it"s an lousy lot slower than physical memory.

What we care most approximately is activity in real physical memory and the point at which we might run out of it and the page record becomes more active hence slowing down the system. Crucially the Commit Charge Peak should balance the physical consciousness available otherwise it means an awful lot of page file swapping is going on (known as "Page Faults"). If it was the lily-livered line in Page Folder Usage history would be bouncing around, or worse just steadily increasing.

Adjust Complete Chapter File extent - following on from the aim above if your system page case size is too small your method will slow down or yet fail to day one tasks (usually with a course message to tell you the pc is out of memory). You can probation this by looking at the Page File Total versus Summit size. If they are accelerated to each other then you compulsion to elaboration your folio information size. With most windows default configurations this will happen automatically.

The exotic world of Deadlocks, Infinite Loops and Cartesian products - are all programming jargon that essentially construe bugs (though not always). The programmer of an application or product you"re using (and that includes the ones you share for granted like Windows and Slogan drivers) has likely false an error in designing or implementing the code such that logically it can never get past a firm point in its execution. The consequence of this poorly designed code can be that the processor cycles used in this "loop" consume all the available resources of your PC (check your task manager, which process is using 99-100% of the processor!? Or fair-minded "not responding"). You will notice this as your machine will suddenly lock-up, go dead slow, or the application in question will just hang. Thankfully with multi-core PC"s hanging is less of a problem as the other free cores can be used to Asphyxiate the task off and bring your PC back to life...

Run concurrently as few tasks as you need - each time you unbolted up a mission bethink each one is using up a small aggrandized memory. If your memory or processing power is community try to detain expanded only what you regularly need and lasting what you don"t it doesn"t return so long to reopen, and if it does it probably means you have too many open already! Also bear in mind just as you can"t see an employ doesn"t penurious it"s not using up any processing cycles, it will be. All applications process events which might be manner activity, emails being sent/received, diary alarms going off, keyboard or mouse movements, activity from external devices cognate printers and USB drives. They also monitor activity in the background all the more when you aren"t doing anything with them. This consumes more of those valuable clock cycles...

Typical solutions to try or consider

De-install and delete any unused software - grip a look at your control panel Add/Remove Software icon and go buttoned up the list of installed applications line by line. If you don"t demand or use it remove it. It may be taking up helpful space or cycles on your machine.

Disable Windows Defender - For Vista users there are a number of new Windows "features" that if you are an experienced PC User who understands how to roam the internet or email and download files safely you do not need. Windows Defender and Firewall are such services, if you have a third organization or router firewall you more than possible equal don"t obligation this services enabled. To disable windows defender, go to authority panel->administrative tools -> services -> windows defender and stop the service, setting it to disabled or manual so that it does not restart on reboot.

Disable UAC (User Access Control) - To experienced Windows XP users this feature has won a thousand polls as the most annoying cutting edge feature. Whenever you execute anything which affects development configuration or the filesystem (which is conscientious about everything you might want to accomplish that"s useful!), a modal popup asks whether you wish the operation to proceed. Again employment your judgement on your experience and competency with Windows, inexperienced users should probably leave it as is otherwise you will want to disable it. To disable user access control, go to control panel->user account->turn user legend driver's seat off. You can also disable it using the msconfig.exe supply on the Tools tab, or directly in the registry.

Optmise the Windows GUI - Windows Vista Premium and above has by default the Aero user interface enabled, this uses the 3D capabilities of your graphics card and will use up some precious CPU cycles. Unless you love the new contemplate interface perceive unpaid to abbreviate load on your processor and memory and turn it off. To optimise system configuration for maximum performance, go to control panel->performance information and tools-> original tools-> adjust the appearance and performance of windows-> Select Adjust for best performance radio button and hit Apply.

Remove Startup programs - A lot of applications helpfully install themselves on your machine to startup and drop into the System Tools tray as your machine boots or, or as you log in depending on how they are configured. Almost none of these programs will actually be required and they are one installed this hang-up to save on the time taken for their first execution (as they are already in memory, in theory). Our recommendations are you remove all programs to reduce startup time, reduce mind's eye overhead and to boost overall system performance. You can change startup programs using msconfig.exe or directly in the registry with the regedit command (alter the registry with caution!). Our recommendation is that you use msconfig.exe (pictured below, Windows XP version) and scroll down the list of startup programs unchecking anything you know you don"t use or need to startup on boot/login. In the registry find the startup programs under Computer-> HKEY_CURRENT_USER->Software-> Microsoft-> Windows-> CurrentVersion-> Run. In Windows XP you can safely remove ALL startup programs without it being terminal, you need to be a bit more careful with Vista.

AntiVirus (AV) - programs are notorious for reducing operation performance and increasing hard disk load. Take a long and careful contemplation at the configuration of your AV product and turn off any scanning or intervention that is unnecessary, turning off any complementary tools, and any duplication of tools such as double spam checking etc. Typically you should treat AV as your second string of defense persist the firewall. You are one shot really likely to entertain a virus from outside the secure region that is "Your PC", unless you"re in the habit of writing your own. So a viral attack is only likely to come from a software download, a rogue floppy or CD install, or a malicious Browser add on from the Internet. Some scare mongers have led us to surmise that the viruses crawl down the wires and install themselves on your PC, they don"t, they only get installed from gone and onliest then if you allow it.

For this safeguard all you need virus scanned is inbound email, inbound software installs from removable media (CD, DVD, USB, eSATA, Firewire, Blu-Ray, Floppy etc.). We recommend turning off automated and scheduled scans, these are real process hogs and should be completetly unnecessary if all inbound scans are working as they should be. Instead manually choose for yourself when you would like a total system scan condign in process something was missed as it came in. We like minimalist AV tools that just do the simple jobs well and no more. A good AntiVirus should be like good children, approved to comprehend you have it, but invisible and unobtrusive.

Disable avoidable services - Your system might have a lot of services which you may not need. But identifying them may not be very easy. Unfastened up control panel-> administrative tools-> services and stop/disable services. Some of the services which should be disabled are Windows Search, Windows Defender, Windows Cardspace, and usually a symbol of third party tools such as HP print managers, Adobe tools, Bona fide player, MSN, Google toolbar, Antivirus bridle panels etc.

Windows Search Indexing - A tricky one as it sometimes speeds things up, but at other times can slow things down. In theory it only runs when your machine is idle, but we"ve found that is not always the condition and it can also consume shared network bandwidth. We suggest you disable Windows Search indexing as it may improve performance substantially, exceptionally if you have a new transaction as it will expend a considerable amount of system money building indexes. However, once the indexes are built it will diminish the time to find files with a dossier search (if you do that much?) considerably. So, if this something you achieve a lot you should turn it off while you are using the PC then turn it on again when you"re done and just leave it running. Windows Search will then just fortunately build indexes in the background while the Computer is idle. Eventually you will have a fully populated index and you can just leave it on so that the index is automatically maintained.

Defragment rigid drive - perhaps one of the oldest tricks in the book. As you install, deinstall, and move files around on your PC clusters of files and parts of files buy distributed all over the disks surface. Over interval this gets worse and worse, another and more fragmented. Every time you read a document of the disk the disk head has to reposition to pickup all these different fragments which slows down string access radically. The ideal scenario is to have all files contiguous, no fragmentation, and have the most frequently used files around the centre of the disk to minimise morals mind movement time (seek time). The defragmentation tool analyses and then defragments the disk for you and is available on the tools tab of the disk properties choice (right click on your disk, select properties). You need to defragment roughly every two to three months, also often if you install and reinstall a lot of programs and files. It"s a good concept to run Error Check (also on the tools tab) and hurried all tasks and as divers services as you can before defragmenting. Files currently open or in use cannot be moved...

Check for BIOS updates - For an experienced overclocker BIOS updates are a no brainer as they usually fix performance holes or issues with the motherboard. For most users we reccomend if you have no proclaimed BIOS issues then do not update it. Either way speedy all programs before flashing an update to the BIOS, should the BIOS light fail, be interrupted, or prompt corrupted (and you would be surprised how easily this can happen!) then your PC will be dead and you will need a fashionable BIOS chip.

Check for chipset and operating system updates - Often new drivers or windows updates can speed matters up a tiny or a lot. Windows Update is a blessing and a curse. With Vista you are now able to create ALL updates with the Windows update tool, including many third party drivers. Our usual recommendation is to leave it on Automatic, however, sometimes a new update can introduce instability or worse. If this happens revert to the last Restore point. If you are an experienced dynamism user we recommend you manually run Windows Update and carefully select updates you differentiate are comfortable with or know you need.

Easy performance boost - Vista's ReadyBoost fact allows you to plug in a USB flash propel or a flash memory card and use its available influence to cache frequently used files, augmenting the system file cache in leading memory. Though slower than main memory Flash memory is an awful lot faster than the indurated disk and will speed up accepted file access markedly. Even quite large Shine drives are now very inexpensive.

Restart regularly - Much large Enterprises and Government datacentres have a regular restart regime to clear down processes that have been executing memory for some generation and fortify the operating systems own memory and programming state. Any problems with stale resources or processes is compounded by possible memory leaks and memory fragmentation occurring over age (which happens in the same way as disks can get fragmented). If you gem your PC is getting slower the longer its left on you probably carry some runaway process or processes eating up reminiscence or cycles and you can either chill the processes or restart the complete machine. If you are monitoring your formation and memory utilisation as we discussed earlier you will have noticed this happening. If it"s a botheration deep in Windows that"s causing a performance problem over time then it"s unlikely you will be able to diagnose it and matchless a restart will fix it. Generally you should be looking to restart your PC at least once a week. We restart non critical desktops and servers daily, our long term benchmark tests can run for up to a month non-stop without a restart. In the latter case we use a stripped down Windows build that we have tested as stable for at least a month. Remember Hibernate or Standy shutdowns are NOT a reboot , lone Shutdown or Restart. Preferably do a below zero reboot by shutting down and switching off completely and leaving for 10 minutes before powering on. This will also reinitialise your BIOS and all Personal computer hardware.

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com