Ok...if you look at your desktop..on the bottom right hand side of your screen, in the task tray there, where your "time" is, there really..should only be a "speaker" icon for your volume control. Anything else there is too many...and will slow down your system being on "stand by" all of the time like that. How did they get there??? you ask.... well when most people install a program they go the typical default which usually puts the icons in startup. You can always make a shortcut for it on your programs menu bar..until that bar is extended when you click on "start" it is not using memory. So let's get those little resources hoggy icons out of there....are you ready??????? Ok..You Can Do This!!!!!
Let's see how bad your system is..
1.) go to My Computer,
2.) go to Control Panel
3.) go to the System Icon
4.) click on the Performance tab...
what Percent does it say Free of Memory resources??
If it isn't at least 95%...we need to tweak that system!
Here's How...
1.) go to your Windows Explore (the filemanager as people used to call it)
2.) the screen will be split.. on the Left side go to Windows and double click on it.
3.) Now below that is a sub-directory folder called StartMenu... double click on that.
4.) in Startmenu is Programs folder, double click on that...
5.) Now click on the Startup folder.. there should not be anything in there.
Make sure your Explore is set to show all files.
Now by deleting any icons or name in Startup.. does not Delete the Program, It just removes the icon...from running in the background.
Examples: you may have Office icons, you may have Antivirus icons.
You don't need your Antivirus running all the time, only when you are On-line..it slows down the PC, and icons can be made for office elsewhere. etc. go into your antivirus program and turn off the active monitor at startup...option.
Now that the Startup folder is clean, go back to your desktop..the icons will still be there for now till you reboot. There may be an event scheduler that runs like Defrag and Scandisk, you can run these on your own time...this is like a "timer" a clock that slows the system down. open it and from the tool bar click on Disable task event scheduler....click around you'll find it.
Now looking at your desktop again, are there any icons on your bottom bar, near the Start button?? Like iexplore?? outlook? you can delete those buttons off there as well. Right click and select delete.
And How many Icons do you really need on your desktop?? Every 10 icons takes up 1% of system resources. Get rid of these..we'll make a special "to do" shortcut bar for you..and it will Uncluttered that desktop so you can enjoy your wallpaper and save you on memory resources.
You should only have...maybe to the Most, My computer. Recycle Bin and that's about it..all the rest is in your Start Menu Bar
Now that your tray..the bar that run a along the bottom of your desktop is clear, and your wallpaper is rid of all those extra icons, there are things that auto reload everytime you reboot..so let's take a looky there too.
1.) click on Start..then in the run box type thus sysedit
2.) then run...close the boxes autoexec.bat and config.sys and take a look at your win.ini and system ini files..
3.)near the beginning should be a run= or a load= put a semi-colon..the one that looks like this ; in Front of that line..this temporarily disables it..but leaves the line there incase you need to undo this.
4.)then go up to File and click on Save. now close your way out of that.
ok...now let's test it out.... exit Windows and Reboot.
Now let's see how many things come up.
Then go to your control panel, system icon and check out your performance % numbers... getting any better???? Now there are some programs that will hide there startup commands in your system..and that's takes a little more complicate procedure called Poledit..which we will get into on another page.. for now you should be doing good.
Don't be afraid of your computer. How else are you going to learn and save yourself some money? You can always reinstall...if you screw up. If you are tired of a slow machine and getting freeze ups and crashes and low memory warnings...and this has nothing to do with RAM....it's resources...how many things it can handle all at once.. and depends on what you are also currently running..how complicated it is, like maybe a big graphic program or a game or something.
A couple of other tips that do Slow your computer down..
an over abundance of Fonts....argh can really slow a PC down. usually 500 or more means crash city..try to keep it under 300 folks!
A complicated Desktop Theme, a Screensaver running on a timer..which BTW is nowadays mostly for entertainment purposes. Most screen are fairly burn proof these days.
Animated cursors, and too high a resolution...(in your display in control panel), all these things will slow your computer down, as well as too many icons on the desktop, and too many things in your startup..in the try by the clock.
Don't over burden your PC I you really do not need these things running all the time. It is just as easy to find them in your Start Menu.
Also..Remember to DEFRAG and SCANDISK (standard) Once a week..at least..and do a Thorough Scandisk once a Month to keep your system running tip top.
And delete anything in your Windows\Temp directory..this cleans up garbage..and an over Full Recycle Bin will also weigh the system down.. because while it holds all that stuff in the bin..it must "remember" where everything "goes back" incase you want to "restore" something.. and this takes up memory. So empty that trash frequently!!!
well hope this has helped you some....Stayed Tuned...
I found a way cool program that is FREE than can convert videos to different formats,strip sound tracks from video and they even have a program to play playstation on pc... called RADTOOLScheck it out!