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Tuning my new computer
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Posted by: Fenix2004
I just got a new Dell computer and I want to keep it nice and going for a while. Is there any free downloads to speed it up? Are there any programs I should be running periodically such as defrag, cleanup, etc.
Posted by: redwench
yes. set all your maintenence programs (defrag, scandisk, cleanup) to run once a week, preferably while youre asleep or at work/school. that will keep it running at a decent speed. otherwise, just watch the heat and dust.
Posted by: Bobaroo
Running DeFrag and Disk Cleanup speed up your computer, and like wenchy said, just do it while your sleep. I do it every Sunday night.
You could also format your computer every 6months or so. The problem with that is you will lose everything you don't backup.
If I was you I would take a can or air and clean out my case once every few months. Dust can relly cause problems within the computer.
Posted by: SKYHN
I try and defrag my PC every 2 days. That way it wont take as long each time. I let it go for about 6 days this week and it took 35 mins, but usually when I do it every 2 days, it only takes 12 mins. And thats on a 60.0gb 5400rpm drive.
Posted by: Seamus
I defrag every night whilst I sleep, run a full system anti virus every 2 days whilst I'm at school, and about every week/month delete all file no longer needed (*.tmp, *.old etc)
Posted by: Darky!
Defragging everynight would probably cause more damageto your hardrive then it would solve. You should only defrag once every 2-4 weeks, unless you do some major changes.
Posted by: Chako
Agreed. Too much of a good thing isn't good at all.
Posted by: Darky!
The reason why I say this is it puts unnecessary strain on the hard drive. Doing it every night will substansual shorten the life of your hard drive.
Unless you have a few hundred dollars to blow every time a hard drive gives in from defragging nightly, I would suggest doing on a bigger time frame. Maybe once every 2-4 weeks. A full virus scan isn't necessary. All you should have to do is make sure its scanning int he background, all the files you download etc. Running it all the time like that could also shorten your hard drives life.
I myself only defrag once ever 2-3 months, if that. And I haven't done a disk cleanup until recently, and this computer has been together since November last year. And you know what? My computer is still as fast, if not faster, then it was when I first assembled it. Looking at saved Sandra reports, my computers benchmarks aren't that much different. Some cases faster, some cases maybe a fraction slower.
In any case, you don't want to do anything that puts unnecessary strain on the hard drive unless you absolutely must.
Posted by: Kdr Kane
I'd only worry about that if I bought IBM drives. 
Posted by: MLXMariners
Also take ur time to organize ur desktop. U don't want unnessecary icons on there etc...
I've have seen too many computer illiterate friends who have clustered desktops filled w/garbage and its really unattractive.
Posted by: Swilo
It's not only unattractive, but having more than a handful of icos can lengthen the display time and in some cases slow your system performance slightly.
Posted by: Bobaroo
I like my desktop with 3 things on it. My RAM doesn't have to be wasted on the desktop.
Posted by: Fenix2004
Any free downloads that improve the system and speed it up?
Posted by: Tweaker
I'd stay away from programs that claim to speed up your system, sometimes they can cause more harm than good by changing things in your registry that might play havoc on your system. Unless you’re willing to manually tweak your system I'd leave it alone. Today’s systems are pretty fast already anyway. There are ways to you can improve your system's performance, Ram is always a good tweak, I have 512 megs over kill but I bought it cheap. Usually 256 are enough. I good video card is always a treat. As the other's said keep your system clean of junk! Don't have too many unnecessary programs running at start-up as they can eat up resources. Keep your registry clean and your system free from junk and you should be ok.
Tweak-UI 1.33 is a good one to use. One of only few I trust.
Posted by: Spork Lover
yes keep the desktop uncluttered... it will always eat up resources. At work I have seen people with half a gig on their desktop...and they complain about log on/off times...gee I wonder why!?
If you need shortcuts on your desktop, limit it to icons in the quick launch tool bar.
And really, there arent any downloads that can speed your system up... regular maintenance will make sure that it runs at its best though.
If you are running win2k/XP there is a thread here somewhere with some registry tweaks that I used, and I benefitted from it.....
One recent upgrade I did to my computer that made a noticable differance in the way it runs is, I bought a New mobo with Raid built into it, and I got a second HD and set it to run at level 0.....sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
Posted by: PITBULL
...put scan disk,defrag and the system resource meter(if your using 98se or WinMe) on desktop so you can use them at your discretion,leave nothing running in your system tray and if your a hardcore gamer like myself...turn every bell and whistle off cause they waste RAM just because!
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