Are you running out of ideas on how to speed up your computer? With the computer fast becoming the hub of most individuals’ work and play, a slow, hanging, crashing, or freezing PC is a common source of everyday frustration. If you’re just crawling along at a snail’s pace and want to get more out of your computer, there are plenty of things that you can still do before going to the ultimate step of having it replaced. Check out the following tips and see if any one or all of these fixes is applicable to speed up PC performance of your own system.

Hardware Replacement

A powerful graphics board is often associated with a gaming PC but this isn’t necessarily true. Even if you don’t do a lot of gaming on your computer, replacing your graphics board could still work wonders for an aging PC, especially if you have Windows 7 and Windows Vista that use graphics-heavy user interface. Don’t worry about finding one that will fit your PC slot because graphics boards for older PCs are still being manufactured. Computers that have been around for a few years already have either a PCI or AGP slot, while newer systems use PCI-Express slots.

Make Your Windows ‘Lean and Mean’

If you don’t take action and fail to trim the fat off your Windows applications, it won’t be long before your computer eventually takes the slow lane. You might be surprised at how much you can still give your operating system a boost whether you are using Widows 7, Vista, or XP. For instance, you can deactivate some of the fancy effects that are automatically turned on by default.

In XP, you can do this by going to the system Control Panel, choosing Performance and Maintenance, then Adjust visual effects. Here you can see the different appearance effects that are currently activated. Uncheck the Adjust for best appearance and Adjust for best performance buttons to free up some processor time in running Windows. For Windows Vista, deactivate the Sidebar which hogs resources.

Remove Unused Apps

There could also be a number of programs running upon startup that you may be unaware of. Another method on how to speed up your computer is to check if there are any of these programs running silently in the background but are actually taking up a lot of your computer’s resources and therefore slowing the PC down. Find out what these particular applications are and keep them from loading when not in use.

For Windows 7 or Vista users, go to Start, key in msconfig in the Search programs and files field, and press Enter. When you get to the System Configuration window, choose the Startup tab. Check under the Command column and you’ll see a listing of the programs that also start up when you turn on your computer. See if there are any applications that you don’t really need to start as soon as your PC boots up and uncheck them.

Speed Up Your Network

If your computer is connected to a local network, slowdowns may be unavoidable, depending on what processes you’re initiating from PC to PC. To eliminate any delays caused by slow network connections, getting your Windows updated to the latest version and using the most recent drivers for your network cards is a good first step to take. In addition, your router should also be installed with the newest firmware.

Certain internet applications such as web-based phone services, online gaming sites, and video streaming can be very demanding on your resources and tend to hog a lot of the network’s bandwidth. The best way to lessen the pressure required of your router and to keep your PCs still running at optimal speeds is to utilize the router’s port-forwarding feature.

The truth is, a slow computer could be attributed to any number of issues within your system. It could take a major upgrade or some minor tweaks to get it back up to speed but there’s nothing to lose by trying all possible methods. If you’ve tried the above tips but don’t see any improvement, perhaps what you need is to clean up your registry. Avail of the Registry Mechanic free trial and find out if it’s the answer to optimize your PC. Hopefully with these tweaks I’ve shared, how to speed up your computer is no longer a problem for you.