Faster Laptop In 6 Free And Easy Steps

Have you ever wanted a faster laptop computer? Would you like faster computer performance without the extra cost? Don't sweat it, you don't need to spend extra money to make your laptop computer run faster. Faster computer performance is within your grasp. Here are six easy and cost free steps to make your laptop computer run faster. They are simple to do and not too time consuming either.

1) Fix Those Chopped Up Disk Files.

Ever notice that it seems to take longer and longer to open up some of your computer applications? It is not your imagination. Over time, those program files become broken up into small pieces on your hard drive. It is called disk file system fragmentation. Your laptop computer system must search the hard drive for small pieces of a file and put them back together again. This happens when the operating system can not or will not allocate enough contiguous space to store a complete file. Hence, your laptop computer performance degrades significantly when you have a large amount of disk file fragmentation.

The good news is, there is a free and easy utility to fix disk files that are fragmented. There is more good news too. It is included with all Windows operating systems. It is called Disk Cleanup tool. For example; temporary internet files, Windows temporary files, and Windows components that are not being used any more. It will also show you those programs that you have installed years ago, that are no longer used; old games, old pictures and even old videos.

3) Stop All Those Automatic Startup Programs

Stop those unneeded programs that startup automatically when your computer boots up. Just about every program that is installed on your computer, seems to want to start up when your computer starts up. This slows down your laptop computer very quickly and quite dramatically. They slow down your computer during shut downs and start ups. They also eat up valuable computer memory that you could being using for live active programs.

So go through your computer programs that you have installed one by one. Go to their program preferences or program options and uncheck automatic program startup. You can also run a free Windows utility program called " MSCONFIG " to stop some programs from automatically starting up.

4) Unclog Your Windows Registry

Everything and I mean everything, that has ever been installed or un-installed on your computer is listed in the Windows registry. Your computer registry grows like one hungry monster and never stops eating. And it never goes on a diet. It retains everything forever.

The bigger it gets the slower your computer will get. Over time, it gets so clogged up, that it even gets corrupted causing computer errors. You know, those unwanted blue screens with a bunch of numbers and letters that mean nothing to you. When it gets clogged up, some programs will even stop working. The congested Windows registry will slow down your computer constantly until you perform a clean up.

Don't wait until your computer crashes before doing a registry cleanup. The best free and safe way to clean up your computer registry is to run a free registry scanner and cleaner. You can find one that is recommended by user reviews by searching the internet.

5) Windows Vista ReadyBoost

If you are using Windows Vista, you should really look into ReadyBoost. A free utility tool included in Vista that allows you to use a USB flash drive or a memory card to act as additional memory. ReadyBoost will improve your laptop computer performance without having to add additional system memory. It does this by using your flash drive or memory card as a drive for disk cache. This is all done without having to spend more money on additional memory sticks too.

6) Clean Up Your Desktop

We are all guilty of Windows desktop clutter. Some of us have way more desktop icons than we know what to do with. Everytime I turn around another desktop icon seems to appear on my desktop. Everytime your PC starts up, it has to load all those icons and their properties into RAM, this does take time and slows your PC down. It eats up your memory and slows down your bootup speed. Delete those unused desktop icons. You will see a nice speed improvement on Windows boot-up time.

If you would like to read the extended version of this article please visit coolestcheaplaptops.com.  The extended version provides more detailed instructions on how to perform these steps.

Copyright (c) 2008 - 2009, http://www.coolestcheaplaptops.com - Author Scott Pheulp - All Rights Reserved.