Slow Computer

What are some of the things that you can do to speed up a computer? I know that you can do a disk clean, scan for viruses, clean your cache out, and do critical updates... but what else is there that I can do? Also, what can I do Hardware wise?

bluedos82

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Hardware-wise:
RAM is the most important
plus, it's the simplest upgrade you can perform that in some cases is just as good as a processor upgrade

Software-wise:
Disk defragmenter
Use programs such as TweakXP or registry hacks to speed up the NTFS file system

cscgal

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Registry hacks? details...

bluedos82

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Registry hacks? details...

www.blkviper.com

Turns off services and such. More oriented for NT based systems, but has a few 9x tips available.

Though I agree with more memory never hurting anything, there is a practical limit (for most) of 256MB. Any more than that and either you're a geek, person with money, or don't know what's going on in the first place and had someone build it for you. 256MB is plenty for any normal user with today's software; not applications that came out 5 years ago.

I say that, then I have to bark about the fact that there's no substitute for raw processing power. In general, the more GHz you have, the faster the system. A faster bus makes up a healthy chunk of this. I would rather have an AMD system on a 200MHz bus at 2GHz than one with a 100MHz bus at 2GHz.