TIPS
PC Optimization
Here are some tips to reduce resources on your Windows systems.
7 TIPS
- REDUCE RECYCLE BIN MAXIMUM SIZE
This is set fairly high by default, I set it to 3%, theres really no need to set it higher than that. To do this right click your recycle bin and enter in your custom size and click apply - REDUCE SIZE OF SYSTEM RESTORE
The default size setting for the hard drive is 15%. Hold down your windows key and press your pause key, then select the System protection tab. In the list under Protection Settings, you can see which volumes have this feature enabled. Click on the disk partition that you want to adjust, and click the Configure button.
A new window will open and present you with a slider that you can adjust to change the the amount of storage this feature will use. Click apply after entering your value. Selecting a size lower than the current amount of space will result in the oldest entries in System Restore being deleted first. - TURN SCREEN SAVER OFF
To do this, right click on your desktop and select personalize, then click screen saver at the bottom of the window and select none in the selection box. Click apply or ok - TURN OFF HIBERNATION
Hibernation lets you return to the place you were when you turned off your computer last, by storing that information in memory on your hard disk. To me thats a huge waste.
Microsoft have again made it harder for users to do this.
To turn it off, click Start and then type cmd in the Start Search box. In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator. When you are prompted by User Account Control, click Continue. At the command prompt, type powercfg.exe /hibernate off, and then press Enter. Type exit and then press Enter to close the Command Prompt window. - CONTROL YOUR START UP PROGRAMS
These are those little icons that pop up in the bottom right of your taskbar, and programs that load in the background when you start up your operating system.
There are a couple of ways of doing this:- Using msconfig command
- Using start up manager software
MSCONFIG COMMAND
To access it, click your start button and type in msconfig in the search box and press enter. This will bring up a window with the title Sytem Configuration Utility. Theres a lot more you do with this, but I won't go into it now. Select the start up tab and this will show you whats starting up and from where it's loading from. Now uncheck the boxes to disable those programs from starting up
START UP MANAGER TOOLS
WINPATROL is a popular one and there are many more that are easy to use and configure. - TURN OFF INDEXING SERVICE ON HARD DRIVE
Open your Windows Explorer and go to drive (C) or your preffered one, click it once then right click it and select Properties. Then uncheck the option down the bottom of the window and click ok or apply. - DISABLING PERFORMANCE SETTINGS
Hold down your windows key and press your pause key, then click Advanced System Settings on the left hand side of the window. Then in the System Properties box window click the Advanced tab and click the settings button under the Performace heading. Now select Custom and tick only the last 3 options.
VISTA TIPS
- REDUCE RECYCLE BIN MAXIMUM SIZE
This is set fairly high by default, I set it to 3%, theres really no need to set it higher than that. To do this right click your recycle bin and click on properties, then enter in your custom size and click apply - REDUCE SIZE OF SYSTEM RESTORE
The default size setting for the hard drive is 15%. Microsoft have denied users a GUI to accomplish this, so therefore it has to be done typing in certain commands. Open the command line (cmd) and type this command to see the space allocated: vssadmin list shadowstorage Now, to change the size of System Restore type this:vssadmin resize shadowstorage /on=c: /for=c: /maxsize=3gb This would change the allocated size of System Restore on drive C: for drive C: to 4 gigabytes. Please note that the on: parameter is the drive letter where the System Restore files are stored while the for: parameter defines the drive that the files should be backed up from. If you remove the maxsize parameter the settings will be changed to the default again. Selecting a size lower than the current amount of space will result in the oldest entries in System Restore being deleted first. - TURN SCREEN SAVER OFF
To do this, right click on your desktop and select personalize, then click screen saver, select none in the selection box and click apply or ok - TURN OFF HIBERNATION
Hibernation lets you return to the place you were when you turned off your computer last, by storing that information in memory on your hard disk. To me thats a huge waste.
Microsoft have again made it harder for users to do this.
To turn it off, click Start and then type cmd in the Start Search box. In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator. When you are prompted by User Account Control, click Continue. At the command prompt, type powercfg.exe /hibernate off, and then press Enter. Type exit and then press Enter to close the Command Prompt window. - CONTROL YOUR START UP PROGRAMS
These are those little icons that pop up in the bottom right of your taskbar, and programs that load in the background when you start up your operating system.
There are a couple of ways of doing this:- Using the default Windows Defender program
- Using msconfig command
- Using start up manager software
WINDOWS DEFENDER
Search for or use the Start menu to navigate to Windows Defender
Click on in the Windows Defender menu bar
Click on Software Explorer
If you want to ensure that you can Enable/Disable/Remove any of the startup items listed, click the Show for All Users button at the bottom of the Window. Click continue to give the User Account Control permission to change the registry entries required to disable startup programs. Click on any program in the list and you’ll have the option to Disable/Remove the startup items.
MSCONFIG COMMAND
To access it, click your start button and type in msconfig in the search box and press enter. This will bring up a window with the title Sytem Configuration Utility. Theres a lot more you do with this, but I won't go into it now. Select the start up tab and this will show you whats starting up and from where it's loading from. Now uncheck the boxes to disable those programs from starting up
START UP MANAGER TOOLS
WINPATROL is a popular one and there are many more that are easy to use and configure. - TURN OFF INDEXING SERVICE ON HARD DRIVE
Open your Windows Explorer and go to drive (C) or your preffered one, click it once then right click it and select Properties. Then uncheck the option down the bottom of the window and click ok or apply. - DISABLING PERFORMANCE SETTINGS
Hold down your windows key and press your pause key, then click Advanced System Settings on the left hand side of the window. Then in the System Properties box window click the Advanced tab and click the settings button under the Performace heading. Now select Custom and tick only the last 3 options.
XP TIPS
- REDUCE RECYCLE BIN MAXIMUM SIZE
This is set fairly high by default, I set it to 3%, theres really no need to set it higher than that.To do this right click your recycle bin and click on properties, then move the slider and click apply - REDUCE SIZE OF SYSTEM RESTORE
This also is set fairly high, I set it to 3%. To do this hold down your windows key and press the pause button.
Select system restore tab and move the slider to the desired size and click apply - TURN SCREEN SAVER OFF
To do this right click on your desktop and select properties, then select the screen saver tab and select none in the selction box - TURN OFF HIBERNATION
Hibernation lets you return to the place you were when you turned off your computer last, by storing that information in memory on your hard disk. To me thats a huge waste.
To turn it off right click on your desktop and select properties, then select the screen saver tab and click the power button. Now select the hibernate tab and uncheck the box - CONTROL YOUR START UP PROGRAMS
These are those little icons that pop up in the bottom right of your taskbar, and programs that load in the background when you start up your operating system.
There are a couple of ways of doing this:- Using your start up folder
- Using msconfig command
- Using start up manager software
START UP FOLDER
To access it use your windows explorer (It's usually something like C:\Documents and Settings\User\Start Menu\Programs\Startup) or you can do the easy way and click your start button, then hover on all programs and select start up.
Then delete anything you don't want there
MSCONFIG COMMAND
To access it, click your start button and click run. then type in msconfig, this will bring up a window with the title Sytem Configuration Utility. Theres a lot more you do with this, but I won't go into it now. Select the start up tab and this will show you whats starting up and from where it's loading from. Now uncheck the boxes to disable those programs from starting up
START UP MANAGER TOOLS
WINPATROL is a popular one and there are many more that are easy to use and configure. - TURN OFF INDEXING SERVICE ON HARD DRIVE
Open your Windows Explorer and go to drive (C) or your preffered one, right click it and select PROPERTIES. Then uncheck the option down the bottom of the window. - DISABLING PERFORMANCE SETTINGS
Hold down your windows key and press your pause key, then select the advanced tab and click the settings button under Performace. Now select Custom and tick only the last 3 options. Another alternative to get to your System Properties is going to your control panel and clicking system. - MOVING THE PAGEFILE
For those people who have 2 physical hard drives or more installed and have atleast 512MB's of memory, you can increase your read/write speeds a bit by setting the pagefile on the hard drive that doesn't contain the windows installation and applications.
Hold down your windows key and press your pause key, then select the advanced tab and click the settings button under performance. This time go to the next tab "Advanced" and click the change button under the heading "Virtual memory". Now select your windows drive (which is usually C:) and select "No" paging file and then click "Set". Now select your other drive and set the Initial and Maximum size. Click "Set" and click "OK" to finish. You will probably be asked to reboot to make the changes
I hope this helps those who are new to the pc world.
