Speeding up a computer can be done in two different methods: software or hardware. When I say hardware, this would be a physical component, such as your hard drive or your memory. Software refers to some program, which is installed onto your computer. Both work, but let’s look at which one you need.

If you look at the hardware, there are only 2 main sources you can change yourself to speed up your computer: memory or hard drive. Most people start with the memory first. It is easier to install, and gives you a quick solution. This works, and it is recommended to run your computer with as much memory as possible. All programs will go through your memory first, before they load in your computer and you begin working on them. So, the larger memory, the more programs loaded at once, or just the more options the existing open program has to preload some things it thinks you may need.

The hard drive can also be changed. Hard drives store all of the programs for your computer. So if something needs to run, it pulls this information from the hard drive. The hard drive turns at revolutions per minute (rpm), and depending on how fast the hard drive turns, will determine how fast your program gets started and remains running. If you can afford it, you can always upgrade to a 7200 rpm hard drive.

Over on the software side, there is one fix you can do, which is often overlooked. You can clean or fix your registry files. The registry files are located in the hard drive, and tell the computer how to run each of the programs. You can imagine what happens if the registry files are messed up. The computer then does not know what to do with the program, and just sits there. Sometimes the registry file is just corrupt, so the program does not run correctly, and locks up. And then we end up with the “blue screen”. The best way to fix this is to scan your registry files with a registry cleaner. This will clean and fix all of your registry files and return them back to normal.

These are 3 tips on how I speed up my computer. I have done all of these, and run my registry cleaner once a week. And every time I run it, I find files which need to be fixed.