Here are some tips on how to speed up your pc.
When Microsoft released Windows 7 last year, the software giant had a hope and a dream: that the makers of PCs would leave the operating system alone when they installed it on their hardware.
You see, while Microsoft loves the companies that make computers and install Windows on them, it doesn’t particularly like all the junkware — trial programs and unnecessary applications they add after the fact. Over the years, I’ve had several Microsoft product managers express frustration with the way Windows gets treated by its hardware partners.
With Windows 7, Microsoft lobbied computer makers to back off on the junkware. But after having used more than a dozen Windows 7 systems since it came out, I have to say that many manufacturers have not heeded Microsoft’s plea. There’s still way too much junkware on brand-name computers.
Fortunately, you don’t have to live with it. I’ve written in the past about ways to remove unnecessary programs, usually through the Programs and Features module in the Control Panel (in XP, it’s called Add/Remove Programs). Or, you can turn off programs that launch when you start Windows via the System Configuration utility (type msconfig in the Windows 7 or Vista search box and hit Enter, or use Start > Run > msconfig in XP).
But these manual processes may be daunting to those who aren’t technologically inclined. I’ve been using an intriguing program that can speed your PC by looking at the way it starts up, then giving you control over what launches during the boot process. It’s called Soluto, and you can download a free copy at http://www.soluto.com.
I’ve been installing Soluto on every PC I can find, and it reliably cuts bootup time by a significant amount. You can either delay programs so they don’t start until Windows has finished the booting, or you can keep them from launching at all. As a result, Soluto helps your computer run faster in general.
After you download and install Soluto, it reboots your computer and watches to see what starts up automatically. You’re then shown a timeline view of the modules that launch along with Windows. They’re sorted into three types: No-brainers, which can be removed without a problem; Potentially Removable, which you may or may not want to pause or delay; and Required, which you shouldn’t mess with at all.
You can mouse over any one of the items in the No-brainer or Potentially Removable groups and get information about what it does. You can then decide whether to delay its launch until later or pause it, which actually prevents it from launching altogether.
The information about each module is provided by other users of Soluto who’ve submitted reports. Soluto’s staff vets the descriptions and makes them public.
Once you’re done pausing and delaying startup programs, you can then restart your system and see how much time you’ve shaved off the bootup process. I’ve seen some pretty dramatic results.
For example, I installed Soluto on a new Toshiba Satellite T135 notebook. This is an impressive, affordable, thin-and-light notebook with a 13.3-inch screen, an AMD Turion X2 Neo processor and 4 gigabytes of memory. It sells for about $520.
However, out of the box it wasn’t exactly a speed demon. Soluto showed an initial boot up of about 2 minutes 45 seconds, and after I went through the process of removing nearly a dozen items, I had shaved 45 seconds off the time.
One of the programs that was taking the longest time to boot up was Norton Internet Security, which can slow startup time and be a drag on performance. I uninstalled and replaced it with Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft’s free, lightweight security software (microsoft.com/security_essentials). I now see boot times of 90-95 seconds on this Toshiba.
And with this same combination – Soluto and Microsoft Security Essentials – I’ve gotten my personal Windows desktop PC down to a boot time of under a minute.
While Soluto is designed for novices, I’ve learned some things about the Windows startup process that I didn’t know previously, so technologically savvy users may want to try it, too. Over time, Soluto’s developers want to build a database of Windows annoyances and use the software to help fix those problems. So far, they appear to be on the right track.
