How to maintain and speed up your computer - an out of the box guide (computer surge blues), part 1

I know what you’re thinking. As soon as you've read the title you've thought: "Oh no! Not another boring copy/paste guide. Not again!" Well, I'm your computer, the one who you call names and punch and yell at when I don't do what you want. And I'm a little sick of it. Computers have some dignity, too!

Okay, here's the deal: bear with me for a while and I'll give you some tips that will help me work better and will help you get what you want so that I don't have to hear you rant all day. I'm not going to promise that you’ll be able to turn your old clunker into a cheetah. But, much can be done to revamp and speed up even an outdated computer. You must take into consideration several factors such as equipped hardware, installed RAM memory, and internet connection speed. Before thinking of updating your hardware, let's see what we can do with the software. 

  
Rethink your habits

Why do I slow down after time? It can be due to many reasons. The operating system is not always to blame. Much has to do with your habits and how you use me. See how you do with this simple test.

Test

• Do you keep 100 applications open at the same time?
• Do you have too many auto-starting programs without any real need for that?
• Do you clutter your desktop with thousands of files and folders?
• Do you often install and/or uninstall software?
• Do you like internet toolbars? 

If the answer to most of these questions or all of them is yes, we have a problem, as these practices impact the performance of my operating system. The overall performance of the operating system, especially for Windows-based computers, tends to get worse the more you use it. The operating system stores temporary files, creates log files and performs a series of maintenance and administrative activities in the background that are totally invisible to the user. Any program in use generates its own temporary files (temporary internet files, Word temp files, etc.), which occupy disk space on your computer.  

Windows systems performance gets even worse if you install and uninstall a large number of programs. Installing "whatever" isn't a very good idea for several reasons, such as:

1. Any program you install modifies your system configuration;
2. If you're not 100% sure about its source, any new software can be a potential threat to your system;
3. Sometimes what the program really does isn't what you need;
4. The new software may conflict with another program already present in your system making your configuration unstable.

Removing software doesn't necessarily delete all of its related files. Sometimes the uninstall procedure leaves orphan files that clutter your system and cause Windows to freeze or crash.
 
Tips

• Use portable applications (programs that don't require any installation to be run, such as Tor Browser) when you can. Search the web to find the best alternatives to installing a new program.  
• Try, if possible, to perform a specific task using built-in Windows features instead of installing new software. For example, there are several video editing programs around but, if you don't have any professional needs, try using Windows Movie Maker.  
• If you need to uninstall a program, use solutions such as Revo Uninstaller, which allows you to track down and eliminate any orphan files left by the uninstalling process.

A golden rule for a reliable operating system is: the fewer modifications to the registry, the better. 

 
If you go the opposite way, in fact, it'll be impossible to keep track of the changes you've done or to determine what specific software caused a problem leaving you with one solution: re-formatting the hard drive.

Take action today and rethink your user habits, so the two of us can get along better. 

Go to part 2 

Stay tuned for the following part.