The following are more suited to the intermediate to advanced computer user. If you are not at that level yet, read the section on Defragging the Hard Drive and consider having someone add more RAM to your computer.
This is the easiest way for anyone to speed up their computer FOR FREE. When data is stored on the hard drive, it can be stored anywhere on the disk. Data can even be split into pieces, scattered around the disk. When enough of this occurs, your disk is said to be FRAGMENTED. To fix this you Defragment your hard drive. This rewrites your data, to that it is grouped together in order on the hard drive. This speeds up the process of retrieving data off the hard drive, enough to see a noticeable increase in performance. Before running the defrag utility, turn off your screen saver, power management, and any other programs running. (Advanced uses: Explorer and Systray should be the only 2 applications running for quickest defragging.) To run the program go to START>PROGRAMS>ACCESSORIES>SYSTEM TOOLS?DISK DEFRAGMENTER. Leave the computer alone until the process is complete. If you use your computer everyday and download frequently from the internet, I recommend defragging once a week for best performance. At a minimum, do it once a month.
Warning! The following tasks can make your computer inoperable if done improperly. If they look too complicated, get help from a knowledgeable computer person. Try at your own risk
When your computer runs out of physical memory, it can use the hard drive for storage. Then, it the information is needed later, a "hard page fault" will occur, and the data is retrieved from the hard drive. Windows sets aside space on the hard drive called the "page file" or "swap file". By default, it starts out at zero, and Windows will resize it, depending on how big it needs to be. Many people believe that this resizing affects system performance. Because of this, many people set their page file to a "static" size. To do this in Windows 98, right click on My Computer, then click properties, performance, and then virtual memory. Click the radio button "Let Me Specify.........." Set the minimum and maximum to two times you physical memory, up to 256 MB. Example
If you have 64 MB, set to 128 96 MB, set to 192 128 MB, set to 256 192 MB, set to 256 256 MB set to 256
Windows will give you some warning about the end of the earth if you make this change. Click OK and reboot. If you do this improperly, Windows may not be able to reboot! Do this only if you know what you are doing!
Since I got a scanner, and began playing with it and photo editing, I found out something. My 128 MB of Ram plus the 256 MB page file was not large enough to process pictures scanned at 600 dpi. I have since upded the virtual mempry to 320 MB, which fixed the problem. So, if you are going to do scanning and/or photo editing, here are my recommendations:
If you have 32 MB, go buy more Ram. In the meantime, do not set the virtual memory yourself. You will need a lot of hard disk space to process your photos.
If you have up to 128 MB, set the page file to 320 MB If you have more than 128 MB, set the page file to 2.5 times the physical Ram.
Again, only do this if you are confident in what you are doing. If you do this improperly, Windows may not boot, and it is a pain to fix this!
UPDATE: Since I wrote this article, I upgraded my RAM to 192 MB and set the virtual memory to 480 MB.
If you hit CNRTL/ALT/DEL, you can see all of the programs that are currently running. Do you need all of these? Probably not. Many times when you install a program, it sets itself up to run whenever the computer starts. You can control these quite easily. Go to START>RUN and type "msconfig" and OK. Then go to the START UP tab. Anything that is checked off will run when Windows boots. By unchecking any of the boxes, the programs will not start on their own. (You will have to reboot for them to take effect - what a surprise!) Be careful what you are unchecking. You want to keep: run=, system tray, and all of your anti-virus programs. Only uncheck programs you know you do not want to run at startup. make sure you know what the program is before you uncheck it.
The easiest way to increase performance on your computer is to add more RAM. RAM has more to do with the speed of your computer, more than any other component. Advertising would lead you to believe that it is the processor speed, but this is second to the amount of RAM. The minimum I recommend in any system is 64 MB. If you use your computer a lot, and run more than one application at once, and/or run multiple windows while surfing, I recommend 128 MB. My current computer has 128 MB. I always run anti-virus software, a software-based firewall, and an internet answering machine. If I go on the internet and open two windows, my available RAM is right around zero. If I'm also running other things like WORD, Winamp, or running more than 2 Windows, I'm paging the hard drive left and right. I actually need more RAM. So, for power users, I recommend 192 - 256 MB. If you're doing a lot of video editing, running a home studio, or working with 3D graphics, you may want even more.
UPDATE: Since I wrote this article, I upgraded my RAM to 192 MB. Under normal use, I do not run out of RAM as I did with 128 MB.. This only occurs when playing games, editing phoos, and using Cakewalk, a digital studio.
The hard drive is the slowest component of a computer, By upgrading your hard drive, you will see a noticeable increase in performance. The best IDE hard drives are 7200 RPM, 2 MB buffer, and a transfer rate of 100 MB/s. Some people have had compatibility problems with the 100 MB/s drives, so the 66 MB/s may be the best choice for now.
If you really want to speed up your computer, and you know how put one together, try using RAID. RAID is Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (???) Although many people use RAID for fault tolerance, you can also you it for speed. RAID 0, or disk stripping, divides data into blocks. If you have 2 hard drives in RAID 0, the first block is written to drive 1, the second to drive 2, the third to drive 1, etc. Since the drives are writing/reading at the same time, this doubles the effective speed of your hard disk read/write time. You can get an IDE RAID card for $100 - $150. You will have to make sure it is compatible with your motherboard, and drives that you want to use. Unless you are good at using ghosting software, you'll have to reload everything.
Currently, the price/performance of the current processor sets the maximum at 800 MGH. Today's software is not even designed to run at 1000 MGH. Most people do not even notice a difference between a 800 and 1000 MGH computer. If you are already using a 600 MGH or higher processor, you're be better off upgrading RAM or your hard drives. If you do buy a new processor, shop around. You may find one manufacturer to sell the same speed processor at a lower price. The other option you have is overclocking. A processor can run at a higher speed than what it is sold as. You can tweak your computer to run your processor at a higher speed. You do run the risk of making your computer unbootable, or even frying your motherboard. If you want to do this, research it yourself and do it at your own risk.