Movies, DVD Players for Home Theater Systems

Speed Up Your New PC When You Get It Home

You've just received your new computer, and can't wait to open it up and see how much faster it is than your old clunker from last century. Only you find that you're disappointed that your new computer doesn't run quite as fast as you thought it would or that Windows loads even slower. It's not just you, many other new computer owners will have an experience much the same as yours. So what's the problem? Basically, all the big name manufacturers that sell computers at the big box stores and online these days insist on including extraneous software pre-installed on new computers. Much of it is completely unnecessary since the programs are quite often trial, limited or demo versions of the software, where they want you to pony up more money to continue to use the software or to upgrade to the real version of it. Not only does this extraneous software take up your valuable hard drive space, but many times it will also be installed to launch when your computer starts, so it will run in the background, taking up valuable memory, and it will also slow down your startup. Crazy, huh? No need to fear, here are some tips to help you optimize your new computer and get it running in top shape:

First, get rid of all unnecessary software. Some computers come with a 90 day trial of anti-virus software or a full security suite. You'll be surprised at how much these security suites slow down your computer, especially if you purchased a budget computer. Go to your control panel and click on Add/Remove Programs, then scroll down to the security suite's entry and uninstall it. Now, restart your computer and see if it starts or runs faster. Notice a difference? I bet you do. These security suites are some of the biggest offenders when it comes to negatively affecting computer speed and performance.

Next, open up Add/Remove Programs again and take a look at everything that's pre-installed. Are there any programs that you obviously don't need and won't ever use? Get rid of 'em. You'll probably notice some more demos, browser add-ons, toolbars, games, office suites, photo software, anything that you know you won't ever use, just get rid of it now. You'll be saving valuable hard drive space, memory and improving the overall performance of your computer.

Next, you'll want to check out the Startup tab under the Start button, see if there is anything in there that's starting up every time you launch Windows that you don't need. If you know for a fact that you don't need these programs to launch on startup, then right click on them in the startup tab and click delete. This will just stop the program from launching at startup, not uninstall it completely, so you can re-add it later if needed.

Things that you won't want to remove include Adobe Acrobat, Windows Media Player, Realplayer, Quicktime and other media related programs and codec's. You'll need these to view media or run certain browser based applications when they launch on some websites.

You'll also want to go online and download any Windows updates, especially any crucial ones. Windows will let you know if you have any recommended updates available in the lower right hand corner of your screen.

Protect It

Since you may have uninstalled security software, you'll want to go online to download a good anti-virus and spyware program before doing any serious web browsing. Recommended programs include AVG Anti-virus, ZoneAlarm Personal, Ad-Aware SE and Spybot Search & Destroy. You can download all these programs for free at download.com. Having good security is vital to the continued good performance of your computer. Get a virus or some spyware on your system and it's performance will take a hit. Use these programs to protect it and scan it regularly and you should rarely have a problem.

Great Programs

More great programs to optimize your experience include Mozilla Firefox for web browsing, Mozilla Thunderbird for email and the Google Toolbar for auto form filling, searching and integration with Gmail. You can get Mozilla and Thunderbird at Mozilla.org and the Google toolbar can be added at toolbar.google.com.

Lydia Quinn writes for Codot Directory, an SEO friendly directory of quality websites.

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