There are many factors that affect the performance of your computer.

When talking about the performance, most of it refers to the speed of your computer.

The best way to make your computer faster is by optimizing its registry files…

The registry files are those deep-down files that contain many of the operating instructions of your computer.

They keep information regarding the start up of programs, the best way to run the programs and how to shut the programs.

A computer tends to run slow when these registry files get messed up. This could happen because of many reasons:

These files generally get messed up when music, videos, screensavers, software and pictures are downloaded, as these programs tend to install their own registry entries.

Also, installing and uninstalling of software hampers the registry files.

Whenever you install a program, it registers itself by putting its registry entries in your computer.

Havoc is created when these registry files overwrite the current registry files as the new registry files contain wrong instructions for the program.

For example, after a current registry is overwritten by a new one, what might happen is that when it is desired to open a program, the application may not open at all or what might even happen is that the computer might just restart.

The size of the registry sometimes creates problem.

The size of the registry keeps increasing with the use of Windows. When the size of the registry becomes too large, the performance of the computer decays and it can become unstable.

You might have noticed that whenever you install a fresh program on your computer, your computer tends to perform much slower than before. Moreover, this could result in sudden crashes, system failure or sometimes even display of unknown error messages that ultimately hamper the performance and speed of a computer; hence your computer normally requires registry cleaning.

So, the best way to make a computer faster is to scan the registry, find the errors and fix them.

There are many software programs available which will scan the registry, find any errors and fix them for you (fixing registry errors manually is not recommended as any error could cause your machine to not function at all).

The programs find the potential problems that could result in the slowing down of the computer.

Generally, these registry software programs scan for any invalid or obsolete entries and display a list of errors found in the registry. Thereafter, the user may manually select the items that they wish to delete or automatically repair all of them.

Some software programs also provide a back up for those changes that are made so as to recover the changes made, if required.

This is how the registry is optimized and the speed of the computer is increased.

To keep your registry permanently clean, check out this registry checker program.

Over time, computers slow down. Some of this is psychological – your new machine is usually faster than the one you’ve just upgraded from – but most of the time with the increase in CPU speeds, your new computer really is faster than its predecessor.

Keeping it fast is a challenge.

New programs make more demands on your machine. And there’s always the temptation to have lots of helper programs running just in case you need them.

There are lots of different ways that you can speedup your computer.

I’ll deal with them in more detail as this blog progresses, but for now check out the following:

How much memory does your computer have?

If it’s less than 1Gb of RAM then this is the first thing you should consider upgrading your memory. Windows always has been memory hungry and new versions are no exception. Upgrading to 1Gb or 2Gb or RAM is quite cheap and will make near enough everything on your machine run faster.

When was the last time you checked the Registry?

A registry checking program is a must. Near enough every Windows program uses the registry as a dumping ground for all sorts of information. This gets out-of-synch at the slightest opportunity. The program that I use runs daily and I’m always amazed at how many oddities it finds and fixes on a daily basis.

Stop running all those darned programs at start-up!

Lots of programs automatically tick a box on installation that says they should run every time Windows starts up. Your instant messenger program, Skype, iTunes, your anti virus software (OK, keep that one), the list goes on.

Run the msconfig program from Start => Run (in XP) and then type in “msconfig” (without the quotes). In Vista, just type that into the search box that appears when you select Start.

The Startup tab will show you all the programs that run every single time you start up Windows. Set a system restore point in Windows (just in case you mess things up) and then disable any programs that aren’t needed. You may need to do some research on what some of the programs do before you merrily go ahead and delete them.

Another Msconfig setting

In the boot.ini tab, there’s a Timeout setting. This is likely set to 30 seconds and is used by Windows in case you’re running more than one operating system. If you only run Windows, you can safely cut this time down. I’ve got mine set to 5 seconds and that works well for me.