Q. My computer has gotten slower and slower at doing basic things like booting up and running multiple programs at once. How do I improve its performance without spending any money?
A: You’re wise to try to fix this problem yourself, for free. There are a few things you can do to make your computer feel more like the brilliant multitasking machine you want it to be and less like the wheezer it’s turned into.
Let’s start by setting aside one thing that a lot of people try but we won’t recommend here. It’s called overclocking, and it involves tweaking your PC’s hardware settings to make the central processor or system memory run faster than their manufacturers officially intended. It can get tricky.
Besides, unless you’re running nuclear simulations or are a huge video game player, your standard home PC probably should be fast enough for what you need. The problem isn’t in the hardware. It’s in all the software that’s gotten larded onto it.
So here are some simple things to do to gain more control.
– Reduce the programs that automatically launch at startup. Windows offers a few ways to do this; one easy way is to click icons for programs on the taskbar, which most people have on the bottom of the screen. If you select the icons for instant-messaging programs like AOL’s AIM service, look for a chance to adjust “options” or “settings.” Find the box that tells the program to automatically begin running at startup, and unclick it. And next time you download a new piece of software, check the default installation choices carefully, and make sure you really want something to begin running at startup.
– Cut down on add-ons. You don’t have to run every aspect of a useful program. For example, Google Desktop is great at indexing and…