Is your computer too fast? Probably not. In fact, if you’re like many PC users, you’ll eventually find yourself wishing that you could spend more time using your PC and less time waiting for it. That’s when the idea of upgrades comes into play.
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Component manufacturers stand at the ready, of course, offering you every possible upgrade — from video card to extra memory to full-fledged processor upgrades. All of these promise to make your computing life less frustrating and more productive. But which upgrades make sense? Read on for some answers.
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bQ/b: How can I make my Windows Vista computer boot faster?
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bA/b: Bootup speed of Vista or any other operating system is determined largely by two things: how fast your hard drive is and how much software you have installed that loads automatically at startup.
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You have some control over both, but let’s start first with the no-cost option: reducing the number of software programs that start automatically when your system does.
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First, uninstall any applications that you do not use regularly. You would be surprised at just how much additional system load is caused by programs installed on your PC, whether they’re running or not.
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Second, perform some optimization of your bootup process. Windows Vista and 7 give you the tool to do this in MSConfig. Open the Start menu, type MSConfig, and press enter.
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The System Configuration dialog box opens. From there, click the Startup tab and inspect the list of applications there. Each one of those starts when your computer does. De-select anything that you know you don’t use or need.
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Next, in the same dialog box, click the Boot tab, and then click the Advanced Options button. There, you’ll see a Number of processors check box, which allows you to specify the number of processors — or cores — that Windows should…