Speeding Up Your Computer
The most critical piece of hardware in any computer is probably the CPU. The most obvious way to improve computer speed would be to replace the CPU by a faster one. While this is by far the most efficient way to increase speed, it is also the most expensive. Before you spend hundreds of dollars on new hardware, you should start by making sure that your current hardware is used efficiently. Because a modern computer is a very complex machine and Windows is a very complex piece of software, it usually takes some tweaking to get the last 10 or 20 percents of performance out of your hardware. On most Windows PCs, there are at least twenty programs running at any time. Since most of these programs are invisible to the user, it is not very easy to know exactly what your computer is doing most of the time. By changing the process priorities you can often improve both performance and stability. SpeedUpMyPC offers three different ways of ensuring that all your CPU resources are available to the applications that really need them. You can tell SpeedUpMyPC to automatically assign more resources to processes that are really important, such as games, CD writing software, or MPEG decoders. This can often make your favorite applications run faster and more smoothly, preventing skipped frames, gaps, and other problems.
Memory and Page File Usage
Running out of physical memory or RAM is another common reason for performance problems today. This is not just annoying; it can actually cause severe stability problems and even crashes. If your computer starts using the paging file to emulate RAM space, you might have to wait for seconds or even minutes before your computer starts responding again. The best way to avoid this problem is to monitor memory usage and free up some RAM as soon as memory usage exceeds 70 or 80%. You might also want to keep an eye on your page file usage to avoid crashes. SpeedUpMyPC monitors RAM and page file usage in real time and can automatically recover more RAM when memory usage exceeds a particular limit. This will help you speed up your computer considerably and is very useful if you are planning to watch a DVD movie or play a demanding game for hours.
Background Applications
If you have not re-installed your PC in at least a few months and have installed some shareware, freeware, plugins, components, and other files, you probably have a large number of unnecessary programs running in the background. These programs are often completely invisible, but they still consume valuable resources and make start-ups take longer than necessary. Some of these programs might also be spyware that monitors your surfing habits and sends personal information to remote servers. SpeedUpMyPC makes it easy to remove all unwanted background applications permanently and helps you find spyware and other hidden programs in minutes. This will not only speed up your PC, but can also help you increase security and protect your privacy as well.