Bullet Points
Speeding Up Slow PC's

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• Using "Send To"

  The Send To menu appears when you right click on a file or folder while in Windows Explorer. With this feature, you do not have to open up a second Windows Explorer window when you are moving files and folders. You can simply select the files you want to move, right click, select Send To from the context menu, and then select the destination.

  But Send To is limited to what you have located in the Send To folder. The easiest way to put more options (or remove those not needed) from the Send To folder is to:

  1. Open the Send To folder with Windows Explorer by clicking Start | Run and then typing in "sendto" (without the quotes).
  2. Drag any shortcut into that folder and it will appear in your Send To menu next time you right click on a file or folder.

   

• Creating a New Toolbar

  Want a quick way to get to your Network Places? Use Control Panel applets a lot and wish they were all on the quick launch bar? You can create a new toolbar for any folder in Windows as follows:

  1. Right click on the taskbar
  2. Select Toolbars
  3. Select New Toolbar
  4. In the New Toolbar dialog box, scroll to the folder you want to make a toolbar for (e.g. to make a toolbar containing the Control Panel applets, expand My Computer and click the Control Panel folder.)
  5. Click OK

  You now have a new toolbar that contains each Control Panel applet. To make it take up less room, right click it and select View | Small icons. To close the new toolbar, right click and select Close toolbar.

   

• Determining What Programs are Run When You Start Up

  You can identify applications running in the background (and using valuable resources) by:

  1. Click Start
  2. Click Run
  3. Type in "msconfig" (without the quotes) and press Enter
  4. Click on the Startup tab.

   

• Exiting Those Annoying Pop-ups

  There are many spyware/scumware/adware/malware programs that get installed without your knowledge, so it is good idea to look through the Add or Remove Programs list in Control Panel (and use the previous tip) on a monthly basis to make sure they have not reinstalled themselves.

  To help prevent unwanted programs from being installed on your PC, you should always click the X in the upper right corner of any pop-up ad to close it. If you click anything in the pop-up ad including a Close button, the chances are that you have actually installed the application or toolbar instead of actually closing the pop-up ad.

   

• Password Generators

  Having problems coming up with new passwords every 90 days for everybody on your network? (You are changing passwords every 90 days, aren't you? :) You can generate from one to 20 passwords at a time at http://www.goodpassword.com/ If 20 at a time isn't enough, try http://www.winguides.com/security/password.php that promises 50 at a time.

  Be sure to include numbers and special characters, and make sure the length is at least 8 characters, preferably longer if you want to have truly secure passwords.

   

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If a PC is running slow, the first thing you should do is run anti-spyware software to make sure it is not infested. Next, use the tip given above and make sure no unnecessary software is being run on your PC each time you reboot.

If the PC continues to run slow even after all measures have been taken to remove spyware/scumware/adware/malware, then try the following:

The first thing I would do is add RAM, especially if your PC has 256 MB of RAM or less. This will definitely speed your system up.

If you haven't defragged your hard drive for awhile, this may help. Click Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Defragmenter to do this.

Consider removing some fonts from the long list you probably have, since loading all these will slow your startup. Certain fonts are vital to Windows operation and should NOT be removed from the Fonts folder. These include Arial, Courier New, Marlett, Modern, MS Sans Serif, MS Serif, Symbol, Tahoma, Times New Roman, and Wingdings. Others are fair game for removal, but to avoid possible problems, don't actually delete them -- move them from the Fonts folder into another folder. This does not delete font registry information but does prevent them from loading. If you want to permanently delete certain fonts, here's Microsoft's recommended procedure (there are other ways as well): Click Start and Run, type "%windir%\fonts" (without the quotes) and click OK. Then click the font you want to remove or hold down CTRL and click on multiple fonts. Click to delete from the File Menu.

Finally, make sure you have plenty of free space on your hard drive. Windows will often use disk space as RAM when memory rquirements are high. (Another reason to install more RAM in your PC). If the space for this is limited things will slow down and the PC may lock up.

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