Could The Way Your Computer Looks Be What Is Slowing It Down?

Once of the biggest reasons as to why your computer runs slow has to do with your computer being setup to "look pretty". A lot of your computers resources are being used to make the interface look good and if you were to tune these down, then your computer might be able to run a bit faster.

This holds especially true if you are using Windows Vista since Vista has a lot of unnecessary things that are running in the back ground that are designed to just make the computer look good. Here's how to tune down your computers looks to make it run faster:

If you are using Windows XP, click Start, right click on My Computer and select Properties. Select the Advanced tab and where it says "Performance", click on the Settings button. In the Visual Effects tab select Adjust For Best Performance. What you are doing here is making Windows XP look more like Windows 98. If you would like your computer to look somewhat good and still be tuned for performance, select the Custom box, make sure that all of the other boxes are checked off, scroll down to the bottom and select "Use Visual Styles On Windows And Buttons". Now select Apply and then OK.

If you are running Windows Vista, click Start, right click on Computer and select Properties. On the left hand side, select Advanced System Settings. In the advanced tab where it says Performance, click on the Settings button. Now in the Visual Effects tab, select Adjust For Best Performance. This will make Vista look more like Windows 98. If you would like to keep the way that Vista looks, and still have your computers look tuned for performance, just select the Custom box, make sure that everything is checked off and then select the box that says "Use Visual Styles On Windows And Buttons". Click Apply and then OK.

So exactly how much of a performance boost should you expect? Usually not that much. I have used this technique on a lot of different computers that run both Windows XP and Vista and the results are very different. Usually for the most part, you will see more of a performance boost on the Vista computers, but with Vista this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of things that you can do to make it faster. For the most part, using this technique has no risk and you can only gain by using it so highly suggest giving it a try.

Author : Gary Foster