I hate the way manufacturers fill your PC with crappy software that runs when you start up your pc, and programs that insist on putting unnecessary icons in your system tray. It annoys the heck out of me, and contributes to the hatred of Windows by making everything slower. I’ve complained about it a lot over the past, and now I’m offering solutions to anyone who wants to speed up their windows based PC.

1. Uninstall the Pointless Stuff.

This can be done really easily – just point your cursor to Start > Control Panel > Programs and Features (Vista) / Add/Remove Programs (XP). Here you can find a list of all the software that is on your PC, and there is bound to be stuff you don’t need.

2. Using Autoruns

Although Microsoft bought out the guys at Sysinternals who created autoruns, they have preserved the software well. Autoruns is a program that lets you see EVERYTHING that starts up with your PC, and this is a main area that slows down your PC, as the programs often run in the background all of the time.

So, firstly, download it from here. The software is small, and works both for Windows XP and Vista.

When you’ve extracted the files from the downloaded “Autoruns.zip”, run autoruns.exe. At this point it’s worth knowing that you can do some considerable damage with this program so go easy on stuff you’re not sure of. A really useful thing to do is to hit Options > Hide Microsoft Entries so you don’t get one of the good guys by mistake. I would also work on the “Logon” tab because that is where the bulk of the start up programs will be.

To disable an item, just uncheck the box next to it’s name on the list. My start up list is relatively empty, all I have is QuickTime and Window Clippings. I want Window Clippings, so i’ll uncheck QuickTime.

3. Get More RAM

This is the simplest way to speed up your PC on a hardware level, and possibly the cheapest. RAM is really cheap now, so if you have a new-ish PC you’re bound to be able to get some cheap RAM from somewhere like http://www.play.com/. Just contact your manufacturer if you aren’t sure what to order.

4. Clean your registry

There are numerous programs out there that clean the registry, some do a lot more in the way of optimizing performance on your PC. An example of some great software that cleans your registry is CCleaner.

5. Defrag your drive

Sometimes defragmenting your hard drive can speed up opening of programs and files – but usually doesn’t do anything noticable. Stuff like Windows Live OneCare defragments your hard drive on a regular basis, so generally you don’t need to do it yourself. If you do so feel compelled though, type “defragment” into your start menu search to get up the app.