What is your PC’s boot time ? I bet you cannot answer that question exactly, I know I was not able to until I discovered the Windows application Boot Timer which measures the boot time of a computer with an Windows operating system. The time measured is the time between the appearance of the Bios [...]
Check and Compress the Registry
The Windows registry is growing with every piece of software and system changes and never gets reduced again on its own. While this is not a problem for most users it could become for users who make lots of changes to their system. A huge registry is slowing down system load which is actually the number one reason why a user should check his registry from time to time and compress it so that it system load time gets reduced again.
Speed up Open Office
My biggest complaint that I have when using Open Office is the speed of the application. It loads terribly slow for instance and it only topped by the time GIMP needs to startup. Way to slow to edit a document quickly in my opinion. The guys at Zolved found a way to speed up Open Office by editing a few settings in the software’s settings.
Check if you Firefox speed tweaks are still active
I recently read an article about Firefox tweaks that would speed up page loading time by changing several settings in the about:config dialog. I knew those tweaks but decided to take a look if my settings were different from the ones mentioned in the article.
I found out – to my big surprise – that I was running Firefox with the default settings and not the tweaked settings. I had the feeling that Firefox was running slower than before after the latest update but I was not able to determine the cause, until now that is.
Speed up Hard Drives under Windows Vista
The following article describes two ways of speeding up hard drives in Windows Vista. The first tip describes a way to speed up SATA drives and the second to speed up USB drives. Both options can be easily configured in the Device Manager. Advanced write caching features are supported by Windows Vista but not enabled by default. I’m not sure why Microsoft decided to disable the feature by default but it surely helps system performance to enable it. Just make sure you have an SATA drive installed.
How to Speed up CD and DVD burning
Many users just buy blank CDs and DVDs without thinking much about the manufacturer who created them – most want it cheap which has the result that their system has to cope with different media. They notice that their system burns some CDs and DVDs faster without knowing why. Your burner might have the specification to burn DVDs with 8x speed but your burning software offers you only 4x. This article explains why that is the case and what you can do to never make this happen again.
