Q: I have a Acer computer with windows vista and extra memory. I've had it for almost a year now. It's not a bad computer, but I can't play The Sims on it with out it freezing every few minutes. Please tell me what I can do to help my computer run faster?
A: To speed up your computer and free up space and memory for free: Go to the Start Menu> Run Type in "appwiz.cpl" Uninstall whatever you don't need. Next, go to Start> Run and type in "msconfig". Go to the Startup Tab and uncheck everything you don't want to startup. If you want, you can uncheck everything, and your anti-virus will still restart itself when you log on. Now go to My Computer> Hard Drive> Documents and Settings> [USER NAME]> Local Settings> and delete everything inside the Temp Folder. (This is a hidden folder so you will needto have "show hidden files and folders" checked in Folder Options) All the files in this folder are just temporary files that your Internet stored that for certain websites. Then go to My Computer> Hard Drive> Windows> Prefetch and delete everything inside it. This folder is like an cache for programs and should be emptied about once a month. Next, you should install CCleaner, it will get rid of alot of temporary files on your computer. It also has a registry repair system, which is easily the best free one available on the Internet: http://www.ccleaner.com/download Another option is to try defragmenting your computer. Go to the Start Menu and go to All Programs Go to Accessories and System Tools. Choose Disk Defragmenter and when it loads click defragment. Next, go to Device Manger (Start> RightClick My Computer> Properties> Hardware Tab> Device Manager) and update all drivers. Another thing I would say is to compress your files if you already haven't. Open My Computer and right click on your hard drive Check the Compress Drive button and let it do it's thing. Finally, make sure your Hard Drive doesn't have any bad sectors. Go to My Computer> Right Click Hard Drive> Properties> Tools Tab> Check Now> Check both boxes and Start. It will ask you to reboot, so reboot. This will clear out any bad sectors on your Hard Drive. These are short-term solutions however. the easiest way is to just upgrade the RAM on your system, but at least the ways above are free. Your hard drive could be too full of data to function efficiently. There should be at least 300MB-500MBs of free space to allow for disk file chores. Note that this mostly applies to the C: drive or whatever drive your Window's cache is on. If your C: drive is too full, delete unused programs on the C: drive to make space. It's possible that your computer may have so many background programs running that there is not enough main memory to run your main programs. All icons in your computer's system tray are background programs using memory. To see and remove all running background programs: a. Press the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys at the same time. b. Click any program or task except Explorer or Systray. c. Then click End Task. Repeat steps b and c to quit all programs except Explorer and Systray which are necessary components of Microsoft Windows. Your computer could be full of adware, spyware, viruses, or trojans. These are all nasty programs that literally take over the functioning of your computer so they can run their programs. You definitely don't want any of this junk on your computer. To get rid of these parasite programs, and to prevent them from installing in the first place, you need and up-to-date firewall, anti-virus, and spyware removal programs. These are three separate software programs that must be running at all times except for when you are not plugged into the Internet. It is very important that these programs continuously update themselves or they will become out-dated and will no longer be useful. These programs can be purchased together or from separate manufacturers.