Is your Windows Vista computer running slow? Would you like to know how to keep your computer performing better for years to come? If so, then this is the tutorial for you! This tutorial will cover everything related to Windows Vista performance optimization and will also branch out into separate tutorials.

Why Should I Optimize My Computer For Performance

As computers age, they tend to get slower and slower, until usually, we are forced to get a new computer altogether. But, we can extend the lifetime of a computer by optimizing it for performance. Think of optimizing as protecting your investment. The optimization tips that I will be presenting below will help to extend your computers lifetime and keep it running fast and smooth.

Delete Programs You Never Use

Delete programs you never use. This is practically the easiest step out there. If you arent using the programs, then why let them sit on your computer and take up your space and memory. Many programs you'll want to delete first are the ones that came with your computer. Most computer manufacturers bloat your computer with software that you didnt order. Many of these programs are trials, and wont be any good in 30 days if you dont buy the program anyway.

Control The Programs That Run At Startup

When Windows starts up it also loads programs that are set to load upon startup aswell. These programs add to the time it takes Windows to startup because they have to share memory and space with Windows. There is an advantage to loading these programs when Windows starts up though, and its simple. By loading these programs now you wont have to wait as long for them to load later if you need to use them. So, you only want the programs that you use often to load at startup. Why waste your time loading something that you probably wont even use? To stop these unused programs from loading when Windows starts up, all you need to do is go to the System Configuration tool or Windows Defender.
Click here to go to our System Configuration Utility tutorial!

Defragment Your Hard Drive

Fragmentation of your hard drive occurs in many different ways. The main way fragmentation occurs is when you save a file. When you save a file, Windows doesn't actually overwrite the original file, instead it saves the revised file in a new location. As you make even more changes, they are saved to more locations that are different from the original. so, if you edit lots of files, they could be all over your hard drive! This is a problem because when your computer goes to find a file, its got to look in many different places to find the latest one. Luckily, Microsoft developed a handy tool called Disk defragmenter, this tool will consolidate all the duplicate files back into one, decreasing the time it takes for your computer to find and open files.

Clean Up Your Hard Drive

Cleaning up your hard drive is simple. Just delete any unnecessary files and programs. You will also want to run a tool called Disk Cleannup which comes with every Windows Vista computer. This easy to use tool will remove files from the Recycle Bin, temporary internet files, and other places that files you probably don't need accumulate.