7 Regular Tasks To Make Your Windows 7 PC Faster

The cartoon produced by Theoatmeal illustrates very well the phases through which consumers go after they purchased a computer, from being enthused to feeling slightly bored and let down (ed : theoatmeal uses slightly less politically correct terms to describe them though).

We are going to provide you with seven tips to keep your Windows 7 (and any other Windows-based) computers in tip top shape, just like you'd try to get in shape after the festive period.

(a) Defragmentation

Microsoft has bundled a defragmentation tool with Windows 7 and most Windows OS, including the old Windows 95. Fragmentation is a process where chunks of files that are logically viewed as one unit by the OS (like a movie file) are physically separated on your hard disk drive. This can cause your computer to slow down.

Defragmentation brings the units physically closer by rearranging these units. You can schedule the defragmentation process to take place regularly. Our PC is set to run every week.

(b) Check what software you need

Check whether you still need applications installed in the past. Maybe you tried that last version of Mozilla Firefox or Opera and a brand new version has just been launched.

You certainly don't need six different browsers on your computer so you can uninstall some of those to save on disk space. Strictly speaking, uninstalling software does not make your PC faster but removing any software entry from your OS's registry, increasing free disk space and ticking off any applications that run in your startup menu will certainly. We'd suggest you do that every month at least.