How to Speed Your Slow Computer up!

[Nova]

In this topic I will be covering the two major sections on speeding up either your Old computer or your bugged/virus filled computer.

In this lesson you will learn the following:

-How to recognize when you have a infected computer. (Virus/Spyware)

-Understand how majority of modern malware works.

-Distinguishing a Simple virus from an Advanced one

-How to fix them as quickly as possible with minimal damage.

-How to spot what is bad for your computer (Bad websites / Programs etc..)

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-Clearing caches

-Disk space importance

-Simple mistakes

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The first portion we will cover is infected computers.

You know your computer. You use it daily and know what to expect when you tell it to do different things. When YOU start noticing un-intended changes in your computer, Its time to look closer at whats happening.

Simple Things to look at:

Task manager

This is a windows tool that shows everything that is working on your computer. It is easily pulled up and gives you real time information on your system.

To pull up this feature on windows Press and hold these keys: CTRL + ALT + DELETE . This will either pull it up straight away or give you options. If it gives you options, pick "Start Task manager"

It will then pull up somthing like this:

Click the PROCESSES tab that I have highlighted for you.

Then click the SHOW PROCESSES FROM ALL USERS.

It will look like this:

Now that you have this open, I'm going to teach you how to understand it.

The list is sorted by 5 columns, The ones you want to mainly focus on is the MEMORY and DESCRIPTION columns.

The average used programs like a Internet browser or Skype uses a fair bit of memory, As shown in my picture, I have Skype and Google Chrome open.

You can spot them by their IMAGE NAME column. There is Skype.exe and Chrome.exe.

You can see that they are both using quite a bit of memory, Along with the other programs that I am running.

What you want to look for is processes with names that are unfamiliar or not similar to programs you use on a daily basis. Their names will reflect in the process list and you can see what they are under the dexcription column.

If you get a process called something weird like Gogames.exe and it is using 30,000kb of memory or more, That is likely something you really dont want on your computer and it is slowing it down. The first case of action is to click on it and hit the END TASK button on the bottum. This will close it.

If it continues to pop up and you dont see any changes when you close it, It is likely malware.

NOTE: YOU CANNOT CAUSE PERMANENT HARM TO YOUR COMPUTER WITH THIS PROGRAM! THE WORST CASE IS YOU HAVE TO REBOOT!

Simple processes that are common are:

explorer.exe

SVCHOST.exe

systemidleprocesses (End this one for a laugh)

taskhost.exe (This is the Task Manager)

winlogon

csrss

wlcomm

dwm

dllhost (End this one for another laugh)

wininit

lsass

spoolsv

services

And a bunch more.

Remember, If something doesnt seem right to you, end it. There is really nothing bad that can happen.

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Protection:

AVG Anti-Virus

http://www.avg.com/ca-en/homepage?cmpid=aff_cj_us

Free anti-virus scanner

Avast! Anti-Virus

http://www.avast.com/en-ca/free-antivirus-download

Free Version is very powerful Anti-Virus with constant Virus Database Updates. Very Nice.

Malwarebytes

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Anti-Malware Program

There is a bunch more programs that are freeware on my Free Stuff topic here:

http://forums.starfox-online.net/index.php?topic=9722.0

Install one of the anti viruses of your choice and run a FULL Slow scan. This will take a long time but it will be worth it.

Also run Malwarebytes to find anything else.

IF ALL ELSE FAILS, CONTACT ME @ wookiewithacookie@gmail.com <---THAT IS MY MSN

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Now onto speeding up a old/slow computer.

Windows is INFAMOUS for bogging down over time. Its just the way it is, and You really cant avoid it. But there is things you can do to extend the speedy life of your little baby.

The way windows slows down is by the every day use of watching youtube, Chatting on MSN, Downloading Music, Playing games, Installing that new flashy program. A easy way to look at it is to think

that windows is a really messy/clumsy person. With everything being written, Deleted, Modified and Read it leaves a mess. Although it isn't a substantial amount of clutter, Over 6-12 months time this will cause windows to become slower and slower

as it trys to do every day tasks while navigating the mess. Kind of like if you didn't clean up your house very well, Although it wont affect you right away it will in due time cause you to loose stuff and spend time looking for them or you have to dig through a big pile of stuff to find the thing you need.

To keep the Messy Windows as clean as it can be you can run these few programs at different times (I'll explain how often to run each one).

As usual, these programs are just a few of my big topic of freeware that I recommend you take a look at.

http://forums.starfox-online.net/index.php?topic=9722.0

First off, We need a cache clearer. There is one program that does this job. And does it very well.

Its called:

CC CLEANER

http://download.cnet.com/ccleaner/?tag=buyingGuidesBodyColumn.1;psum

It deletes all the hidden and temporary trash that your computer doesn't need to hold onto in the hard drive.

Run it, Delete all your temproray files as well as run a registry error cleanup.

If you havent done this in a while you'll find that it frees up quite a lot of hard drive space!

Next thing is disk de-fragmenting.

As I explained earlier windows will make a mess of files. A good way to explain fragmentation is like tetris. You can pack alot of files into a small space neatly or with the same amount of stuff it can take up ALOT of space and leave holes.

This is what happens to hard drives so when you go to run a game, the computer has to take time to find every piece all scattered everywhere.

Running this program will take a good 2+ hours but it will re arrange all of your files neatly and compact so it speeds up when you want things.

A good program for this is:

Smart Defrag

http://download.cnet.com/Smart-Defrag/3000-2094_4-10759533.html?tag=buyingGuidesBodyColumn.1;psum

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Uninstalling programs also often leaves a mess and files remain that you dont want. This takes up valuable space and contributes to fragmenting and unwanted caches. Instead of running the simple "Uninstall" feature for the programs, I reccomend using:

Revo

http://download.cnet.com/Revo-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10687648.html?tag=buyingGuidesBodyColumn.1;psum

It does a much tidier job and helps keep your computer speedy.

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Hard Disk Space

This is a very important factor that is relatively unknown. If your hard drive is too full, It will run REALLY slow. To solve this, Just remove content that you dont use any more or get a second hard drive and offload the files onto that one.

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Hardware:

Sometimes the computer is simply too old to be sped up with software. Then I can suggest simple and cheap upgrades.

The cheapest and easier speed booster is ram. A ram upgrade in todays prices can be as cheap as $20-$50. Just look up your computers motherboard and make sure you are able to increase the ram. Some motherboards only accept a maximum amount and will cause problems.

The next step is to figure out what kind of ram you have.

It is classified into 3 (Or more?) categories. DDR, DDR2 and DDR3.

These are the different shapes/speeds of ram.

If you bring your computer into a shop they can pop out the ram and tell you what one it is and you can buy an upgraded stick and put it in.

Sometimes your computer will have un-used ram slots and you can put ALOT more ram adding on to what you already have.

If you have any questions or input, Feel free to leave a post. Thanks!

[ThePointingMan]

I don't get it? Are you just like... Posting tutorials randomly? No reasoning just BAM I feel like posting a tutorial? Way I see it, if anyone wants to know this stuff they'd google it. This is what people post on computer forums, but whatevers, as long as it helps someone.

[YJH1995]

some virus i see added themself to task scheduel so sometimes you need to delete them from there

do not install my web search toolbar it's a spyware

Do windows update this will sometimes fix security holes you should also update installed program like itune or skype

oh yeah there is a program called sandboxie it's basically a program that contain a program in a close enviroment (cant modify files unless you take it out of the sandbox)

Well i only try it on the 32-bit i have not try it on 64-bit it's basically a trial program but you have to wait 5 second after the trail to use it 5 second wont hurt ya.

Virus sometimes will disable task manager (Ex . Thinkpoint, Navashield)

so yeah you can use procmon

It's basically a task manager on steroid.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645

rename it to iexplore.exe or something random like wqj359.exe

I got one more

If you are an advance user you can use UBCD4WIN

it's basically a bootable disk but with all the antivirus on it

what you need is a windows XP SP2 disk and a cd/dvd burner

If you have a rogue after you uninstalled it you will find that you cant access to the internet well I cant explain in text so yeah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtMJWyIIYNg

this is rare but it's getting common yeah some virus need different tutorial like um... difficult task like: manually deleting the registry key; config the host file

[Milkyway64]

My name is Milkyway64 and I approve of this thread.

[Nova]

some virus i see added themself to task scheduel so sometimes you need to delete them from there

do not install my web search toolbar it's a spyware

Do windows update this will sometimes fix security holes you should also update installed program like itune or skype

oh yeah there is a program called sandboxie it's basically a program that contain a program in a close enviroment (cant modify files unless you take it out of the sandbox)

Well i only try it on the 32-bit i have not try it on 64-bit it's basically a trial program but you have to wait 5 second after the trail to use it 5 second wont hurt ya.

Virus sometimes will disable task manager (Ex . Thinkpoint, Navashield)

so yeah you can use procmon

It's basically a task manager on steroid.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645

rename it to iexplore.exe or something random like wqj359.exe

I got one more

If you are an advance user you can use UBCD4WIN

it's basically a bootable disk but with all the antivirus on it

what you need is a windows XP SP2 disk and a cd/dvd burner

If you have a rogue after you uninstalled it you will find that you cant access to the internet well I cant explain in text so yeah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtMJWyIIYNg

this is rare but it's getting common yeah some virus need different tutorial like um... difficult task like: manually deleting the registry key; config the host file

This topic is more for the average user.  Of course I could ramble on for hours about manually cleaning up the registry but a simple mistake in there and you could mess up windows.

This is more for the average user with viruses from every day things  or if the computer is old.

My dad's job as I was growing up was working for huge corporations as the Product manager, His job was to manage the different projects and communicate with the investors and other company members with the knowledge of the tech but having the skill of translating it into words that the average person understands. Growing up under his teachings I have also gained this skill so I feel that I would be the person if any to write guides on these things that are user friendly.

[Sabre]

I think you are overestermating the 'average' user. Recently I had to teach an 'average' user how to delete stuff.

[Asper Sarnoff]

Great initiative Nova.

I'd like to add as a footnote however. There are tons of free programs out there which claims they were designed to help speed up and optimize your computer by clearing caches, patching filepaths and turning off unnecesary functions. A lot of them are really nifty, and I've had good use of them myself. Do however keep an eye out for malware that disguises itself as program like this. A good example of this would be "Good Memory", which I was unfortunate enough to be attacked by some days ago. Don't know where it come from, but I luckily managed to remove the SOB before it did some permanent damage to my laptop.

Stay alert!

[Sabre]

On a similar note antivirus/spyware that adds said things or generate lots of false posatives to make you think they are better.

[FoxMcCloud]

Another Thread that I approve of!!! Excellent Initiative Nova!