A lot of people tend to ask me "what is one of the best ways to make my slow computer faster?". And my answer for them is to tune your computer to not look as good. That's right, make your computer look a bit uglier. Why? Your computer uses a lot of resources to make it look pretty (especially if you are using Windows Vista). By taking away it's "make up", you will free up some of those resources so that you can use them for what ever it is that you need.
Yes, it's a trade off: looks or performance. But in all honesty, which would you rather have? A computer that looks good that for the most part only YOU look at or a computer that functions well and does more of what you want it to do? The answer seems pretty obvious to me, so here is how to tune down your computers looks:
For those Windows XP users out there just click Start right click on My Computer and select Properties. Now select the Advanced tab and on the area where it says "Performance", double click Settings. Now, in the Visual Effects tab a tthe top of the screen select Adjust For Best Performance. See, what you are now doing is forcing Windows XP to look more like Windows 98. For those of you what would like your computer to look somewhat good and still be tuned for performance just select the Custom box, make sure that all of the other boxes are selected and scroll down to the bottom. Now just select "Use Visual Styles On Windows And Buttons". All you have to do now is just select Apply and then OK.
If you are using Windows Vista on your maching stary by clicking on the Start button, right click on Computer and select Properties. In the new window on the left hand side select Advanced System Settings. There will be an advanced tab where it says Performance - click on the Settings button. Now when you are in the Visual Effects tab, select Adjust For Best Performance. This will cause your Windows Vista to look more like Windows 98. If you would like to keep the way that Vista looks, and still have your computers look tuned to be a bit faster, just select the Custom box, make sure that everything is selected and then unselect the little box that says "Use Visual Styles On Windows And Buttons". Click Apply and then OK.
So how much of a performance boost should you expect? Well that varies greatly. I have used this technique on a lot of slow computers and what I have realized is that some of them will be a lot faster and others you might not even notice that there was a difference. For the most part, you really aren't loosing anything by trying this "tune up" out so you might as well give it a shot. If you don't like the way that your computer look after doing this, then just change it back to the way that it was before you started to make changes.
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