It�s inevitable. You can�t escape it. Every time you use your computer, it gets slower and slower.  Things get out of place without your knowledge or control  Perhaps your system isn�t optimally configured to avoid some of these pitfalls. But just because it�s inevitable that system slowing will occur, there�s nothing to say we can�t manage and minimize it.   Read on to find out more...

FRAGMENTATION: Every time you open a file on your computer, you break it. Into lots of little pieces.  It�s true and there�s not a lot you can do about this behavior.  You just have to let it happen, and then clean it up afterwards.  The trouble is, many people are not aware that this is happening, or that it needs to be cleaned up.  All they notice is that their system gets slower, and slower, and slower, and....    What�s happening is that when you open a file, whether it�s a program or one of your own documents, it is usually modified in some way. When the files are modified, they get bigger.  Information has been added about the last time you accessed the file, or perhaps you typed a few more paragraphs, etc...    The problem is, now the file will not fit back into the space it was taken from.  Microsoft, as considerate as they are, don�t want to bother you with little details like that.   so they take care of it for you by breaking it up into as many pieces as necessary, and scattering those pieces around your storage system where they can find a little space to put the them.  Then they tell the Directory where all the little pieces are, so that nothing gets lost.    It works pretty seamlessly.  Opening the file next time, you would never know that instead of getting one file from one location, your system actually read 27 fragment entries, and went to 27 different location on your hard disk, and glued together 27 different pieces of your file. So now, you�ve opened your file again, and it all looks good.  But you�ve made it bigger again. This time it�s going to be 53 fragments, and then 102, and then.....   Those numbers change for every file, every time, depending on the size of the file and the condition of the disk. You can imagine that if fragmentation has been going on for some time, there would be nothing but little tiny spaces to store things in, and everything you touched would be broken into hundreds of little pieces, would take 100 times longer to find, 100 times longer to put together, and 150 times longer to store it again.  Eventually, something has to give.  And it will, without a doubt.   You can imagine how much something like this would slow down your system. Enter the hero of this discussion.   A DEFRAGMENTER.   This is a program specifically designed to clean up your storage,  It picks up all the pieces, glues them back together, and finds, or MAKES a place to put it back whole.  (Humpty Dumpty would LOVE one of these!) Windows provides you with a defragmenter, but it�s, well.... LAME. It can do the basics, but it cannot do a really REALLY good clean up job.  It can�t shift around system files, or any files or programs that are currently in use, or...  well, the list goes on. So, even if you are defragmenting on a regular basis with Microsoft�s defragmenter, you haven�t yet seen the true effects of a well organized disk.  Depending on usage, your hard drive should be fully defragmented every 7 to 60 days.   The more often you do it, the less time it takes each time.   SYSTEM CLUTTER: Whenever you install a program onto your computer, (even the ones you don�t know are being installed, see DESTROYED page), files are left behind.   Every time you open a file, or launch a program, or run a search, or pull down a menu, there is some trace of it left behind.  Your machine can become riddled with unneeded files and links.  There are three main areas where these things manifest: HARD DRIVE If you�ve ever looked in your TEMP folder, you�ve probably wondered why it�s so full of stuff. After all, by virtue of its name, it is supposed to be a TEMPORARY folder. But many windows programs or processes do a notoriously poor job of cleaning up after themselves.   This is not the only problem, however.   There are MANY places on your disk that useless or temporary files get stored and left.   Finding and eliminating these files can sometimes be a challenge, but the benefits are clear;  A streamlined storage system that works at peak efficiency, and more room for the things you WANT to store. SYSTEM HISTORY Windows spends alot of its time tracking the things your computer does.  It keeps track of the programs you�ve installed, the files and documents you�ve created or opened, the websites you�ve visited, the last time you booted up the computer and all the processes that were launched to to that, etc....   Some of these history lists become mild security issues, because the information they store might be perceived as private.  If you had spyware on your system, it could easily look at these historical records, and find out where you have visited on the web. It could easily find out which programs are installed on your computer, and which of those you use most often.  It�s a funny thing to keep track of, but Windows does it with an intensity.  It�s not a problem to keep some histories stored, as it makes things like finding the last file you worked on much easier. Just look under Recent Documents.  But so much of it is unnecessary, never used, wasted space.  Cleaning this stuff up frees up even more disk space, and gives the computer less to think about when it�s supposed to be doing what you asked it to. REGISTRY The Registry is the worst of the bunch.  The Windows System Registry is a large file that stores settings and preferences for just about EVERY program on your computer.  The registry contains information about how to deal with certain types of files, which programs to launch to view those files, where on the disk those programs are, and instructions on what to do once the file is opened. For instance, if you have a Microsoft Word document on your desktop called MyWord.doc, and you double click it to open it, Windows goes through a number of steps to handle your request. First, it checks the extension of the file, in this case .doc Then, it checks the registry to see what type of file a .doc is Then, it checks the registry to find out what the action for doubleclicking on a .doc is.  We�ll assume the action is OPEN. The it checks the registry to see which program opens .docs and whether it needs any special instructions to open it. Then it checks the registry to find out where that program exists on your system Then it will finally launch the program, and show you the document.  My WORD!    The Registry is PERPETUALLY loaded with useless nonsense.  If you cleaned the registry THE VERY SAME DAY YOU INSTALLED WINDOWS you would find it filled with trash and broken links. The problem is this. The registry can become VERY, VERY large.  And it can be filled with all manner of inaccurate, confused information, false histories, duplicate information or broken links. The bigger it is, the longer it takes to read through it.  The longer it takes to LOAD it when you are starting Windows.   This translates to slower performance for your system.  Cleaning out the registry requires special software tools, and knowledge about what is safe to eliminate, but it will help to STABILIZE your computer system. And it�s just one of the steps to optimizing your system�s performance. People who do not take care of their Registry begin to experience unexplained glitches or system crashes, sometimes resulting in lost work.    CONFIGURATION As much as we complain about Windows, it�s pretty flexible in a number of areas that can help to keep our systems running in prime condition.  We can always add or remove hardware or software to increase performance.  Or we can change settings that let our videos display more smoothly, or make our music sound better, etc... Windows, however, needs help in order to make the right decisions about these matters.   OPERATING SYSTEM AND SOFTWARE Windows is made up of MANY programs.   They all try to work together to bring you a pleasant computing experience.  But there are many settings that can be changed to make using your computer easier and more efficient.  From the way memory and disk are used, to how much space they reserve for their own purposes. From controlling which programs run and when, to blocking unnecessary processes.    STORAGE EFFICIENCY Did you know that the hard disk on your system gives the best performance when it�s less than 50% full?  While this may have been a critical issue a few years ago when disks were very expensive, these days the prices have dropped so dramatically that it�s easy for most people to increase their storage capacity substantially.   The problems inherent with this situation actually involve having TOO MUCH space. Now it�s true, that doesn�t sound like a thing Nerds would complain about.  But if you�ve ever formatted a hard disk, you know that the bigger it is, the LONGER they fall.  It can take up to 2 hours to format a large disk these days, simply because the capacities are so high.  That also means that defragmentation on your large disks will take an enormous amount of time.  What about checking the disk for errors? You might as well start it running, and walk away for the day. However, it is possible to make all the storage in the world far more manageable.  In fact, with present day utilities, these changes can be made without the need to erase everything on your disk and reinstall everything.   That�s remarkable!  We can help you figure out the best configuration for your disks to make sure you get the most out of your system.   WORK SPACE There are three kinds of storage on your computer. RAM (Random Access Memory) is the short term memory your computer uses to store and retrieve what it is currently working on.  RAM is very very very fast.  One of the best ways to increase performance on your machine is to augment the amount of RAM you have. More RAM is equivalent to faster processing.  ROM (Read Only Memory) is the permanent, unchangeable information that has been programmed into many of the components in your computer. This type of memory can not be upgraded except in very special cases, so it will not be discussed further here. This entry is simply for clarification of two very similar acronyms.   DISK We�ve already discussed hard disks at length, but this section gets special attention, because the way the hard disk is used here is quite different.   In this case, it is being used for a SWAP drive. It�s being used as VIRTUAL MEMORY. SWAP is simply called that because the computer uses a portion of disk to swap stuff over to it when the RAM gets too full.  VIRTUAL MEMORY is called that because it is not actually RAM.  The disk is simply PRETENDING to be RAM. It�s VIRTUAL. But disk is much slower than RAM is. A thousand times slower to be precise.   We measure disk access speeds in milliseconds (thousandths of a second), while we measure RAM access speeds in NANOSECONDS (millionths of a second).   Usually, however, this will help your system work faster, since it�s more efficient to use the hard disk when you have a lot of information to keep active, than it is to struggle by with too little RAM and just make due. But if it�s not configured correctly, and your system is using your hard disk to compensate for low RAM, it slows down the computer significantly. And if the SWAP drive is fragmented, as we saw before, everything turns into one big bowl of scattered information soup.