You don’t need software to speed up your computer. Jane Hoskyn explains how to boost your PC using built-in programs and brilliant free online tools
Your PC is probably stuffed with software that claims to speed it up. You’ve got Registry cleaners, driver updaters, boot defraggers and more, plus any assorted extras that hitched a lift when you installed them. And what are they all doing? Slowing your PC down, of course, by clogging up space and running in the background.
OK, some PC-boosting software is worth having, at least if you keep it updated and know how to get the best out of it. CCleaner and AdwCleaner are notable examples. But they’re the exception that proves the rule.
Open Windows Explorer (latterly File Explorer, but we’ll stick with Windows Explorer for now) and scroll through the Program Files folder. If you’ve had your PC for a few years and you’re a confident software downloader, we bet there’s a whole landfill’s worth of “PC speeding” program clutter in there. You’re probably using a fraction of it, and it certainly isn’t speeding up your computer.
Why you don’t need software
Most PC-boosting programs make a song and dance of doing what you can already do by yourself, such as removing startup items. So we’ll start this feature by revealing how to speed up your PC using tools you’ve already got, including Registry Editor. You’ll get exactly the same results as if you’d used a third-party program, but without any system-slowing (or even malicious) program junk.
Once we’ve covered the basics of streamlining Windows, we’ll reveal our favourite new third-party tools for speeding up your PC – and not one needs downloading. These tools, which include a brand new free online program from the makers of CCleaner, are part of a move towards free browser-based software that works in complete isolation from Windows, so it doesn’t matter what operating system (OS) you’re running, how good your processor is or how much hard-drive space you have. All you need is an internet connection. We won’t be including any warnings about dodgy installers or unwanted extras, because we won’t need to.
USE YOUR PC'S BUILT-IN TOOLS TO MAKE IT FASTER
Make Windows start faster without Autoruns
If you usually put the kettle on after switching on your PC, because you have time to make (and perhaps even drink) a cup of tea before Windows is ready to use, your startup is too slow. It’s almost certainly caused by too many programs and processes launching automatically at the same time as Windows.
You can clear unwanted startup items using free tool Autoruns (www.snipca.com/16096), whose detailed program window lets you investigate and manage all your PC’s startup processes. It’s great, but you don’t have to use it. In fact, if you’re really serious about wanting a faster PC, you should dispense with all third-party downloads like Autoruns, and use the tools you’ve already got.
First, find your Startup tab. In Windows 7 it’s part of the System Configuration tool, better known as MSConfig (type msconfig into Start and press Enter). In Windows 8/8.1, it’s in Task Manager. Browse the list and in Windows 7 untick any items you don’t need, or in Windows 8/8.1 right-click and select Disable, then restart your PC.
How do you decide what to remove and what to leave? Windows 8/8.1 includes an Autoruns-style ‘Search online’ option in the right-click menu for any startup item. Windows 7 doesn’t, but there are free online tools that will help you. Should I Block It? (www.shouldiblockit.com) has a searchable database of 167,796 (at the time of writing) processes and files, with details of what they do and how important they are. To find out what Autoruns says about any process without having to download Autoruns, search the startup database at Pacman’s Portal (www.snipca.com/16098).
As a general rule, don’t disable any startup items associated with your antivirus or processor (usually listed as Intel or AMD). Also leave hardware processes for trackpads, audio and so on. The likes of Google Music Manager, iTunes Helper and Adobe Reader can go straight away – there’s no good reason for them to start with your PC. If you use Chrome you’ll notice lots of Google Chrome entries in the startup list. Some are useful, such as Google Update, but none of them need to run at startup. Remove them all.
If a program keeps adding itself to your startup list (we’ve often find this happens after trying to disable it using Autoruns), turn to Registry Editor (Regedit), the ultimate built-in tool for deep control of your PC. Create a system restore point first, then type regedit into Start, press Enter and click Yes. Navigate to MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, then click the Run folder to see certain startup items in the right-hand pane. To prevent a program running at startup, right-click it then click Delete. This doesn’t remove the program from your PC; it just stops it running at startup.
Set up a boot defrag without Defraggler
Defragging (defragmenting) tidies up the space on your computer’s hard drive letting Windows find data stored on it more quickly, so it’s a very effective way to speed up your PC. A boot defrag is a super-charged defrag, doing its work before any other processes (including Windows itself) start running. It’s therefore able to include files that Windows normally locks, resulting in an even greater speed boost.
Some free defragging tools, such as Defraggler (www.piriform.com/defraggler) and open-source program UltraDefrag (www.snipca.com/16097), have boot-defrag options. But on most PCs you can set up a boot defrag via the Registry without installing software.
Open Regedit and go to: MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction. If your PC supports boot defrag, you’ll see Enable in the list on the right. If it’s set to ‘y’, your PC is already set to defrag when it boots. If it’s set to ‘n’, double-click Enable and change the ‘Value data’ to ‘y’. Restart your PC to run the boot defrag.
While this will speed up your PC, don’t leave it to run every time you switch on your computer because it will slow down your startup. The first time you do it, it may take hours to complete. So make the Registry edit described above then restart your PC last thing before you go to bed. Then go back into Regedit next day and change the BootOptimizeFunction value back to ‘n’ to prevent it running every time you start your PC.
Optimise your PC without Glary Utilities
You don’t need a large, memory-hungry program like Glary Utilities (www.snipca.com/16100) to clean up your hard drive and boost your PC’s power. Instead, unleash the hidden performance settings you never knew your PC had.
All these settings appear in the God Mode folder – a souped-up version of the Control Panel (it’s often called the ‘Master Control Panel shortcut’). You have to activate it manually, but it’s easy to do. Open Explorer and navigate to ‘C:’ (it may be hidden inside the Computer folder in Windows 7). Double-click the C: folder to open it, then right-click on a blank space inside the window and select New, then Folder. Type the following string as the folder’s name: God Mode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}. Press Enter, and you’ll see the folder is simply named God Mode (in fact, you can call it anything you want: the important part is the string of letters and numbers within curly brackets). If you’d rather paste the string instead of typing it, copy it from Wikipedia (www.snipca.com/16103).
Double-click the folder to see an index of settings for all areas of your PC, from icons to internet. There’s so much in the God Mode folder we could devote a whole feature to it (and probably will in a future issue), but for now we’ll stick with ‘Performance Information and Tools’. Scroll down to this header, then doubleclick the ‘Use tools to improve performance’ link to open your PC’s ‘Performance Information and Tools’ window.
This window contains a further wealth of information including your Windows Experience Index score, which roughly rates your computer’s power; a link to the built-in Disk Cleanup tool; and – most useful of all – an ‘Advanced tools’ link that takes you to even more tools, such as Performance Monitor and Resource Monitor, virtual memory settings, Disk Defragmenter and system health report. Any current problems affecting your PC’s speed appear at the top of the Advanced Tools window; click one for more information and advice on fixing it.
Save yourself all these clicks next time by creating a Desktop shortcut to ‘Performance Information and Tools’. In the main God Mode index, right-click ‘Use tools to improve performance’ and select ‘Create shortcut’. You can do the same for any item in the index.
While you’re in God Mode, investigate the links under Administrative Tools (especially ‘Defragment your hard drive’ and ‘Diagnose memory problems’); Device Manager (‘Update device drivers’); and ‘Programs and Features (‘Turn Windows features on or off’). All will go a long way to improving your PC’s speed.
SPEED UP YOUR PC USING FREE ONLINE TOOLS
Use CCleaner and Speccy without downloading them
Free tool Agomo (www.piriform.com/agomo) is a new stablemate for CCleaner, Defraggler and Speccy – or perhaps a replacement for all three. It cleans your hard drive like CCleaner, defrags your PC like Defraggler and reveals what’s slowing down your PC like Speccy. But unlike those tools, Agomo works solely in your browser.
How can an online tool possibly clean your hard drive, I hear you ask? That’s like scrubbing the floor with thin air, surely. We were none the wiser after watching the site’s introduction video (www.snipca.com/16109), which assumes we’ve all got multiple computers and insists on pronouncing Agomo “a-GO-mo”.
At the time of writing Agomo is in limited beta, so we had to request an invitation (click ‘Sign up now’ for yours). The link arrived by email two days later and took us straight to our secure Agomo account, where we were greeted by two Download buttons. Download buttons? This is supposed to be an online tool! Curiouser and curiouser.
The download, it turns out, is simply an anchor that connects your PC (or PCs – up to three) securely with your Agomo account. It’s small (6.2MB) and quick and safe to install. There’s no program window at all, just a system-tray icon that you click to open Agomo in your browser, where you have to sign into your encrypted account. Agomo’s security is so tight it wouldn’t even let us sign in automatically using our password manager PassBox (www.snipca.com/16116).
Once you’ve logged in, click your PC’s name to visit its Speccy-powered Summary page, where you can check your hardware specifications as well as your current hard-drive space and activity. There’s also a graph that monitors your RAM, CPU, processeses and bandwidth in real time. Hover over the graph to see how hard your PC was working at any given moment in the past 60 seconds.
Click the CCleaner tab to see the familiar CCleaner program window in your browser. The Agomo version of CCleaner has the same tabs and buttons as the installed version and it works just as if it were installed. Because it’s online, you can run it remotely by logging into Agomo from another PC – say, your laptop in the garden, or a relative’s PC. The main downside of its online nature is that it doesn’t support plug-ins such as CCEnhancer (www.snipca.com/16112) – at least not yet.
You can use Agomo to schedule a clean while you’re away. This is useful if, like us, you find your PC mysteriously fills with clutter when you don’t use it for a few days. Much of this clutter is generated automatically by software and browser extensions, and it piles up like dust when your back is turned, so schedule a clean to run before you get home.
There’s also a Registry cleaner in Agomo. Click CCleaner, then Registry. Untick any parts of the Registry you don’t want checked, then click ‘Scan for Issues’ to find and remove obsolete and out-ofdate files clogging up your Registry and slowing down your PC.
Agomo isn’t the finished article, but early signs are excellent. It puts all your most useful third-party PC-boosting tools in one place, away from your long- suffering hard drive – and you can run them from anywhere. Stick with the installable version of CCleaner if you love CCEnhancer, but otherwise Agomo is a great new substitute for all your standard Piriform tools.
Remove browser junk
You could have the fastest broadband known to humanity, but you won’t get the best out of it if your browser is full of junk. First, use CCleaner in Agomo to get rid of cache junk and useless extensions. Be ruthless – you don’t need all those extensions (called ‘add-ons’ in Firefox and Internet Explorer), and most are doing nothing other than draining your PC’s resources.
Make room for one free extension, though: ‘Clean the junk’ (Chrome and Firefox, www.snipca.com/16136). It strips away all the unnecessary rubbish that makes web pages take so long to open, such as frames, embedded video players, applets and banners (including advertising banners). ‘Clean the junk’ isn’t an advert-blocker like Adblock Plus (https://adblockplus.org); it doesn’t scan automatically for advertising content in the way that Adblock Plus does. This means you’ll see some adverts, but it also means your pages will load much faster. Adblock Plus, for all its benefits, will slow your browser down.
Beyond that, the best tools for keeping your browser running fast are already built into your browser. Chrome, Firefox and IE all let you disable or remove extensions, delete search engines, clear your cache and even prevent plug-ins running automatically, just by clicking a box or two in your browser settings (click the three lines icon in Chrome and Firefox, and click the cog icon in IE). Chrome even has its own Task Manager. Press Shift+Esc to open it, then click the Memory column header to see the most memory-hungry processes (usually open tabs) at the top. Select a process and click ‘End process’ to close it; Chrome will continue running.
For tips on boosting Firefox using its own hidden tools.
KEEP YOUR PC FAST BY DOING EVERYTHING ONLINE
Use Word and Excel online – for free
Do you really need that enormous, memory-hogging office suite on your PC? Unless your broadband connection is terrible, no you don’t. This Cover Feature was written entirely using Google Docs (https://docs.google.com), which integrates seamlessly with Google’s secure storage service Drive (https://drive.google.com) and doesn’t require anything to be installed on your PC (except your browser, of course).
As I’m writing, my work is saved automatically every few seconds; I don’t notice it happening. If my computer crashes or my Wi-Fi cuts out (which happens often), my work is saved automatically in my browser, from where I can pick it up and carry on working from my home PC, my office PC or my laptop. It’s all encrypted (hence the ‘s’ in ‘https’; it stands for ‘secure’ – see www.abbreviations.com/HTTPS), so no one at Google, on the internet or in a hacker’s bedroom can see what I’m writing. Which is just as well.
Microsoft Office is now available online, too. Like Google Docs, Office Online (https://office.live.com) is free and doesn’t install anything on your PC. It comprises web-based versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as the new note-taking tool OneNote (www.snipca.com/16139). All your work is saved automatically and securely in your Microsoft account, and you can access it via the company’s online storage service OneDrive (https://onedrive.live.com), and also now in Dropbox.
When you create or edit a document using any of these online tools, no files are saved to your PC unless you want them to be. For example, I can export versions of this feature to my Desktop or Documents folder as I’m going along, in whatever format I like: DOCX, DOC, TXT, PDF and many more. I’d rather not, because it’d clutter up my PC unnecessarily – and less clutter means more speed – but it’s good to have the option.
Switch to an online photo editor
Photo- and video-editing programs are – after office suites and antivirus software (which you will need to install) – the biggest space-gobbling, memory-hogging albatrosses on your poor PC’s back. Fire up a mammoth like Adobe Photoshop on an average Windows 7 computer, and all other programs will grind to a halt.
Luckily for your processor, there’s now a decent choice of free online photoediting tools that won’t slow or clog up your PC and browser. Pixlr (www.snipca.com/16143) is the best of the bunch. Its layout will be instantly familiar if you’ve ever used Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, and it includes advanced features like layers, curves and filters. Enable Adblock Plus to get rid of the annoying full-column advert on the right.
BeFunky (www.befunky.com/create) is less professional-looking but more fun. Import your photos from Facebook and Flickr to jazz them up with filters and effects. You can even create your own Befunky Gallery (www.befunky.com/explore).
To edit short videos or turn your photos into a video slideshow, try the excellent free site Magisto (www.magisto.com). We’ll look at free online video editors in more detail.
Convert any file without software
‘Have you ever wanted to convert files without the need to download software?’ asks free web-based tool Zamzar (www.zamzar.com). Yep, often. Unlike much installable conversion software, Zamzar is properly free and lets you convert between hundreds of formats, from AZW3 (Kindle ebook file) to WAV (Windows audio file). Check for supported file types at www.snipca.com/16141.
Zamzar’s conversion process requires a few clicks, but it’s a lot faster and safer than grappling with a software installer. Drag one or more files (up to 100MB) on to the page, choose an available format type, then wait for an email containing a link to download the converted file. You must download the file within 24 hours – after that, it’s deleted from Zamzar’s server.
If you’d rather save the new file to Dropbox or Google Drive, use free tool CloudConvert (http://cloudconvert.org). Like Zamzar it supports hundreds of formats including video and audio formats, ZIP and RAR archive files, documents and spreadsheets. It’s free for up to 25 ‘conversion minutes’ per day, which is plenty for everyday use. After that, it’s €9 (£7) a month.
You can even convert printed or handwritten notes to editable text without dedicated software. Free site OnlineOCR (www.onlineocr.net) uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to “see” the text in JPGs, including scanned letters, and convert it to a Word, Excel or plain text document.