Five cheap or free ways to make a PC faster

[RV_]

Folks, I have seen lots of infections because of folks using PC optimizers that they encountered online and let scan their system. But what concerns me most is all of the super duper PC speed improvers I see mentioned here. I do recommend CCleaner daily but only to use the registry cleaner once a month after Windows updates.

 

I have tried several in my time and some mentioned here have really slowed or damaged my systems in ways not easily seen. Please read that part too, closely, at the end of this excellent article.

 

Excerpt:

 

"It's 2016 and tech users have a plethora of different devices to choose from, ranging from tablets to smartwatches, yet the most commonly asked question to land in my mailbox hasn't changed in over two decades.

 

This is a question that I've been fielding for over two decades. New devices and form factors have come -- and gone -- and new tech is faster and cheaper than every, and yet people still seem to want to squeeze more life out of their existing systems. In fact, now that PC sales have slumped, people are squeezing more life than ever from their existing desktop and laptop PCs.

 

What follows are five cheap or free ways to speed up a PC. In all my years of building, repairing, and performance-tuning PCs, these stand out as the best bang-for-the-buck tune-up methods.

 

I've also addressed the half a dozen or so common follow-up questions that I get.

 

Finally, I've also decided to include a list of things that don't work. Sometimes knowing what doesn't work is just as important as knowing what works. There's a lot of snake oil out there, and I've come across PCs that have been wrecked by people fiddling with things that shouldn't be fiddled with.

 

OK, on to the list:"

 

Go here to the article for the list and descriptions of how and what to use here: http://www.zdnet.com/article/five-cheap-or-free-ways-to-make-a-pc-faster/?tag=nl.e539&s_cid=e539&ttag=e539&ftag=TRE17cfd61

 

At the end of the article he lists the things that don't work:

 

Things that don't work

 

Just don't waste your time -- or money -- on any of the following.

•"Optimizing" or "cleaning" the Windows registry (this is a great way of wrecking a system)

•PC tune-up software (most just leverage the tools already built into Windows)

•"Secret" Windows registry hacks (yeah, just don't bother)

•RAM "optimizers" (RAM is there to be used, and unused RAM is wasted RAM)