what is the best utility or software tools that can enhance my computer's performance?

Question

IT SHOULD BE FREE!!!!

Answer 1

Sorry didn't see the free part until I opened it. Will have to look around. Remember people and companies must spend a lot of time developing, mainting & writing code. Here is a great review. I've used these two. They have trials. Fix It & Norton SW

Answer 2

Three things I always recommend to folks.

Defrag your hard drive.
Minimize the number of running programs.
Use a Registry cleaner.

Try the following:

A major cause of slow PC's is fragmentation of the hard drive.
You need to defragment the HD at least once a week if not more depending on how much you use your computer, and what you do with it.

One way is to use the defragment utility built into Windows XP. It is slow but does the job rather well. Go to:
Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools and then click on System Defrag to run the tool. It may take several hours, so let it run overnight or simply walk away from your PC for a few hours.

A great program for defragging automatically is Diskeeper. It costs $30 but is well worth it. Go to http://www.download.com and search for Diskeeper. Read the Publishers Description and the Editor and User reviews. It can be scheduled to run automatically as the program deems necessary, and if you are using your PC and the program launches itself, it will take a backseat to whatever you are doing and give you the priority for CPU usage. I think you'll agree it's a good program to have. It precludes your needing to remember to defrag at regular intervals.

Another major cause of a slow PC is programs that are running in the background. Here's another really good Microsoft tool. It’s called Autoruns and it was written by SysInternals who were recently bought up by Microsoft.

Before you download the program create a folder under program files called Autoruns. Leave Windows Explore open.

Launch Internet Explored and go to the following Microsoft web page.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/autoruns.mspx

Go to the bottom of the page and download the Autoruns program. After it downloads open the file. It is a Zip file. Unzip the file and you will see 4 files. Drag and drop those 4 files to the Autoruns folder you created under Program Files.

Once you have the 4 files in the C:\Program Files\Autoruns folder you can double click on the file titled “autoruns”.

This will bring up a window with several tabs at the top. Click on the “Logon” tab. It will list the programs that are running on your PC and eating up resources. Look them over carefully and turn off any that don’t absolutely have to be running. Simply click on the “check mark” in the little box beside the program name. Clicking on it will remove the check mark. Once you have edited the Startup list, click on Apply and then on OK.
NOTE: Leave items that show Windows; System 32; Program Files; etc. alone. Shutting them off may cause some things not to work.

Once you have exited the window, reboot your PC for the settings to take effect.

WARNING: Don’t go into the other tabs and start deleting things. You will probably give yourself major headaches if you do that. Stay focused on the “Logon” List only.

Another good thing to have is a little program called FreeRAM XP Pro. It is free and is available from http://www.download.com This program puts a little RAM meter on the System Tray and shows how much RAM you have remaining that you are not using at any given time. I think you may be surprised at how little RAM you have to run other programs. Also, once it is installed you can right click on the little meter, then click on RESTORE and it will open the RAM display window. You can tweak the settings so it will display your CPU usage also. Then just click “Minimize” and then “To System Tray” to return to the Task Bar.

What happens when you run out of or run real low on RAM is that the OS recognizes the low or no RAM situation and starts using a section of your hard drive as memory. This is called virtual memory, or a swap file. The PC is constantly writing and reading from your HD. Comparitively, it is a very slow process. Check your motherboard manual and determine how much RAM each slot can hold. It will also tell you what type of RAM you need. You can also go to http://www.crucial.com or http://www.4allmemory.com and run their analysis utility to determine what kind and how much RAM is installed in your PC. Depend on your MoBo manual to determine the RAM limits of each slot though.

Hope this helps

Answer 3

Free is never good.. read the small print on the free stuff as it also states you are willing to allow other third party software to load which slows everything down. Also, good rule of thumb.. if you have a bucket of water and you add to it to make it batter isnt it just making the bucket more full?

No such thing as free enhancements

Answer 4

well software will not come for free but you can crack it . Tune up utilities is the best but there are many like win shampoo optimizer ... download the software then search for the crack of it in crack sites ... you can use any software like this . well if you can use yahoo answers then sure you can get that software cracked in that same amout of time ... good luck

Answer 5

This may Help.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
http://www.dougknox.com/index.html(Tweaks&Tips)
http://www.dougknox.com/index.html(Win XP Utilities
http://www.dougknox.com/index.html(Tweaks&Fixes for Windows XP)
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp
http://www.windowsbbs.com/forumdisplay.php?s=062cb9af1e4a49547793f943152ea116&daysprune=&f=13
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_how_tos.htm
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp.htm
http://www.geekgirls.com/windowsxp_controlpanel.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/default.mspx
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=6101
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/default.mspx

Answer 6

There are lots, depending on what you want to enhance:

'XL-R8R 1.0'
'Startup Optimizer 1.6'
'RAMBooster 2 '
'3DMark2001 1.0'
'PCMark04 1.2'
'Computer Analyzer 1.1'
'PCPal 1.0.1026'
'ZNsoft Optimizer Xp 2.3'
'Arrange Startup 2.3'
'SpeedItUp Extreme 3.7'
'PCtools 1'

All are available free...you can get most of them at http://www.download.com

Answer 7

one of the best utility is already installed. its called disk defrag.