There is nothing worse than a computer that takes a long time to load up. When you first got the computer, the boot up was a smooth process. It would load a minimum amount of programs and seemed to be under 30 seconds. After awhile, the boot up would get longer and longer, until now it takes up to 3 to 4 minutes for it to be ready. You may start to wonder what has happened since then, but it is not a big mystery. There are certain changes that you have made to the computer that has caused the boot up to slow down to this extreme. We will go over this later in the article. Things that you might have done to slow down the boot up process of your computer are numerous but most involve the same basic actions. Once we have identified what you might have done, we will then walk with you and tell you how you can reverse this problem. 

    The first thing that a lot of people will say when they notice that the boot up is slower, is that they didn’t do anything so why is this happening? They haven’t changed anything that might have caused it, so it shouldn’t be slowing down like this. But the reality is, they are part of the problem. It may be unwittingly on their part but it is still the case that they had something to do with it, at least in 90% of the cases. Whenever you install a program and you do not check to see what permissions that is asking you for, you are part of the problem. The main reason that a computer starts to slow down over time, is that the person installs more and more programs to the computer. A lot of these programs ask for permission to run at the start up time. Of course, when you give enough programs this type of permission, they will start to slow down the computer when it is trying to boot up.

If you want to solve this problem, make sure that you only give a few select programs the permission to start when the computer boots up. To eliminate some of the programs that are starting on boot up, type in msconfig in your search bar when you hit the start button. It will open up a program that has for you several tabbed options. Click on the startup tab and make a choice on what programs you want running as soon as the computer boots up. This will help you alleviate 90% of your problem. 

    Also there are times when there might be a problem of the computer becoming infected with an unknown virus or Trojan. If your computers boot up time is slow and you can not see the program listed in the task manager, then there is a good chance that your computer might infected. Run an anti virus over your entire computer. This will help get whatever is in there, out of your system.
 
    So to make sure that your computer has a healthy boot up time, keep the amount of programs that run on start up, low. Also make sure that there are no viruses or other malware in the system. One last tip is to defrag your hard drive on a regular basis. This will help your computer find separated files easier. That will also improve the start up time. 

    Sometimes people confuse computers with other types of electronic devices. For most devices, you will only need to learn to take the dust off of them every now and then and they will work for a long time. With those types of devices, they are built to be a closed system. They were never meant to be configured by anyone besides the company that shipped the product to the store in the first place. A computer is not like that. With a computer, the system is made to be configurable so that you can do whatever you like to it. You can install whatever software that you want and you can put in whatever hardware that you want also. With a system being able to change so much, you are going to need to do some maintenance to make sure that it always runs smooth. Part of this maintenance is to make sure that your Windows 7 registry is cleaned up on a regular basis. 

    The Registry has been a part of Windows for a long time. Originally to set the configuration information for you computer, people would use .ini files and other hacks. This worked at the time but as programs got larger and more of them starting to show up, problems began to emerge. You would have naming conflicts and other sorts of problem with this type of system. So later on, Microsoft decided to make a database system that would store all of the information that the computer needed to set up. This system was called the Windows Registry. Surprisingly, with so many complaints about it, it is still in use today.

    Now whenever you install or uninstall a program on the computer, this affects the registry. The same thing goes for hardware as well. So you must make sure that the registry stays up to date with all of these changes. There are plenty of third party software developers that will help you with this. There are many different types, so you will have to choose which one is best for you. Even though there are some free ones that are good, most of the quality products, tend to be pay applications. Test them out for yourself and see how you like them. Make sure that you pay attention to the reviews that the application receives. If there are too many negative reviews, do not trust the software on your computer. 

    You also want to make sure that you back up your registry before you run one of these software programs. If the software turns out to be made incorrectly, then you can really mess up the settings on your computer. It is real easy to back up your registry. First you go to start, type in regedit, hit file on the box that pops up, and then hit export. Now you have a copy of your registry on your computer just in case anything goes wrong. 

    Cleaning up your registry can work wonders when you are trying to get your computer to run at top speed. All you have to do is to make a backup and you should be good to go. 

    There is nothing like having a new computer boot up for the first time and everything just works. The boot up time is fast and the programs that load up when the computer start, are up and running quickly. For the next couple of months, you will get that same sense of awe and wonder every time you start up the machine, but then things start to change. All of the sudden the boot up time is taking longer than it originally did. Now the programs that started when you first booted the computer seem to have company. A couple of programs that you do not remember giving permission to, boot up at start time. Also it seems as if your hard drive is starting to get full and there are pop ups on the computer no matter what site you go to. These are all signs that there is going to be some maintenance needed on the computer. There are a couple of tools that will help solve this problem. 

    The first thing that you need to do, is make sure that you use the tools that Windows 7 gives you to help clean up the computer. After that, you can start to use the third party software tools that are available. So let’s start with a disk cleanup. When you install and use certain programs they leave digital residue all over your computer. The digital residue consist of temporary files and cookies that are left all over the place. So you can use the disk clean up tool to get rid of these things. It will also allow you to reclaim some of your hard drive space at the same time. Once you run the disk clean up tool, then you should run the disk defragmenter tool. It will put together files that have been broken into pieces. This will also give you more hard drive space while at the same time help your computer run faster. 

    Now after you perform these two jobs, you can start to use some third party software to help Windows 7 run better. The first thing that you will want to do, is grab a Windows Registry cleaner. This will clean up the registry that is in the computer. A registry stores all of the software and hardware configurations in the computer. Running a tool like this will make sure that all of that is in top shape. After the registry cleaner, you will want to run some type of adware remover. This is the cause of your pop ups and running this type of software will help you get rid of them. Also it will help you get rid of tracking cookies that different web sites might place on your computer. 

    Last but not least, you’ll want to pick an anti virus to use on your computer. There are many choices that are out there, so it is up to you to decide which one that you want to put on your computer. Once you put it on your computer, you must make sure that you update it all the time. If you do not, then you will have a harder time trying to stop all of the viruses which are new. 
    
    These are a couple of steps to help you ensure that your Windows 7 runs better. If you follow this advice, you can help your system to always stay in top shape.