You may not be aware of this, but the visual effects settings configured on your computer may be affecting performance. Instead of having to watch as menus and windows slowly appear you can have them appear more quickly.

There are many different settings you can configure to improve performance including the visual effects settings. They can be accessed using the following steps:

1. Right click My Computer and click Properties.

2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Click the Settings button under Performance.

The Performance Options dialog box will appear and you will see a number of different visual effects settings. Some of the settings you should consider disabling (especially if you have an older video card) include:

• Fade or slide menus/ToolTips into view - Disable these options to have menus appear very quickly.

• Show shadows under menus/mouse pointer - Disabling this option on systems with older video cards will improve performance.
• Smooth-scroll list boxes - Turn this option off to have the contents of list boxes appear more quickly.
• Use a background image for each folder type - Folders will open more quickly if there are no background images so consider disabling this option.

Again the options you choose to disable will of course depend on the type of video card you have installed on your computer.