Bulgarian Gnomie Nik writes:

Hello, Chris. My name is Nik (aka K915 on YouTube and in the chat room). I would like to present my top five things to do to make Windows faster and more reliable. I know there are a lot of videos and materials about this out there (you probably even have a video covering this topic), but still I decided to share my little experience with you and the people on YouTube.

1. Increase the virtual RAM. It’s also called the paging file — and believe me, it plays a big role. It acts like RAM for applications, including games and programs. You can expand it to whatever size you want, but it also depends on the size of your hard drive. I use a 40 GB hard (yes, I’m looking forward to upgrading it) and I’ve set up the maximum for the paging file: 1900 MB. I’ve tested the Windows performance lots of times with little virtual RAM and with the maximum capacity, and there is a big difference in a very good way.

2. Windows visual effects must go! Switch off all the visual effects, dragging windows with contents, mouse shade, and so on. These take RAM and slow down the process of other programs. This is very useful for Windows XP and Vista.
3. If you are an experienced user, you can edit the registry entries to make things faster. There are delays for minimizing windows, program starting, and even the Start menu. For example, did you notice that you have to wait some time to bring up the Start menu? Yes, you have. It’s a matter of milliseconds, but when you edit most of the stuff to work without delay you can see good results.
4. Keep the registry clean! A messy registry with unnecessary and useless keys is a very bad thing! Cleaning it up and sorting it can prove to be very effective. But be careful — registry entries are not to be played with, so this tip is recommended for medium-level users. There are also a lot of programs on the Web to do that for you.
5. Disable the Windows sounds! Sure you can listen to music, but Windows Startup, Shutoff, and Logon sounds take time to load and play. My advice is to get all the Windows sounds disabled. That way the sound doesn’t play before you start and program, and there’s no delay.
6. Bonus: Always use CPU-friendly programs. For example, don’t run many chat clients separately; they take a lot of CPU. Why have WLM , Yahoo! Messenger, and ICQ all started when you can have Miranda and use them all in one program? Switch off unnecessary programs that you don’t use at the moment.