ram

[beatlemac]

i think i need some more ram but am going to buy a new pc shortly if i remove some programs will this help temporarily

[Ethel]

It shouldn't make any difference - it will just free up space on your hard drive, which is nothing to do with RAM.

But it won't do any harm if you are sure you don't want the programmes any more.

To make your pc run faster:

1. Clear cookies, caches and temporary files. This free programme is excellent:
http://www.stevengould.org/software/cleanup/

2. Defrag your hard drive. Start - Control Panel - Performance&Maintenance - rearrange items.

3. Stop programs loading automatically when you start the pc. Many automatically put themselves in the startup folder, and you may not use them at all that day. This uses resources unnecessarily. This free program, Startup Inspector, makes it easy:
http://www.windowsstartup.com/

You should see an improvement, especially if you don't defrag regularly.

[poinsy]

Ethel is right, however, if you have unused software on your system, you should get rid of it (Control Panel, Add Remove Programs). Apart from taking up disk space, some will run at Windows startup, and will therefore take up RAM. You should then run a cleanup and a defrag (in fact I do 2 or 3 for best results, depends on how often you do them).

You could then create a fixed swap file, to eke that extra bit of performance out.