 | When you install software on your Windows system, additional "helpful" programs are often installed along with the primary application. These additional programs can slow down the speed of your computer, and they can clutter up your system. You can delete the additional programs to regain that speed. |
Find Fast slows you down
If you have Office 97 or later installed on your system, chances are good that a utility program called Find Fast is also installed on your system. This program allows Office applications to find files a bit faster, but it gains this search speed by performing background indexing of the files on your hard drive. The downside is that, at times, the background work done by Find Fast can bring your system to its knees.
The only solution is to remove Find Fast completely. (Most people never need the program anyway.) To remove it from your system, perform the following general tasks:
1. Delete the Find Fast shortcut from the Startup folder.
To get to the Startup folder, right-click the Start button, choose Open from the context menu, double-click the Programs folder, and then double-click the Startup folder.
2. Double-click the Find Fast icon in the Control Panel and delete any indexes listed there.
3. Restart your computer and search for a file named findfast.cpl.
Only one of these files should be on your hard drive; the file is the Control Panel applet for the program. Feel free to delete it, but only after you complete Step 2.
Just three short tasks, and you're on your way to a leaner, meaner machine. You should notice an immediate improvement in your system's responsiveness.
 | Recent versions of Office (Office 97, 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2007) may add another icon called Windows Office to your Start folders. No, this program doesn't start Office itself, but it spends a bit of time initializing different parts of your system so they work quicker with Office. The shortcut runs a program technically called the Office Startup Assistant. This program takes up some resources, but it isn't the resource hog that Find Fast is. If you use Office only sparingly (once a day or less often), feel free to remove the shortcut from your Startup folders. |
Configurations confounded?
| Another option for making Office run faster is to check how you have your Office applications configured: |
- Make sure that the Fast Save feature in Word isn't turned on. With this feature on, your individual documents save slower in the long run, and you risk corrupting the documents. In Word, choose Tools --> Options; then clear the Allow Fast Saves check box on the Save tab.
- Minimize the number of external links in an Excel workbook or a Word document. External links (links to resources outside of the workbook or document) are refreshed whenever you open the workbook or document, slowing down how quickly you can start using the data.
- Don't save your data on floppies. Floppies' limited space makes them poor candidates for storing files, and they're much slower and less reliable than hard drives. (Obviously, saving data on floppies won't be an issue if your computer doesn't even have a floppy drive — and most don't these days.)
- Turn off the graphics display in your document or workbook. You probably won't want to turn off the graphics display in PowerPoint because the graphics are typically integral to your presentation. In Word, you choose Tools --> Options and select the Picture Placeholders check box on the View tab. In Excel, you choose Tools --> Options and select the Show Placeholders check box on the View tab.
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