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Quite often I’m asked to speed up a computer. While in theory that sounds like a valid request, the expectations of how fast you’ll be able to speed up the computer is not. I usually tell them, I can re-install the operating system and it’ll be just as fast as the day you bought it but if the machine is a few years old, it’ll still feel slow compared to the new machine you just tried out at the store. If re-installing the operating system is not an option, then what changes that can be done are limited. Not everyone is aware all those programs we install like Adobe Reader and Apple Quicktime will also install a start up application that checks for updates to those programs. One update checker in itself is not going to slow down the machine but multiply that a bunch of times and it starts making a difference. Each and every situation is different but a few general rules I follow are:

1. Uninstall any printers and/or scanners that are no longer in use. Windows is constantly polling any installed printer and scanners to check if it’s online and active
2. Under the start menu -> All Programs, is a folder called “Startup”. Delete the shortcuts to any non-essential start up programs.
3. For the not so faint of heart (If you’ve never run regedit, don’t do this), in the registry, under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, Delete any keys to non-essential start up programs. Repeat but this time in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
4. In whatever browser they typically use, check the add-ons and disable any that are non-essential.
5. Ensure all the window’s updates are installed (Window’s update seems to always start automatically downloading the updates at the worse time)
6. Finally if all else fails and if the motherboard permits, try increasing the amount of physical RAM.

If you have ever had to setup a bunch of identical computers and used cloning to do it, then you’ve run into the problem of the window’s product key not matching the hardware it’s on. The same product key will appear on all of the machines and not match the COA (Certificate of Authenticity) product key sticker. The instructions on how to change the product key on each machine is located here on the Microsoft site. What they describe in method #1 is to change a single value in the registry in the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current Version\WPAEvents\OOBETimer, this has never worked for me. I tried it on multiple machines, changing a single digit in the key, changing multiple values in the key, changing everything to zeros, when I ran %systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a in the command prompt to reactivate it, it always popped up a dialog saying windows was already activated. Now method #2, it offers two different scripts, ChangeVLKeySP1.vbs and ChangeVLKey2600.vbs. ChangeVLKeySP1.vbs gives me a script error so i gave up on that one. ChangeVLKey2600.vbs is the only method that has worked every time for me. You basically run the script c:\changevlkeysp1.vbs ab123-123ab-ab123-123ab-ab123 from the command prompt where ab123-123ab-ab123-123ab-ab123 is the product key on the COA. Upon rebooting, you will be asked to activate the product key and then you’re all good. Note: Make sure your network drivers are installed and working properly before you do this, that way when you reboot you will have an active internet connection to complete the activation. Now you’re asking, how do you verify the product key matches the COA. There is a great little utility by “The Magical Jelly Bean”, yes you read that right, the utility is free and it will display your product key to you to verify it was entered correctly. Just install the utility, run it, verify the product key, then un-install it.