I am a total fanatic about speed. I want computer / internet things to go fast. To quote Top Gun, "I feel the need, the need for speed!".

Nothing aggravates me more than something going as slow as a 56k modem. Since I have DSL broadband, I figure it isn't asking much for my Firefox browser to open within the next century or for Gmail to load before it gets out of beta. So I am constantly looking for hacks and tweaks to make things go faster. I am constantly tweaking the Windows Registry to disable non-essentials and to make other things go faster. When I re-boot the computer, I am sitting there with a stop-watch timing how long it takes for the PC to re-boot fully.

As a result, I have noticed the Windows OS speeding up more but three programs are still refusing to speed up for me - Firefox, Gmail and Microsoft Word (Word being the biggest offender). But I have found a few interesting tips that have helped to a certain degree :

Firefox : strip down all non-essential extensions first of all, including any unnecessary Greasemonkey scripts. This includes anything that has no real practical use but only makes the browser look pretty (such as Color Tabs). Once that's done, right-click on the Firefox shortcut on your PC desktop and in the target box (where it says "C:\Programme\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"), put /prefetch:1 at the end to now make the link "C:\Programme\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" /prefetch:1 . What does this do? It makes the Windows operating system cache the Firefox browser to make it open faster (Windows normally does this with Internet Explorer so you're basically switching it around so Windows does it with Firefox instead). You will need to open and close Firefox a few times though to see any change but eventually I HAVE noticed Firefox speeding up slightly.

I also found this which is a tweak to the about:config browser feature. I did what the author suggested and nothing appears to be going wrong as a result!

Another thing which has helped is uninstalling any unnecessary toolbars and browser buttons. So choose your one favourite toolbar (mine is the irreplaceable Google Toolbar) and disable the rest. I strongly recommend avoiding the Yahoo toolbar which in my opinion is bloated and not as flexible as the Google Toolbar.

Remove any buttons from your browser which you don't need (right-click on the bar and choose "customise"). I eventually managed to get everything I needed onto one bar and the difference in speed is noticable. The appearance of the browser is also nicer and sleeker. Less really is more.

Gmail : This is a tough one which has annoyed me for ages. I love Gmail but its loading speed is embarrassingly long. But some things I have picked up in my speed quest. In the "settings", choose 25 conversations for your main view (you can choose to have up to 100 conversations in your main view which REALLY slows things down). Disable any unnecessary Greasemonkey scripts and any other unnecessary features in the Gmail settings. Install the Better Gmail extension and in the options, remove the invitation box (remove the labels box too if you feel you don't need it). The key is to not give Gmail too much to load up and to strip it down to the bare minimum that you need. Even with these changes though, it COULD be a lot faster.

Microsoft Word : I have NOT found anything about speeding up MS Word. If anyone can provide any tips on how to make MS Word open faster and load "doc" files faster, I would be grateful. I use MS Word a lot and so far it is really annoying me when it can take up to 15 seconds to open a document (which might not sound a lot but you sit at your PC for 15 seconds and you'll realise quickly what I mean). At times I am seriously tempted to install Open Office which does the same job as MS Office and is free.

Oh and before I forget, the award for the slowest installation ever goes to iTunes. I installed the upgrade to iTunes yesterday evening and it took a staggering 16 minutes to upgrade an already-existing program. It refreshed "registered components" 6 times, removed "security features" 5 times and by the time it announced to great fanfare that it was finished, I was blinking unbelievably at the PC clock, trying to work out if I had got the 16 minutes time wrong. But nope, it started at 21.41 and ended at 21.57. Then when I opened iTunes, I couldn't see any difference between that version and the last version!

Any other speed freaks here with tips on making the computer go faster? Put them in the comments!