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Is your desktop or laptop computer starting to feel a little poky? Even after just a few months of use, your PC or Mac may start to lose steam thanks to a fragmented hard drive, too many programs running in the background, or even a rogue piece of malware.
開始察覺到你的臺式機(jī)或筆記本電腦變的有那么點(diǎn)兒不好用了？只用了幾個月，你的PC或MAC就失去了它的銳氣，“感謝”硬盤驅(qū)動器中的某塊碎片吧，這可能是因?yàn)樘喑绦蛲瑫r在后臺運(yùn)行，或者是一個惡意軟件在“淘氣”。

This week on Upgrade Your Life, Yahoo! News' Becky Worley serves up some quick and easy tricks for speeding up your PC or Mac, starting with …
在這周的“提高你的生活質(zhì)量”欄目中，來自雅虎新聞的貝奇·沃利給大家提供了一些快速又簡單的小把戲，讓你的電腦健步如飛，現(xiàn)在讓我們開始吧。

1. Clean out your startup items
1.清理你的開機(jī)啟動項(xiàng)目

How long do you have to wait after hitting your PC's power button before you can actually get to work? Thirty seconds? A minute? Two minutes?
More?
在按下開機(jī)的按鈕后，你要等多久才能真正開始工作？30秒？1分鐘？2分鐘？難道更多？

If you find yourself routinely twiddling your thumbs while your PC or Mac painstakingly boots itself up, maybe it's because your system is
trying to fire up a slew of programs at the same time (and indeed, some programs will set themselves to launch at startup by default). Here's
how to ease the frantic rush of competing startup programs:
如果你發(fā)現(xiàn)在等待電腦艱難的發(fā)動時，你都習(xí)慣玩著你的手指了，這也許得歸因于你的系統(tǒng)正在嘗試同時發(fā)動一堆程序（一些程序會默認(rèn)設(shè)置它們?yōu)殚_機(jī)啟動，這是一定的）。下面就是如何輕松的和這些開機(jī)啟動程序斗爭的方法：

For Windows: Click the Start menu, then select Programs (or All Programs in Windows 7), open the Startup folder, and then—as Becky suggest—
delete mercilessly. (Don't worry; you're not deleting the programs themselves.) Note: if you see a program sitting in the Startup folder
and you don't know what it's for, search on the Web to see what it does before hitting the "delete" button.
Windows系統(tǒng)的做法：點(diǎn)擊“開始”菜單，選擇“程序”（或Windows 7中的“所有程序”），打開“啟動”項(xiàng)目，接著——像貝奇建議的那樣——毫不留情的刪掉它們。（不要擔(dān)心；你不會真正從系統(tǒng)中刪除這些程序的。）

*小貼士：如果你看到“啟動”項(xiàng)目欄里面有一些程序你不清楚是干啥用的，在你刪掉它之前上網(wǎng)搜搜它的功能。

For Mac: Open System Preferences under the Apple menu, click the Accounts icon, and then click the Login Items tab. You may find a
variety of arcane programs and helper apps lurking inside (such as the mysterious iTunesHelper), but again—search before you zap an unknown program. (Disabling the iTunesHelper app, for example, will prevent iTunes from opening automatically when you connect an iPhone or iPod.)
蘋果電腦（MAC系統(tǒng)）的做法：打開“蘋果”菜單下的“系統(tǒng)偏好”選項(xiàng)，點(diǎn)擊“賬戶”圖標(biāo)，接著單擊“登錄項(xiàng)目”標(biāo)簽。這下你可能會找到好些埋伏在這里的神秘項(xiàng)目和幫助應(yīng)用（例如“神秘的”iTunes幫助），但是同樣的——刪除之前上網(wǎng)搜搜那些你不知道功能的程序。（比如說，禁用iTunes幫助應(yīng)用，將阻止iTunes在你連接iPhone或iPod時自動啟動。）

2. Check for running apps in the Windows task bar
2.檢查任務(wù)欄上正在運(yùn)行的程序

Got a Windows-based PC? See that little row of tiny icons in the bottom-right corner of the screen? Over the course of weeks, months, or years,
the number of icons sitting in the Windows task bar has probably grown larger and larger—and many of those icons represent programs that are
running in the background and consuming your PC's limited resources.
你的電腦使用Windows系統(tǒng)？看到電腦右下角那排小小的圖標(biāo)了嗎？在日復(fù)一日，年復(fù)一年的運(yùn)行中，Window任務(wù)欄上的數(shù)量很可能越來越多——而其實(shí)大多數(shù)圖標(biāo)代表著正在后臺運(yùn)行的程序，它們都在占用著電腦有限的資源。

Expand the task bar by clicking the little arrow on the side, then right-click each icon in succession. If you find, for example, that
programs like Skype and iTunes are whirring away even when you're not using them, right-click and select "Close"—or, better yet, open the
program and uncheck any "launch at startup" settings in the Preferences or Options menu.
點(diǎn)擊任務(wù)欄最左邊的那個小箭頭以展開它，然后用鼠標(biāo)右鍵一個個的點(diǎn)擊這些圖標(biāo)。如果你發(fā)現(xiàn)，比如說，當(dāng)你沒有在用的時候，“Skype”或 “iTunes”圖標(biāo)仍然存在，右鍵點(diǎn)擊它們，然后選擇“關(guān)閉”選項(xiàng)——或者，最好是在關(guān)閉之前，打開這個程序，在設(shè)置中找到“開機(jī)啟動”選項(xiàng)，并取消勾選。

3. Turn off P2P applications
3.關(guān)掉所有使用P2P（點(diǎn)對點(diǎn)下載）的應(yīng)用程序

Programs like BitTorrent and Skype work their magic with "peer-to-peer" technology, meaning they leverage the combined computing power and
bandwidth of every PC or Mac running their software for such uses as massive file transfers (in the case of BitTorrent) or high-quality, Net
-based voice and video chat (for Skype).
類似于“BT（點(diǎn)對點(diǎn)下載）”或“Skype”的程序，在運(yùn)行它們神奇的“點(diǎn)對點(diǎn)”功能的同時，正影響著所有電腦（PC和MAC）的網(wǎng)絡(luò)帶寬平衡，這些軟件在啟動后，將使用例如“多文件轉(zhuǎn)換”（BT下載的做法）或“高質(zhì)量依靠帶寬的視頻聊天”（如Skype）來搶占網(wǎng)速。

But while sharing the P2P burden qualifies you a good Netizen, it can also put a significant dent in your system's performance. If you've got
programs like BitTorrent and Skype running all day, every day in the background, Becky suggests shutting them down until you really need them.
但當(dāng)你共享P2P源時（這說明你夠格做一名稱職的網(wǎng)民），它還算為你系統(tǒng)的“劣跡”做了些有意義的削減。但如果你有類似“BT”或“Skype”的程序并整天運(yùn)行時，整天在后臺運(yùn)行，貝奇建議還是關(guān)掉它們吧，等你需要時再打開。

4. Root out viruses and malware
4.清除根目錄中的病毒和惡意軟件

Nothing will slow your system down like a virus, a Trojan horse, or other types of malware. Plenty of commercial antivirus applications are available for Windows PCs, but Becky recommends trying Microsoft's free Security Essentials suite, which will sweep your system for any unwanted, nefarious software and provide ongoing protection via regular updates. Just visit Microsoft's Security Essentials website, download and install the software, and follow the instructions.
沒有任何東西比病毒，特洛伊木馬或者其他惡意軟件更能減慢你系統(tǒng)速度的了?，F(xiàn)在市面上有各式各樣的Windows殺毒軟件，但是貝奇推薦你試一試微軟的免費(fèi)安全套裝，它將掃除你系統(tǒng)中所有不想要的東西和不法軟件，并通過提供定期更新來保護(hù)系統(tǒng)。只需要訪問微軟安全網(wǎng)站（譯者注：已鏈接到中文版地址），按照指示下載并安裝該軟件即可。

Anti-virus packages from the likes of Norton and McAfee are also available for Mac users, but there's an ongoing debate about whether virus protection on the Mac is more trouble than it's worth, given that malicious hackers are far more focused on Windows than they are on Mac OS X systems.
包括“諾頓”和“邁克菲”（譯者注：已鏈接到中文版地址）在內(nèi)的殺毒軟件對于蘋果機(jī)也很有用，但是有一個正在進(jìn)行中的關(guān)于是否真的值得在蘋果機(jī)上安裝殺毒軟件的討論，因?yàn)槟切┲圃鞇阂獬绦虻暮诳蛡兏嗉杏赪indows系統(tǒng)而不是蘋果機(jī)使用的Mac系統(tǒng)。