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Installation was very simple. I popped in my SpeedUpMyPC disc, and it was installed before I knew it. If I had downloaded the program, the only thing I would have done differently was run the programs install file, rather then inserting a CD. 
After SpeedUpMyPC was installed, I navigated to the correct directory in my Programs folder to run it the first time.
I was greeted with the opening screen, giving me a basic run-down of my "System Overview." Not only did the opening screen go over that, but it also listed the suggested actions to take, as seen above. Clicking the action took be to the pertaining tab (Set Page File Alarm took me to the Memory tab), which allowed me to complete the suggested action. Definately a great feature for those that have no idea where to begin. However, in my case, I wanted to explore the program on my own. 
The first tab to the left is the CPU (Central Processing Unit) tab. It consists of two graphs, one that shows CPU Usage over one minute and one that shows CPU usage over one hour. The first option listed is the option allowing me to assign more CPU resources to a certain program. This could be useful if you want Photoshop to be able to use more of the CPU than Internet Explorer, for example. The second option allows me to run a program quietly in the background. If I did this with any program, it would probably be Folding at Home, which was running when I took this screen shot.
This option could also be used to run a program that would usually hog CPU resources in the background, so it doesn't hog resources. The third, and final, option under the CPU tab is the option that would allow SpeedUpMyPC to prioritize Windows system functions when my CPU usage exceeds a certain percentage. This is implimented to help free up resources, hopfully preventing a major crash that may result because the computer can't free up these resources.
The second tab is the Memory tab. This section shows a few graphs as well. One showing RAM Usage and one showing Page File Usage. As seen in the screenshot, this section allows me to choose when I want SpeedUpMyPC to free up some of my ram automatically. I could have SpeedUpMyPC free up my ram automatically when a certain percentage is used. One of the coolest features having to do with memory is the feature of being able to choose a quick key, for freeing up memory On Demand! Which works great! I can also set SpeedUpMyPC to notify me when my Page File Usage passes a certain percentage, which is 90% by default. The last operations that can be done in this section is freeing up RAM. Free RAM will do what it says, Free RAM . Deep RAM Recovery will, however, run the same thing Free RAM funs, but run it three times, thus freeing even more RAM!
The third tab is the Internet tab. Similar to the CPU tab, it has two graphs, one showing Bandwidth Usage over one minute and another showing Bandwidth Usage over one hour. I begin using this section by choosing my Connection type, which is Cable/DSL (and actually DSL, but they are very similar). I then put in what my connection speed is suppose to be. As usual, you never really get that speed. I pressed Detect Internet Speed, and got 532 kbps. Oh well. Restore Internet Settings and Optimize Browser Settings would then be used to help speed up my internet connection, but we'll cover that later.
The fourth tab is the Startup tab. This one is my personal favorite. I love being able to look at how long it takes for Windows to boot up. In the screenshot there weren't yet any times, but as I look at it now I can see start up times ranging between 70-75 seconds. Pretty slow, actually. However, my install of XP Pro is over a year old, so I plan on re-installing when I upgrade soon. This section also shows the individual startup times of each of the programs that are run when Windows is loaded to be viewed. Unchecking these are basically the same as unchecking Startup programs in "msconfig". Pressing Optimize Startup Settings will allow SpeedUpMyPC to attempt to disable all rarely used programs automatically.
The fifth, and last, tab is the Anti-Crash tab. One of the unique features of SpeedUpMyPC is its ability to help avoid crashes in Windows. Under Crash recovery Options I can choose what I want SpeedUpMyPC to do when I press the selected quick key. I could have the program terminate any suspicious tasks and / or restart the windows shell in the event that my computer does crash. If I happen to have SpeedUpMyPC open when my computer crashes, I could also run Crash Recovery directly from this section by clicking the "Run Crash Recovery" button.Now that we know what this fancy program can do. Lets see how it handles, shall we?
