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By: Terra Dagger and Glodenox

Edited By: Taz and King Zonk

Coded By: G@mer and Glodenox

Special Thanks To: Chipp54, Boy Hits Car, Darmadia and BlitzAceSamy

Do you have a slow computer? Are you experiencing lag in Runescape or ever lost your account? Here are some ways to make your computer faster and more secure! There are lots of things that can slow down Runescape.
The most common causes are: Pop-up windows, Advertisements, Adware, Spyware, Viruses, and Worms. These are all covered in this Guide as well as some other interesting hints.

Computer Speed Improvements

There are many reasons for which your computer may be slowing down, some of them are easier to fix than others but the main causes are listed here with a solution:

Multitasking

When running other applications next to your browser in which you play RuneScape, you are more than likely to experience some slowdowns from time to time. Computers get most of their speed from the amount of RAM that is in your computer. Well, everything on your computer uses RAM. Listening to music, watching videos, have advertisements running, ... You could be doing anything, virtually, and have it slow down your computer.

Solution: Exit out of all the excess programs that you are not using. If you are running really slowly, then don't load High Detail. Don't listen to music or watch videos on the same computer that you are playing RuneScape on if you experience lag.

Pop-up Windows

Pop-ups, we all hate them. They can install Adware, Spyware as well as tons of stuff we probably don't want.
In Internet Explorer, you can go to Tools - Internet Options. From there, go to the Privacy tab. There, it should have at the bottom the window "Pop-up Blocker". It has a checkbox you can check that says Block Pop-ups. Make sure that checkbox is checked.
Are you still getting Pop-ups? Well, go to Tools, Internet Options... and click on the Privacy tab again. Go to the bottom of the window and click on Settings. Another window should come up. Go to the bottom of that window and click on the drop down list's arrow. Then click on High: Block All Pop-ups (Ctrl to override). Close the window by clicking on the Close button or X out. It should close and then close that window. ( By Ctrl to override, it means that if you want a Pop-up to pop up and you clicked on a link for it to pop up, then hold Ctrl then click so the Pop-up will still come up)
In Firefox, you can find this same checkbox under Tools - Options in the Content tab. The checkbox you want to have checked is labelled "Block pop-up windows".

Also, if you cannot find any other method, there are some toolbars that you can download from the internet, but it is not very recommended that you do so. Many Toolbars come along with Viruses, Adware, and Spyware built right in themselves thus, defeating your whole purpose.

The Advertisements (Freeplay only)

When you don't pay for RuneScape, you get an advertisement bar above your game screen. Though there are ways to get rid of them, I would strongly advice not to do so. Not only does that break Rule 15 - Advert Blocking so you could lose your account, it also makes it harder for JAGeX to keep the free version of RuneScape running.
If it would turn out that a certain advertisement is slowing down your computer, you can always try to set their quality to low. Right-click the advertisement, and under Quality select the "Low" option. If this doesn't help at all you can always report them using the question mark (?) next to the advertisement.

Having too many programs on your computer

A very easy way to get rid of a lot of drag on your computer is by removing those programs you don't seem to need after all. Most of them will hardly affect your computer performance, but some of them run background processes which in overall slows down your computer (and as such RuneScape).
Take a visit to your computer's Configuration Screen (found in the Start Menu) and doubleclick "Add/Remove Software". After the list has been generated, it is very easy to see at a glance which programs are installed on your computer.

Brush your hard disk

When running programs in windows a lot of Temporary Files are left behind. These files have passed their lifecircle, but are still stored on your hard disk. A very easy way to get rid of them is by going to My Computer, right-click a hard disk and select Properties. Over there press the Disk Cleanup button. Windows will now try to find everything that doesn't have to stay on that hard disk.
Once the analysis is completed, you will be presented with several types of files that may be removed. Check or uncheck the checkboxes of the items you don't mind seeing removed (it might be that you still want to undo actions from the Recycle Bin and therefore not empty it for example).

Defragmentation: the biggest difference

When a hard disk gets filled with information, it often happens that files get bigger than they originally were. Due to the way a hard disk works, it will 'fragment' the file and put another part at another place on the hard disk. As you can imagine, files that often got enlarged will soon be spread on the hard disk in tens or even hundreds of fragments. This slows down the hard disk's overall working a lot.

The solution for this is built in in each Windows computer: Defragmentation. This tool will get rid of the fragments and place all fragments behind eachother so the hard disk will work faster giving a faster overall result.
Go to My Computer, right-click a hard disk and select Properties like you did when Cleaning up your hard disk (see above). This time we go to the Tools tab and click the Defragment Now button.
Select the hard disk you suspect to need defragmentation and click the "Analyse" button (depending on the size of the drive this may take a while to complete). A report will show up saying whether it is needed to defragment or not. If it is: click the Defragment button.

Note: There are many other applications available for this task, but in the end they all do the same thing.

Computer Security

In the recent years computer security has received a lot more attention than before, but it was needed. The internet is filled with threats, some are small some are huge. We will try to help you explain what is what and how you can protect yourself against these dangers from the internet:

Adware and Spyware

These are small programs which are stored on your computer in order to spy on what you are doing. Some of these are there to track your internet browsing, some are there to show extra advertisements on your computer. They generally don't cause much harm, but are still a pain to have. Anti-spyware software will keep sure these threats stay away.

Keyloggers

Keyloggers do exactly what their name suggests them to do: they log keys. Each key you type is stored somewhere and then transmitted to the creator of that program. These are most likely the most dangerous for a RuneScape player. Some of these can be very advanced and can endanger the safety of your password. Just like adware and spyware, anti-spyware software will get rid of these.

Worms

A worm is a program that settles on your computer and can self-replicate itself by transmitting a file (can be an image, .exe, ...) to other people through mail or instant messenging programs like MSN or Yahoo. These worms can contain keyloggers, viruses, adware, spyware and much more. Usually you need a good anti-virus program to prevent these from settling, but often anti-spyware programs are armed against these as well.

Viruses

These can be one of the more dangerous treats to your computer. These can be just annoying, but can also make your whole computer crash, depending on which virus you get... A virus can be a combination of all which has been mentioned above, which makes them one of the worst things to have on your computer. Anti-virus software is specifically designed to remove these dangers.

The programs that will help protect you

We have compiled a list of good programs which will help your computer stay healthy from the threats mentioned above. There are free programs and commercial programs in it (we tried to find mainly the free ones though). It must be said however that commercial programs - for which you have to pay - generally manage to provide better results than their free counterparts.

Anti-Spyware Programs
	Ad-Aware (Free version)	Ad-Aware enables you to search for everything but viruses. Unless you buy the Plus version it does not protect your computer while you browse though. Still, just scanning once in a few days will already perform miracles.
	Spybot - Search & Destroy	Spybot - Search & Destroy is a program that is specifically strong against spyware, but also has protection against other threats from the Internet. Just like Ad-Aware, it only performs a scan when you ask it to.
	Windows Defender	Windows Defender is provided by Microsoft in order to protect yourself from all sorts of threats. It regularly scans to see whether your computer is still running as it should.
Anti-Virus Programs
	AVG Anti-virus (Free version)	AVG offers you a good protection against viruses and doesn't slow down your computer a lot.
	Avast! (Free version)	Avast! offers a very complete protection against all threats and is completely free for home users who don't use their computer for commercial purposes. Free registration is required though.
	Norton Antivirus (Commercial)	Norton Antivirus is one of the best security programs which offers protection against virtually any threat, but this at the cost of your computer's speed when performing any actions.
	McAfee (Commercial)	McAfee offers a decent protection against the many Internet threats. On its site you can also find a couple of free services which include an online virus scan.

The more the better?

Unlike what you may believe, having multiple programs often results in less protection instead of more protection! The programs that only scan for threats when you ask them to aren't going to pose a problem, but the programs that scan in real-time (while you're using your computer) can interrupt eachother and even lead to computer crashes!

Other Programs

	Firefox	Firefox is an alternative Internet Browser. Firefox runs RuneScape equally smooth, but is more secure to use.
	RuneScape Windows Client	JAGeX has created this client so you can play RuneScape without having to open Internet Explorer. It uses less system resources so it should run faster.
	Opera Web Browser	Opera is an alternative Internet Browser. Opera is very strong in the use of tabs and has many interesting extra functions.

I hope you have learned some interesting things from this information. Now you know how to protect your account and computer.

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