Today's tip for speeding up your computer startup has to do with fonts. As a preface for the uninitiated, a font is a collection of letters and numbers in a particular typeface. A typeface is a collection of letters, numbers and symbols that have the same distinctive appearance. Using different fonts in your documents is fun and they can help you create attractive and impressive documents.

Every computer comes with many fonts preinstalled. Some programs add more fonts. An average computer can easily have more than 200 or 300 different fonts installed. Each of these fonts loads on startup. Fonts can use a lot of system resources which slows your startup.

So an easy way to speed up your startup is to eliminate some of the fonts. I'll give you instructions, but you should only do this if you feel comfortable opening the Control Panel and moving files around. You should keep all the common fonts, including all versions of Arial, Calibri, Cambria, Tahoma, and Times New Roman. Also keep any that you know you have used or may need for a document. Don't delete the others; just move them to a different folder in case you need them later. Here's how to do it:

1. Open the Control Panel

2. Click on the Fonts folder

3. Highlight the fonts you don't need and move them to a folder that you create on your desktop or in a different directory.

4. Reboot your machine.