We take great pride in making FeedDemon run very fast (after all, its name is a play on the phrase "speed demon"). But as is the case with all software, it may not be so speedy on a slower computer. Luckily, there are ways to speed it up:
- Reduce FeedDemon's memory requirements by decreasing the number of articles that it keeps in your feeds. To do this, right click "Subscriptions" in the subscription tree, then select "Folder Properties" and switch to the Updating tab. Next, change the archiving value (50 items is recommended for low-memory systems), then click OK and choose "Apply to ALL feeds in ALL folders."
- Avoid opening a ton of browser tabs in FeedDemon when using a slower computer. Today's multimedia- and script-heavy web pages can seriously tax an older system, so opening a dozen web pages in separate browser tabs can slow things to a crawl.
- Defragment FeedDemon's database every few weeks by selecting File > Manage Cache > Compact.
- Use Google Reader synchronization. Feeds that aren't synched with Google Reader must be downloaded one-at-a-time to discover new articles, but when your feeds are synched FeedDemon can download all your new articles in a single request.
- Turn off "Enable page transitions" on the Appearance page of FeedDemon's options (F8).
Following these simple guidelines has enabled us to keep FeedDemon running very smoothly on an old laptop that can't handle most of today's software.
