Speed Up Computer

Computers rarely slow down suddenly. A slow computer develops over time and that can hide the true cause(s) of computer performance problems. In all likelihood, there is no one cause of a slow computer. Small problems accumulate and eventually, you notice their impact on computer performance.

Slow Computer? Try These…

You can try a bunch of random things when it comes to speeding up your computer, but you’re in a much better position to diagnose problems when you have some information about what your computer is (and isn’t) doing. Before you jump into solving your slow computer problems, take a moment and think about the last ten things you added to your computer. (Installation logs may help at this point.)

Sometimes slow performance can be the result of something you’ve added or changed. Your computer hard disk could be badly fragmented or even close to full. If you don’t have at least 20%-25% of your disk space free, you need to consider whether this could be the source of at least some of your computer performance issues. Remove old files or store them on CDs or DVDs. Once you’ve made some room on your hard disk, use the Defragmenter tool to tidy up your files. You may find that simply clearing out old files and defragging your hard disk has put a little pep back into your slow computer.

If making more room doesn’t help, or wasn’t the problem in the first place, you need to know what processes and programs your computer is running, and what’s occupying most of the computer’s CPU time. You can use the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) to get to the Task Manager. Take a look at the processes that are running. You may find that you’ve left a lot of programs open. Quit all unnecessary programs and restart your computer if necessary to see if that improves your lot. Reduce the number of programs that are configured to start automatically. As a general rule, starting and stopping programs manually will best allow you to optimize the performance of your computer.

If you find that you have a lot of processes running that you don’t recognize, or recognize some “bad actors” running on your computer, do a malware/virus scan and remove whatever you find. Please invest in a reputable A/V program and keep it up-to-date. Don’t rely on demo versions of A/V software to protect your computer.

Clean up the registry once in a while! Using a program like RegCure can help you avoid a buildup of useless, orphaned or corrupted programming code within your registry. Keeping your registry clean and backed up may provide not only an invaluable burst of speed, but also a bit of extra security in the form of a registry backup.

Photo Credit: Chelsea Oakes, via Flickr