It’s the end of August, so many students are getting ready to return to school. If this describes you and you’re lucky, you’re probably unpacking (or packing up) a new computer to help get you through the new school year. On the other hand, if you’re trying to nurse an older computer through one more year, here are a few suggestions to help you speed up your computer and get the best performance possible out of your tried-and-true friend.

Three Things That Might Speed Up Your Computer

If speed and performance are your only considerations for a computer, you’ll want to work with a minimal set. Take a good look at your computer and remove absolutely everything except what you need to get your work done. This includes paring down to the basic desktop themes, removing old applications, updating your virus and malware scanners, cutting out all extras that will hog memory and slow your computer down. Use the Task Manager after you boot up to see what’s running. Certain programs may be configured to start up automatically. If you don’t run these programs every time you use the computer, there’s really no reason to let these programs load up. Get rid of as much stuff as you can.

Scan your computer for viruses and malware. These nasties can easily steal memory and disk space. They also leave behind an exceptional amount of trash. They often write their malfeasance to the registry, leaving a big mess to clean up. Get your virus definitions and your malware software up-to-date. Scan the daylights out of your system and remove anything you find. If your A/V scanner finds something and you don’t know what it is, do a little research. When you know what you’re dealing with, get rid of it. If you’ve found something that’s written itself to the registry, use a reputable registry cleaner like RegCure to mop up the leftovers this malware leaves behind.

Don’t upgrade your computer. At least not yet. Check your system carefully to find out what kind of performance improvement you can get from upgrading your OS. Depending upon what you’re running – hardware- and software-wise – an upgrade may not be in your best interest. Upgrades to hardware or software can require additional memory. If a memory upgrade isn’t part of your upgrade plan, installing new hardware or software might simply make your performance problems worse. Always check out hardware and software requirements carefully before committing to an upgrade of any kind.

Photo Credit: Blake Patterson, via Flickr

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