Speed Up Computer

In the last several posts, I’ve provided some tips that you can use to speed up a slow computer. The key to getting the best possible computer performance is to recognize what’s slowing your computer down. Unfortunately, there are literally hundreds of likely possibilities, so determining the cause of your slowdown can be time-consuming.

Viruses and Malware Can Cause Problems

If you keep your anti-virus software up-to-date, a computer virus might not be the first thing to consider. On the other hand, if you’ve done the standard maintenance and made other improvements in your configuration and you’re still experiencing slowness, then it might be time to consider a virus or malware cause.

Step one would be to do a careful malware/virus screening with your anti-virus software. First, update your virus definitions, then do a malware/virus screen. If anything turns up, get rid of it by following the steps provided by your anti-virus/malware software.

Viruses are malicious tools that you don’t go out looking for, but malware (and spyware) can be different. Often, malware is disguised in other software that you might actually want, or agree to load onto your computer. Malware can be disguised in the form of a free game, utility, toolbar or application. You may get the utility you’re looking for, but you may also get other software (malware) that loads onto your computer invisibly.

To combat malware, which your anti-virus software may not recognize, install a program like Malwarebytes. Malwarebytes is available free of charge and can spot malware from a mile away. There are two versions of Malwarebytes – free and Pro. The free version must be run manually each time you want to scan your computer for malware. The professional version runs all the time as a background process and scans your computer continually for new malware intrusions.

Either way you go, you can’t go wrong with Malwarebytes – unless, of course, you download it from someplace other than the developer’s page. Visit http://www.malwarebytes.org to get the latest (and guaranteed clean) version of Malwarebytes. Once it’s installed, make a malware scan a regular part of your computer maintenance routine.

If Malwarebytes finds one or more malware applications, it will inform you of its discovery and clear out any offenders. One note, you’ll need to download new definitions each time you run Malwarebytes. The new definitions take just a minute to download and will help to ensure that you’re protected against the latest malware threats.

Photo Credit: CHUCKage, via Flickr