If you’ve ever suffered through the re-installation of your operating system, you know (or at least you should know) that reinstalling the operating system is a last-ditch effort to correct an intractable problem. Unfortunately, a lot of users (and technicians alike) use it as a cure-all when basic troubleshooting and maintenance don’t resolve a slow computer problem.

Is Reinstallation Necessary?

Reinstallation may have been necessary – even preferred – at one time to take care of slow computer problems. In my view, it’s akin to pulling out the biggest hammer in the toolbox. I tend to avoid re-installation until I’ve exhausted all other options. I do this partially because there are a lot of settings and adjustments I’ve made to my personal computer that I simply don’t want to lose.

There is also the issue that once a fresh installation of the operating system has been carried out, you may find yourself spending an additional hour (or hours) applying every patch and service pack that’s been issued since the new OS was introduced. If your version of the OS is new, this can be relatively painless. If not, you could be applying 40-60 patches and one or more service packs to your “fresh” installation. And you also run the risk that after completing this Herculean task, you’ll still be left with a slow computer.

A better approach is to determine why the computer is behaving slowly in the first place. Computers can slow down for a variety of reasons – including lack of physical memory, lack of available disk space, and significant fragmentation on the hard disk. You could also experience problems with device drivers that have begun to misbehave. There’s also the odd possibility that a recent OS update or patch isn’t performing as expected.

Once you’ve determined that your computer has sufficient resources to run the applications you use, you can also check the network connection and the servers you’re connecting to. If your computer operates normally with its network card disabled, your problem isn’t likely to be solved by replacing the OS.

People tend to ascribe odd computer behavior to viral infections. While it’s true that viruses can certainly slow down your computer and decrease its ability to perform, a good anti-virus program will not only detect and remove offending malware, it will also prevent your computer from being impacted in the first place.

I advise people to download a registry cleaner like SpeedUpMyPC because it not only manages the registry, it also optimizes the computer for the best possible performance. If you’re not impressed with your computer’s performance, download a copy of SpeedUpMyPC and see for yourself why more than a million PC users rely on it to speed up their computer performance.

Photo Credit: Abraham.williams, via Flickr

You’ve probably heard a lot of conflicting information about registry cleaners. Some technicians recommend them; others won’t touch them. To be fair, the performance of a registry cleaner can be less-than-stellar if you’re not using the right product. How do you know which registry cleaners to use and which ones to stay away from?

Go With The Top Choice Among Registry Cleaners

The registry is a sensitive and highly essential part of any Windows computer system. When you fool with the registry, you’ve got the bull by the horns so you have to know what you’re doing. If you know what’s in the registry and how to make changes, you’re probably a technical professional. If you’re a home user, I don’t recommend editing the registry.

The problem, of course, is that the registry gets loaded up with bits of code that shouldn’t be there. New applications you download and configure make entries in your computer’s registry. If you remove the program or update it, the uninstaller/updater may not handle the existing registry entries correctly. Likewise, if you don’t uninstall the software properly, you could leave behind a lot of unnecessary information.

Viruses and malware love to make entries into your registry. Removing the malware doesn’t always remove the junk they leave behind. All of this accumulated code in your registry can slow your computer down, sometimes to a crawl. That’s where a trustworthy registry cleaner can come in handy.

RegCure is a great product that’s been downloaded more than a million times by users like yourself who are looking for a way to speed up a slow computer. RegCure is one of the most well-known and well-liked registry cleaners available today. One reason RegCure is so trusted is because it makes a backup of your registry before it makes any changes. With a complete registry backup on hand, you can revert your computer back to this starting point if you don’t like some of the changes RegCure has made.

You also have the option of accepting or rejecting suggested changes, so you’re always in control of what RegCure does. With RegCure, you don’t have to be a professional computer technician to take care of your computer. RegCure gives you the tools you need to modify and clean up your computer’s registry safely, quickly and accurately. RegCure is easy to download, install and use. You can even get a complimentary registry scan to let you know if any serious issues may be affecting your performance. Download RegCure today!

Photo Credit: Garry Knight, via Flickr