Anti-Virus Programs Can Cause Slow Computer

A/V: A Diminishing Return

With anti-virus software, you can be over-protected. That’s a nice way of saying that you shouldn’t have more than one anti-virus program installed at any given time. To be sure, some AV programs have advantages over others. Some are updated more frequently; others are better at detecting obscure infections. Others provide a balance of good protection at a reasonable cost.

What you don’t want is competition on your system. Anti-virus programs, by their nature, examine the activities of other programs. More than that, they limit the activities of other programs, including other anti-virus programs you may have installed.

AV programs compete for access to the same resources and can throw up unnecessary warnings, cause conflicts and crash the system when confronted with another AV program that is scanning the computer. Some AV programs make nice with each other, so these dire results aren’t always a foregone conclusion. Some users rely on two or even three AV programs that run simultaneously to protect the system.

AV software may work pleasantly in conjunction with a firewall, but throw in an extra measure of protection and you could be in a very slow world of hurt. The rule of thumb is that you should choose one AV program and one firewall program to protect your computer from malware and possible intrusions. Test your protective software for compatibility and if you find a good match, stick with it.

If you find that your combination has produced an unacceptably slow computer, switch out the test components one at a time. You may find that certain firewall/AV combinations don’t work well together, while others produce a perfectly harmonious result. Ultimately, the combination you choose should be one that provides good detection of viruses, as well as good prevention.

Also, don’t assume that firewalls come configured for your system right out of the box. Simply installing a firewall does not always equal protection. Frequently, their default state is either “minimal” protection or “off,” so make sure your firewall is actually configured to do something useful once you have it installed.

Finding a combination of AV and firewall protection that works well together doesn’t mean you can never change your protective software suite. Just don’t expect exceptional results from combined software suites that are designed to interfere with other software on the same computer!

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Tips For Speeding Up A Slow Computer

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

The Need For Speed: Speeding Up Your Computer

Fixing Computer Speed and Performance Issues

In other cases, an external problem that isn’t “temporary” may be causing the computer to work harder or less efficiently. These external actors include hardware malfunctions, viruses, malware, and inappropriate hardware configurations for the tasks you’re trying to accomplish. These problems are resolvable, provided that you know what they are. Make absolutely sure that you’re working with a clean, capable computer.

In yet other cases, the culprit is infrequent or incomplete maintenance. For the most part, when it comes to computers “deferred maintenance” doesn’t have the same permanent long-term impact that deferred maintenance would have on a house or an automobile. “Deferred maintenance” can be addressed with techniques like disk defragmentation, regular viral scans, regular malware scans, and registry cleaning.

Registry cleaning turns out to be an important component of regular maintenance because leftover bits of abandoned code can accumulate the registry. These useless bits of code will slow down the computer’s performance because, even though they’re no longer needed, the computer will read them and follow these instructions to the extent that it is able.

Sometimes, these abandoned code bits cause the computer to wait for a response, or search for something that is no longer available on the computer. A registry cleaner will clear out all of this useless code and eliminate the computer’s need to read and follow these instructions. If you read regularly, you know that I recommend RegCure. Millions of users have downloaded it and trust it to keep their registries clean.

Performing regular maintenance on your computer, including defragmenting the hard disk, scanning for viruses and malware, making regular system and driver updates, applying patches, and keeping your registry clean will take care of many issues that would otherwise eventually slow your computer down.

Photo Credit: Ethan Prater, via Flickr