Speed Up Computer

One of the dilemmas people face when considering their computer technology is whether or not to replace a slow computer. There’s no doubt that there comes a time when a computer has completely outlived its useful life. Unfortunately, there’s no magic rule-of-thumb that indicates when a computer has reached this point.

What Goes Into Determining Useful Life?

Its user primarily determines the useful life of a computer. Although it sounds a bit simplistic, what you can do with the computer is a better marker of the computer’s lifespan than the number of days it’s been in service. If the computer doesn’t meet your needs, it can be “obsolete” right out of the box. On the other hand, if you can still do whatever you need, a seven-year-old computer can still be “useful.”

One indication people focus on is the speed of the computer. An old computer is a slow computer, right? Not really. Old computers can be very responsive and brand new computers can be so bogged down that they can’t get out of their own way. “Slow” and “age” don’t always coincide. While it’s true that older computers have older processors, and older computers have less memory, they also have built-in memory management that’s designed to work with smaller amounts of RAM. If the programs you use haven’t changed remarkably, or your needs for computing have stayed the same, you can still get a lot of use out of the computer.

One key to avoiding a slow computer is a clean registry. The Windows registry has changed significantly over time, but one thing has remained the same. Useless, old and abandoned information stored in the registry can cause computer problems, and it can certainly make for one slow computer.

Today, you need more than just a simple registry cleaner. That’s why I use SpeedUpMyPC 2011. This program is a whole toolkit of utilities that will help keep your computer running right and avoid annoying “slow computer” problems. Best of all, it can scan your computer for serious problems that need your attention in just two minutes.

Two minutes of maintenance time can save you hours of frustrating computer use by ensuring that your computer performs as it should day in and day out. Don’t put up with a slow computer (no matter how new or old it is). Instead use SpeedUpMyPC 2011 to make sure your computer works the way it was designed to each time you turn it on.

Photo Credit: , via Flickr

People who use computers (but don’t always take care of them) often remark that their computers seem slow. There’s either nothing specific they can point to as a potential cause, or they’re convinced that they’ve picked up a virus, whether they have or not! There are many more causes of slow computer performance than just age and viruses, but many people don’t take the time to find out what’s really happening.

Good Maintenance Can Speed Up Your Computer

Maintenance (or lack of it) is probably the number one cause of long-term slow computer performance. Software, toolbars, utilities, and old registry entries accumulate in a computer as you use it. Eventually, the performance drops to a noticeable level, and Presto! Your computer slows down.

Good maintenance habits can help your computer retain its lively performance for years. What, exactly, are good maintenance habits? Removing drivers you don’t need is a good habit to get into. Your computer will load the drivers you’ve configured it to load. If you don’t need the drivers, your computer will still load them. Each driver takes a little bit of memory, so removing the unused drivers is a good idea.

No technician in his (or her) right mind would argue with removing toolbars. Toolbars, at their best, take up memory that you probably could use for more interesting things like your applications. Pile on enough toolbars and your system will spend a lot of time tripping over itself.

At their worst, toolbars can disguise malware, adware and spyware that you don’t want on your computer any day of the week or for any reason at all. Yet another good reason to skip the toolbars when you download a program, or when you’re offered one as part of a download or installation process.

Keeping your hard disk defragmented is another good way to pick up a little performance boost. Regular defragging will not speed things up tremendously but skip the defragging for awhile and you’ll notice a big performance slump. Defragging is one of those things best done regularly to maintain a speedy system.

Cleaning your registry will also give you a good performance boost. Your registry gets loaded up with a lot of unnecessary code. Getting rid of this junk can help speed up a slow computer, and if done regularly, can keep a speedy computer speedy.

I like SpeedUpMyPC 2011 for general registry and disk maintenance. It works in about two minutes and you’ll be surprised by the performance boost you’re getting.

Photo Credit: Sean MacEntee, via Flickr