That’s a common question that arises more than you would think. The primary source that many computer users believe is causing their computer to run slow is computer spyware or computer adware. That’s not necessarily the case though. If you have run a complete scan of your computer’s local drives and your antivirus software is telling you there are no infections, there are still several tasks that you can undertake before having to call in a professional or that “Power” computer user friend that you might not want to spend too much quality time with…
Actions to Take to Speed Up Your Computer:
Remove Temporary Files and Unnecessary Backups of Files
Take a look at your available hard drive space by right clicking the local drive label (normally the “c” drive on a Windows computer) and left clicking the “properties” menu option. If the available space is less than half of your total hard drive size, then your computer’s performance will be taking a hit from a reduction in hard drive space available to use as a resource for Virtual RAM. If that’s too much techno speak for you, the more full your hard drive is, the slower your computer will run. When your right click your hard drive, and left click the properties menu option, there’s another option available to you labeled “disk cleanup”. Go ahead and left click that button and follow the instructions for removing “temporary Internet files”. Then, go through your hard drive files and see what pictures or movies that you can delete or burn to DVD or CD to make more space on your computer’s hard drive.
Set the Disk Defragmenter Up to Run When You’re Asleep
A lot of people ignore the Windows Disk Defragmenter application or don’t set it up to run ever. When you do this, the organization of programs on your hard drive becomes very disjointed with pieces of programs being forced to be saved at widely disparate locations on your hard drive. The longer that time goes by that you don’t defragment the hard drive, the less continuous memory locations there are on the drive for programs to be saved to…end result is your computer will start to slow down over time. The Defragmenter application will allow you to setup a set time per day or week to run the tool. I prefer to leave my computer on when I go to bed one night a week and let the tool run while I’m asleep once a month. If you run the defrag tool at least bi-monthly, your computer’s performance will be improved.
Reduce the Number of Programs to Run on Computer Startup
Sometimes computers will be significantly slowed on startup by too many programs being configured to run on computer start. The more programs that you can change the default options to not starting up automatically, the quicker your computer will boot when turning on for the first time that day. You can verify the programs set to start on boot on your computer by opening the MSCONFIG application. To do this, open your computer’s DOS prompt by selecting the “Start” menu and typing “msconfig” followed by the “enter” key. When MSCONFIG launches, choose the “Startup” tab. This will list all of the programs that Windows will start on boot on your computer. If you don’t know what one of the programs does, you can verify this in Google or Bing by typing the name you see listed followed by the “.exe” abbreviation to see what function the program provides before disabling the program on start. Once you make the changes, restart your computer and you will see a pop-up menu that notifies you of the changes made to the computer.
Computer Maintenance Actions to Schedule for Your Computer
Weekly Tasks to Do:
- Scan Your Computer with your Anti-Virus and AntiSpyware Software after you update them
- Remove Internet Browser Temporary Files
Monthly Tasks to Do:
- Run Your Computer’s Defragmenter and Scan Disk
- Run a Complete AntiVirus and AntiSpyware Scan of Your Computer
- Empty the contents of your computer’s recycle bin and the Windows Temp Folder
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