Maybe you think speeding up your computer means buying more RAM, or spending $200 on a flashy new processor. Well it doesn't have to. There are many ways to speed up your computer with just a little basic housekeeping . It takes a bit of effort on your part, but that comes free of charge and you’ll be glad you did it.
Here are my top five tips to keep your computer running smoothly.
1. Defragment your hard drive
If, like me, you tend to move your files around a lot then Windows can become a bit messy, with fragments of these files stored at different locations of your hard drive. This means your computer has to put in extra effort to find all these bits and pieces and it slows down the performance of the system.
Fortunately, Windows has a built in system to combat this problem called Disk Defragmenter.
Open My Computer,
Right-click once on your C: Drive and go down to “Properties”
Select the “Tools” tab and click “Defragment Now”. Then simply follow the step by step instructions.
2. Clean your startup folder
As your computer gets older and you install more and more programs onto your hard drive, many of these add themselves to the Windows Start-up folder. Then every time you boot your computer, the load time is slowed down while each of these programs loads. Just think how fast your computer could start if you only had the essential programs loading at boot. Here’s how to fix the problem.
Click “Start”, then “Run” and type “MSCONFIG” into the box. Navigate to the “Startup” tab and note each program with a tick in the box next to it. These are the ones loading at startup. Assess each one and ask yoruself if it’s essential that it loads every time your computer boots. If it isn’t, simply the box. Do this until you’re happy with your selection, then reboot to complete the process. You should notice a considerable change in boot time.
3. Get rid of spyware
Spyware is one of the most common problems facing today’s computer users. They’re stealthy programs that insert themselves into your registry without permission and slow down your system. They’re usually found within ‘free’ programs that you’re trialling, or on suspect websites. If left to do as they please they can do serious damage to your file system and slow your computer down to snail’s pace, so it’s best to catch them early and get rid.
There are plenty of anti-spyware programs out there, some of them are even free, so go to google and find yourself a good anti-spyware program and rid your computer of those nasty pests.
4. Clear space on your hard drive
If your hard drive is more than 90% full you’ll notice a dramatic slow down in the speed of your computer. This is perhaps the easiest problem to remedy. Simply delete any files or folders you no longer need and uninstall old programs you don’t use anymore.
5. Clean your bloated registry
When you uninstall a program via the control panel, it often leaves behind entries that clog up your registry and slow it down. Windows gets distracted while carrying out operations and doesn’t know what to do with these leftover entries, resulting in poo application loading times, extremely slow shut down and boot times and at times your system freezing up completely, so it’s best to remove them. You can do this by downloading a free registry cleaner like ccleaner that will do all the work for you. It will also kill two birds with one stone by deleting your cache.
By taking these 5 simple steps you will have significantly increased the speed of your computer and improved its health at the same time. All completely free of charge!
