Computers naturally get slow over time and need minor maintenance to help boost their speed. Here are a few tips to help bring them back to how they used to perform.
Remove malware and spyware.
Download programs such as ad-aware and spybot to remove these. They are hidden programs that take information from your computer and will slow it down by running in the background.
End unneeded processes.
On windows, bring up the task manager,(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and under processes, find ones that arent used by system or local service. These can be ended. Close as many as you like, it will be trial and error to see which are most effective, but try to close ones that use the most memory. If anything is affected, restart your computer and it will be back to normal.
Permanently close processes.
This step is just like step 2, but will not allow the process to come back after restart. So do this step after you realize you don't need that process.
Go to Start->Run. Type in msconfig and click OK. Then go to "Startup" uncheck the box next to any process that you do not need. For example, "Google desktop" If for any reason something does not work correctly, repeat this step and put a check next to it. You can do this for the services tab also.
Scan your computer for viruses.
You need to have a virus software for this. If you do not already have one, AVG has a free one available.
Free up space.
Your computer may not be able to handle everything that you have on it. Start uninstalling things you no longer use such as old gamesthat take a lot of space.
Purchase more RAM
Buying RAM for your computer is the best bang for your buck! It will allow you to perform multiple tasks at the same time faster. If you think that you dont perform multiple tasks, think again. Go to the task manager in the performance tab and see how many tasks are there. Most likely over 50!
Reformat your Hard Drive. (Last option only)
This is different for all computers. Contact your manufacturer or look online for your model. Just make sure to back up ALL of your data before doing so. Only perform this step if all else fails, it will bring your computer back to factory settings!
Download programs such as ad-aware and spybot to remove these. They are hidden programs that take information from your computer and will slow it down by running in the background.
End unneeded processes.
On windows, bring up the task manager,(Ctrl+Alt+Del) and under processes, find ones that arent used by system or local service. These can be ended. Close as many as you like, it will be trial and error to see which are most effective, but try to close ones that use the most memory. If anything is affected, restart your computer and it will be back to normal.
Permanently close processes.
This step is just like step 2, but will not allow the process to come back after restart. So do this step after you realize you don't need that process.
Go to Start->Run. Type in msconfig and click OK. Then go to "Startup" uncheck the box next to any process that you do not need. For example, "Google desktop" If for any reason something does not work correctly, repeat this step and put a check next to it. You can do this for the services tab also.
Scan your computer for viruses.
You need to have a virus software for this. If you do not already have one, AVG has a free one available.
Free up space.
Your computer may not be able to handle everything that you have on it. Start uninstalling things you no longer use such as old gamesthat take a lot of space.
Purchase more RAM
Buying RAM for your computer is the best bang for your buck! It will allow you to perform multiple tasks at the same time faster. If you think that you dont perform multiple tasks, think again. Go to the task manager in the performance tab and see how many tasks are there. Most likely over 50!
Reformat your Hard Drive. (Last option only)
This is different for all computers. Contact your manufacturer or look online for your model. Just make sure to back up ALL of your data before doing so. Only perform this step if all else fails, it will bring your computer back to factory settings!
