Tired of slow computer performance? Feel like pulling your hair out as you wait and wait for a program to open?
Well, you are not alone. Everyone who has a computer eventually runs into this problem. When you first buy your computer everything runs nice and fast. But as time goes on your computer starts to slow down more and more. It’s gradual and you probably won’t even notice the slow down until a year or two has gone by.
But then one day you will realize that you have a habit of launching a program then going to make yourself a sandwich just to come back to see that little hourglass still twirling. That is the day when you have finally had enough of your slow computer performance. You have better things to do with your time than stare at your computer screen waiting for your web browser to open just so you can check your email.
Fixing Slow Computer Performance
Well, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that there are many free or low cost solutions you can try to speed up your computer. The bad news is that, depending of the severity of your problem, these cheap solutions may not be enough and you will need to purchase software or hardware components to fully remedy the situation. Your last resort of course is to buy a new computer, but hopefully that will not be necessary as that would be the most expensive slow computer fix of all.
There are a variety of simple clean-up methods that can be employed to try and speed up your computer’s performance. Some of these methods are:
1. Free up disk space by deleting temp files, etc.
2. Run a disk defragmentation
3. Remove unnecessary software
4. Reduce your startup menu items
These are all things that you can do yourself using your computer’s own built-in maintenance programs. Trying these methods will not cost you anything and may alleviate most of your issues with no further intervention.
However, if trying the suggestions above is not enough to get your computer running at the speeds you would like, you may need to invest a little bit of money to resolve the issue. Some of the things you may want to consider are:
1. Purchasing spyware software to remove potential malware
2. Purchasing registry cleaning software to remove unnecessary registry items
3. Adding additional memory (or RAM) to your computer.
If you decide to purchase spyware removal or registry cleaning software, all you will need to do is load the software and follow the manufacturer’s instructions. If you decide to add more memory to your computer, that can be a bit more complicated as you will need to find how much memory can be added and how it is done. Check with the manufacturer of your computer if you are unsure.
Now is also a good time to emphasize the importance of backing up your data on a regular basis. If you had a really bad virus or your slow computer actually failed completely, it may not be possible to recover your files. An external hard drive is a device that can be used to transfer over a copy of all your data files on a regular basis so that your data is always safe.
Slow computer performance is very frustrating and is something that every computer owner experiences at some point in their life. But try some of the solutions outlined above and see if that helps. And remember that performing some of these procedures (disk defrag, temp file removal) as ongoing maintenance should also help keep the problem at bay going forward.
For an out of the box solution, check out WinCleaner.