How to increase computer speed

Posted on July 6, 2008 at 5:32 am

Have you noticed your computer getting more and more slow recently? Is it slowing down to a point where it’s hard to do your work? Well I’ll show you how to solve this ever annoying problem.

Computers don’t get worse with time. They remain the same speed you bought them at until the day you throw them out. It usually problems with the software that interferes with the speed, not the computer’s age. That’s just a myth.

It has also been thought that “anything will do” when it comes to programs to clean up the muck and scum that floats around. You have to be careful when downloading programs to maximize your performance and to get the best computing experience possible.

So here’s a few ways I’ve found that seems to give my computer that extra little boost when I feel it’s lagging slightly. They seem relatively easy to follow, so I’ll just get started right away.

1) Scan For Spyware

AVG Anti-Spyware

Spyware and Adware get onto your computer on a daily basis, as they can come from things like downloads, to just browsing the net. This is usually one of the main offenders in slowing down your computer. I’d advise you use AVG Anti-Spyware (http://free.grisoft.com/ww.download-avg-anti-spyware-and-anti-rootkit), although there are many other good alternatives.

2) Check For Any Viruses

NOD32

Yes, I know this one sounds rather obvious, but a lot of computers I’ve seen in my lifetime are simply slow due to lack of anti-virus software (Or sometimes, lack of a GOOD anti-virus program). If you have the money to spend on a decent anti-virus, I’d really recommend NOD32 (http://www.eset.com/), but if you don’t have the money to spend, or you just want a good free program, go and download Avast!.

3) Clean Up Your Registry

Registry faults happen on a day-to-day basis, sometimes occurring on their own. So a clever thing to do would be to clear up your registry, and fix these faults. I really recommend using Registry Clearer (http://www.eusing.com/free_registry_cleaner/registry_cleaner.htm), as I’ve been using it for some time now, and I’ve had virtually no problems with it, apart from maybe the fact it sometimes takes two scans to clean the registry completely.

4) Use A Defragmenter

Disk Defragmenter

By Defragmenting your hard drive, you should see results very quickly indeed. Disk defragmenter is located in Accessories -> System Tools. It will free up your hard drive, and thus, should speed up your computer.

5) Delete unwanted files/folders

If you’ve got any old files or folders that you’ll never need again for as long as you live, you may want to delete these. This is because by freeing up your hard drive space you should see an increase in speed. I also recommend buying a back up hard drive to put the files on before you delete them though, just in case you end up needing the files again one day.

By following these five, rather easy steps, you should see an increase in the speed of your computer, and hopefully it will be as fast as when you first bought it.

Also, be sure to check out my other series of posts on increasing computer performance and speed in Windows:

  1. Simple ways to increase your computer’s performance – Configuring the paging file
  2. Simple ways to increase your computer’s speed – Defragmenting your hard drive
  3. Simple ways to increase your computer’s performance and speed – Stopping the startup programs!
  4. Simple ways to increase computer performance – Save hard disk space!
  5. Simple ways to make your computer faster – Turn off indexing on your local drives

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Comments

6 Responses to “How to increase computer speed”

  1. cico_m3nd3z said on : July 6th, 2008 at 10:14 am

    AVG Anti-Spyware and AVG Anti-Rootkit are no longer available.
    What are the alternatives?


  2. abhishek said on : July 7th, 2008 at 2:08 pm

    great list but they does not speed up ur pc


  3. Frank said on : July 9th, 2008 at 8:21 pm

    First you should download and install AVG v.8
    This takes care of virus protection, spyware protection, malicious web site protection and more . quite complete. Even the free version.
    If the problems still exist you’ll find the answer on this blog : http://slowcomputer95percentch.....gspot.com/

    To your success.


  4. Paul Balaich said on : October 1st, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    Thanks for the information! Computer is already running faster.


  5. AHadley said on : October 23rd, 2009 at 7:26 am

    Contrary to popular belief, registry cleaners do not speed up load, operation and boot times for a computer. In fact, they can slow it doen considerably and can even break computers irreprably. The only registry cleaner I have ever come across that is trustworthy is CCleaner.


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