You may have a computer that is, to put it simply, slow. There are some easy, cost-effective ways to restore and upgrade your computer without purchasing a new one. The following tricks will help you save ample time and money.
Check your computer for viruses as they can significantly slow down the speed of your computer. Free anti-virus software, such as AVG, Avast, ClamWin, Avira, TrendMicro, and Nod32 remove viruses automatically and offers virus scanning with free/trial updates.
When you save and delete things from your hard drive, data gets scattered across your hard drive in small pieces, instead of chunks. Your hard drive may need to look in a number of different places before it retrieves one file, which slows it down. Defragmenting your drive will speed up your computer. Look under ‘System Tools’ in your ‘Accessories’ folder and click ‘Defragment.’ It may take awhile depending on the size of your hard drive.
There may be programs running on your computer that you don’t use. These programs inevitably slow down your computer. On Windows if you click CTRL-ALT-DEL for task manager you can see exactly what’s running on your computer. Process Scanner and Uniblue are more user-friendly programs that will help you determine what programs you do need and how to delete them. Once you rid your computer of these programs, your computer should operate more efficiently.
A great program that defrags, speeds up, and examines programs running is Advanced SystemCare. This has helped solve many computer issues and speed things up.
Wiping everything off your computer and starting from scratch is another viable option. Sometimes this can be better than resolving individual problems. Remove all your important files and record the names of programs you need and use. Purchasing an external hard drive is also a good idea. If you have a recovery CD, you can simply select “Restore”.
Upgrading your system can also speed up your computer. You can add more RAM to your computer which is a cost-effective way to upgrade your computer. You may also want to consider your video card if you’re having difficulty playing games.
Upgrading your CPU may be the next step, but if you need a new processor you should probably consider buying a new computer instead.
If you are going purchase a new computer, read this article regarding transferring files.
Nice post , I am one for cleaning up the PC my self versus using automated software to run. Defragmenting does also help, using task manager and removing running programs does work but also allows for stopping required tasks. If you stop something and then restart your PC it could start up again at start up unnecessary programs should also be removed from the start up list. But nice post and it covers a number of options.
I also manually make sure my computer is free of malwares. I have been using spybot and any cracked version of the latest antivirus I can find. I’ll be sure to add is advancednSystemCare to the list of programs I use to make sure my computer is a well-oiled machine! 🙂
My computer has been slowing down as of late, I’m wondering if all the survey sites I’ve been going to try and make a little extra cash have planted something on my system without my knowledge.
My computer has been slowing down lately, when I am on the internet for a certain amount of time. After I log in and out of the internet, it is back up to speed. I will look into these different methods to speed up my computer. Thank you very much for these great tips.
Good tips for speeding up the computer. I remember being called over with a complaint of a slow computer, I did a spyware scan and it detcted over 1000 problems and the program crashed while trying to remove all the spyware, I should have done it in Safe Mode but even then I think now that a system wipe would have probably have been best.
Thank you for your tips which I must say really helped me out when dealing with my sluggish pc.
Wow, this article really helped me! Now, my computer could be a little faster.
For antivirus, I Microssoft Essential Security. It is very light!
I love the lightweight software that consume too much RAM.
Nice, these tips do really work. I’ve always wanted my computers to be fast. Basically, what I do is uninstall unused programs and pretty much delete irrelevant files. I also tend to close the programs that I’m not using at the moment. In the past I used a flash drive as virtual RAM which did the trick.
Great post, helpful tips. I really need to speed my computer up as it has been going really slowly lately. Some of these I’d already heard about but I will look into them more, Defraggler is a great piece of software to defrag your computer with and theres a free option aswell.
The tips and the links to software which can help are great. I appreciate it very much as I am always on the lookout for ways to optimize computer performance.
I use CCleaner after each computer session, and I find this is very helpful. It clears out the Internet cache from all the browsers I used and more. There is a free version that works quite well.
Thanks a lot for this article. The tips actually works, my PC is REALLY slow, thanks for making it a bit faster.
Thanks for sharing these great tips.
I’ve noticed my laptop has become much slower in the past few months and was finding ways to speed it up, most were useless.
I’ll try these and see if it effects and makes my laptop faster.
I find it interesting that you did not include Disk Cleanup (Not that I saw anyways) in this article. I still think this is an effective way of speeding up a PC. I work in Tech Support for Kroger and we still do this on our own and our associates’ PCs to speed things up (along with clearing out the Temp, Cache, and Defraf).
I like the advanced systems care optimizing idea. I’ll check it out and try to remember to report back to this comment section. Thanks for the advice. Great article above.
Thanks for these useful tips! I forgot to defrag my computer on Windows 8 because there isn’t an obvious feature to defrag your PC. I’m starting the scan right now! The virus part you mentioned is very important! I got 8 pieces of malware on my new PC and it SLOWED my PC down. It was terrible! A 8 GB of RAM PC that takes a long time to open Chrome. I got rid of the malware and now my PC is fast!
For OS X, I find OnyX as an easy, worry-free tool for managing system resources and cleaning things up. Yes, contrary to popular belief, Macs still need a bit of house cleaning to keep them in tip top shape. It’s not necessarily as frequent as those for Windows, but OS X still needs to be maintained. The app is a bit tricky to use though if you’re new to OS X system cleaning, but it’s easy to figure out once you get the hang of it.
I definitely endorse the suggestion you’ve made on nod32 (ESET) for anti-virus protection. I currently have a subscription set up, and this thing is set up like a fortress. Definitely provides solace knowing I can safely browse the Internet and use programs without any malicious programs lurking within.
I plan to invest in installing 2GB of RAM for my Acer Aspire 5336 laptop so I can work with more intensive programs simultaneously. Hopefully the 4GB of total RAM with the upgrade included and having Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit will make the difference in performance
Thanks for providing these helpful tips, and hopefully I won’t need to get another laptop in the near future. Though with the level of work I’m planning to do, it’s inevitable. And I’ll be sure to check out the tips on transferring files safely and securely as well!
It’s always my first instinct to scan my computer if it’s too slow. I’m glad i’m on the right track. But I guess I downloaded a few applications on my pc and it crashed a few months ago and I wasn’t willing to take that chance anymore so i’ve switched to Mac. Best decision i’ve ever made. Thanks for the informative tips.
I really needed this post. Thanks for posting. I have had some speed issues, and have CCleaner and AVG, but I never knew about the Advance SystemCare. Great post!
This is really good iknformation. I have been looking everywhere for informationon free anti-virus programs. I just got a new computer and looking to keep it clean, but I don’t have the money for the software. Will have to try this out.
It’s either the RAM or Hard drive. Defragmenting and cleaning the drive is really helpful if you want your computer to run butter smooth for a long time, also adding more RAM can help a lot when it comes to multitasking.
As time goes on I feel that my laptop runs slower and slower. I’m always on the look out for tips that will speed up my machine. I try to keep it organized and delete unnecessary programs and files. I also run system checks on it. I’ll try these tips today. Thanks!
I have a good guide for whenever a computer is running slow. I uninstall any programs I don’t need, I delete all temp files, run CCleaner, and a virus scan. Then I do a reboot. If it’s still not fast after that, I back up my files and I do a complete system wipe.
Assuming you practice safe browsing habits, the default Microsoft Security Essentials might just be enough w/o extra AV software. I feel Advanced SystemCare to be a bit intrusive, so for cleaning I just use CCleaner, which is also another free program.
But to really increase speed, switching your hard drive for a solid state drive will provide you with the most noticeable boost in speed.
I agree with all of these points made. I’ve done all of these things at some point with positive results. Wiping the drive made a huge difference for me. My current PC was running extremely slowly, so I formatted it, and after that it ran so much smoother. My current computer is never bogged down with viruses, since I try to keep it in good shape, but I remember my Mom’s laptop was infected and it ran so slow on everything. Personally, I never really found de-fragmenting to be that useful. I never felt a performance gain with it, but apparently it helps.
I’ve also upgraded my PC, and it also makes a big difference, although it does cost money. As a matter of fact, I’m in the process of upgrading my CPU right now! I’ve already upgraded two components though, RAM and GPU. Upgrading RAM made a big difference while multitasking/browsing, and upgrading the GPU made my gaming experience a lot better.