subject: 5 Ways to Speed up Your Computer, in the Next Hour [print this page] 5 Ways to Speed up Your Computer, in the Next Hour
Eventually it boots up only to find yourself cursing at your firefox or Internet Explorer because it will not boot your email as fast as it did just a few weeks. However, what can you actually do about it? To tell you the true I get so frustrated about the performance of my pc that I sometimes try to avoid using it at all. I usually have a search on the internet when I do get setup and internet ready, but that only lasts a few minutes because I have so much work to do, that searching on ways to make my computer work faster is something I really do not want to be looking for. Until the next morning when I have to wait for my computer to boot up all over again.
There are some great methods on ways to speed up your computer but with a lot of it, you need to know the computer jargon. I mean you would not want to follow any piece of information to find that your computer freezes altogether. I understand your frustration and you will feel the relief when you find the right information that will make your computer speeds up to its fullest potential.
Assessing the Problem
The first step is to stop shouting at your computer (this may be hard) and make a list of the problems its having. This can help you decide and focus on what tasks need to be performed to make it run better. You may not understand how to solve the problem but you will know what your computer is supposed to do. Be detailed with your list, notes like it will not open the program is not helpful. The more detailed you can make your list the better you will be when solving the problems. Make your list read something like this: it slows down to the speed at which it opens a browser or a word processor or how long it takes to boot or shut down or how rarely it updates. These are all things you can fix.
Cleaning House
Tip 1:- Much of a computer's slow down comes from the excess of files that clutter it up. If your computer boots slowly, you can speed it up by removing programs you do not use any more. To do this go to your start menu and look for the words "control panel". Click on this and it will open another window, now from this window look for "programs/uninstall programs", click on "uninstall programs". This will again open another window, now this window will take a little while to load depending on your computer speed and the number of programs you have on your computer.
Once it has loaded all the programs on your computer, you can slow scroll through the list and remove any problems you do not use. Don't think you can remove some important system files because this window only shows the programs you have installed on the computer only. To remove a program simply click the program you want to remove and at the top of the window you should see the word Uninstall appear, click uninstall and it will ask you for confirmation, if you are happy to remove it then continue by either pressing yes or accept. Now that sounds great doesn't it certainly did help my pc run a little better.
Tip 2:- A forgotten tip is to empty your recycle bin. You will be surprised how full your recycle bin can actually get. To do this simply you can either right click on the bin or click "Empty Recycle Bin". Alternatively, double click on your bin, which will open the recycles bin window and you simple click the "Empty Recycle Bin" near the top menu.
Tip 3:- If you have a screen saver that has a moving image, this can slow down your computer. How, well when your computer is left idle for a period of time, it goes into sleep mode however if your screen saver is a moving image then your computer is still working to show your screensaver. Even though this is boring and unattractive, the blank screen is a better option.
Tip 4:- Is it your internet experience that is slow, well using a different browser can drastically improves this. I personally switched from internet explore to firefox, which was a great improvement however that was a few years ago. You should experiment before you decide on one to stick with with a few other browsers. They are all free to use all you need to do is type in Google "browser list" and you will get a good list to go through and read up on. To try them out just download the software and you are away. Don't worry if this sounds daunting each internet browser will have simple and clear instructions to help you through the process.
Downloading Some Help
Tip 5:- If you are using the internet, you need to add some protection to your computer. We all need some protection ideally protecting my computer from my coffee cup in the morning but seriously, without proper protection you could lose all your work and programs in a blink of an eye. You should have a good firewall like Zone Alarm, as well as a good antivirus and a good Spy ware and Adware protector. These files will protect you from viruses or malware. While ensuring that your computer never gets bogged down by simple things like a bad file on a website again.
If you take these simple tasks, you should be able to immediately boost the speed of your computer like I did in as little as an hour. Of course to get your computer running as well as it should in the long term, you will need to perform some other, more in depth maintenance and then keep up with it, but this is a great start for your PC.
