How to speed up a slow computer

This is seriously most frustrating thing that you want to do some important day to day work on your computer and it is responding slower than usual. Waiting for minutes to load a simple web page or an Application software by your laptop or all-in-one PC can make even a sane person want to throw their device in the bin. But don't get frustrated by these problems as these can be solved by following some simple steps. Viruses, malware, bloatware removal and tweaking some windows settings are a good place to start. Following are some must-do activities to keep your PC running at full potential.

Keep Software’s Up to Date

First of all, make sure all of your installed software is up to date. Most important ones to keep updated are web browsers, antivirus or internet security applications, device drivers and Windows itself, as Microsoft issues regular updates to fix security glitches or holes in the operating system.

Scan for Viruses & Malwares

Viruses can slow down your computer and can corrupt your important data, while the spyware's can compromise your systems security by monitoring your activity and collecting information about you and then sending them back to the hacker. Keep the live protection of your antivirus always on and make sure it's up to date. Manually run a full scan of your hard disk from time to time, you can also schedule scans to run at a particular interval of time. If you don't have an antivirus software and you have a doubt on the built-in Windows protection than search online for best antivirus software and get one.

Clear Cache & Cookies

Every time we visit a web page, the web browser stores information known as ‘cache’ as a small file in. Similarly, it stores small files called 'cookies', which contain information about what you have browsed and if you login into certain sites then this information is also stored in cookies so that whenever you visit that page again then you don’t have to enter details to log in. Over the time through continuous usage, the volume of these files increases. Regularly clearing browser’s cache can help browser to work faster when loading pages and can also reduce the amount of valuable disk space that these files takes. In most browsers, you can find these settings within the Setting menus history area, there you will see labeled something like Clear browsing data or Clear cache & cookies.

Disable Unnecessary Startup Programs

How fast your computer boots into windows depends on several things like the hardware & software configurations. But the number of programs that are scheduled to start up with Windows have a major impact on windows startup up time. Many of the programs, when installed, make an entry in windows startup and start running in the background when you turn on the computer causing slow system startup. You can easily disable these programs that you don’t need from automatic starting. To do so press Windows Key+R to open the run dialog box, type MSConfig and press Enter. The System Configuration window will open, now in this window click the Startup tab. From the list of programs, uncheck the box next to those you don’t want to launch automatically at windows startup. Click Apply and then click OK (if you are using windows version 8 or above you can disable these programs through task manager). Restart your system to see the changes.

Remove Unused Programs

Only windows startup speed is not enough it is also desired that computer should also run fast when we are using it. You can consider freeing some storage space and memory by uninstalling programs that you don’t use. These can include the trial versions of software that are now expired and require a purchased license to run, antivirus software’s which are now out-of-date or games that you no longer play. To do so Click Start > Control Panel > Program & Feature, from the list of programs, double-click the program you want to uninstall and continue the onscreen instruction to complete the Uninstallation.

Remove Bloatware

Bloatware’s are the preloaded unnecessary programs in any branded PC, usually, companies put these bloatwares for the promotion of third party apps. The pre-installed bloatware programs can be easily uninstalled, but the trick to remove these is in knowing what can be removed without affecting other applications performance and what you should keep. If you find programs installed that you have never used and you have no intention of using these in future, these are bloatware that you can easily uninstall. Follow the same instructions given above to uninstall programs to remove them and if you are not sure what program to remove please seek the advice of some PC Expert.

Removing toolbars

The extra toolbars on your web browser are an example of bloatware. These sometimes come pre-installed on your PC or added by downloadable applications. Toolbars are the ones which appear at the top of your browser window usually below the address bar, and often provide their own search box. Toolbars can also be uninstalled by the same way as other software. Look out for toolbars when installing other programs and make sure you opt out by unchecking the tick box.

Delete Temporary Files

Windows has a built-in tool Disk Clean-up utility that can help in boost computer’s performance by removing unnecessary system files or temporary files. To run the program Click Start Menu and in the search box type disk cleanup, click Disk Cleanup from the list of results. In the Disk Cleanup’s dialog box select the drive that you want to clean (mostly C:) from the list of Drives and click Ok. It will now calculate how much of disk space can be cleaned. Now in the Disk Cleanup box, select the type of files that you want to delete and then click OK to Delete files (if you want to delete protected unnecessary system files too then click ‘Clean up System files’ button).

Install a solid-state drive (SSD)

Solid State Drives are best if you want to increase your system speed because unlike the traditional hard drives, solid-state drives (SSD) have no moving parts, this makes them more efficient and, ultimately, faster. You can get one to and keep it as a primary Drive for installing windows and programs for faster access. You should expect to spend from £50 to £250, depending on the SSD’s capacity (usually ranging between 32GB and 512GB). To replacing your hard drive with a SSD requires opening your CPU cabinet and fiddling with its power and data cables. If you're not confident of what you're doing, then we suggest getting a professional to install it.

Defragment Your Hard Disk Regularly

Whenever PC saves a large file or files to the hard drive, it breaks it into smaller pieces and stores them across several locations. As the number of files increases, it takes longer for the hard drive to seek and read the data which is written on pieces on different locations. The Disk defragmenter tools, such as the one which is included in Windows, reorganize this data by picking the same file pieces and putting them by combining into single file so that whenever the file is required it will be accessed faster, as a result, the applications load faster and you feel that computer is performing quicker than before. But if you have a solid-state drive (SSD) installed rather than the common Magnetic hard disk this process won't be necessary, as Windows automatically do it for you from time to time in the background. It is recommended that you don't manually defrag an SSD.