Five Simple Tips to Fix a Slow Computer

1. Disinfect

When your computer starts slowing down for no apparent reason, the first thing you should do is run anti-virus and anti-malware scans.  Viruses and malware almost always steal system resources and consume your bandwidth, which makes your PC sluggish. There are plenty of good free anti-viruses out there, Microsoft Security Essentials being the lightest one. In addition to that, use Malwarebytes to detect and remove infections that get missed by most anti-virus programs.

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2. Configure startup

Do you have to wait ages for your desktop and all your icons to appear? This usually happens when there are too many programs launching on Windows startup and slowing it down. Most likely you don’t need half of them to start every time your computer starts, as you can always launch them manually whenever you need them. To disable unneeded startup items, click on Start – Run – type msconfig and hit Enter. Then go to the Startup tab and disable things like Skype, other IM programs, Acrobat speed launcher, and everything you don’t need. Be careful and look up entries before disabling them, as they may be important system components.

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3. Clean your desktop

Is your desktop cluttered with software icons and various files? If yes, then you should move or delete all unnecessary stuff. A cluttered desktop takes up a lot of system resources and slows down your computer. If you want to gain even more performance, don’t use any wallpaper and use a simple background instead. This will free up even more system resources and make your computer start faster.

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4. Clean your disks

Daily computer activity creates hundreds of temporary files that take up valuable disk space. You’ll be surprised, but you can accumulate gigabytes of clutter in just one month. Freeing up disk space will speed up your computer and tasks like Windows search, anti-virus scans, and disk defrags. To cleanup your hard drives, you can run the built-in Disk Cleanup tool (Start – Programs – Accessories – Disk Cleanup) or use a third party disk cleaner, like CCleaner

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5. Defrag your PC

Defragmentation is one of the most powerful slow computer fixes. That’s because a fragmented hard drive can dramatically slow down file access and software launch time. Windows has its own disk defrag utility, but it’s far from perfect (unless you use Windows 7 where the defragmenter is quite good). That’s why it’s best to use a third-party tool that can defrag both the files and the free space.