Is your Computer running slow?

A lot of people buy a new computer that runs fast at first, then months later it is running very slow. Why does a computer start slowing down?

The main causes are accidental system mis-configuration, malicious software activity, inevitable configuration drift and incidental system degradation.

The average user mostly uses his or her computer for surfing the internet, instant messaging, emailing, pictures and music.

First let's take the pictures and music. If you download music or pictures from the internet, beware, you can get bad stuff imbedded in them that can affect the computer.

Also if you install a lot of programs, pictures and music and then remove some in order to install more, that will have an affect on the computer.

None of these activities are bad, but they have effects on the computer that start to slow it's performance.

Surfing, Instant Messaging and email. If you go to certain web sites, little programs or tracking cookies are put on your computer. Also, if you open attachments in emails, little programs can be installed on your computer. If you Instant Message a lot and go to web site links people send you or open things other people send you, they all affect your computers performance. None of these activities are bad, they are fun and that is why we have computers.

These are just some of the activities that end up slowing the computer down and the reason why you need to do some simple maintenance once in a while or have your computer professionally maintained.

Below is some information about the causes and what can be done to help.

Note: The information provided here is for educational purposes only. You are responsible for any changes you make to your computer.

It is strongly recommended that you make a reliable backup before making any changes to your computer.

"Backup Early - Backup Often"

Empty the Recycle Bin - When you delete items from your computer they are not really deleted they are simply 'removed from active service'.

Empty the Windows Temp folder - Windows stores all sorts of temporary files, install and backup files that over time become unnecessary, but is not very good about remembering where it put them.

Empty your Browser Temp folder - When you visit web pages Windows saves pictures, banners and other items in a temporary directory to save time by not having to download the same items over and over.

The default setting is a percentage of your hard drive, if you have a newer, large hard drive this setting is probably unnecessarily large and could be slowing down your web browser.

Clean out your Startup Programs - Whenever you install a program, knowingly or unknowingly, it may put an Icon in your Taskbar, usually the bottom right corner of your screen.

They are intended to make it look like 'that program' loads fast, unfortunately by having too many things running at once the overall effect is to slow down your entire computer.

Most are placed there when you install a program, usually it will ask to put one there, but others just install it.

Remove unwanted programs - Remove software that is no longer used or that has been installed without you knowing it. A common example would be a 'search bar' that comes as part of a free online game.

Run Anti-Virus software
 

Use a highly rated anti-virus program like AVG for free or ESET NOD32 for about $50. Set it to monitor your computer continuously and to automatically update and do a full system scan at least weekly.

Run Scandisk - Scandisk will help cleanup any errors on the hard drive.

Defragment your hard drive - Windows has its own built in defragmenter, the one I use is "MyDefrag". To run Widows Defrag go to Start-My Computer-right click on the C: drive and choose Properties-Tools Tab-click the Defragment Now button-click the Analyze button.

It may say that the drive does not need to be Defragmented, go ahead and click the Defragment button, take a break and let it finish, this may take 30 min to a few hours depending on how much stuff you have on your drive. When it is done a little popup box will be displayed, click OK and close the program.

Memory and Hard Drive - One more thing to consider is how much RAM or Memory does your computer have. Go to Start-Accessories-System Tools-System Information, look at the Total Physical Memory, XP should have a min of 512MB and if you do any gaming or have multiple programs running put in 1 gig or more.

Modern hard drives transfer information back and forth between the computer at a much higher rate than drives made just a few years ago. If you have a slow hard drive it can slow down your entire system.