Simple Ways to Make Your Computer Faster
The truth is that computers do have the capacity to go faster and perform better then most actually do. We have all experienced the wait times windows creeps into our schedules. Some notice it straight away, others realize after a certain time whilst some just wonder. Is this taking longer?
Here in this article “simple ways to make your computer faster” I will be addressing the absolute bare minimum maintenance and at the same time providing you with an excellent list of simple ways to make your computer faster. You should be doing on a regular basis not just as a one off to temporarily make your computer faster. But this of course, is entirely up to you.
I will list the areas that you should be addressing and will provide you with a link to the most relevant free software that I would recommend that you use. Ideally it should be in the order below.
One thing to keep in mind. Everything depends on the hardware you have and which operating system. What I mean by this is that you can still at least perform maintenance on your system but the overall speed will depend on which components you have.
Simple Ways to Make Your Computer Faster
1: Startup
Reduce programs that load with windows.
Nice and easy and it doesn’t depend if you are running windows xp, vista or 7 as you can use this to speed up your startup easily.
WHY:
As we install programs on our computers some programs either ask to load at the same time as windows does or they automatically add themselves to the list of programs that start with windows. Depending on how many programs you have on this list, the longer we have to wait for the computer to become ready.
What to do:
Simply go to the msconfig utility within windows, you can do this by typing “msconfig” without the quotes in the run command box.
Tip: If you do not have your run command at the bottom of the start menu (the windows logo) then you can manually add it by doing the following
1: right click on the windows logo
2: Select properties
3: In the start menu > Select “customize”
4: Scroll down ¾ of the page and you will see the run command box. Tick to check.
From here, all you have to do is navigate to the startup tab and starting unchecking the absolute necessary programs. Depending on systems resources and how many programs to load, this should shave some vital time from the windows startup.
Simple Ways to Make Your Computer Faster
2: Defrag
Organize your files on your hard drive to make disk reading and writing times faster
This part is more automatic then the startup step. Here we will let software do this job as we are unable to do so.
WHY:
Whether you use your computer often or not, you will require some form of file defragmentation software. The basics of defrag basically means that as we use our computers, our operating system will begin to leave files messy on our hard drives.
The primary function of defrag software is to organize those files closer to one another therefore causing our hard drives to not take so long to get the information we require.
Software Recommended:
Simple Ways to Make Your Computer Faster
3: Antivirus
Because you can never be too careful
Antiviruses are crucial to any computer user, the good ones do have extra features and system monitors but if you are a little short on money or you don’t believe that you require a paid antivirus, luckily, there are alternatives with some very good options.
WHY:
A virus on our computer can have disastrous effects, the worst it can do is render our operating system useless causing us to reformat the hard drive. For those of you that have formatted your computers, it can be straight forward ( more now then ever, if you like) but it is still annoying. Always have an antivirus installed, whether free or paid. They can stop potencial hazards from striking your system which in turn maintains computer performance.
Software recommended:
Simple Ways to Make Your Computer Faster
4: Spyware
They are annoying, they creep up on us, they go where we don’t want them to…
This is probably one of the most easiest things to accumulate on our computers. Spyware comes in many shapes and sizes, true that majority can be considered to just bog down our systems, I would rather not have any, if you know what I mean.
Therefore always remove spyware, there isn’t a set schedule you should follow as this depends on use, run your favorite program as often as you like.
WHY:
Spyware is a nuisance. The majority won’t bring your system to a stand still however some can consume vital system resources.
Software recommended to remove spyware
Conclusion
As you can see from the above, the list above is definitely not definitive, the title of this article is “Simple Ways to Make Your Computer Faster” after all and this is what I hoped I provided to get you started on the road to a quicker computer and faster response times, and remember, if you think its slow. It probably is…
Melinda says:
Nice to read your blog