The 4 Best Ways to Improve the Speed of Your Computer

Let’s face it; anyone who owns a computer ends up becoming annoyed and frustrated at times, especially when the computer slows down to a snail’s pace. While this can sometimes be painfully obvious whenever you try to load a program, it can also mean that your computer takes forever to boot up.

Irrespective of what’s causing it, slow computers are something which millions of users have to deal with daily. Even though there is no guaranteed cure for a slow computer, there are however four things you can do to speed it up.

#1. Reboot your computer

Too many people never reboot their computers, and that is a major factor in the PC slowdown problem. In this day of always-on internet, and as our computers have become an integral part of our daily lives, many of us do not realize that PCs need to be rebooted from time to time in order for them to function at an optimal level.

You need to bear in mind that there are several programs which don’t shut down completely even when you close them. Furthermore, many software programs tend to have memory leakage, and over a period of time this can have an adverse effect on your computer’s available memory. Obviously, when your computer is short on available memory it inevitably begins slowing down until it reaches a snail’s pace. By rebooting your computer you’ll be allowing it to reset its memory and you’d be surprised how this alone can result in your computer speeding up.

#2. Upgrade your memory

One could almost say that a computer’s memory is like its muscles, in that if it doesn’t have sufficient available memory, it becomes weak and slow. In fact, insufficient memory is perhaps the biggest course for personal computers becoming slow and sluggish. Nowadays, you simply cannot get by without at least 512 megabytes of RAM, and that only if you’re running one of the older Windows operating systems such as XP for example. Those who are using the Windows Vista platform will require at least 1.5 GB of memory, while those using the new Windows 7 system will require at least 1GB. Irrespective of which operating system you’re using, you should ideally have at least 2 GB of memory if you have a 64-bit system, or if you frequently play games and run many programs simultaneously.

#3. Defragment your computer

The bottom line is; a hard drive which is never defragmented will always be inefficient. You can be rest assured that if you have not run a defragment tool, you’ll be sacrificing a considerable amount of speed. This is because when the files on your computer become fragmented, your machine has to work much harder in order for you to be able to access those files.

Remember, it’s not without reason that Microsoft includes a defrag tool with all of their operating systems. Essentially, you should defragment your hard drive at least once each month and providing you do so, the resultant increase in speed will certainly be noticeable. In fact, it will be even more noticeable if you haven’t run the defragment tool for quite some time.

#4. Using a registry cleaner

Just as a defragmenting tool helps to organize your hard drive, a registry cleaner helps to remove unnecessary clutter from the windows registry, bearing in mind that the registry can be compared to being a computer’s brain. Whenever you choose to install new programs, or remove old programs or drivers, a significant amount of data is either added or removed from your computer’s registry. Unfortunately however, the vast majority of programs fail to uninstall properly, and this often results in a certain amount of data remaining in the registry which should’ve in fact been removed. Of course, these pockets of data do nothing other than clutter up your registry and cause conflicts between programs and drivers. This in turn results in your system becoming increasingly slow, not to mention the fact that you’ll also begin experiencing frequent error messages. By running an effective registry cleaning utility regularly, you’ll be doing much in terms of improving the overall speed of your computer.

For many people, just using the tips which have been mentioned above, has proven to make a noticeable difference in terms of speed. However, you should also bear in mind that practically all computer users will experience a gradual slowdown over a period of time. Of course, this is not something anyone enjoys encountering, especially if it reaches a stage where you need to reformat your computer or take it in for repairs. By applying the tips provided in this article you’ll at least be safe in the knowledge that you’re doing all you can in order to maintain the efficiency of your computer.

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