Why My Computer Is Running Slow

Are you suffering from the "my computer is running slow" syndrome? Has your computer gotten to the point where you can turn it on, go have your morning coffee, get dressed and by the time you get back to it, find that windows still hasn't booted? This is when you know that you are suffering from the "My computer is running slow" syndrome.

What causes your computer to slow down?

When you first get a computer, it runs at its optimal settings, but as time goes by you add things to it, and you take things away from it. For example, you put pictures, files, music, documents, and programs on it, and then you take all of those things off again. To put this simply, the computer gets a little messy. Sort of like your old high school binder, when you didn't clean it out.

What Can You Do to Speed Your Computer Up?

About once a month you should run scan disk and then defragment your hard drive. This will keep your hard drive in optimal conditions and will help keep your computer running smoothly. You can find the scan disk utility and defragmenter under system tools in accessories in your programs tab. While your there you can also run disk clean up.

Another reason your computer may be running slow is because it may have a virus. Just to be on the safe side run your antivirus software, but make sure that you have an updated version, or update it online before running your antivirus software. If it takes a long time to run the program, don't worry about it, you probably have a lot of files for it to go through. Start up programs may be another reason your computer takes so long to start. These are programs that start with your system and run in the background. You should disable start up programs that you do not use.

Problems in your registry may also cause your computer to run a little slow. You can get rid of this problem by downloading a registry cleaner tools program. You can find a number of these programs online and they are very simple to install and use.

Make sure you have the right hardware

If after doing all of these things your computer is still running slow then you may be running too many programs on the computer and you may need to add more ram memory. You can see how much memory your computer has by going to system tools and looking at system information. If you're running anything under 256 MB, then you need to add more memory.

Remember maintaining your computer, keeping it clean, running your system tools and doing a virus scan once in a while will help your computer run at optimum speed. When installing a new program, check to see what memory requirements the program requires and don't install it, unless you have that amount of memory. This is the way you will avoid the "My computer is running slow" syndrome.