There's nothing more annoying than a slow computer, especially when you remember its performance from first purchasing it. Rather than spending money to buy a new laptop or PC, here are 11 options for preventing a costly new purchase by making your old computer run faster.
Uninstall unused programs
New PCs come with a whole load of programs you will never use, and you probably don't even know they exist.
Some programs even run background processes when you load your computer, even though you are not using them, causing your PC to slow down.
To remove all these pointless programs, open the Control Panel's Programs and Features page, and have a look through the list of installed software. Uninstall those that you do not need while being careful to leave programs your computer's hardware needs.
Automatically delete temporary files
Temporary files amass on your computer through everyday tasks and can remain on your hard disk, slowing the computer down. Getting rid of these files, including your internet history and cookies, should give you a larger amount of hard disk space, speeding up your PC.
To do this, open "My Computer", and select your local drive (usually C:\). Select the "Windows" folder and then open the folder titled "Temp".
Use your mouse to right-click on the folder, and in the "View" options, choose "Details". Once this is done, select all the files that are older than the current date and press the delete key. Then go to the Recycle Bin on your desktop and empty it.
Install a solid-state drive
Hard drives are the biggest cause of slow speeds and especially slow start-up speeds on your PC.
While they aren't cheap, installing a solid-state drive, which has extremely fast read times, can speed up your start-up considerably, and is cheaper than buying a whole new PC.
More hard drive storage
Even if you make sure to regularly clean out all your temporarily files, if your hard drive becomes 85 percent full, it's going to affect your computer's speed. Therefore, you may need extra hard drive storage.
Prevent unnecessary start ups
This method will primarily affect how long it takes for your laptop or PC to start-up, but often many of the programs which are launched on start-up continue to run and use up your computer's memory.
To do this, click "Start" and "Run". In "Run", type "msconfig" and then press enter. You should then see the "Start-up" tab, with all the programs, ticked the ones which will load upon your computer starting up. There is a good chance the list will contain several programs you might not have realized were running on your computer during start-up, or even at all.
You can either manually deselect those which you do not want to load or click "Disable All" and then select those you want to run, such as particularly important programs like anti-virus software.
Another trick can be removing all the unnecessary font Window loads. Windows 7 loads more than 200 fonts on start-up which can slow down the speed at which it boots up. Go to the Start Menu's search box, search for the Fonts folder and check off all the fonts you don't need, and click the "Hide" button in the toolbar. You'd be surprised how much this can help the performance of your PC!
Get more RAM
RAM, which stands for Random Access Memory, is the temporary storage memory used by your computer and is in use when tasks are being executed by different programs. Therefore, the more programs you use, the more RAM you need, and the slower your computer will be if you don't have enough.
A clear indicator of not having enough RAM is if your computer slows down every time you try and process large files, or it freezes while carrying out several different actions at once.
You can either add more RAM with an extra memory stick or buy new memory sticks if all the slots are taken. Technically there is no upper limit on the amount of RAM that you can have with a 64-bit operating system, but being practical, 4GB is more than enough for most people.
You can also find out how many RAM your computer is using in the Task Manager's Performance tab (hit Ctrl-Shift-Esc to bring this up).
Run a disk defragment
Although not completely necessary since Windows 10 usually runs this as a maintenance item, it doesn't hurt to verify that defragment has been done lately.
It sounds complicated, but this is a way of reconfiguring how your hard drive stores information to be as efficient as possible.
Go to "My Computer", right-click on the hard drive and select "Properties". Under the "Tools" tab there should be an option to "Defragment Now".
Run disk clean up
Windows also includes a built-in disk de-cluttering tool called "Disk Clean-up".
It searches through the system for unnecessary large files such as temporary Internet files, program installers, and so on.
Open Disk Clean-up by clicking "Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Clean-up".
Give your computer a static IP
Another trick for speeding up your computer loading time is to give your computer a static IP address that never changes.
When you start-up your computer, it spends a decent amount of time asking the network for an IP address. Not only does having a static IP address make the network easier to manage (especially if you have several devices using the same network), but it also cuts time off your start-up.
To do this, visit the "Network and Sharing Centre", and select "Change adapter settings". Right-click on your local adapter and select "Properties". You then need to highlight what should be titled "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)" and click the properties button.
In "Use the following IP address" enter in the correct IP, Subnet mask, and Default gateway which correspond with your network setup.
Make sure to check "Validate settings upon exit" so Windows can find any problems with the addresses you entered.
To find out what your IP, subnet mask and default gateway are, go to "Start" and then "Run", and type in "cmd". At the command prompt, type "ipconfig /all" and it should show your computers IP address along with other information related to your network.
Delete browser history and caches
Browsers are known to store vast amounts of information while you surf the web. Deleting your history and caches will usually make your browser speed up a considerable amount. This option can be found in 'settings' and then 'history' (does vary depending on the browser).
Remove dust
Again, this sounds a tad radical, but dust is your computer's worst nightmare. It can restrict airflow, which is vital to keeping your computer's temperature down, and if your computer is overheating, it will likely slow down its performance to cope.
If you have a desktop or a laptop, you can take off the computer's exterior and use a vacuum or compressed air to remove some of the dust. Make sure your computer has been switched off for at least 30 minutes and that all cables are disconnected before starting your clean.
Use your vacuum with a small attachment and try either the reverse setting to blow air into the vents and push the dust out or use its standard suction to try and extract some of the dust.
Click here for more information if you believe that dust is potentially slowing down your PC.
Need Help?
Furthermore, if you're experiencing any issues attempting the above suggestions. Do not hesitate to contact us, and we will try and guide you through the process.