Is your computer slower than it used to be? The answer is… yes. You’re always welcome to contact me for help, or if you’re into some do-it-yourself work, here are the things I usually try to clean things up…
Remove unneeded startup items
Many applications run in the background unnecessarily and hog up system resources. If there are programs that automatically startup with Windows, you can disable this “feature” in some…
- Dig around the program menus for “Preferences”, “Options”, “Settings”, or anything else that implies “You can change stuff about the program here”
- If the program has an icon in the tray (lower-right part of the screen), right-clicking the icon may reveal a menu
- Look for and uncheck any option that indicates “Run this program at Windows startup” or anything similar
Contact me if you can’t find the option or if you’re interested in disabling other startup/background items using alternative methods.
Run Disk Cleanup
This frees up some room on your hard drive by emptying the Recycle Bin and removing unneeded temporary and setup files.
- Start the program from Start => Programs => Accessories => System Tools => Disk Cleanup
- Select the default drive, C:, and hit OK
- The program may take a few minutes to process. Enjoy a light snack.
- Check all options except the last two (“Compress old files”, “Catalog files…”)
- Hit OK and confirm the prompt
- The program may take a few minutes to delete files. Enjoy another light snack.
Run Disk Defragmenter
Over time, your hard drive increasingly becomes “fragmented”. Without getting too technical, I’ll just say “defragmenting” your hard drive makes it run more efficiently.
- Start the program from Start => Programs => Accessories => System Tools => Disk Defragmenter
- Make sure the default drive, C:, is selected.
- Click the Defragment button
The process may take around an hour, so you may want to enjoy a meal or teach a class meanwhile.
Check for viruses and spyware
Viruses and spyware (aka “malware”) can slow down your computer by monitoring activity and/or communicating with other computers. I’ll cover this more in-depth in the next edition… Computer Maintenance, Part II: Security! :oO