How to Speed Up Your Computer

This may have already happened to you:

You turn on your computer, log in with your password, the desktop appears, you click on an icon and ...absolutely nothing happens! The computer doesn't crash, not even a cryptic error message with mysterious numbers. There is just that little hourglass floating in the middle of the wallpaper, telling you to wait...and wait...and wait.

It's a great excuse to get you out of your cubicle ("The computer's frozen again.") but that won't get any of your work done. Worse yet, you will have to find other ways to look busy without Tetris, Solitaire, or AIM.

What causes the computer to slow down, and what can be done to prevent it? While there could be countless explanations, there are a few simple things you can do before calling a technician. These can be sorted into probable software and hardware causes.

Software

-You may have spyware. This is any program designed to sneak in and reside in your computer, and continuously gather information about your online behavior. The more forms of spyware you have, the more unnecessary and potentially dangerous programs are running in the background.

There is a wonderful piece of free software called Ad-Aware, Personal Edition. If you have not already downloaded and installed this, I highly recommend that you do so. Run it using the Full System Scan option. This will rid your system of most forms of spyware and other suspicious objects. There are other downloadable programs like Ad-Aware, but this is one of the more widely recognized and effective tools. And best of all, it's free.

-You could also have programs unintentionally left running. Look at the taskbar along the bottom of the screen. More than ten icons, especially in the system tray (usually at the bottom-right), and you're asking for trouble. These may be programs, games, toolbars you have downloaded but hardly use, or programs for hardware you no longer have. Your computer will have to work too hard to juggle these programs, in addition to what you need to do at work. Right-clicking on each icon and choosing "Exit" can turn off most of these programs.

For the more daring and determined, you can prevent these programs from starting up in the first place by going to the Start menu, choosing "Run..." and entering "msconfig" in the text field that pops up. Press Enter. When the msconfig utility runs, click on the Startup tab and uncheck the programs you are

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