by Brenda Schmitt

Created on: October 08, 2009   Last Updated: December 20, 2009

It can be very frustrating when the computer you bought that was fast and fun becomes dreary and slow. You can get back the wonderful fast machine you purchased with these tips on increasing your computer speed.

Your computer slows down when you don't have enough random access memory or RAM to run the programs you want to run. One of the ways to speed up your computer is to close programs you're not using or perhaps didn't even know were running. You can find them in a couple of ways. On the task bar you will see icons for programs that are in standby. If you right click on an icon of a program you are not using a menu will appear. Choose exit to close the program. Another method is to hit the Ctrl Alt Del buttons. This will lead you to task manager. The task manager shows you the programs that are currently running. If something is running you don't need, select it and close the program.

You may find that you want or need all those programs running. If this is the case, you may want to buy more random access memory or RAM, your local computer store will be happy to sell it to you and install it.

Windows uses the metaphor of a filing system to describe what is on your computer hard drive. Over time your computer filing system gets cluttered. Just as a too cluttered office can slow down your ability to work quickly, a too cluttered computer hard drive will slow down your computer response times. To speed up your computer go to accessories on your start menu then to system tools in your programs. Click on disk clean up. Disc clean up should be done at least weekly especially if you do a lot of web surfing. It clears out temporary file. You will notice an immediate increase in your computer's response time if you use disk clean up.

On the same menu you will see a program called disk defragmenter. When you delete a file the space where it was is still there. New files are added on after leaving your hard drive like proverbial Swiss cheese. Using your disk defragmenter joins all these small spaces together so they can be used for new material and frees up your hard drive. This will increase you computer response time. The more you use your computer and delete files the more often you need to use the disk defragmenter. The disk defragmenter should be used at least monthly.

Not everyone realizes when they delete their Emails the deleted file that go into the trash file are still there. Consequently when you open your Email program your RAM is affected by those thousand deleted emails in your trash. It may seem silly that you have to empty the trash twice but to speed up your computer empty your Email trash. 

Periodically download your drives again. Over time your drives will become degraded. Go to the site that has you particular computer drives and download them again. This will add speed to your computer. Try using a program like Roxio to save your drivers. This will make downloading them easier. Do this every few months.

If it is all just too much to remember, companies such as TecInfo will perform these services remotely for a fee.

Finally, if you still want more speed buy a computer with a faster processing speed. Computers are upgraded so often your new computer today may well be outdated by next year.

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