Neal Walker Computer Services - Computer Performance & Speed

Over time our computers annoyingly seem to get gradually slower and slower. Whether it is the time it takes the computer to boot up or shutdown, or how long it takes Internet Explorer to load, it’s never quick enough! There are many different factors that can have a bearing on the speed of our computers. It isn’t always necessary to buy a new computer, although there is only so much you can do to breath new life into a very old computer!

If your computer is infected with spyware or a virus, it can make your computer very slow. If your computer is running slowly, run a full virus and spyware check first, to make sure it is clear of all infections. Then take a look at the following hints and tips. Please bear in mind there are many reasons a computer may loose performance. Below are just a few of the most common causes for a computer to slow down, the list is not exhaustive!

One of the problems I get called out to look at regularly is “slow internet”. The first thing to check is whether your internet connection is running at the correct speed, or has a problem. The simplest way to do this is to run Speedtest. This will tell you the current speed of your internet connection. If you are paying for 6Mb broadband, but only getting 1Mb, then that is most likely the cause of the slowness, and you will need to contact your internet service provider to resolve this. No matter how much you tinker with your computer, it won’t fix this problem.

The next thing to understand is that every time you use the internet, your computer normally stores all of the details in files on your hard disk, just in case it ever needs them again. Over weeks / months / years of use, you can accumulate a huge number of these temporary files, and they can have the effect of ‘making the internet slow’. To fix this, all you need to do is delete your temporary internet files. Now don’t worry, there is an easy and fool-proof way of doing this. Just download and run the free program Ccleaner. This little program is brilliant and completely simple to use. When you have installed it, run the program and click the RUN CLEANER button. You will be amazed at how many ‘junk’ files it will find and get rid of, and it will also give you back quite a bit of disk space. I recommend you run this little program every couple of months, or whenever things start to get a little slow again.

On the subject of disk space, this can also have an impact on the performance of your computer, especially if you don’t have very much free space left on your disk drive. A quick way to check on how much free disk space you have is go into COMPUTER (or MY COMPUTER in Windows XP) and look at (normally) the first disk shown, Drive C. On Vista and Windows 7 it will show you how big the disk drive is, and how much free space you have left. If you don’t have a lot of free space left, both Vista and 7 will show you a big red bar against the disk, rather than a green bar. On Windows XP you will need to click on the icon of Drive C, and on the left hand side of the window, under the ‘Details’ section, it will show you the free space information. If you do not have a lot of free disk space left on your Windows disk drive, then you either need to delete some files or programs to free up some disk space, or consider upgrading the disk drive to a bigger one. If you do decide to upgrade your disk drive, it is possible to transfer the complete system from the old disk drive to the new one, without having to reload everything from scratch. Just ask me and I will be happy to help.

Also on the subject of disk drives, a lot of people are keen on defragmenting their disks. Personally I have never really noticed very much of a performance improvement after defragmenting, but some people like to do it. All of the Windows operating systems come with Microsoft provided utilities to defragment hard disks. In fact, Vista and Windows 7 automatically defragment the disk drive periodically. It would be fair to say that these Microsoft defragmentation programs are a little basic. I would instead recommend you download and run the free disk defragmenter program Defraggler. This little program is very simple to use and should do a better job than the Microsoft disk defragmenter tools.

Another thing to look at is how many programs automatically start up every time you switch your computer on. Every one of these programs will make the machine take longer to boot up and will use up some of the computer’s memory. If you look on the right hand side of the system task bar, just to the left of the clock, you will normally see an assortment of little icons. You may also see a button with the < or ^ symbol. If you click on this button, you will see even more little icons. All of these little icons are programs which automatically start every time you switch your computer on, and they can have the effect of slowing the computer down. Some of these programs you do need to start up every time, and some you do not. It’s impossible for me to advise you on which you need and which you don’t, without actually seeing your computer. However, if you have dozens of these programs starting up, I can be certain that you don’t need them all! If you want to stop some of these programs from automatically starting up every time you switch the computer on, the free program Ccleaner (discussed above) will allow you to choose which startup programs to disable. Go into the TOOLS tab, and then choose the‘Startup’ option. This will show you a list of all the programs that automatically start up every time you switch the computer on, and you can then by clicking on the individual program take the option to “Disable” it. If you don’t feel 100% confident in what you are doing, just leave well alone, call me and I will be happy to help you.

Something else that Ccleaner is good at is cleaning up the system registry. What is the system registry? Well it is a vital and very important part of Windows, and contains a myriad of information that your computer needs and uses. The registry can accumulate all sorts of rubbish over time, and can have the effect of slowing the computer down, particularly during system startup. You can read more about system registry here. One thing that I cannot over-stress is that if your registry becomes damaged it can stop your computer working correctly, or working at all, so be careful. Ccleaner has an option to clean up all the junk it finds in your system registry. Click on the ‘Registry’ tab and then click the ‘scan for issues’ button. If it finds any problems, it will show you the errors in a list, and you can then click on the ‘fix selected issues’ button. Take the option to BACKUP your registry when it prompts you, and let it store the file wherever it suggests. You can then click on the option to fix all the registry errors.

Finally, sometimes it is the case that really the only way you can boost your computer’s performance is to install more system memory, or a faster processor, or a faster bigger hard disk drive. If none of the above options have made much of a difference to the speed of your computer, then the most cost-effective thing to do is look at increasing the system memory in your computer. Visit my slow pc page and I will be happy to give you a quote to upgrade your computer memory. Having said that, if your computer is really old, then honestly think about buying a new one. Technology is constantly changing and improving, and even the most modest of today’s computers will dance rings around an old computer.