Giving the Slow Computer the Necessary Tweaks to Increase its Speed

You may love working on your computer, day in and day out, but don’t expect it to keep giving such good service continuously if you do not maintain it properly. Yes, weird as it may sound, like any other machine, the computer too needs service from time to time. But the good thing about it is that for minor problems like giving a slow computer fix, the computer need not be decommissioned for repair work. The maintenance work can go on side by side the working on it. So here are few tips for speeding up your slow computer.


First of all, it is important to know how the computer can become sluggish in performance. The two most common ways of the computer becoming slow are the damages caused to the Windows registry and the hard disk. The first can happen due to frequent installation and removal of programs, faulty programming or bugs in certain programs, incorrect file associations with some applications, external factors like electrical surges, attack of malware like viruses and spyware and also the damages to the part of the hard disk containing the registry. Most of these things can also cause damage to the hard disk which can slow down the computer considerably. But there are some other things like too many redundant files and folders, overcrowding of the hard disk, too little space for virtual memory and Windows page files etc. which can cause slowness of the computer. 


Another important thing to look out for is the startup programs list. If there are too many programs in the Startup programs list, then also the computer can become slow. The other thing is to see if there are any CPU hogging programs running in the background. 


So how do you go about taking care of these various problems? For your convenience, there are in-built tools in the Windows operating systems like XP. The utility for cleaning the hard disk of the junk and unwanted data is called the disk cleanup. It can be accessed by typing cleanmgr.exe in the run box from the start menu and then hitting Enter. Alternatively, it can also be accessed by going to Start Menu, then to the programs, then to Accessories and finally to System tools. In the same place, the utility for disk defragmentation can also be found. The same can be accessed by typing defrag.exe in the run box and hitting Enter – this though can only be done in Windows 7. There is another utility, this time for cleaning the registry and fixing all the errors. However, unlike the disk cleanup and disk defragmenter, this utility is difficult to use and may require detailed knowledge of computer hardware. 


To get rid of the unwanted startup programs, one needs to type msconfig.exe in the run box from the start menu and then hit Enter. On doing this, a window should open from where one needs to delete all the unwanted programs that are not required at startup. 


One can also press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to open the task manager and get rid of all the running programs and applications that are not needed. This too will help speed up the computer.


All of these tasks can be accomplished by an external software called system optimizer. 


About Author:
This article is written by Kevin Moor, who also writes for speedmycomputer.net, a site emphasizing on how to speed up computer.

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