I found a very useful website (listed below) that offers many articles on how to make your computing experience better. The following tips are based off an article from Microsoft. If you have ever had a computer that is super fast the same day you bought it, and now it seems like it is real slow, follow these simple steps.
First, Free up some disk space. Believe it or not, removing data from the hard drive will speed up the time it takes to read it all thus speeding up your computer. This can be performed with Disk Cleanup which is found under Accessories, and System Tools. If you are one of the smart people who back up their computer with restore points and Windows Backup, then you might want to delete old backups and restore points that are still saved on the computer. If you are using Windows 7, you can also delete shadow copies.
What are Shadow Copies? When you are working on a file, it is saved many times automatically. If this file gets deleted, or you changed it to where you can’t change it back, then you can choose to restore from a previous version of the file. (I’ll save this for another blog) Shadow copies are the previous versions that are automatically saved. Essentially, you have many files that are slightly different that are most of the time unnecessary.
Second, you will want to run a disk defragmenter. When you save something on the hard drive, it puts it in the first convenient space available. A disk defragmenter will sort out the data and put it in the woodworks. It is all still there, it is just organized a lot better. You can access this under Accessories, and System Tools.
Third, you should run a disk checker to check for errors. This will check the integrity of the files stored on your hard drive.
Fourth, you should remove any kind of spyware and/or malware. Spyware will slow your computer down because it is unnecessary programs running in the background. You can use Microsoft Security Essentials. Another program (which I haven’t looked into yet) is the PC safety scan from Windows Live OneCare. This can be found at http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm.
Lastly, if you don’t have a lot of RAM (memory), and can’t afford it or can’t upgrade, and are using Vista, or 7, you should really look into ReadyBoost. ReadyBoost is a neat tool that allows your computer to use a USB drive to act as memory. I’ll save this for another blog. If you want to know more about it, here is the reference website: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Turn-ReadyBoost-on-or-off-for-a-storage-device.
This blog was inspired by the following website:
Patrick Meadows
A+, Security+
P.S. One of these days I am going to put together a list of free software that will make your computing experience much more easier.
