The Easy Things I Did to Speed Up My Computer
When it took minutes just to get to my desktop, and programs waited forever before they loaded, I decided it was time to speed up my computer. Like most people, I knew the importance of regular cleaning and maintenance on my computer, but I just didn’t take the time to do what needed to be done. While it may take a little time to do what’s necessary to get your computer back up to top speed, you will actually save time when your computer operates more quickly.
The first step in any computer maintenance is to backup whatever you’re about to work on. If you have a backup program, use it. While basic cleaning on your computer comes with only a very small risk of data loss, you can never be too careful. If you don’t have a backup program, you should strongly consider getting one. There are plenty of web-based companies that can store your data for only a few dollars a month. If you have important information on your computer, it’s very much worth the money.
The first thing I did to speed up my computer was I purchased a registry cleaner. I avoided downloading a free one in fear that it wouldn’t work properly, or that I wouldn’t have access to updates. I certainly didn’t have time to mess around with poorly developed software. The registry cleaner performed a disk cleanup which deleted those extra files within the registry. Now my computer doesn’t have to read invalid files to get to what I am commanding it to do.
The next best thing you can do to speed up your computer is to run scan disk and defrag. These are so important that Microsoft included the utilities with every copy of Windows. But you should know that if you have not run these programs before it may take a while for the process to complete. With modern hard drives being so large, you might want to start the programs before you go to bed as they can take hours to complete.
Something many people tend to overlook is the additional network drives connecting them to other computers. Whenever your computer loads it has to scan all drives, including network drives, and that can take time. By disconnecting unnecessary network drives, you’ll greatly speed up load time.
One of the biggest problems I had when trying to speed up my computer was an extremely slow load time at the initial startup of my computer. The time it took from pressing the power button to actually being able to open a program could be several minutes. This is often because programs sneak their way into you startup programs when you open them. Some popular chat software and music download tools can add themselves without you even knowing it. So if you find yourself closing programs upon startup that you don’t need running, check your startup programs and delete anything that isn’t necessary.
Most of these methods come at no cost and all of them are easy to do. It doesn’t take a professional to get your computer running back at top speed. It just requires you to roll up your sleeves and do a bit of cleaning. Of course a little help from reliable tools like Registry Mechanic by PC Tools didn’t hurt too. I followed all of these steps when I chose to speed up my computer and the difference has completely eliminated my frustrations and aggravations from having a sluggish PC.
