The faster your computer, the more productive you’ll be while using it. We all know using a slow computer drains your productivity, builds frustration, and ultimately makes computing experience one big mess.
Apart from virus infections which most people tend to believe is the cause of a slow computer, there’re other factors that may causes a computer to run slow.
However, In this article, we’ll focus our attention on 13 ways to speed up your computer for better productivity.
Disable some Programs that Run on Startup
If your computer takes a long time to start up, the first thing you want to do is see everything it starts up with when you hit the power button.
To do this, click on the Windows button, click “run,” and then type “msconfig” into the box. Click on the “Startup” tab. And then click on the programs you want to disable at start up.
It is important not to disable programs like your antivirus. Others, such as Adobe Acrobat or Google Toolbar Notifies can be disabled as you might not need them while starting up your computer
Scan for and Remove Malware, virus and spyware
One of the most common causes of slow computers is virus infection. Viruses are small programs written by professional programmers with an evil intention to destroy people’s file and programs. Therefore, it is necessary to install and regularly update any antivirus you chose to install on computer. Also ensure to do a regular scan on your computer and delete any virus found. Apart from using an antivirus, by default, windows have its own protective system known as ‘windows defender’. So in case you can’t afford to get an original anti-virus, make use of windows defender. They do a pretty good job against malware.
Kindly note that having more than one antivirus on your computer will slow down its performance. So it’s best to have just one running on your system. Some pretty good antivirus software I have used and would recommend are; Avast, Norton and kapaski.
Ways of avoiding virus:
• Install quality antivirus
• Install real-time anti-spyware protection
• Keep anti-malware application current
• Perform daily scans
• Disable auto run
• Don’t click on auspicious email links or attachments
Remove Programs No Longer in Use
Apart from disabling some app on your computer from starting with Windows, you should also check and review which programs you no longer need and remove them. To do this, access the uninstaller tool from your control panel and use that to uninstall programs you don’t use.
From your start menu, navigate to control panel, program and features, select and uninstall unwanted programs.
Add More RAM Memory
Ram is used for programs and data, and by the operating system for disk caching. Thus, installing more ram improves transfer between the cpu and both the ram and hard drives. Note, while upgrading the ram, the size or capacity of the ram should not be more than that of the processor. That is, if you are running on a processor speed of 3.0GHZ your ram should not be more than 3g. rather it should be somewhere between 2gb and 2.5gb.
Adjust your computer for Better Performance
Making some minor adjustment to your computer can go a long way to improve it’s speed. to make adjustment, right click on “computer,” and then select “system properties,” and then “advanced system settings.” You will find a performance settings button that allows you to select “adjust for best performance.”
You can also reduce your screen resolution, which can speed things slightly and improve battery life when running on it. But i’ll advice you leave it for windows to select what’s best for your computer.
Consider Changing your Browser
If probably you are experiencing slow browsing, then you might need to switch browsers. That is switching from internet explorer to chrome. Chrome is faster and has fewer bugs than Internet Explorer 11. Although there are other better brewers, but for this case i’ll advice you switch to chrome.
Clean Your Browser
Irrespective of the browser app you use, you should clean it out regularly. This will make your browser run faster. To clean Chrome, click the three bars icon in the upper right corner, then click “More Tools,” then “Clean Browsing Data,” and then check the history boxes, cookies and cached items.
Alternatively, there are other software’s you can use to clear your browsers, one of such which i’ll recommend is cclearner.
Defragment Your Drive
Defragmentation is the process of rewriting parts of a file to continuous (closest) sector (area) on a hard disk to increase speed of access and retrieval.
You should defragment your drive or schedule it to perform this action automatically. you can do this once every month. However, if you excessively download, move, uninstall, or install programs, you may need to do it more frequently.
There are two methods for defragmenting, either in windows or in DOS
Steps one (from windows)
• Click on start button, move to programs
• Navigate to accessories, then move to system tools, click Disk defragmenter
• Select the drive to defragment and follow screen instructions
Step two (from DOS)
• At DOS prompt, type defrag (for win 95, 98) or dfrag.msc (for win 2000, win xp or higher)
• Select the drive to defragment and follow screen instructions
Upgrade to an SSD Drive
Solid State Drives (SSD) are faster than the normal HDD Drives. Therefore, upgrading your HDD drive to an ssd drive will greatly increase its speed and overall performance. Although they are quite expensive and lack vast storage capacity, but they are worth every penny you spend on them.
Use the computer for its purpose
Unfortunately, not everyone is aware that every computer is meant for a particular purpose. Computer manufactures take pride in manufacturing computers for specific purposes like gaming, business, programming, education etc.
So it is important to use a computer for the purpose it was built for. Using a business computer to play a 3D game would do nothing but make the computer look useless.
Clean Your Drive
Sometime your hard-drive can be filed with junk files. Running regular clean up on drives can boost it’s performance, thereby making the system faster. Clean up your drives by typing “cleanmgr.exe” into the run menu to access Disk Cleanup. This is that “search programs and files” box that shows when you hit the Windows Start icon, usually in the lower left of most screens
Avoid running too many programs at once
Computers, no doubt are good for multitasking. but over multitasking can make your computer run slow and very slow. So be moderate when opening apps and ensure to close the app as soon as you done using them.
Use Microsoft Fix It Tool
The Microsoft fix it tools is a free tool which enables windows users to clean and perform several maintenance problem. It is usually found on earlier versions of windows i.e windows 7 or earlier.
Do not let a slow machine/computer stop your productivity. Use these tips on how to speed up your computer to keep your desktop and laptop machines running smoothly. Also if you looking to get a fast and reliable laptop for your small business of office, kindly heck out our best 20 recommended business laptops.