I believe some of you may be thinking “why is my computer so slow?” And this article is written to cover as much area of your concern as possible, but by no means are the possibilities explored exhaustively.
1. Is your computer running on Windows Vista?
Unfortunately, Windows Vista is notorious in that it is relatively much slower than most other popular versions of Windows, such as Windows XP and Windows 7. With this, you may want to consider either upgrade to Windows 7, or to downgrade to Windows XP.
2. Does your computer have enough memory?
Depending on which version of Windows you are running, your computer will need a certain minimum recommended amount of memory to keep it running smoothing.
Insufficient memory can cause your computer to run very slowly and may even cause stability issues such as crashes and freezes. For example, if you are running Windows XP, the minimum recommended amount of memory is 512MB. While the memory required to run Windows Vista and Windows 7 smoothly would be 1GB.
If your computer do not have the minimum recommended amount of memory, you should consider upgrading the memory to speed your computer up.
3. What applications are you running?
The applications you are running on your computer will very much determine how fast or how slow it runs. Most of us are aware that applications such as Adobe Photoshop requires lots of memory and processing power and will definitely contribute to the slowdown of any average computer.
If you are experiencing slowness in your computer, you may want to consider uninstalling applications that require more memory and much powerful processor.
4. Too many applications may be running in the background.
You may not be aware, but your computer may be having too many background applications. Run Task Manager and click on the Processes tab to see a list of all the applications running both in the foreground and background.
Terminating some unnecessary applications here will definitely add a little speed boost to your computer.
5. Your hard disk might be fragmented.
Windows may not store files on the hard disk in a sequential manner. This results in the hard disk being fragmented over time. Windows will need more time to read files on a fragmented hard disk and this, inevitably, slows down the computer.
It is therefore, a good practice to run Windows Defrag at least once every 3 months to ensure the hard disk to not get too fragmented.
6. Hard disk running low on space.
Windows do make use of the hard disk space for temporary storage to ease the heavy usage of the memory. In order for Windows to run optimally, the temporary storage of between 500MB to 3GB of the hard disk space needs to be reserved for it.
If the hard disk is running critically low on space, lesser than 500MB, Windows will not be able to run optimally and thus, cause the computer to slow down significantly.
Running Windows’ Disk Cleanup to clear up some space will be useful in this situation.
7. Frequent installing and uninstalling of applications.
During each and every installation or uninstallation process, remnants of the application will be left behind to serve as “historical records” on the computer. And the more such records exist, the more entries Windows will need to read, and therefore, the slower the computer becomes.
It is good habit to avoid unnecessary installation of applications so that you won’t have to uninstall them subsequently.
8. Infection with adware, spyware, viruses, or trojans.
Adware, spyware, viruses and trojans are classified as malicious software or better known as malware.
Sometimes, malware are intentionally designed to slow down your computer. While other malware are not purposely designed to do that. Instead, they are designed to serve unsolicited advertisements, or to spy on your online activities to capture your surfing habits or even to steal your credit card and bank details. In such doings, they create a lot of processes which will fight for processing time with other legitimate applications, causing your computer to slow down.
An effective antivirus software would be your best defense against malware.
Related Post: Ensuring That Your Antivirus Is Properly Configured
Related Post: 4 Things You Can Do To Combat Mac Slowdown
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