Speeding Up your PC

Are you facing problems due to slow functioning of your computer? If yes, then you must read this article to see what are the various reasons that could be acting alone or together in slowing down your PC. Though there can be infinitely many reasons for your PC's slow working, I will list out the most common ones and will also let you know how to remove these faults to speed up your PC.

• The most common reason for slowing down of your PC may be the installation of a number of programs, maybe more than actually required. As these programs require memory to run, they slow down your system because memory or processor cycles that could be used by other necessary programs is being used by unwanted smaller programs. To overcome this problem, open control panel and remove those programs which you feel are unwanted in your PC.
• The second best reason I can think of is malware present on your PC. Malware can be anything from viruses to worms to trojans, all these programs prevent your system from functioning smoothly. They again require memory to run and this in turn causes loss of the same for necessary programs. To prevent this problem, use a good antivirus program that prevents these malicious programs from effecting the other required programs.
• Fragmentation of data is another very important issue that you must keep in mind. fragmentation is used to describe the phenomenon of inefficient use of storage space which finally results in loss of storage space and degraded performance. To know more about fragmentation, click here. But most importantly, you must prevent your system from fragmentation. Windows provides a tool called disk defragmenter that can be found in start - programs - accessories - system tools. You can start defragmentation of the partitions of your hard drive from here.
• Before installing any application software, always check whether you have the correct and sufficient hardware to run those programs. Several software can be very tiring for your system as they will require a lot of physical memory to run. It may be possible that you have lesser memory or the structure of your motherboard needs a little upgrade before you can run the software on your PC.
• Run a regular scan on your computer. I am not actually asking you to run an antivirus scan but a proper chkdisk scan that will check your hard disk for any errors. These errors may be due to a bad sector in your hard drive.
• Your windows operating system is full of files and registry entries. It may so happen that one or more of your OS files may have got corrupted. Run a regular check on these things as well. You can use a utility by the name of 'System File Checking' to do this.
• There are various programs that ask you to start automatically when your computer starts. Do not let this happen with programs that you use very less often. These programs will also consume RAM and will make the running of your PC very slow. You can remove any unwanted programs from running directly on windows startup by following the following process: Type 'msconfig' in run window. Go to startup tab and remove any programs you feel are not required.
• If you have followed all the steps listed above and still find little or no improvement in the performance of your PC, then try reinstalling the operating system on your PC. Also reinstall any programs that were already present on your previous OS. This will require a complete format of the partition on which the original OS was present.