How to make your computer faster – tip faster PC
When you get a new computer, it runs like a dream. Sometimes in just six months, it may slow down significantly, depending on how you treat it. The computer needs a spring clean, just like anything else to fulfill its best. That’s why today we’re going to reveal the secrets of how to make your computer run faster. This is something you can do on a regular basis to make sure your computer is still running like it when you bought it.
How To Make Your Computer Faster – Before You Do Anything Back Up!!
Cleaning your computer comes with some risk. Make sure you back up everything on your PC that is important.
- Get an external hard drive and plug it into a USB port on your computer. This should prompt windows to begin the option for backup, which you should select.
- You can also choose to backup your personal data to a cloud service like Carbonite. You can even use these services to automatically back up your files as you change them, as soon as you have an internet connection.
- Some people also back up to a DVD or CD. Just be aware that they can be a little more fragile. Keep the disk safe so it won’t be scratched or broken.
Quick Fix – Restart Your Computer
This is a somewhat temporary solution to a PC that is running slowly, but it may be all that you need. Sometimes the memory on your computer may be full. Restarting the computer allows the memory to refresh and stops whatever process is slowing the computer. Just make sure you save anything you are working on before doing this.
Quick Fix – Check Your Power Plan
To do this go to the Control Panel and navigate towards Power Options. The standard power options are Balanced, Power Saver and High Performance. By putting your PC on High Performance, you can speed it up – but note this will use up your Dell vostro 1520 laptop battery power faster on a laptop.
Check Your Hard Drive
You can do this by navigating to My Computer, right click on local dive and then click properties. This lets you know how much free space you have left after your saved files and programs.
- At least 15% of your hard drive needs to be free in order for the computer to run smoothly.
- If not, it’s either time to delete or to add an additional hard drive. If your computer will support it, consider adding an SSD. These are much faster than traditional hard drives.
How To Make Your Computer Faster – Clear Out Any Unwanted Stuff
Over time your computer gathers up programs that you aren’t using any longer. These can contribute a lot to the slow down you are experiencing. To clear these out:
- Click the Windows button at the bottom left-hand side of your desktop, and then click on Control Panel.
- From here, navigate to Add or Remove Programs.
- Some of these you will know to be useless and you can uninstall.
- For others, you might not be sure.
- Right click on the column titles above the list of programs.
- From here you can add additional characteristics to allow you to sort between programs. Check the box “Last used on” and you will get a new column that sorts programs by when they were most recently used. If you find a program you haven’t used in months or years, then chances are you can delete it.
How To Make Your Computer Faster – Stop Programs Loading At Start Up
If your computer is particularly slow at getting started, then it may be that too many programs are trying to open. Then they all remain running in the background, using resources when you often don’t need them.
To change this:
- Open the start menu and search “msconfig”.
- Now click on Startup to display the list of programs that are running from the beginning when you boot your computer. Uncheck any that you don’t want to load at the start.
How To Make Your Computer Faster – Clean Up Your Hard Disk
This can save you hundreds of megabytes of space on your hard drive and make a noticeable improvement to the overall performance.
Go to My Computer and then right-click on Hard Drive and click Properties. From here select Disc Cleanup from the general tab.
This will prompt a window that asks you which files you would like to remove. Select the ones you want to bin and then click run cleanup.
How To Make Your Computer Faster – Disk De-fragment
In order to save you time while you work, your PC sometimes saves your files to the hard drive in an unorganized or fragmented way. When you search again for these files, they are split up into little bits in different areas of the hard drive.
De-fragmenting gives the computer time to organize your data so it is easier to search, and it also frees up more space on your disk.
To do this, go to My Computer and the right click on Hard Drive. After this click on Properties, then Tools and then click Defragment Now.
How To Make Your Computer Faster – Turn Down Those Costly Visual Effects
The visual effects on newer versions of Windows may be using up your computers badly needed resources.
In order to manage these, go to Control Panel, System and then go towards the Advanced System Settings. Here there is an option to “Adjust for best performance” that you should click.
There are also 20 visual effects you can manually turn on or off.
Sure your desktop might not look as snazzy, but your computer should run a little faster.
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