Unfortunately, over time our computer will naturally start to slow down. It has been used frequently, downloaded lots of files and is using more system resources than it should be. Throw in the fact that modern programs are designed for modern computers and your system may be struggling to keep up. One day you will conclude that your PC is running slow or as the French might say ‘Mon PC est tres lent’
1. Get Rid of Unused Programs
Over the years you have probably downloaded and installed a ton of software – some of which you probably do not even use. Even though you are not using those programs, they can still eat into your system resources as they may run in the background. This is why our first tip for speeding up a slow computer is to go through and uninstall all unused programs.
2. Delete all Temporary Files
We like to use a good analogy to help explain what temporary files are. Whenever you buy a new gadget, television, refrigerator or anything else, it comes with some packaging. If you were to keep hold of all of that packaging over the years, your room would become full and it would be hard to move. Temporary files are the packaging that comes with surfing the internet and downloading software. This will clutter up your system and take up space that could be used for something more important.
Throw away your packaging by deleting all temporary files. All you have to do is go into your ‘Windows’ folder, find the file called ‘Temp’ and delete everything within it. Don’t forget to empty the recycle bin afterwards.
3. Clean-Up and Defrag Your Drive
Another way to get rid of unnecessary files is to do a disk clean up. This will scan your whole drive and note anything that is not needed. Once finished you can decide whether or not to delete those files. Simply right-click Start and make your way to All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and finally Disk Cleanup to perform this function.
A disk defragment is a bit different. This will rearrange on the files on your disk to improve efficiency. This should allow the PC to run faster as the needle on the disk does not have to go shooting all over the place to find files. A defrag just orders everything in a more optimized fashion. Right-click Start and click into properties. From there you will find Defrag in the Tools tab.
4. Buy a USB PC
If you have done all of the above and your system still feels slow, it might be time to do something a little more drastic. Buy a USB PC, plug it into your system and let it run using your system’s resources. These USB systems are lightweight and will run much faster than old PC’s. This is because they use a Linux operating system which is far more lightweight compared to Windows systems.
Summary
All is not lost when your PC is running slow as you can at least ty the above. At some point, you will need to replace your current system, however. Like old age in our bodies, time eventually catches up to older systems.
