6 Easy Steps to a Faster Computer.

Have a slow computer? Does it take forever to load programs, movies, Internet? Well if you answered yes to those questions you need to get of you snail and hop on the iron horse of speed! well the metaphor I made up...but this ible will get your computer up and running again with no or little costs!

Step 1: Virus Scan, the Police of Your PC.

Many times some odd little virus may get into your computer and cause havoc! A simple solution awaits you...a virus scan. If you dont have a anti-virus program download this one...

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

Its called avast! I use it on my PC and my laptop and so far no problems. But if you want to go out and buy a program I would suggest Norton or McAfee there not free, but they will solve the problem.

Step 2: User Accounts

As they may seem nothing more than mere icons on the welcome screen they actually can take up to 10% of your hard disk (not a lot of space but it does make a difference), this makes it very hard to access other programs because of lack of free space. If you have a account you don't use or no longer need, delete it. If you have files you still want, move them. If you can't don't worry in the deletion process the computer will ask you about keeping all files, simply click "yes" and they will all be saved in a folder on your desktop. Guest accounts are also included in this, simply turn them off in the control panel under "users". after a quick restart, you should notice a quicker boot time and hopefully faster programs.

Step 3: Internet Cookies, the Little Guys That Do Make a Differnece.

OK this one will take some time if you have never done this before. Open your browser find the icon that reads "tools", go to the very bottom and click "Internet options" a window should pop up. In that window you should see a list of things, one of which says "Delete Browsing History" or something similar. Click that and in the next pop up window click all that is shown in the picture. the final box that says "Delete all..." click that and in that window click the small box and then hit "Yea". Some deleting boxes will appear and all you have to do now is wait it out.

Step 4: Tashing Old or Large Flies.

Well if your still having trouble with loading times or files like pictures or movies, try this...Go through all your files and either move them to a USB stick or delete them. The ones you need to be concerned about are movies, pictures, and some times even music. Just go through all of your files and delete anything out dated or unused. If your having trouble getting rid of some files get over that emotion! the latest episode of E.R. won't make your computer faster. This may not help your hard disk run faster but it sure as hell will help your RAM out a bit; and a clean RAM is a happy RAM.

Step 5: Old Programs

This is very simple. Go to "Control Panel" click "Add or Remove Programs", wait for all the programs to show up, go through all the programs, fin one you don't need or don't want, click it, then click "remove". A window for the program will come and guide you through the process. This should completely remove the program. After this you should restart your computer. And voila! your computer is pretty much cleaned out (program wise). now its time to defragment your disk!

Step 6: Defragment Your Hard Disk.

Ok so once every thing is said and done; the last thing to do is defragment/clean your hard disk. Don't worry the computer handles all this all you have to do is click and relax. Go to the control panel and click "performance and maintenance" then you will need to click two things. I recommend you click them one at a time, running them both will take forever! The first one you click is "Free up space on your hard disk" this will bring up a little window with a status bar to show its progress. The second thing you will need to click is "rearrange items on your hard disk to make programs run faster" this will bring up the defragmenter window. Click "analyze" once thats done click defragment". This will take some time as it is going to go through all your files and rearrange them so they are easily accessible. Now simply wait for the defragmentation to finish (this could take anywhere between 2 hours to a day). Now that your hard disk is clean restart the computer and notice the change, is it running faster? Yes? Congratulations! Your hard disk is clean and your computer is faster! Oh and dont forget to empty your recycling bin!

Still having issues? Leave a comment!