Tips & Tricks to Speed Up Your Computer
After owning a computer for a while we all notice that it seems to be running slower than it did when we first purchased it. This is often because we fail to do easy housekeeping tasks that every computer needs to have done. By spending just a few minutes on these tasks you can easily improve the speed of your computer system.
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Scan Your System
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The first thing you want to do is to scan your system with your antivirus software. Before running the scan, check to make sure that all recent updates have been downloaded and installed. After running the scan make sure that it removed any spyware or malware programs that were found. Some virus programs store them in a quarantine folder. Go ahead and have them removed from the system.
Next you will want to run the disk cleanup program. This is found in the system tools folder on your computer. You can delete everything that comes up on this checklist.
Now you can defrag the drive. This option in also located in the system tools folder on your computer. This operation can take a long time to complete, so you are going to want to do it when you have plenty of time. You don't need to sit and wait for it to complete.
Remove Unused Programs
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The next order of business is to remove programs and games that are no longer in use. Under your control panel you will find an option for adding and removing programs. Open that program and go down the list removing old programs and games that are no longer being used. Do not remove any program if you aren't sure what it does.
After removing old programs you can take a look at your start menu. The start menu is simply a list of files that start when you turn on the computer. They run in the background and if you don't need them they are just slowing down your system. Removing these programs from the menu doesn't remove them from your computer. You can still access these programs when you want to use them. You can easily access this program by clicking on "Start," then right-clicking on all programs and choosing open. A list of all of the programs that load during system boot will appear. Delete any program that you don't need to have running constantly.
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Clean Up Files
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Now you are ready to go through and remove old videos, music or photos from your computer. If these are files you want, burn them to a disk or download them to a portable hard drive. You want a minimum of 20 percent of your hard drive space free. The more space you have free, the better your system will run.
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