5 Easy Tips to Help Your Computer Run Faster
Is your computer taking a long time to run simple tasks or not working as smoothly as you’d like it to? It’s one of the most common problems you’re likely to encounter and it is hardly surprising when you consider that in the last 10 years, hard disk requirements for computers have increased by over 100 times.
Ponticello are specialists in helping you to get the most from your IT systems, but there are a couple of simple things you can do yourself to help speed up your PC and improve its performance.
1. Check the Disk Space
The golden rule is to keep at least 15% of the hard disk space free to ensure the computer runs smoothly. To check your disk space, simply go to My Computer, right-click on your Local Drive, and go to Properties. Here you’ll be shown a pie chart of your free versus used space. If it’s mostly full, you’ll want to start by removing unnecessary programs and files.
2. Uninstall any Unnecessary Programs
Following on from the previous point, a quick and easy way to free up space on your computer is to remove unnecessary and unused programs. Go to Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs (or Uninstall a Program, depending on your operating system) to find a master list of programs installed on your computer. You may be surprised by some of the things you installed in a distant past, you can remove these straight away. Other programs may not look so familiar and these may require further research. One way in which you can do this is to check when the program was last used, this can be done within the add or remove programs tool.
3. Ensure you have appropriate virus protection in place
The fewer bugs, viruses and bits of adware your computer has to manage, the more time it will have to devote to other processes. A healthy computer is a happy computer. Our very own virus protection is ideal for small to medium businesses as it scans for viruses, spyware, rootkits, bots, trojans and other types of malware without draining resources or slowing down your pc.
4. Run a Disk Cleanup
Running a disk cleanup can clear hundreds of megabytes of temporary files – sometimes even gigabytes (if you’re using a more recent operating system). It will also open a window in which you can choose which files to delete. Go to My Computer, right-click the Hard Drive and select Properties, and then click Disc Cleanup (within the General tab). Check all the boxes except for the game files and setup files.
5. Reduce Programs at start up
There are a lot of programs that load automatically at startup – think about how many of these you actually need straight away. Having lots of programs start at once can put your system under pressure and seriously hamper performance. Depending on your system, it should be fairly easy to correct this. The best, safest, and most simple place to start is in your Start menu’s Startup program group. Navigate to it and see what programs appear there. Right-click on any you don’t need starting up on its own and click delete.