If your computer speed is lagging it can be a nightmare, making it hard to do even the smallest of tasks. And we all know how frustrating that is, especially when you have that deadline looming! Read our 10 tips below to help speed up your computer.
1. Performance troubleshooter
The first thing you should do is check the performance trouble shooter. You can find this by clicking the Windows icon in the bottom left of your screen and go to Control panel > Troubleshooting and this will check for any obvious performance issues and advise of any recommended fixes.
2. Online file storage
Storing lots of files locally on your PC can cause a drop in performance. The best solution for this is moving all of your folders and files over to online cloud storage like Dropbox or Google Drive. You can still access the files from your computer by doing this but it clears up the space on your PC helping it run other programs quicker.
3. Clear redundant files
When browsing the internet and working day-to-day on your computer you can pick up small download files and cookies. Even though most of them are only small they can soon build up taking up valuable storage space on your PC and in turn slowing it down. To keep your computer running at it’s best speed make sure you clear out any download files you no longer need and also empty your trash folder frequently to avoid it building up. There are programs available that can automatically do this for you, like C Cleaner. All you do is download the program, open it and click Run Cleaner. It will automatically go through and remove any cached files, cookies and downloads to help save space on your computer.
4. Run updates and restart regularly
On Windows, updates are released frequently to patch any security issues or bugs so it is important to restart or shut down your computer regularly. This will ensure that the updates are installed on your computer and can help speed it up. Otherwise if you don’t restart for a long time it will take ages to run all the updates that you have been missing out on. Better still you can set it up in Windows updates to automatically restart outside of a certain time period when you are not working on it so you won’t even notice it restarting.
5. Close programs you are not using
If you have lots of programs opened on your computer at once this can also cause it to work slowly. The best practice is to only have programs open that you necessarily need, so if you have something like Word open and you are not using it then close it. This will help your computer work a lot quicker.
6. Remove any unwanted programs
If you have ever downloaded a program and only used it once it could be causing more harm than good. Not only does it take up space it could also be running in the background meaning you have less RAM and processing power to run other programs that you actually use. So check if there are any programs installed on your PC that you no longer use and uninstall them.
7. Internet connection
Run an internet connection test like www.speedtest.net because it might be that your computer is perfectly fine but your internet is causing it to be slow. This can vary depending on your ISP (Internet Service Provider) so check what download and upload speeds you are paying for to see if it matches. The average internet speed in the UK is 25MB p/s download and 3MB p/s upload which should be sufficient for most people wanting to browse the internet, stream videos and listen to music. If it is the case that your download and upload speeds are smaller than they should be check your router, wired connections and try restarting your router too. If that still doesn’t help contact the company who provide your broadband and they should be able to help sort it out.
8. Clear your desktop
If you have got lots of files on your desktop that is also likely to be causing problems as every time you open your computer it is loading up all those files ready for you to open. It is a lot more efficient to have them filed away into folders, that way they will only load when you open the folder leaving your desktop clear to load quickly.
9. Run a virus scan
In the worst case scenario it could be that your computer is running slower than usual because it has picked up a virus or malicious file. Windows has a built in defender program which will scan and remove any malicious files that could be causing issues on your computer. Windows defender runs automatically and should notify you if it spots a problem anyway.
10. Upgrade
If none of that works then it might just be the case that your computer spec/RAM is not up to managing the level of performance that you need from a PC. So that would mean either a new computer or a RAM upgrade.
If you still can’t solve the problem don’t panic. There are lots of online companies and shops who offer a PC repair service to help you get back up and running. If you liked this blog post make sure you check out some of our others here and share it using the links below.
