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QuickTips: Why is my computer so SLOW

Speed up your computer in just 10 minutes!

by Matt J. Whetham, January 2008

Speed up your computer in just 10 minutes!   by Matt J. Whetham, January 2008

Does it seem like your computer works slower now than it did when you first bought it?  That’s because it is working slower!  How can you bring your computer up to SPEED?

Computers can only handle so much information at once, so naturally the more we load it up with information that has to be process simultaneously, the slower it will work.  When a computer is first unpacked from the store, it has only the programs that the manufacturer installed on it.  After we have had the computer for a year, it seems to work slower because we have loaded many unnecessary programs onto it.  But simply storing more information will not slow the computer down, but its how much information the computer has to process simultaneously that slows it down.

A simple check to see if your computer is running a large number of programs at once is by looking in your system tray, which is on the bottom-right corner of your screen.  Windows XP has an arrow that condenses your system tray to make it take up less space on your Taskbar, but expand the tray by clicking on the arrow and counting the amount of icons in it. 

Here is a screenshot of my system tray (right).  As you can see, there is only MSN Messenger, AVG (antivirus), the sound and hardware control, and ActiveSync.  My computer is only running what I have deemed to be required for my operation.  If your system tray is bloated with 10 or more icons, than you have two options to speed up your computer by eliminating unnecessary running programs.

STEP 1

Remove unnecessary software.  Removing software from your computer that could potentially be running in the background of your computer could speed your computer up substantially.  In order to do this, go to:                           

Start > Settings > Control Panel

Then open “Add or Remove Programs”

A list of programs that are currently installed on your computer will now populate.  Go through each item on the list and determine whether or not you need it installed.  Some of the programs that are notorious for being both unnecessary and slowing down your computers are applications like WebShots, Google or Yahoo Toolbar, and other free programs that you may have downloaded and installed from the Internet.  If this is a family computer that teenagers have access to, there may be many programs such as games, music/media related programs, or chat/social programs that are jamming up the system’s resources.  Be sure to watch for these, as they not only slow the machine down, but oftentimes are security risks.

STEP 2

Instead of removing software that you may need at a later time, you can simply “deactivate” it from working in the background of your computer.  To do this, go to:

Start > Run

Then, in the field type in: msconfig

The System Configuration Utility then comes up with tabs at the top; click on Startup.  In this tab, you will see a list of processes that are set to run on your computer.  They are like programs that run in the background of your computer, many times with an icon in the system tray.  Beside each item is a checkbox that you may leave checked, indicating that you want to allow it to continue to run each time you start your computer, or uncheck so that it doesn’t start up when you boot your computer.  The Command field for each item will give you an idea of what the item is.  For example, Quick Time is an item on mine (shown); however I do not want QuickTime to run in the background of my computer.  Therefore, I uncheck the box, and it will not start-up next time I boot my computer.  Go through each item on the list and uncheck what you know that you do not need.  When in doubt, leave it checked – especially for anything pertaining to your antivirus software.