You bought a top of the line system with the best parts, however after a few months you end up find it running at snail's pace wondering whatever happened to your "best" computer. Well, here you must remember, a computer is unlike a television that once you buy, it works the same way it used to for years and years. A computer is not a static device. It is highly dynamic - in the sense that you do lot of stuff with it. You process and save documents, spreadsheets, run a number of applications, play games, save loads and loads of music and video files, etc. To do all this job, with the same speed of a newly bought one, it requires a lot of tuning up.
Here are some simple methods to tune up your system.
Remove unwanted programs
Your computer’s hard disk is like your file cabinet. You don’t want to clutter it with the brochure you got when shopping for something, outdated magazines, rough drafts, etc. Sometimes you might have downloaded an application that was required to visit that particular site, which may still be sitting in your hard disk eating the space. Needless to say the countless trial software that you don’t even need, live in your system even after their trial period ended. Over a period of time, these programs and get piled up and you may not be aware this is slowing down your system.
Removing these programs not only will improve your computer performance but will also leave more space for the important data you need. You can periodically check out your start up menu for unwanted applications. Also, you can check for duplicate data and remove those. For example, when you download a WinZip file after extracting it, you can delete the compressed file.
Clean up the Registry
Your operating system’s Registry is a bank of information about everything that is happening in your computer. It s very much like our brain, that keeps track of everything in our human system. When you delete a program, or move a file location or any of those routine tasks that you perform, a residue of that is left behind in the Registry. What you can do is you can clean up your Registry from time to time. There are many free programs available in the Internet, you can safely download them and clean up your computer.
Hard Disk fragmentation
To understand Hard Disk fragmentation, first let’s see how data is stored in a Hard Disk. Hard disk stores data in portions called sectors. Imagine the surface of the Hard Disk divided into rings like the many rings on a circular race track, then imagine dividing each ring into small pie-slices. A sector is one such slice on the ring. Each sector holds a fixed amount of data.
So when you install a new program to your empty hard disk, your computer can store the files of the program in a sequential manner, on the rings. This is the best way to store the data on a hard disk – for the reason that it can be quickly retrieved when needed. However, in due course of time, when you keep installing and uninstalling many applications, this sequential storing of data becomes harder for your hard disk. When a single program’s files are dispersed in your hard disk like a jigsaw puzzle pieces, it only increases the time taken for the disk’s arm to access them, resulting in slowing down.
When you defragment your disk, all the files are stored on sequential sectors on sequential rings of the disk. The point here is to minimize the arm movement when a program loads. This also helps to increase the speed of file loading.
Virus Removal
A virus, with creating other harmful problems, may decrease the performance of your PC too. To protect and improve your PC performance, you can install anti-virus software in your system and run virus scans regularly. There are several free anti-virus programs and Internet Service Providers too offer free anti virus software.
If your system is severely affected by virus, it’s advisable to seek a technician’s help to get rid of them. There are many online technical support providers that offer virus, malware removal services at affordable rates. You can just call them or opt for remote support where a technician will have access to your computer and clean up your system.
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