hallmark World Tech.

There few things that are as frustrating as working on a slow computer. It is even more embarrassing if your computer is slow despite the fact that it has high rated components – high processor speed, high ram (say 4gigs), a very good graphic card…… before you allow frustration force you to part with some bucks, trying performing the following operations yourself:

Check Your Start up Programs

A computer often slows down when it has many installed programmer set to start running when the computer matching is ON. Remove unimportant start up programs from the start up list. In windows 7, click on the windows ‘start’ button and type ‘msconfig’ in the search box found at the base of the start menu. A box titled ‘system configuration’ will pop up. Go to the startup column and uncheck the boxes corresponding to the programs you wish to exclude at start up. If you want to follow the long way, start button – settings – control panel – administrative tools – system configuration.

Installation of incompatible software

Virus Check

Virus, malwares, spam wares and other malicious programs can greatly reduce the speed of your computer. It is important that you have a very reliable antivirus program installed in your computer. There are countless number of free antivirus programs but I recommend you go for the paid version as the have far stronger security protection than the free ones. Schedule it to carry perform complete system scan at least ones or bi-weekly. You could subscribe to programs like Kaspersky, Norton, Bit defender of Avas. At the time of typing this tips, I use Norton. I have no problem with it. DO NOT INSTALL MORE THAN ONE ANTIVIRUS PROGRAMS as it would reduce overall system performance and could lead to computer failure.

If your system has been infected with a malicious software and your antivirus is unable to resolve the threat successfully, please take this steps. formatting the hard drive and re-installing windows is the last option.

Hard Drive Maintenance

Your system would over time slow in operation significantly if you do not carry regular hard drive maintenance. It could even lead to system crash. Windows has pre-installed software maintenance tools like the cleanup utility, disk defragmenter and the error checking utility. To access these, go to ‘My computer’ by left-clicking on the windows start menu button or press the windows button ( ) on your key board, select ‘computer’. (You could also use window + E shortcut keys to get to my computer). Right-click on the hard drive and select properties, tools and any of the two options (error checking, defragmentation). If you select the ‘checking option’, check the two boxes and click ‘start’. For the defragmentation option, just select ‘defragment disk’. The defragmentation help in neatly rearranging your files stored in the hard disk sectors. There are other programs specially designed to regularly maintain your system I make use of tune up utilities and advance system care. Try them.

[Lift click start – select computer – right click the on the disk partition – select properties – select tool – select error checking and defragmentation]

System Update

To ensure better system functionality, ensure your computer is up to date. To enable automatic windows update, go to [start – settings – control panel – windows update – change settings – under important update, click the drop down menu and ‘select install update automatically (recommended)’]. Then click the back button and click on ‘check for updates’. When the computer finish searching for updates, click on ‘install updates’.