How to fix slow running computer?

Let’s perform little PC maintenance:

Clear Temporary Files:

Go to Run and type %temp%, it will take you to the windows temporary folder. Press Shift+Del to erase all the temp files.

clear temporary files

Uninstall unnecessary software from control panelàAdd or Remove Program

Couple of things from windows system tools such as Disk clean-up and Defragmenter.

Windows System tools

Disk Clean Up:

For Disk Clean-up, select the C drive and proceed. Clean-up tool will auto calculate the estimated cleanup from system and prompts you to proceed. If you can see in the below image tool has estimated to make a free space up to 903 MB even after I had performed clean up before few days back.

Windows Disk Clean Up

Disk Defragmenter:

Sometimes when you install a program or create a data file, the file ends up chopped up into chunks and stored in multiple locations on the disk. This is called fragmentation. Now, when Windows is writing a file to the disk, it looks for a suitable piece of free space in which to store it. What happens, then, when you copy a 40M database or audio file to the disk and the biggest slice of free space is only 30M? Or say you modify an existing file, appending a whole bunch of data so the file now takes up more space on the disk. To accommodate the files, Windows writes the first part of the file in one section of the disk and then scouts around for other places to store the rest of the file. The end result is that a single file may be stored in several chunks scattered about the disk. Defragmentation tool rearranges your disks and drives to make free the unused chunks, this makes your work computer faster.

Windows Disk Defragmenter

Perform a virus scan, malware/spyware scan. Clean recycle bin and make your desktop free with unnecessary files/folders.

Run Check Disk:

Run check disk for detect bad sector on drive. Go to Run type CMD for command prompt. In command prompt type “chkdsk” to start check disk.

Windows Check Disk

Speed Up Computer Boot Process:

Go to Run and type regedit

For Windows XP

Now navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then to SYSTEM.
Expand the SYSTEM node and click to CurrentControl­Set, and then to Control node. Click on ContentIndex,
You can see a list of files in right side pane.Look for Startupdelay or you can search for this, edit/double-click it.480000 is Defualt Startupdelay Hexadecimal value, change it to 4000.You are done man!!
Same way, you can speed-up shutting down process of windows.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then to SYSTEM.

Expand the SYSTEM node and click to CurrentControl­Set, and then to Control node.

Now edit String value “WaitToKillServiceTimeout”, default value is 20000.

Change it to 200 and feel the difference.

Verify Hardware or Driver Issues:

Sometimes hardware or driver issue may slow down your computer. Check if CPU has proper cooling and no extra sound coming out of it. Overheat always slow down the machine. Go for the utility which will verify for any driver errors, maybe you should go for updating drivers. Check failing or bad,  hard drive, CPU, RAM, motherboard or other component. Right click on My Computer and go to manage option, there you need to browse device manager and check at least what ever options I have expanded in the below image.

Computer Device Management

Try Different Browser:

There is no harm in trying different browser to check which suites you best. For me its Google Chrome that keeps me hassle free and makes me happy. Clear the browser cache , cookies history, auto form filling, history and other temp. Check for any stupid extension or plugin that you never wanted to install but it’s there by some way. Remove it at the very first moment.

Registry Clean Up:

It’s very uncommon where registry errors increases, which bogged down the machine. There is utility available CCleaner to clear the registry errors. Do back up the registry before making a test. Perform the CCleaner test 2-3 times for complete error removal and then reboot your machine to take it affect.

Remove Background Program:

Remove or disable any TSR(Terminate-and-stay-resident) and startup programs that automatically start every time machine boots. Press CTLR+ALT+DEL for Task manager, check for background program utilizing high memory or CPU usage. Windows 7 user can get better picture by using resource manager, Type resmon in Run to access.

Resource Monitor Widows 7

In the Run type “msconfig” to access System Configuration. Go to services and check Hide all Microsoft services as below.  Disable any unnecessary service.

System Configuration and Start Up

Start up tab will show you all the services that starts automatically when computer starts.  Since we have checked in Services TAB “Hide all Microsoft services”. Disabling all start up items will not affect on system start up and disable all non third party software to run while system start up.

System Configuration and Start Up other than Microsoft Services

Make sure you have a control over your antivirus, disable scanning in background which may lead to sluggishness.

Up gradation:

Upgrade operating system, security update, drivers and antivirus. If your computer is older than a year, it means your machine is not meeting with today’s memory requirement, upgrade RAM. If your computer is older than 5 years, we strictly suggest you to purchase a new one.