If you notice a sudden decrease in the speed of your computer you should think back about any changes you may have made to it recently. Trying to focus on the time immediately prior to the slowness might help you pin down the exact cause. Newly installed software or hardware may be the culprit or even if you visited a new web site that may have installed spy or adware on your PC.

 Check to see if your computer meets the minimum requirements for the software that you have installed and running. All programs have these specifications listed. If you determine that your computer does not meet the requirements of a newly installed program then you should un-install it.

To determine if new hardware that you have installed is the culprit you can remove the device to see if the performance improves. You can also see if there the drivers need to be updated on the web site of the manufacturer.

If, however, you have not added any new hardware or software you should reboot your computer to see if it fixes your issues. If none of these are the cause of the problem then you should check to see if your computer has enough resources available. Is the hard drive full? Is there enough RAM and do you have an adequate video card? Try clearing out all unnecessary items and defragging the hard drive to see if this helps improve the performance of your PC.