If you have ever wondered if you could improve the performance of your computer you should know that you can. Perhaps the hardware of your system is not up to snuff or it might need to be updated. Do you have enough memory or the right hard drive and is the processor the issue causing your PC slowness.

If your computer system is older on it you may have noticed that it is slowing down. You can put off purchasing a new PC if you can get your old system running faster. If you are successful you can save a lot of money.

The Windows XP operating system is a reliable operating system and has been around for quite some time. If your computer has a Pentium Celeron processor with one or two gigabytes of RAM you should have a fast system.

The number of programs that start up, the amount of memory, corrupt registy or system files, infections from malware and other things can reduce the performance of your computer. The resolution of your particular issues with speed depends on the cause of the slowness.

If you have the minimum recommended system requirements and are still experiencing slow speeds then there are some things that you can do to try to improve it.

You should begin by taking a look at your computer system and seeing what files, folders and programs you can eliminate. You will notice that your computer will begin to slow down if your hard drives capacity is almost maxed out. If your hard drive has fifteen percent or less space available on it you need to get moving and get rid of some programs and files you do not need or use. You can un-install programs in the Add/Remove Programs utility found in the Control Panel.

You can download many programs for free that will help you improve the performance of your computer. But Microsoft provides many tools in the Windows operating system.

The cause of over ninety percent of performance issues in computers has something to do with the system registry. Having a registry cleaner can help you manage these issues. Two that you can download are EasySystemCleaner and CCleaner. Both of these programs will analyze your system registry and fix any issues that may be present.

The graphic setting of your display may also be affecting how your computer performs. You can adjust this level without any significant degradation in appearance but it can improve your systems speed.

If you work on your computer every day you want to be sure that it does not run slow. Slowness can occur over time due to many factors. While buying a newer, more powerful computer will definitely fix your problems not everyone has the money to purchase new hardware.

Malware including viruses, adware and spyware can also be the cause of your computers slowness issues. Microsoft offers software from their site to find and remove these types of programs and there is software available from other companies as well.

Lastly issues with space and errors on your computers hard drive. You can use the Disk Defragmenter and Scan Disk utilities to perform these tasks easily for you. Using these tools will help to remove any bad sectors and reorganize your hard drive helping to optimize its performance.

The newest Windows operating systems are designed to look pretty but you sometimes it is a tradeoff in system performance. You can adjust some settings and still have a nice looking computer and it will perform better. If you do not care about all the new fancy features including drop shadow and others then you can change the default to ‘best performance.

Settings in your internet browser can affect how fast your internet experience is as well. The settings for the amount of cache and whether you can view pages offline can sharply decrease the performance of your experience.

Sometimes even the background on your desktop can affect your system performance. You can turn off the background to see if that makes your system run faster.

But you will not achieve as significant improvement in speed from just adjusting your computers settings. If you have registry errors or malware on your computer these are the biggest culprits that affect the performance of computers.

It is important that you have a quality anti virus program running on your computer to prevent infestations. However you need to scan your system to see if there is any malware already installed and remove any issues found.

The system registry is the root cause of over ninety percent of computer performance issues. It is a good idea to have a registry cleaner. CCleaner or EasySystemCleaner are two good choices but there are many others as well. These programs help to automatically check and fix any registry issues found.

The newest Windows operating systems are tailored to look pretty cool but it comes at a price in system performance. You can tweak these settings to keep a nice look to the computer but offering better performance. If you do not care about all the new fancy features including drop shadow, etc then you can change the default to ‘best performance’.

Sometimes even the background on your desktop can affect your system performance. You can turn off the background to see if that makes your system run faster. Changing your display settings to a lower resolution will not compromise the quality of your screen but may help to improve your system performance as well.

Settings in your internet browser can affect how fast your internet experience is as well. The settings for the amount of cache and whether you can view pages offline can sharply decrease the performance of your experience.

But you will not achieve as significant improvement in speed from just adjusting your computers settings. If you have registry errors or malware on your computer these are the biggest culprits that affect the performance of computers.

It is important that you have a quality anti virus program running on your computer to prevent infestations. However you need to scan your system to see if there is any malware already installed and remove any issues found. Microsoft has some good utilities and anti-virus software and scanners you can download from their website. Check out their Security Essentials section when you visit online.

While there are tweaks you can make to your computer in order to improve how fast it boots up and runs overall there are some hardware improvements you might want to consider as well.

Using an external hard drive is one way to improve the performance of your computer. You can archive lesser uses files to this drive freeing up space on the internal hard drive of the system. Moving over pictures and music files makes sense and any other items that you do not need immediate access to. This is an option for both desktop and laptop users.

If the internal hard drive of your computer is over twenty percent full you really need to move things off. An external hard drive is a great solution for this purpose. The fact that these drives are portable makes them handy to carry with you allowing you to have more of your photos, songs and other files with you when you need them most.

Purchase a hard drive that will connect through the fastest port on your computer making sure that this is not just one more drag on your system resources. External hard drive are quite reasonably priced and you can find many gigabytes of storage with a compact footprint.

Adding additional RAM to your computer is another option that will help to improve its performance. RAM is also relatively cheap now and easy to upgrade your system. For those computers that are unable to be upgraded they have the ability to use a USB flash drive as extra memory. Either way adding additional memory is one sure way to improve the speed of your computer.

If when you turn on your computer you have time to wait for a pot of coffee to brew your computer could use some help. There are many things that can affect how fast your computer boots up especially if you are on a network.

The tool that Microsoft provides to help improve how fast your computer boots up is the MSCONFIG utility. With this tool you are able to control the programs that automatically startup. Programs that are set to automatically startup not only slow down the boot process they will slow down your computer overall. This is due to the fact that these programs, when started automatically, they run in the background. So if you do not use the IM programs or other items that are starting up you should just turn them off by unchecking them in the Start Up tab of the System Configuration Utility window.

One thing to know if you have an XP computer is that any program essential to the running of the operating system is listed in Windows Services meaning anything else in the Start Up tab is fair game and can be toggled off.

If your computer system is really running slower than you want you might consider adding additional RAM. More memory usually helps most computers perform better. Be sure before you buy that you read the documentation that came with your computer so you will purchase compatible memory. For some operating systems you can opt to use a flash USB drive to add memory if you are unable or just do not want to upgrade the internal memory of the machine.

While most computers begin to slow down over time if you notice an unusual extreme slowness with your PC suddenly then the suspected cause is more than likely malware. Malware can not only slow your system down they can be very nasty issues that can cause corruption of data and even complete system failure. You need to be sure that you protect your computer from becoming infected with malware. But, in the event something does get through you need a good malware removal tool.

You can get malware by downloading and installing items from the internet as well as through links in emails. Whenever you click the “I Agree” statement if you have not read all the fine print you may actually be authorizing the installation of these nefarious programs.

If the malware is spyware it can consume your computers internet bandwidth, memory and other system resources making your computer and internet experience slow. Spyware can modify, disable or delete programs, folders and files. This type of software can use a back door to take control of your PC making it a host and collect information about you and transmit it to a third party without your knowledge.

Signs of infections are the sudden appearance of pop-up windows randomly opening up when using your computer and internet browser.

You can download and install software to protect your computer from these threats free from the Microsoft Security Essentials website.

While cleaning up your system and ensuring that it does not have any viruses are well known solutions for a slow running computer there are other things you might not be aware or that you can so.

One thing you should always be sure to do is to download and install any and all operating system updates. Also be sure to have the latest browser version and hardware drivers as well. You can see if your computer qualifies to upgrade to the next version of the operating system as it may offer more power and use a smaller footprint on the hard drive.

Extreme measures to improve the performance of your computer include reformatting the hard drive and re-installing the operating system. This is usually a last resort measure for systems experience extreme slowness issues or other issues with viruses infections.

Detecting and repairing disk errors is also an important thing to do on a routine basis that not many people actually do. Over time the hard drive can develop bad sectors that will cause many issues from slowness to the inability for your processor to access programs and write to or save files. The Error Check utility is designed to determine if your computers hard drive has any bad sectors and fix them when they are found.

While most issues causing your computer to be slow are easily resolved sometimes, in rare instances, you do have to undertake more drastic measures to fix the issue.

There are many things that can cause computers to slow down and the resolution is different based on the cause.

As you browse the internet small program files are downloaded including Java applets and ActiveX controls. They are ‘temporary’ files but are stored in a folder on your computers hard drive and do not delete automatically. Other ‘temporary’ files include web page caches that will help you access pages quicker but they have expiration dates and are also not deleted automatically. Other items that may cause slowness and other issues are internet cookies.

Also, whenever you delete a file or folder you think you are doing your system a good thing? Right? Wrong? Actually when you delete files or folders they are not removed from the hard drive just moved to the Recycle Bin. This can be a good thing if you inadvertently delete something you really need. But items in this folder can accumulate over time taking up significant hard drive space.

Other items that can clutter up your computer and slow it down are remote desktop files, setup log files and backup files for earlier versions of the operating system as well as restore points.

You can easily clean out all these items by running the Disk Cleanup utility provided in the Microsoft software. This tool is designed to find and list all the items you can safely remove from your computer. Run this utility weekly and you will be doing your computer and yourself a favor by keeping it cleaned up.

There are many things that you can do maintain your computer and improve its performance. Compressing older files will allow you to keep them on your computers hard drive without having to delete them. This is a perfect solution for files that you do not access on a routine basis but want to keep handy on your computer. Note, however, if you do access these files it will take a bit longer to open them the first time after you have compressed them. You can set a utility to automatically compress old files and set the age of the files you wish to have compressed making this an automatic process.

Using the Disk Cleanup utility analyzed your computers hard drive finding all items that are safe to remove. You have the option to either keep or delete these items. You can choose to have this task automated if you desire to do so. It is recommended to use the Disk Cleanup utility weekly to rid your computer of any temporary files as well as emptying the Recycle Bin.

After performing the above utilities you should be sure to run the Disk Defragmenter utility to clean up how the hard drive is organized. Over time using your PC files and programs are scattered all over the hard drive. Getting these files and programs in a more orderly fashion closer together can also help to improve the performance of your computer.