Being sure that your computers operating system and programs are up to date is the first step to optimizing the speed of your computer. Next scan your computer for viruses, spyware, adware and other malware. All these issues can be the root cause of the slowness of your PC. You can use the free programs Microsoft Security Essentials or Malwarebytes to help you with this task.

Next be sure to uninstall programs that are not used or needed. Be sure to use the Add/Remove Program utility in the control panel. Many of these programs may be running in the background and using precious system resources. You can disable any startup program that runs in the background by using the msconfig utility.

After performing these tasks be sure to perform use the Disk Cleanup tool as it will analyze your computer and list all the other items that are safe to delete to free up even more space on your computer.

Once all unnecessary programs and files are gone from your PC be sure to run the Disk Defragmenter utility to re-organize the hard drive more efficiently.

Finally the error checking utility will determine if your computers hard drive has any bad sectors and fix them as well.

Other things you can do to help your computers performance is to keep it in a well ventilated space and dust free.

Once you have performed all these tasks you should notice an improvement in the speed of your computer.

Microsoft provides a disk defragmentation utility that will re-organize your computers hard drive to centralize all the programs and files getting rid of the spaces. Every time you add a software program or file to the hard drive as well as when you open and write to files bits and pieces are strewn all over the hard disk. When the programs and files are located all in one area the processor of the computer can access them more quickly.
While it is amazing that your computers processor can piece together all these bits of information you can lend it a hand by keeping the hard drive as defragmented as possible.

The system Registry is another area when problems arise will cause issues with slowness in your computer. The Registry holds all the information about your computer as well as the software and hardware. From time to time invalid entries get written to the Registry. This can be caused by power interruptions and system and software crashes. If you do not uninstall a software program properly it can cause issues in the Registry. When you are able to remove these invalid entries you can increase the speed of your PC noticeably.

As important as the Registry is you would think that Microsoft would include a tool to analyze and fix Registry entries. However they have not but there are many good products you can find on the market. Ccleaner is freeware that is a registry cleaner you might want to give a try.

If you have noticed that your computer is running slower then there are some things you can do to make it run faster.

The first step to getting your computer to start up faster and run faster is to prevent the programs from automatically starting up that are not necessary. You can turn off or on software to auto start in the msconfig utility.

When you delete files they go to the recycle bin. However they are still on your computers hard drive. Be sure to empty the recycle bin on a regular basis to free up this space.

Running the Disk Cleanup utility will analyze your computers hard drive and allow you to choose what files you want to delete. It will empty the recycle bin and remove temporary internet and system files as well.

Once you have cleaned up your hard drive you should then run the Disk Defragmenter program. This will reorganize your programs and files making it easier to open and run them.

Next you should run the Error Checking utility. This utility will find and repair any bad sectors on your computers hard drive.

Having a quality anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-adware software program is very important to prevent an infection by these types of malware. You will need one that will analyze your computer and remove any item found as well. Malware can cause you more problems than just a slow running computer and you do not want an infection.

While Microsoft provides many tools that will help you keep your computer in top shape they do not provide a tool that will fix issues found in the registry. There are many ones that you can find on the market that will do this for you. It is important to realize that you do not want to manually mess around with the registry entries as you may cause more problems than you fix.

The registry is the location of the information needed to keep your software programs and hardware working properly on your computer. Entries are made when programs and hardware are installed and as they run. When you experience system power interruptions or software crashes this can cause registry keys to become broken.

Some registry cleaners are good at removing empty entries but that is not enough. You want one that will find and resolve other issues including invalid class keys, invalid shortcuts, invalid shell extensions and deleting outdated driver locations. These are the most common things in the registry that will affect the performance of your computer.

A registry tool that incorporates a backup utility for the registry is also a good idea. In this way you will always have the option to backup to a point that you know there was not an issue. An Advanced optimizer for the registry is another feature to look for in a good registry tool.

There are many great registry tools on the market. You just need to research and compare to find the best one you want to use.

You can optimize and boost the performance of the speed you browse the internet. There are several factors that can impact how fast you download information and how fast you can surf the internet. Some are beyond your control and others are not. For example you cannot control how fast your ISP’s connection to the internet is. Time of day and the number of other users using your network provider can also affect your internet connection speeds.

However there are some ways you can improve how fast your browsing experience is no matter the type of connection you use.

For dial-up connections you want to be sure that you are using a 56k modem and when you connect it is at that speed. You can see in the task bar how fast your connection is. Be sure to use phone cords less than eight feet long and remove all other devices between the modem and the wall jack even surge protectors as anything can create line noise and make for a slower connection.

If you are using a cable modem you can have speeds five hundred times faster than dialup or even more. But still you can improve this performance if you shop the providers in your area and find the fastest, most reliable network.

Other connection methods include ISDN and DSL and they both have issues related to connection speed and well as general overall service. ISDN is complicated to install and poor customer support. DSL is the latest on the market and only available in limited areas.

There are some simple steps that you can take to speed up your computer. Basic routing maintenance is recommended and will help ensure that your computer performs well for you and also that you are protected when you are surfing the internet.

Preventing spyware from infecting your system is optimal but it is imperative to remove it if it gets on your computer. Spyware will run in the background and can cause computer slowness as well as system crashes. But that is not all it will do. Spyware is a threat to your personal information. Live OneCare is a scan the Windows provides for free that will fight and protect your computer from getting infected with spyware as well as viruses.

It is important to download the free Microsoft Security Essentials to protect your system from future infections from adware, spyware and viruses. This removal tool will automatically update with the latest versions ensuring that your system is protected in the future.

Also you can use the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal tools to check your system for specific, malicious programs including Mydoom, Sasser, Blaster and others.

Malicious programs are the biggest threat to both your personal information as well as the performance of your computer. The better protection you have the less you will have to worry about these concerns. Spend a little time and money investing in protecting yourself from these threats and you will be glad you did.

There are many reasons why your computer might be running slow. It could be that your hard drive is getting too full. You could have a virus, spyware or adware installed on it that is causing it to be slow. If you use a lot of graphic intensive programs like games and photo editing programs you may need a better graphics card. So improving the speed of your PC may not be confined to just one thing or another. But there are some standard things that will make most computers run better.

The first thing you need to do is to see how much space you have on your hard drive. If it is almost full you need to get rid of some stuff. Try to find any duplicate files that are on your disk drive and remove them. If there are any programs you no longer use then you need to un-install them.

After removing all unnecessary files and programs you can run the Disk Defragmenter tool that Microsoft provides. This will re-organize your hard drive placing everything back together in one area of the drive. When your files are organized in this way it is easier for your computer to find them and it will run faster.

It is possible that you need to add some RAM or upgrade your computers graphics card. If either of these is insufficient it will cause your computer to perform poorly.

There is not one sure method that will solve all computers slowness issues but if you take a hard look at your specific issues and follow some basic routine maintenance steps you can get your computer running faster again.

If your slow computer is getting down? There are five simple things you can do that will help improve how well your computer performs. The first thing to do would be to check for and remove any virus, spyware or adware. Tale tale signs of having some of these malware programs on your computer would be if you receive a pop-up every time you go to a web page or the speed navigating to pages is increasingly slower and slower.

If this is the case then you definitely want to install some tools that will help you find, remove and then prevent future infestations of these malware issues. A couple great tools include Ad-Aware from LavaSoft and Spybot S&D. Either of these programs should get rid of most of these issues.

Installing a really good virus scanner is also recommended. These are not free but preventing an infection that can compromise both your computer and your personal information is priceless. The big players in anti viral software include Norton, Symantec and MacAfee.

Running the disk defragmentation utility is also another tool you should use at least monthly. Other times to run it would be when you add or remove any software programs or very large files from your computers hard drive.

You might not think about this but the environment that your computer is in can also affect its performance. If your computer is very dusty on in an area with poor ventilation it can make it work harder.

When you look at the screen of your computer think that everything that is displayed there is stored somewhere on the computers hard drive or in the video buffer of the memory. Each spot on the display is a spot of memory and is being constantly refreshed. So the more colors your display uses the more information is required to be stored in the video buffer.

You can change the number of colors that your display used to lower the amount of information that is required to be stored in the video buffer. If you reduce the color display by fifty percent it will take half as long for your display to update and this will improve the performance of your computer.

You do not really need the highest resolution of colors unless you are a high end gamer or a graphic designer. The good thing about this is you can change the settings and use it for a while but if you ever want to you can change it back to the full display settings.

It is easy to change this setting by right clicking somewhere in the desktop and clicking on Properties and going into the Settings tab. Under Color Quality is where you can adjust your computers setting from “Highest” or “Millions of Colors” to “Thousands of Colors” or “Medium”.

Sometimes you just have to update some of the hardware components in your computer to get it to run faster. If you do not have enough memory you can always add more RAM. Even if you do not have any open slots available in your computer there may be a solution for you as well. RAM is a cheap and easy way to get your computer to run a little faster. There are configuration tools that will help you determine if you would actually benefit from adding more RAM. Sometimes you may have to replace the RAM within your computer with more powerful RAM.

Replacing the video card in your computer is another hardware update that might affect how your computer performs. This is especially true if you use very graphic intensive programs. If you play games or use photo editing programs such as Photoshop and your computer came with a stock video card more than likely you will benefit from updating it. Video cards are not as cheap as RAM to install or replace and that is why stock computers come with inferior cards it is to keep the initial cost of the machine cheaper. But if you are serious about speed and play games or use other graphic intensive programs if you did not invest in a quality computer with a quality video card now is the time to replace it.

These are the two hardware upgrades that can have the biggest impact on how fast your computer performs.