Slowness in a computer can be caused by a variety of factors, some of which are malicious and some of which are natural processes that occur over the life of a computer. Regardless of the cause, you can fix a slow computer and improve its speed by performing both hardware and software tweaks. You don't need to know much about computers to do this, but having at least a basic understanding will be helpful.

Tweak the Software

If your computer is slowing down due to software issues, there are several things you can to do speed it up. The first thing you should do is run a virus scan and remove any malicious software from your machine that may be slowing it down. Once your computer is clean of any viruses, you can defragment the hard drive. Third-party applications are sold for this task, but you can also use the built-in Windows Defrag tool (found by pressing Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Defragment). This will speed up the rate at which your computer can read and write data to the hard drive. You should also uninstall any software that you aren't using, since any programs that are installed on your computer are consuming resources that could be put to use in other applications.

Improve the Hardware

If your computer is more than a few years old, you may want to think about upgrading it so that it can support the latest applications and games without slowing down. The two best things to upgrade are your computer's RAM and the CPU. If your computer supports more RAM, upgrading this component will drastically improve how fast it runs in the area of application loading and how many programs you can run at once. If you are able to upgrade the CPU, you'll be able to run more data-intensive applications, such as video editing programs. Whether your computer is upgradable depends on the inside components. In general, the RAM is always upgradable, unless it was built with the maximum amount of RAM that the motherboard will support. The CPU can be harder to upgrade since you have to upgrade to a CPU that matches the motherboard CPU port.

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Speed Up Your Computer

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