Speeding up your computer

Nobody wants to have a slow computer. If you have a slow computer that means it is going to take you a long time to get stuff done, it will take you longer to open any programs that you are wanting to use, and it will take you longer to do just about anything on the computer. The main reason that people have slow computers is because they do not keep the hard drive clean. Having a cluttered hard drive is bad for your computer because it will not allow it to run efficiently, which means it cannot run properly. What you need to do in order to speed up your computer is to clean up your hard drive.

Here are the steps you will need to follow to help clean up your hard drive so you can speed up your computer.

Step one:
You first need to free up some of your disk space. Freeing up disk space is important because it will allow you to improve the performance of your computer because your computer is not being bogged down with useless files or partial files. When your computer is not bogged down it can run smoother and more efficiently. To clean up your disk space you will need to run the Disk Cleanup utility in Windows. The utility is going to provide you with a list of files that can be safely deleted. You can also select which files you want to delete, you can delete everything, or you can choose from the various folders.

Step two:
You will need to defragment your computer because when files are separated and fragmented it slows down the performance of your computer. The reason for this is that the files are separated, so in order to run a certain program or open a specific file the computer must go through the entire hard drive to find all of the pieces of the file or program so it can open it. When you defragment your computer what you are doing is putting the fragmented files back together, which means they will be located near each other so that your computer can open up files or programs faster.

Step three:
In the newer versions of Windows, Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista, you can use a utility called Error Checking. What this utility does is check the integrity of all of the files stored on your hard drive. This is important to check because as you use your computer the hard drive can develop bad sectors. These bad sectors can significantly slow down the performance of your computer; in some cases, it can make doing certain tasks impossible. The utility will scan your hard drive for any bad sectors, file system errors, and repair them for you.

Step four:
You need to take the proper steps so that you are protecting your computer from spyware. The reason for this is that spyware is going to collect your personal information without you knowing about it. This means email addresses, usernames, and passwords are all at risk if your computer is infected with spyware. You can use different programs to protect yourself from spyware, once you install it make sure to do an active sweep at least once a week. Windows Defender comes with Windows Vista and is available for download for Windows XP SP2 free.

It is important to note that once you have cleaned up your hard drive you are going to need to keep it maintained. It is very easy to let things go once your computer is running properly again. To keep your computer running smoothly you must clean up your hard drive on a regular basis.