Over time every PC will begin to slow down. We explain some simple ways to get a computer back up to speed
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PCs don’t grow old gracefully. After a short time, your once-nippy Windows XP or Vista PC can feel as though its hard is running in a bath of super-thick custard. And after a few years the problem can get so bad the PC is almost unusable. It can take forever to start up and then promptly stops or slows to a crawl whenever you try to do anything useful with it.
If this sounds familiar, don’t worry. There are lots of ways to fix a sluggish PC that won’t cost you a penny. In some cases performance improvement is so good that a PC previously destined for the scrap heap is good for another year or two of use. And in these financially uncertain times, that has to be worth a try.
Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow
If you have experienced the joy of turning on a new PC for the first time, you will probably remember being impressed with how fast it seemed to run. Sadly, this joy soon turns to frustration. The longer you use your PC, and despite your best efforts, Windows just seems to run slower and slower.
There are lots of ways a PC can slow down. It might take ages from the time you turn it on until you see the Windows logon screen or desktop, you might have to wait a long time for programs to open, browsing the web might become a chore rather than a pleasure, or perhaps the PC is always crashing or freezing up – usually at the worst possible moment. So why does this happen to so many PCs and what is the solution?
We are not going to spend too much time explaining the technicalities of why Windows PCs slow down over time, but you cannot always blame Microsoft. A good proportion of the problems are self-inflicted, even if we do not realise it, and many other common faults can be caused by badly-written software programs.
The reason a new PC feels quick is because it has little to do. Only the ba sic components needed to run the operating system are installed and these are under Windows’ tight control. The trouble begins when we start installing and uninstalling new programs.
It might sound obvious but it’s easy to forget that every new program installed needs to make use of some of the PC’s resources:memory,harddisk space, processing power and so on. Some programs are more greedy than others, though, and some programs are not particularly good at sharing with others. With more and more programs fighting for computer resources it can get to the point where none work very well.
First things first
Before you start trying to clean up your PC, remember to take the usual precautions to prevent against data loss by performing a full backup. If you are unsure how to do this you will findfull instructions about backing up on our website.
You should also run a completeanti-virusandanti-spywarescan before taking any other action. There is no point trying to improve performance on a PC that is being slowed down by malicious software. Another important step is to ensure your hard disk has no errors. This may sound scary but it’s actually very easy to do:
1. The files and directories on your PC can be corrupted by power cuts, Windows crashes or by turning your PC off at the mains. It’s worth checking these before defragmenting a drive or if you are getting regular freezes or crashes. Open My Computer (XP) or Computer (Vista) and find the disk drive (usually labelled C:) that contains your Windows folder.
2. Right-click the C: drive icon and choose Properties from the menu. Click the Tools tab and press ‘Check now’. In the box that appears, tick the box labelled ‘Automatically fix file system errors’ but ensure the one below it is unticked. Click Start and Windows will ask if you want to schedule a check the next time your PC Starts. Click Yes (XP) or ‘Schedule disk check’ (Vista).
3. Shut down Windows and restart your PC. Before Windows starts, you will see a screen in XP that runs the disk check automatically. In Vista it is a black screen with white text. It can take quite a while to complete, depending on how fast your PC is and if any problems are found. Then it will restart your PC automatically and go to the usual Windows login screen.
How many programs have you installed on your PC during its lifetime? If the answer is ‘none’ we would be very surprised. Most of us have tried out lots of programs, and if you count things like software updates andadd-onsfor web browsers, most of us will have added dozens since our computer was new.
The next question is, how many of those programs did you uninstall afterwards? Any program you install takes up space on your hard disk and depending on the particular program it could also install components that try to run when your PC starts up, even if you never use the program.
It doesn’t take many such programs to use up a good chunk your PC’s available memory and slow down your PC. Even if you try to meticulously remove every unwanted program, many leave remnants behind, cluttering up the PC and slowing it down. Watch our video tutorials on how to add memory to adesktoporlaptopPC here.
Less is more
If your PC takes more than a couple of minutes to get to the Windows login screen, the problem is more likely to be related todrivers. This is harder to fix and usually requires you to re-install Windows itself.
However, if your PC boots up to the Windows login screen in a reasonable time but takes ages to load the desktop after typing in your login details, the culprits are likely to be installed programs loading bits of themselves. Look at the right-hand side of your Windows Taskbar, next to the time display. If there are more than a handful of icons there, this could explain your PC’s sluggishness.
Each icon in this part of the taskbar (known as theNotification Area) is a program or utility that is loaded into the PC’s memory and using up precious computing resources. Some can be useful, such as the clock and volume control, but others often do nothing but slow down the computer. Fortunately there is a built-in tool in Windows called Disk Cleanup that is a great place to start on your quest to rejuvenate your PC. Find it by clicking Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools then Disk Cleanup.
Although it’s a safe tool to use, there are three items that you should think twice about removing with Disk Cleanup. The first is ‘Office Setup Files’ if it’s listed. Removing these files will not break Microsoft Office, but you might get pestered by Office to insert the original installation disc. If you have the disc, you can safely tick the box, but if not it’s best not to choose this option.
The next exception is ‘Compress old files’. This reduces the size of files that have not been used for a while by compressing them. While it can gain you quite a bit of space, it can take a very long time to complete even on a fast PC. If you decide to use this option, be sure to have a few hours spare.
Finally, the ‘Hibernation File Cleaner’ item should be left unticked if you are using alaptop. This may be a large file, but it’s part of the power management system and, without d
More options
In the Disk Cleanup dialogue box is an extra tab labelled ‘More Options’ (you won’t see it in Vista if you didn’t click the ‘show files from all users’ option). If you click on this you will just see two buttons. Click the middle one (XP) or the top one (Vista) and it will open the section of Control Panel that will let you remove any unwanted programs.
Look carefully through the list of installed programs, and if there are any you know you don’t want to use any more, highlight each one and click the ‘Remove’ button next to it in XP, or right-click and choose ‘Uninstall’ in Vista.
If there are any programs you don’t recognise or you’re even slightly unsure of, it’s best to leave them alone for now.
The bottom button in the More Options tab cleans up System Restore information. We would not recommend using this option in normal circumstances, as System Restore is an important recovery tool.
Start it up
We mentioned earlier that your taskbar’s Notification Area might be full of puzzling icons. Most of these are linked to programs that run automatically when Windows starts – examples might be your printer’s control centre or your anti-virus program. Some will be necessary, others not.
To check what programs are loading at startup, first look in the Startup folder in the Start menu: click Start, choose All Programs and scroll down to the Startup folder.
You may see some items in this folder. You can safely remove any you don’t want by right-clicking and choosing ‘Delete’. Doing so will not remove the program form your computer, but will prevent it from running each time thePC starts.
Defragment your fragments
Windows is very messy when it comes to storing your files on theharddisk . Initially it places files down so that their entire contents are stored in one location, but as the disk fills up it will start to scatter files in pieces all over the place. This is known as fragmentation, and it slows your computer down as it takes the hard disk longer to read the fragmented files.
This damage can be fixed by a process called defragmentation – sometimes called ‘defrag’ for short. Defragmenting your disk regularly is a good idea and Vista does this automatically every week by default but only if the PC is turned on.
To run a manual defragmentation in Vista, locate the drive in Computer, right-click the icon and choose the Tools tab. Click the ‘Defragment now’ button and you will see the schedule. You can change it here if you wish, but to defragment immediately, click ‘Defragment now’. Choose which disks to defragment and click OK.
The process can take a very long time, but you can continue using your PC while it works.
In XP, there is no scheduling available, but the manual procedure is similar. In My Computer, right-click the hard disk, choose Tools then select ‘Defragment now’. When the application window appears, click the Defragment button to start.
If you want to schedule defragmenting in XP, or want an alternative program for Vista,Defraggler is an easy-to-use free programwith these capabilities.
Going the extra mile
We have outlined some straightforward ways to get started on your PC cleanup, but you might be thinking: “Isn’t there a program to automate all this?” The answer is there are dozens of programs that claim to be able to speed up a PC.
The problem is not all are well-written or trustworthy. There are a lot of fake programs out there that do more harm than good.
One of the more respected free programs isCcleaner. This will guide you through cleaning unwanted files and shortcuts and also helps you uninstall programs remove startup programs. It can also perform an advanced tidy-up of the Windows Registry (the repository for all Windows’ internal settings).
Poorly written software can put incorrect entries in the Registry and failed uninstalls can leave missing links and other errors that affect the workings of Windows. A regular Registry scan, say once a month, can help keep things running smoothly.
To use Ccleaner download it from the link above and install the program. Run it then click on the Cleaner icon and Analyze. This is a quick way of doing much of what we have explained above, with some extra bells and whistles related to web browsers and other temporary files. Then press Run Cleaner to delete the items in the list when you are ready.
If you are still not happy with your PC, for a thorough Registry cleanup click the Registry icon on the left of the Ccleaner window and click the ‘Scan for issues’ button. When it has finished, you can inspect the list of Registry problems and click ‘Fix selected issues’.
This will prompt you to back up the Registry (click ‘Yes’, choose a name and location to save it and make a note of the information).
It will then walk through each issue with the option to delete or skip it. Click ‘Fix all issues’ to automatically fix all the detected issues. If you have multiple user accounts on your PC, you should log on to each account and run Ccleaner again.
It’s also important to remember that Registry cleaners can occasionally get a bit over zealous and remove items that are in fact needed by your PC. This is why Ccleaner prompts you to make a backup of the Registry before it makes any changes.
If your computer behaves strangely after being cleaned with Ccleaner, use this backup file to put things right: right-click on it and choose ‘Merge’ to put all the missing settings back.
Although the default settings are pretty safe in our experience, don’t play around with Ccleaner’s more advanced options and settings (the ones that are greyed out) unless you know what you are doing.
If you prefer the technical support and peace of mind of paid-for software, check out Computeractive’s reviews and stick with known brands.Iolo,PC ToolsandUniblueare three popular ones. You can find allour reviews of system optimisers here.
Help! It’s still not working!
Cleaning up your copy of Windows, whether manually or by using an automated tool can work wonders, but sometimes the computer will be in such a state that it just won’t help much.
If the Windows installation is so creaky that it’s not practical to sort out, you have a few other options. The first is to re-install Windows from scratch. You would be surprised how sprightly this can make your PC feel.
If your Windows installation is healthy but your PC is still slow, you can give Windows some more breathing space by upgrading some of the key hardware components. This does not have to be expensive or difficult.
Most of the time, though, following the basic steps we have outlined in this article should help sort out many of the problems in an old neglected PC and give it a new lease of life. It costs nothing, and in some cases it could even give you an extra year or two before you finally have to splash out on a new computer, so if your PC is sluggish why not give it a try today?