How do you fix computer slowdown?

Answer 1

Computers can become slow for a number of reasons and it's important to find out what's the cause. One of the most common causes is viruses and malware. So the first thing you should do when your computer slows down is to run a thorough virus and malware scan with reliable software like Avira Free and Malwarebytes. They will find and delete most infections.

If the antivirus scan comes clean, you should look into your hardware. Computers can slow down when there is insufficient RAM or your hard drive is malfunctioning. Check if RAM can be increased and run the Chkdsk utility (right-click on the hard drive - go to properties - Service tab - run Check Disk).

Lack of cleanup and maintenance can also make your computer a lot slower. To make it fast again you'll need to remove junk files (like temp files, browser cache, etc.), uninstall software you never use, sort through your startup entries and disable stuff like Windows Live Messenger - you don't need it to load on startup and hog your system! Then clean the registry and defrag your hard drives. All this should speed up your system.

There is a really good program called BoostSpeed that can do it all and more, like optimize your internet connection settings for your hardware, shred files, tweak Windows settings.