Do photos slow down your computer?

Answer 1

No. The photos being on your computer will not slow it down at all.

There are several things which may slow a computer down which do not have to do with photos:

- Bad software/unnecessary browser toolbars (only download or install software if you know what its for)

- Viruses (do not be tricked into downloading and running programs from the internet if you didnt specifically seek them out)

- A slow computer (usually if its a really cheap computer or if it's over 4 years old)

- Torrent downloading programs (will slow your computer down while they're running)

- Sometimes antivirus programs (but they can be worth it if they prevent even one virus or malware from getting onto your computer)

- Too many programs launching on startup (each one takes time to start, and they can sometimes eat up your system's short term memory (RAM) and make less space for the programs you want to trun (e.g. an internet browser).

Answer 2

David Bobb is partially correct: pictures will not slow down your computer just because they are pictures. However, where they are located and how much space the entire collection of your pictures (and other data) consume on your hard drive can lead to slow operation.

To start the explanation, if you have a habit of putting lots of things on your desktop, then you must be aware that each file that you keep close at hand like that eats up a bit of RAM. The more you have on the desktop (especially if you have lots of folders on your desktop, each of which is filled with various files), the more memory is consumed and the slower your machine will operate due to a lack of available RAM for Windows and applications to use. If you want to have ready access to your pictures or other files, then create a shortcut on the desktop that will open the location elsewhere on the hard drive when you are ready to use those files. For example, if you have your files in c:\users\JoeBob\My Pictures\Christmas 2014, then browse down to My Pictures, right click on Christmas 2014, and click on Copy on the context menu that appears. After this, click on some part of the desktop where there are no icons and right-click again but this time click on Paste Shortcut. This will work just like any other shortcut, keeping your files just a double-click away and keeping your RAM freed up.

Now, in addition to this, if you have scads of pictures or music or movies or whatever else or some combination thereof and your hard drive has less than 20 percent of its space remaining available, then you will once again notice that your machine is slowing down. This is because Windows requires and expects at least 20 percent to remain available for its own uses (such as the virtual memory swap file). Once you start cutting into that final bit of the drive, Windows will start becoming quite unhappy as it will start to shrink the swap file beyond its preferred size so as to keep more space available to you as the user. However, it will do this at the expense of proper operation. As you continue to use more and more of that final 20 percent, the machine will take progressively longer to boot, execute programs, print, and may even lock up or blue screen, thus requiring a reboot and losing anything that was not previously saved prior to the aforementioned error.

At this point, the proper answer is either to move files off your computer and onto an external hard drive or burn them to an optical disc (CD or DVD) or have a larger (or, in the case of a desktop computer, maybe a second) hard drive installed in your computer. If you move the files off the computer, then make sure that you defragment your computer to clean up the messes left behind. If you instead buy a larger hard drive, then have a local repair shop copy the hard drive (called either cloning or ghosting) over to the new larger drive. Also, make sure that the shop defragments the drive. (This is something that any professional shop should do without additional charge.) If you opt for a second hard drive, then, just like with the moving of the files to optical discs, make sure that you defragment the machine yourself once you finish the data move.

The other issues he suggests as possible reasons for slow operation can be true but they do not apply to the issue of photos (or data in general), so I will not address them in this answer.