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My laptop is running slow, what to do? Is that a question you often ask yourself or your friends? Well after reading the following article you wouldn't have to ask this question again. All you have to do is follow a few steps and your laptop will keep running smoothly for a long time.
1.Defragment your laptop on a regular basis – at least once a week. What your laptop does is that it breaks all of your files up into various pieces, and scatters them throughout your hard drive known as fragments. And what defragmenting does is that it takes all these fragments, and re-organizes them into a space where they can be easily accessed in a faster way and thus reduces the time it takes to seek these files. To do that all you need to do is go to your system tools and click defragment, choose the drives and wait. You should not operate on your laptop while its being defragmented. So it's better to schedule the defragmentation weekly at a time when the laptop would not be used and it will do the rest. You can download cCleaner from cnet.
2.Cleaning your Registry is a must. One of the most important parts of any Windows based laptop is the registry. A lot of Fatal errors to your laptop can occur from disfiguration or corruption of this of windows. The most common reason for registry problems is an abrupt or a corrupt software installation. You should Keep your registry clean and also consider getting and running a registry cleaner from time to time. There are a few of them available for free online, such as cCleaner which not only does that but also performs other operations which are going to be mentioned in a few other steps.
3.Un-clutter your hard drive. Its important to keep your hard drive light and get rid of unnecessary programs and files such as entertainment, games, music, pictures, etc. If you allow these files to pile up, they can clog the hard drive and slow it down. And If your hard drive is too full, it can also cause severe problems with your laptop's RAM and processing capability which is bound to lead to significant slow-downs and frequent crashes also known as BSOD's( Blue Screen of Deaths). Also if your primary drive is too full it can reduce the amount of virtual memory which will further slow you laptop down.
4.Get good Anti-virus Software. This is of the utmost importance. Having a good anti-virus program with active scanning, firewall and Spyware/Adware software will prevent all sorts of infections and attacks on your PC. Most people prefer to do this every day at start-up. Also these software can be programmed to run automatically on their own schedule without your assistance, which can also save you a lot of time.
5.Empty the recycle bin regularly. Many people believe that deleting a file removes it from your laptop permanently, but that's not the case. All it does is send deleted files to the recycle bin where these files occupy space. So it’s very important to empty your recycle bin form time to time. It can also be done using Ccleaner which is a free software as mentioned earlier.
6.Erase temporary Internet Files. This aspect of cleaning your system is often ignored but it cannot be stressed or emphasized enough. Every time you visit a website or open a file it automatically creates a temporary copy which is stored your hard drive. They may be labeled "temporary" but tend to stay in the drive for a long time. The more of these files you have on your system, the further they are going to slow down your laptop. It doesn't matter which internet browser you are using, they all save these files. Again you can take the help of cCleaner to get rid of these files as well since they cannot be accessed easily.
7.Get rid of unnecessary startup programs. Many times there are unnecessary software start as your windows boots and keep running in the background using up ram and slowing down your pc. So it’s important to identify these applications and prevent them from starting up. Again Ccleaner comes to your aid for this purpose. Also, running “msconfig” from the run menu will show you all the startup programs. You can clear the checkboxes to disable items from automatically starting on run up. However, be careful which boxes you uncheck. Do not inadvertently disable your antivirus.
8.Keep your laptop running cool. This is Very important in order to prevent your laptop from getting damaged. Try to avoid keeping your laptop directly on a soft surface such as your bed or a couch as it would not get the ventilation it needs. Notebooks sink into such soft surfaces, and this prevents the vents from exhausting hot air, which causes components to overheat. It needs to be able to breathe freely and allow air to circulate from the vents. You processors, graphic solution and memory are all at risk from overheating, and even your motherboard can get damaged.
9.Uninstall unused programs. Any programs that are not being used by you are only taking up more space on your hard drive. It's better to uninstall them and then clear your registry entries as well.
10.Upgrade your RAM if necessary. If you are one of those users who has many large applications opened at once, you may not have enough RAM to support running all these applications on your system. So it’s advisable to purchase and upgrade your RAM. Notebook memory is a lot cheaper than it used to be. If you’re using Windows 7, it might be worthwhile to upgrade to 4 GB, if you’re feeling you’re notebook is sluggish. You can get 25 per cent better performance with certain applications by upgrading from 2 GB to 4 GB.
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