Things You'll Need
Time and patience.
Instructions
1
Make sure you have enough memory. To
do so, navigate from the "Start" menu
and select "Computer." Click "System
Properties." Under the System section,
the Installed memory (RAM) line states
the amount of RAM in your computer
appears.
Before You Buy Computer Memory
Upgrades, you can find out how much
you have by clicking on the System Icon
in the Control Panel. The amount is on
the first tab that comes up, the General
Tab.
A Windows XP computer should have at
least 1GB of memory and 2GB is a more
comfortable amount. With Vista, be sure
to have 2GB of memory you'll be much
happier. According to Microsoft, a 32-
bit computer running Windows 7 should
have a minimum of 1GB; on a 64-bit
system, make sure that your computer
has at least 2GB RAM.
Beware of memory managers or
"optimizers." These applications free up
RAM but at the expense of writing lots
of memory to the much slower hard
disk.
2
Make sure you have a fast enough
processor. To do so, navigate from the
"Start" menu and select "Computer."
Click "System Properties." Under the
System section, the Processor line states
the type of processor and its speed.
Windows states that the minimum
processor speed to run Windows 7 is 1
gigahertz (GHz) or faster for both a 32-
bit or 64-bit processor.
3
Clean up your desktop by moving files
to folders. If you have many large files
in your desktop, you're looking for
trouble.
4
Uninstall unneeded applications, which
hogs valuable disk drive space.
5
Make sure your computer has the latest
system updates. Navigate to Windows
Update (windowsupdate.Microsoft.com)
for the latest Windows patches.
6
Keep your antivirus/Internet security
software up-to-date and scan your
disks. If you don't have an up-to-date
antivirus program, several high-quality
free applications are available to the
private consumer, including Microsoft
Security Essentials (Microsoft.com/
security_essentials), AVG (free.avg.com)
and Avast (avast.com).
7
Defragment your hard drive regularly.
In Vista and Windows 7, an automatic
defragment system is enabled by
default. If you want to defragment
outside the schedule, you could
defragment by navigating to the "Start"
menu and typing "defrag" (without
quotes) in the Search field. Then click
on "Disk Defragmenter." The Disk
Defragmenter dialog opens. Select the
desired disk and click the "Analyze"
button to determine whether your disk
or partition requires defragmenting. If it
does, click the "Defragment" button.
Defragmenting should be done every
week if possible and can take several
hours, so schedule the defrag session it
at night or while you're away from your
computer.
Tips & Warnings
Many will suspect their computer is slow
because of a virus. This may be true in only
a minority of cases, however if you suspect
this go to an Antivirus site, like EST or
Symantec's and do an online scan. Online
scans are less likely to be blocked by
installed malware.
