Computers and Technology

Computers are an essential part of everyday life. It's hard to find someone who hasn't used a computer and doesn't use one regularly. It is such an essential tool because it is used everyday, therefore it's important to keep it in tiptop shape. However, because it is used so often, the computer can start to run slow. There are several reasons as to why this problem occurs.

Corrupt registry

The first thing to look for when dealing with a slow computer speed is the registry. The registry holds all the system, hardware and software preferences. The registry can become corrupt if it isn't cleaned often. Cleaning it not only frees up space, but also solves some system errors that can give you trouble in the future.

If you are looking to get your registry cleaned, there is an easy solution. Commercial software developed for cleaning registries are plentiful today. Just make sure you get one that is up to date and top rated. Also, another tip is to get one that is also an optimizer. Cleaning your registry will do wonders for your computer's performance, optimizing it will get your speed running on overdrive!

Spyware

The second thing you should look into if you want to speed up your computer is checking to see if there is spyware and/or trojans infecting it. Surfing the Internet can be harmful to your operating system because there are so many harmful things out there waiting to damage it. Of course, I'm not advocating you stay off the "Net." I would never be able to go a day without surfing the Internet. I don't even know how I survived 15 years ago!

What I am saying is this, you should make sure you have a virus and spyware scanner installed on your computer and set up to run daily. Any decent spyware cleaner is also geared to clean your computer of known viruses, as well. On top of this, it will also scan for adware, malware, trojans and the like and it will delete these parasites after it finds them. So, this why it is important to have a quality spyware, or more accurately stated, a quality anti-spyware program installed on your computer.

Remember, even though it is not spyware's intent to slow down your computer, it does. Sometimes it will slow a computer down to an absolute halt! Automatically running a spyware scan, automatically will make sure you won't run into problems with this type of garbage slowing down your computer's speed, especially if you are using a highly rated spyware cleaner.

Too little memory

Another thing you should look for when your computer is running slow is the amount of memory or computer ram you have. As technology progresses, more and more programs are requiring more ram to run smoothly. Having adequate ram is essential to keeping the computer fast, especially if you plan on running multiple programs at once, which of course, we all do.

A computer running Windows XP can usually run well with 512MB of memory, unless it is a super gamer. In this case it may require twice as much RAM. A computer running Windows Vista needs 1024MB or 1Gig of memory in order to assure it will not run slowly.

Recently I've seen computers sold that were originally designed to run Windows XP. At the last minute, the manufacturers loaded them with the newly released Windows Vista. So, these computers were unbearably slow right out of the box because they only had 512MB of memory.

So, if you have a new computer with Vista and it has been slow right from the very start, see if it is one of these computers. It will be easy enough to have another memory stick added and your computer will be off and running.

There are other things that could be slowing down a computer but these things are not too common unless the computer is really old. Corrupt registry, spyware and insufficient ram are, by far and away the most common reasons why a computer loses speed.