16 Tips to Fix a Slow Computer

Are you tired and frustrated by your slow computer? Want to make your PC faster and want to know more on how to fix my computer for free? You’ve reached the right place! Here at Tech Coach Albert I’m working hard on teaching you the best ways to make your computer faster, fix that slow booting computer, how to fix computer viruses and best of all, how to fix my slow computer for FREE! Most all the tips I give below are tried, true and trusted solutions directly related to the slow computer fix.



Question! Are you more of a video watcher than a reader? If so, catch this on video here with my Slow Computer Fix video! Otherwise, continue on below for the details!

So, let’s get right to the point. Below are the 16 BEST Slow Computer Fixes (in order of easiest to hardest) you can find, and most are free! I’ll be working on adding more in-depth guides for each of these ways to fix a slow computer. I’d recommend entering your email in the upper right corner (desktop) or down below (mobile) so you can be one of the first to know when the detailed guides are available!

Most of these suggestions below rely on some basic computer knowledge and navigation. Check out this book for some further insight on understanding the basics of your computer:





1. Reboot or Restart Your Computer

Rebooting your computer is simply turning it off, and then turning back on. This clears out loads of temporary data stored within your PC and believe it or not, this CAN (and does!) solve a lot of problems. So, give it a shot. Turn that computer off for a second to clear out those temporary files and speed up that old PC. For a more info, check this post on how a restart can fix a slow computer.

2. Empty Recycle Bin

Emptying your recycle bin is a commonly left out task that most people forget to do. When you delete something, it doesn’t actually get deleted. It goes in the recycle bin just in case you did it by accident. That item is still taking up storage space on your computers hard drive, and freeing up storage space means your computer has to work less to find that data it actually needs. So make sure you regularly empty that recycle bin! For more details, check this post on why emptying the recycle bin can make your computer faster.

3. Uninstall Unused Programs

Just like emptying the recycle bin clears up the storage space on your computers hard drive, old programs that you no longer use also take up space and sometimes are even still running in the background and you don’t even realize it. Removing these old, unused or seldom used programs can greatly increase the speed of your computer. Head on over to your computer’s Control Panel and find the section to Remove Programs. Review that long list that appears and get rid of the stuff you don’t use!

4. Windows Disk Cleanup Utility

Still on the lines of cleaning up hard drive space, you can run the Windows Disk Cleanup utility to find temporary files, old backups that are outdated, etc to free up even more space on your computer’s hard drive. This can be found under the Tools tab when you right click on your Hard Drive that shows up in My Computer and choose the Properties option.

5. Defragment Your Hard Drive

Once you get all that junk removed off your drive from doing all the previous suggestions, you’ll want to defragment your hard drive. Basically, this refers to re-organizing all the data on your hard drive so it makes it easier for the computer to find what it needs. Think about your hard drive as a warehouse full of shelves and pallets of stuff. If you went through the warehouse and got rid of 1/3 of the pallets of stuff, wouldn’t it be much more efficient to re-organize the pallets closer together and get rid of the empty shelf space? Sure would make driving around that warehouse to get to your stuff much faster!

6. Remove Malware

Malware (as defined by Wikipedia) is short for malicious software. Which is any software used to disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information, or gain access to private computer systems. And quite frankly, it’s becoming more and more of a threat to our everyday internet experience. This junk can just kill your pc. Getting rid of it is extremely important. Check out my full beginners how to guide on how to remove malware.

7. Remove Viruses

Viruses, like Malware, also cause your pc to come to a screeching halt. They’re designed to use as much of your PC’s power to do THEIR job of continuing to spread the virus rather than let you do what you want. A good virus solution is always recommended, and this is what I recommend including a full guide on how to install it and use it.

8. Clean out that Dirty Computer (literally!)

Not only do we need to clean out the clutter within our computers operating system, we need to clean out the dirt and dust that’s physically INSIDE our computers tower/case! Excess dust will restrict airflow in the case and prevent the computer fans from cooling down computer like it should. Thus making everything hotter, and heat is NO GOOD! Regularly crack that case open (careful, this may void warranty) and take it outside with one of these can’s of air and blow the dust out of that thing!

9. Update Windows

Keeping your Windows Updates up-to-date is important as well. It patches up holes that the bad people find in the operating system that they use to spread viruses and malware. So this is important we keep up to date. Check your PC’s control panel for the Windows Update feature and make sure it’s either set to automatically download and install updates or set a reminder to do it yourself every week.

10. Update Hardware Drivers

Not only do we want to keep your computer operating system up to date with Windows Updates, we also want to make sure the hardware on our computer is using the manufacturer’s latest drivers. These can sometimes speed up or fix reliability issues with various hardware pieces in your computer like your video card, sound card, etc.

11. Prevent Programs from Loading at Startup

If you’re a little more computer savvy, you can check out what programs are loading during the startup of your computer. This is what causes that bootup time to be so slow! You don’t even realize the various programs you install sometimes are designed to automatically start when your computer turns on. Whether you use them daily or not! This is just a waste of resources and I suggest reviewing this list of startup programs once in a while to make sure it only contains the necessary items you need. You can run the built-in windows MSCONFIG tool, or look at third party software options, such as CCleaner which has a friendly interface to access the startup programs (not to mention, CCleaner does a boat load of other tricks to clean up your PC!).

12. Upgrade your RAM or Memory {$}

This is one of the few recommendations that will (most likely) cost you some coin. Most likely the RAM or Memory in your computer can be upgraded to a larger amount. And when it comes to memory, the more the better! These can generally be done fairly easily, check out YouTube for some walk-throughs on doing this. The only really tricky part is getting the CORRECT RAM for your particular PC, as most them are different! I suggest this tool from Crucial that allows it to scan your PC hardware to figure out what type of RAM you need. Then pop on over to Amazon to find the best deal!

For some extra help to do the hardware changes yourself, check out this book:





13. Upgrade your Hard Drive to SSD (Solid State Drive) {$}

Another hardware upgrade recommendation is for your Hard Drive. Over the last few years technology has significantly improved on the speed of the old hard drive. No longer do we require spinning discs to store our information. We now have super fast Solid State Drives (SSD) that have NO moving parts. Which translates to MUCH MUCH FASTER computers! And better yet, prices are VERY affordable. You’ll likely only need a 120Gb or 240Gb SSD to run your computer, and those come at less than $150 usually! Check them out on Amazon or click one of these that I recommend:







14. Fresh Windows Installation

One of the more difficult things to do, but can REALLY cover most of the previously mentioned tasks is to reinstall your Windows Operating System. This isn’t for the faint of heart, and should be done by someone experienced with it. It WILL erase everything on your computer. So a good backup is extremely important! Talk to your local PC repair tech about this one. Shouldn’t be very expensive to do, if you want to go this route. But it will make that PC run like the day you got it, or even better!

15. Use a Linux Operating System instead of Windows

If you’ve got an old computer and none of these tips really made much of a difference, you may just have too old of technology to really make a difference. Software is constantly changing and requiring more and more resources, and sometimes there isn’t much you can do to speed that computer up if its really old. But, you can look at running a Linux Operating System on the computer. Something simple like Linux Mint has a quick and easy learning curve. You’ll need to do a little bit of research on how best to accomplish this task. But the good news is there is a lot of helpful sites out there for this. If you’re just needing the computer to browse the web and do email, this is a much cheaper route to keep that pc running quickly than buying a new one. Linux operating systems are designed to be very lightweight and better utilize the minimal resources from the computers they run on.

16. Get a New Computer {$}

Last but not least, and the most expensive option to fix the computers speed is to buy a new computer. Sometimes it’s just too old to save. Computers are always dropping in price, which is awesome for you. You aren’t going to need the biggest, baddest, most expensive computer you can buy. You’ll be easily happy with a PC that was “last years” big, bad machine at a fraction of the cost! Check out what Amazon has to offer or click one of these I recommend (Note: I personally own the first one!):









There you have it. The 16 Tips to Fix a Slow Computer. Stay tuned for more in-depth guides on the various tips mentioned above. I want you to be able to do as much as you can to fix your computer for free and learn how to make a slow computer faster. Utilizing the tips mentioned above will certainly do the trick!

Got any new suggestions? Questions? Did any of these tips work for you? Let me know in the ‘Leave a Reply’ section below! I LOVE to hear from you, chat with you, or answer any questions you might have!

Thanks for reading!

Albert

Hey wait! One more thing!

Let’s have a little fun with this. The first step is to restart your computer. So, let’s do that BUT also count how long it takes your computer to turn back on. A little contest of sorts. Comment below with how many seconds it takes for your computer to turn on, to the point you can actually DO something. I may have a special offer for you based on your time! 🙂

Also make sure to take advantage of my FREE GUIDE of the top 5 tools the pro’s use to clean up your PC by entering your email address below:

