Squeezing extra life out of an old computer: what causes my computer to be so slow?
I recently worked with a client who purchased a computer with Windows Vista for his young son some time back. The desktop PC was running very slowly, was slow to boot, had lots of pop-ups and more. He really didn't want to buy a new computer just yet…maybe in a year or so.
His computer was a perfect candidate for some cleanup and optimization.
I hate to use the word "optimization" because that's Best Buy's term that means the following:
"Run a free utility (available to anyone) that, with a minimum of knowledge, will allow us to make a few repairs and then we can charge big bucks to the customer."
Real optimization takes actual knowledge that can't be found at the Geek Squad counter.
But I digress :
When you use a computer frequently, it's only natural for it to slow down over time. It seems every program you install wants to run at startup and keep going in the background, even if it isn't necessary. Virus scanners, left untweaked, are notorious memory hogs. This is especially true for bloated AV software like Norton Internet Security. Also, as you add files to your computer, Windows adds them to a list of items to be indexed by default. This means Windows is constantly reading and noting the contents of every file on your computer -- for your convenience!
All these things combine and pile up over time to grind your computer to a halt.
The computer in question was running Vista, which was not an example of Microsoft's finest hour, and it only had 1GB of RAM. Your computer NEEDS memory, especially when it's trying to run 28 programs in the background. With that tiny amount of RAM and that much stuff going on, it was like this old computer was trying to run uphill carrying a refrigerator full of spam.
The good news is, I was able to get it clean enough where it could at least put down the 'fridge and take a leisurely walk up that hill.
Squeezing extra life out of an old computer: how do I speed things up?
The first step to speeding up an old computer is to stop those programs that run in the background from doing that. If you run MSCONFIG and look at the "Startup" tab (please don't tamper with this if you're not sure bout it), you will see a list of EVERY program that runs at startup.
These programs a big part of are what makes your computer take forever to boot and run slowly.
A computer repair professional can figure out which of these programs need to run at all times and which don't, and can turn off the ones that don't.
Once performance has been improved by stopping these resource hogs from constantly running, it's time to see what's installed. Add/Remove Programs (or "Programs and Features" in Vista and Windows 7) shows exactly what's installed. Some programs like toolbars should just be removed without a second thought. With others, I usually talk to the customer to try to figure out what's needed vs. what got installed with some download last week.
Two notes on uninstalling antivirus programs:
1) Do not ever have more than one antivirus program running. They're not like locks on your house. More is not better. More AV programs means a slower PC.
2) If you have anything advertised as a full antivirus suite, like McAfee Total Protection or Norton Internet Security, consider ditching them for something lighter like Avast (free!) or ESET (costs some money). Antivirus "suites" are usually bloated and take over your computer. I had one client whose suite killed his Internet connection completely. THAT certainly is total protection!
Once all the junk has been stripped away, it's time for full virus and malware scans. This might take several passes and a few reboots to full clean a computer, but it's worth it. There are plenty of free AV and malware programs available online, like the aforementioned Avast, AVG, Spybot S&D and Malware Bytes.
After cleanup, it's time for some performance tweaks. First, I recommend adjusting for best performance instead of pretty pictures and animations, especially on an old PC with less memory. Second, I recommend changing how Windows indexes files. By default, Windows indexes the full contents of most files. This in unnecessary and slow.
Optimizing a computer is more complex than uninstalling a few programs and calling it a day. But if performed properly, it can get more life out of an old computer. I've provided some links here but if you're squeamish regarding mucking abut in Windows' guts (and who wouldn't be?), email me or your local independent computer repair professional. Thanks and happy computing!
Thanks!
