It is fairly common for a computer to slow down two or three years after you’ve bought it, but this doesn’t mean that you need to buy a new one just yet. There are a few little tricks you can use to get your computer back to the speed it was at when you bought it that we’ll share with you to get your laptop back to lightening speed.

Delete Temporary Files

Your computer acquires temporary files from many everyday tasks and these can stay on your hard drive for a long time, causing your computer to slow. Regularly deleting these is one of the best ways to keep your computer running at a good speed.

To delete these go to “My Computer” -> your local drive (usually C:\) -> “Windows” -> “Temp”. Right-click on folders and select “Details” to find out how old each file is and then delete all those older than the current date.

Uninstall Programs You Don’t need

Having a lot of unneeded programs on your computer will slow the speed down quite a bit, especially if these programs are running in the background. Go into Control Panel -> Programs & Features and look through the list of installed programs, uninstalling those you don’t need.

Remove Unnecessary Visuals

If you’re using Windows 7, some of your computer speed is probably being hogged by a feature that makes some of the visuals look nicer. This setting gives windows a transparent effect but can reduce the speed of your computer more than it’s worth. Right-click on your desktop, click “Personalize” -> “Window Colour” and then uncheck “Enable transparency”.

Use a SSD

Hard disk drives are usually the default storage in computers, but a newer form of storage called solid state drives may be much better for your computer. These are extremely fast and allow for faster computer performance, but they do cost a little more than HDDs.

Increase Your Hard Drive Space

If an SSD isn’t for you then another option would be to increase the size of your HDD. If you’re regularly filling up your hard drive then you may want to either add some more memory to your computer, or transfer some of your files to an external hard drive.

Install More RAM

Random access memory is the temporary storage system on your computer that allows for multiple programs to be used simultaneously. If you’re computer is slowing down while you have several programs open then you may need to install some more ram.

Run a Disk Defragment & Clean Up

Disk defragmenting and disk clean up are two tools that you already have for free on your Windows computer. Disk defragment moves around all the data stored on your hard drive to make it as efficient as possible, and disk clean up seeks out and deletes large and unnecessary files.

Vacuum Out The Dust

If you’re computer is old then there is a risk that the slow speed is coming from a build up of dust inside. Your computer’s cooling system can be hindered by a build up of dust, causing a reduction in performance to avoid overheating. Thankfully it’s quite easy to fix this. Unplug your computer, remove the exterior and vacuum out the dust on a lower setting.

Our experience in IT means that we can deliver one of the best IT services in London to all our clients. Here at Tristar IT, we can provide a whole range of IT support services to make sure your IT systems are running well when you need them. For more information about what we can provide, don’t hesitate to contact us on 01707 378 453.