Over the last few years, a seismic change has occurred in how businesses operate. Employees once tied to a desk at their corporate office now work at home with a myriad of devices. These computers and tablets are often used for personal reasons, family finances, entertainment, and gaming. But even those with dedicated work computers share the same problem as most Mac and PC users – processing speed that can significantly slow down and adversely impact productivity. Without an IT team at their immediate beck and call, employees may get frustrated as their computer hangs up, lags, and moves slowly from app to app. No matter the age of your device, there are several easy ways to boost the performance and speed of your slow computer. While some performance issues indicate serious hardware issues, most can be rectified in a short period of time.
The first and best strategy to boost your speed is to ensure the latest version of your OS has been installed. This one step can supercharge your performance allowing your computer or device to search, download, and install all of the latest device drivers your computer requires.
Here are some proven methods to speed up your computer’s power.
Uninstall Redundant Applications: Applications that you no longer utilize can use significant amounts of system resources, and it is totally unnecessary. Uninstalling redundant apps frees up system resources, which will, in turn, improve performance. Apps and software that are dormant take up essential space in your computer’s directory structure and registry. Because of where these apps reside, they need to be adequately removed via the control panel.
Apps like CCleaner can eradicate unnecessary files, registry entries, and unwanted apps. Correct removal processes are necessary if you want to avoid these files reloading after rebooting.
Defragment the Hard Drive: Defragmentation delivers a proactive way to organize data on your computer’s hard drive. “Defragging” gathers scattered pieces of information and arranges them properly. Files are constantly being written, resized, and deleted in your operating system, resulting in significant fragmentation. Putting everything “back together” can boost computer performance.
Add Additional RAM: Adding more random access memory (RAM) is another effective way to speed up a slow computer. While this option is accessible on some gaming and business devices, many detachable laptops cannot add RAM, and it is quite easy to increase RAM on desktop computers.
Delete Temporary Files: Temporary files can hijack your computer’s performance and negatively impact your productivity. Deleting them from the PC frees up critical space on the hard drive, improving overall performance.
Minimize Startup Programs: The processes initiated at startup are integral to the computer’s performance. Launching too many applications at startup consumes system resources, and therefore users should limit programs that initiate at this time. Your decisions of which applications to keep and which to disable will depend on specific needs. Startup processes can be changed in the task manager.
Scan for Malware: Viruses and malware can significantly slow down device performance. Using antivirus programs to perform periodic scans will help you avoid this problem. The best choice for a malware scanner is an efficient program that doesn’t take up large spaces on your device. Some programs can also protect and resolve PC performance.
Consider Your Browser: Your browser choice is also critical in obtaining desired processing speed. Chrome, for instance, is heavily resource-intensive, negatively impacting PC performance. The ideal browser won’t affect your computer’s speed, even with multiple tabs in use simultaneously.
As a business owner, you want your employees working at peak performance. These tips can help your team to clean up their slow computer and get back to productivity. If you need assistance with this or any other IT project, call the experts at Alliance IT. We are here to help.
