3 Tips to Speed Up Your PC

Nothing can slow productivity like a sluggish PC, especially if your operating system repeatedly crashes throughout the day. Setting aside a few minutes to make your PC run a little faster can make things progress more smoothly, helping you get your work done without aggravation. Here are a few IT support tricks that can help speed up your PC.

Close Background Program

You may not realize it, but there are programs that run in the background while you’re working. They launch at startup and hang out in case you need them, consuming resources and slowing things down. In Windows 8, you can close these by hitting Control + Alt + Delete and viewing the list of apps running in the background. End any that you don’t need by clicking “End task.” To prevent it from re-launching the next time you reboot, click on the Startup tab and disable it. In Windows 7, this can be done in msconfig (Start-Run-type “msconfig”). Uncheck the items you don’t want to launch at startup.

Remove Unused Programs

After shutting off background programs, the next step is to uninstall programs you aren’t using. To do this, go to your Control Panel and choose Add/Remove Programs (Windows 7) or Programs and Features (Windows 8). Here you can uninstall any programs you don’t need.

Rethink Your Antivirus

Obviously, one of the first things you should do when your computer is acting suspiciously is run a virus scan. But the culprit could be your antivirus itself. Virus protection software is designed to run in the background while you’re using it, but some programs consume more resources than others. There are a few things you can do to minimize your antivirus’s impact on your system. This guide can help you change your settings to prove better performance.

These me small tweaks, but they can make a big difference. If your PC is outdated, it may simply need replacing. If you can upgrade your RAM, you may be able to get a couple of extra years of use out of your laptop or desktop.