Is your PC running slower than a snail? Here's what you can do
Your PC is running slowly, stuttering to a halt every now and then, and taking ages to load apps. Your games are moving at a snail's pace, and you feel at your wits end as simple tasks take far longer than they should. It's time, you think, to throw the machine in the bin and get yourself a new one. But is that drastic measure really the answer? In many cases, no, it's not. You could simply look at ways to enhance the speed, and the best news is that is won't cost you that much money to do.
There are lots of tips and tricks you can employ to speed up your PC, together with a few things you can buy to make life easier. While there's no doubt that a troubled machine can give you a good excuse to excitedly start researching new, shiny computers, we're going to be showing you that it's not always necessary - unless of course, you're still running an old Spectrum, in which case we'd say load up Manic Miner and just enjoy what you have.
Analyse The Problem
There may be something wrong with the components inside your computer, so it's a good idea to check them out first. You can do this with the built-in tools in Windows, starting with Task Manager. Right-click on the toolbar and select this app. When it loads, click 'More Details' at the bottom of the window, and you'll be presented with a host of options that allow you to check out the performance of your machine. By looking at the CPU, memory, hard drive and internet connection and clicking on the thumbnails, you're able to delve deep. Task Manager will let you know which apps are eating away at your computer's memory, allowing you put a stop to them by selecting End Task.
For each component, though, you're watching out for spikes on the graphs that appear on the screen. If they're constantly high, then it indicates something is running that is affecting the overall performance. You'll be able to see exactly what is causing this problem by selecting the Performance tab and clicking on whichever indicator was maxing out. There you can view the currently running processes to see which ones are taking up the greater amount of processing power, again calling a halt to them if you can or at the very least changing the processor priority level to low. After you've done this, you should find your computer runs a little bit faster.
Stop Auto-Running Stuff
If your PC is booting very slowly and it takes an absolute age before it's actually ready, then you have too much stuff opening at start-up (top tip: if it takes you longer to get going on your machine than it would have taken that aforementioned Spectrum game to load off a tape, then you've got a serious problem). The key here is to find what's auto-running when you start your machine, then make a decision about what you do and don't want to have available from the beginning, bearing in mind that the app is likely to keep running and eat up system resources.
Again, this is easy - and free - to resolve. If you're running Windows 8 or Windows 10, you'll need to go back to Task Manager, this time selecting the Startup tab. Look at the apps you have auto-running and right-click on those you don't want. Select 'Disable' from the pop-up menu, and when you're finished, close the Task Manager and reboot your computer so the changes take effect. It's worth remembering that Modern Ul apps are banned from auto-starting. The process for disabling is also a little different with Windows 7, requiring you to use System Configuration. In this case, type 'msconfig' into Start. Just ensure you don't remove anything that looks like it's linked to your processor, hardware or antivirus package.
Become A God
Now you're getting the hang of keeping on top of your machine, we're going to promote you rapidly - to the position of God. You may well have heard of the God Mode in Windows, but if you haven't, then it's simply a central area that goes beyond what you can see in the Control Panel. To access it, you need to create a new folder within the C: folder, which you'll name GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} (watch out for the period after GodMode - it must be included.
Once you've done this, the folder's icon will change so that it looks like the Control Panel. When you open it, you will see an index of settings, but home in on Performance Information and Tools by double-clicking 'Use Tools To Improve Performance', and you'll be able to see some handy information. Check your Windows Experience Index score, and then click Advanced Tools, where you'll be able to view anything affecting your PC's speed, and access tools such as Performance Monitor and Resource Monitor, as well as the virtual memory settings.
Have A Clean-up
If your machine is still running a little slow, then move on to a spring clean (or at least a winter clean - c'mon, don't suffer a slow PC over Christmas). There are some great tools around that will clean up your hard drive, such as CCleaner, which will hunt out temporary files and log files, along with cookies, your download history and so much more. Removing clutter from your computer will streamline the information you have on the hard drive.
You should also run an antivirus package to remove any malware and gremlins lurking inside your machine, and you should fire up Disk Cleanup from the taskbar and select the files you want to delete. Disk Cleanup will also free up space by deleting system files. Just go to 'Clean up system files' and again select the type you want to remove, and they'll vanish before your eyes.
Oh, and while we're on the subject of cleaning: open up your PC every once in a while and give it a good dusting. We looked at this in the last issue when we studied the reasons why PCs crash. A physically dirty PC can force the temperature inside your PC to rise, and this will cause the machine to struggle or reduce its performance. Having so much dust knocking around probably isn't very good for your health either.
Switch To Online
These days, you can get away with doing a lot of your work online rather than download apps, which will only serve to clutter up your hard drive and hog the memory of your computer. As good as programs such as Microsoft Office are (and a good shout out here for Libre Office), if you're not spending lots of time heaving words around the place or organising your accounts, then online-only alternatives such as Google Docs will serve you well.
You don't have to reign back the functionality either. Google Docs is feature-packed, but even if you like the familiarity of Microsoft Office, then you can access that online too. Of course, you'll need decent broadband and wi-fi in order to keep things running at a nice pace, but with online storage from the likes of Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox, you can even have your files with you wherever you go. And if something should go wrong, such as the wi-fi packing up, your work is typically saved to the browser.
Increase The Memory
All the software tweaks in the world can still leave your computer falling short in the speed department. Older computers can struggle to keep up with modern demands of them, and if you want to continue running your machine in the way you're accustomed to without compromising your experience, then you may have to prise open your wallet ever so slightly. Don't worry, though, because we're still going to be gentle: there are some hardware alterations you can make that won't cost the earth.
Memory, for instance, is a simple, affordable and very effective upgrade, and the more your computer has, the more room it has to store whatever it's working on in the short term. Today, it's easier than ever to change, since most computers will be working with DDR3 RAM (check what you have by going to uk.crucial.com), although DDR4 is starting to replace it. The question is: how much should you go for? Well, the more you have, the more programs your computer will be able to handle simultaneously, but the key is to have more than your apps will need.
In general, you'll want to aim for the sweet spot of 8GB RAM, but it depends on how you're using it. Stream a lot from Netflix or work with Gmail in a browser and you'll find it can be intensive, for instance. The same goes for 3D gaming, although anyone looking to run the very latest titles may well want to buy another computer rather than tweak something older. In any case, if you can push towards 16GB, then do so. You probably won't need any more, but half that will certainly suffice, and you should be able to pick up 8GB for around £40 or so.
Ditch The Drive
With extra memory in place, you may now want to look at gaining faster speed times from your hard drive. If you do, then the best way forward is to replace a 5400rpm traditional hard drive with one running at 7200rpm (cost: around £20). But if you can stretch, go for a solid-state drive (SSD). These are now getting cheaper and cheaper to buy. A quick look on Amazon shows you can pick up 120GB SSDs for as little as £40. The benefits of a SSD are clear: they don't get bogged down with the need to have spinning platters, and they don't suffer read/write head problems. Instead, the data is stored on interconnected flash memory chips, and they're more reliable than the ones you'll find in a thumb drive. If nothing else, bagging one as an external drive will help to speed up access to the files you have on it.
Again, though, the size of the drive depends on how you're using your machine. If you're a heavy computer user, then you may want to go up to around 500GB, in which case you'll be spending more money. But if you like boot times of less than a minute and rapid file transfers, then SSD really is the way you ought to be going for a faster machine.
Change The Graphics Card
Some of you may have done this already when you upgraded to Windows 10; some of us here at Micro Mart towers did just that when the installation process went crazy and said the display would not work with the magic that Microsoft was about to unleash. But replacing an old graphics card with something new and faster is a good, inexpensive upgrade, especially if you like playing games but you're not necessarily that fussed about the latest and greatest blockbusters.
It's certainly worth replacing a graphics card that is around four generations old. You can do it for less than £1 50 as long as your motherboard has a PCI Express slot available, enough power and a big enough case to fit the card. If in doubt, take a photo of the innards, and take the old card with you to the shops if you're looking to buy in person. A good budget buy is the 2GB Radeon R9 380 with dual fans, which performs well and can be snapped up for a penny under £156 from Amazon.
Overclock
Another way to boost the speed - and one that won't cost any cash - is to overclock the CPU. It will give your computer a boost in performance, making it run faster, and if you do it right, then you're not likely to cause any damage to your machine (that said, the fact we've even mentioned that suggests that if you do it wrong, then you can indeed make a mess of things).
The thing to bear in mind is that Intel and AMD have extra performance built into their chips, but they choose to restrict it so they perform at a safe level. You can choose to take advantage of that extra bit of speed by overriding the safe level, so long as the processor is unlocked. Now, we're not going to get into the ins and outs of how to do this here, because it's a rather intricate subject that's best served with a dedicated article.
But in general, you can use software such as Extreme Tuning Utility or OverDrive, and as long as you're monitoring the process, then you'll be able to make the necessary tweaks without frying the innards of the computer - something that will not only prove to be destructive but also rather expensive, which rather defeats the object of this entire exercise.
Get A Faster Startup
There is actually a quicker way to get your PC up and running with Windows 10 called Fast Startup. Instead of dumping its memory to RAM, the new OS will save an image of your loaded kernel and drivers. This file is loaded when you boot up your computer, speeding up the boot time process and letting you get down to business much sooner.
To activate this, click Start and type power before selecting Power Options. Then select 'Choose what the power buttons do', and click 'Change settings that are currently unavailable'. You will see an option called 'Turn on fast startup' under Shutdown settings. Click this, and it will be enabled.
Upgrade External Devices
You may find it preferable to instead opt for external ways of speeding up your PC, and one of those is looking to upgrade the peripherals that you have connected. Today, USB 3.0 is better than USB 2.0, for example, so any devices that use the former will perform better. It won't cost more than a few quid to add USB 3.0 ports to a desktop if you have an available PCI Express expansion slot. This would make any external drives faster in the transferring of files, for example.
Yet it's worth limiting the number of USB devices that you connect to the same internal controller, and if you're using a USB hub, then go for a fast one. Anker has a seven-port USB 3.0 hub for £35.99 in some outlets, which is worth checking out, especially because it also has charging ports for phones and tablets.
Use A Flash Drive
A tool built into Windows called Ready Boost will turbocharge your system's RAM by letting you use an external flash drive for extra memory. It's not intended as a permanent solution to memory problems, but it can give you a timely increase in speed when you need it. You'll see the option when you plug your flash drive into the computer. Just select the option for 'Speed up my system using Windows ReadyBoost'. Since flash drives are incredibly cheap, it's a great, inexpensive way of speeding up your PC.
Install A New OS
There are two ways to go here: you can install Windows from scratch, which will ensure that it's clean and running to an optimum level on your computer, or you can decide to replace it with a lean Linux distro. Whichever you choose, you should see increased performance from your computer. You just need to make sure that you've backed everything up before you do it.
Linux is a great operating system to use if your PC is old. It's also a great way to check out an alternative OS. You'll want a distro that has the lowest of minimum requirements such as Puppy and Lubuntu. All you need to do is burn the .iso and install them. With Puppy, the OS lives in the PC's memory, ready to be called on to execute your commands in a flash rather than read from the drive storage first.
Turn Off Search Indexing
Search indexing is resource hungry, and it can make searches slower to perform, especially if your PC is lacking in power. Thankfully, you can turn it off by typing 'Index' in the Start button search box and clicking 'Indexing Options'. When you click 'Modify', you're able to remove the locations that are being indexed and determine which file types are not indexed.
By following these tips and the others on these pages, you should be able to get a few more years out of your PC. At the very least it will be faster in the here and now, which will make computing on many levels far more pleasurable.
10 Quick Speed Fixes
Run your antivirus software
It's important to eliminate any viruses that may be slowing down your computer. Spyware will be monitoring what you're doing, and the processes that takes up will inevitably have an effect on speed.
Clear the cache
There's no point in having lots of small cached files clogging up your computer in the Temporary Internet Files folder, so go to your browser's settings and find the option that will allow you to clear them away in an instant.
Keep software updated
Good programmers keep on top of their apps, so they run to their best at all times, and they'll issue updates and security patches. Make sure you take advantage of these if you want to keep things running smoothly.
Defrag the drive
Depending on the operating system you're running, defragging a drive ensures that you don't have lots of files scattered around. Windows 7 to 10 will auto-defrag by default, but you'll likely have to do it manually on an older OS or Linux.
Delete unwanted apps
Have a cull. Go through all the apps that you have on your machine, and decide if you want to keep them or not. You may well delete a whole host of programs - just ensure you're uninstalling them using the proper uninstall program.
Remove toolbars
You don't need many toolbars in your browser, and they'll only serve to slow down your computing. The worst are those that are installed accidentally when you're installing another app. Get shot of them.
Reduce animations
Do you really need the whizzy effects that you see on the screen? Most likely not. Right-click the Start button and select 'System'. Go to 'Advanced System Settings', click 'Settings' and choose 'Adjust for best performance' to disable them.
Launch the troubleshooter
If you type 'troubleshooter' in the search box and then select 'Troubleshooting Control Panel' and 'Run Maintenance Tasks' under System and Security, you can find unused files and shortcuts, which you can then remove.
Change the power settings
By opening the Hardware and Sound section in the Control Panel, you can check to see if the power setting is on High Performance or not. If it's not, then you can make sure this is activated.
Turn it off...
... and then back on again. It's a trick beloved of The IT Crowd's tech department, but it can work wonders, clearing away anything that's causing a machine to slow down in the short term.