Remember Your Last New Computer?

What are the things that really hit you when you get a new computer?

Is it the improvements in design that seem to have been made? It just looks better.

If it's a laptop, how much thinner the screen is, how much lighter and how much longer the battery lasts.

If it's a tower, how much smaller and less obtrusive it is, even though its storage is much bigger and it has twice as many ports for peripherals.

Yes, you notice all these things, but the thing that really hits you is

How FAST it is.

So what happened?

Why is it now 5, 10 or more times as slow as when you bought it?

What Makes My Computer Slow Down?

There is a lot of misleading information on the internet about what causes computers to slow down.

I even read one article that claimed that the static electricity from your carpet was to blame!

It's not.

Nor is it caused by RAM failure, your hard disk drive slowing down with time, the pixels on your screen deteriorating, the government spying on you or a hostile foreign power hijacking some of your processing power for their own nefarious purposes.

Fortunately, the things that it IS caused by are fixable.

But the longer you leave it, the harder it is to fix completely.

But how to fix a slow computer is relatively easy.

The slowdown is caused by:

Junk files that are left behind every time you use Windows. They just take up space and need to be deleted.

Junk files that are left behind every time you use the Internet. They also take up space and need to be deleted.

Badly behaved software that over a period of time corrupts and bloats the Windows registry, causing delays as programs try to interpret and work their way through it.

Memory fragmentation as programs are loaded and unloaded. This may cause portions of the hard disk being swapped in and out to cover the shortfall, resulting in excruciatingly slow software loads.

Hard disk fragmentation where a single file has parts of itself in different locations, forcing software reading that file to jump all over the place instead of loading it in a smooth, single stream.

Sneaky software that makes itself load faster. How? By pre-loading part of itself every time you start up your computer.

Even if you don't use it all day. Or ever!

It's still there, slowing down your start up and hogging precious memory resources permanently.

What Can I Do?

Speed up the tortoise, get rid of the elephant.

There is one thing you should always do that can't be done automatically, because it requires decision making on your part.

Remember that software you downloaded and installed for free that sounded so good that you had to have it?

Or even paid for.

That you've never used or maybe a few times after you first got it, discovered it wasn't really what you needed and then just left it.

You need to get rid of it completely. And the only way to do that is to Uninstall it.

Click on the Windows Start icon in the lower left of the Task Bar, find the program in the alphabetical list, right click on it and select Uninstall. Follow the process through until it's completely gone. Sometimes there'll be more than one program associated with a particular software item and you'll need to uninstall them all.

Speed up the tortoise, get rid of the elephant.

There is one thing you should always do that can't be done automatically, because it requires decision making on your part.

Remember that software you downloaded and installed for free that sounded so good that you had to have it?

Or even paid for.

That you've never used or maybe a few times after you first got it, discovered it wasn't really what you needed and then just left it.

You need to get rid of it completely. And the only way to do that is to Uninstall it.

Click on the Windows Start icon in the lower left of the Task Bar, find the program in the alphabetical list, right click on it and select Uninstall. Follow the process through until it's completely gone. Sometimes there'll be more than one program associated with a particular software item and you'll need to uninstall them all.

How to Fix a Slow Computer?

There's only so much you can do yourself, but fortunately there's a solution that fixes ALL of the issues that slow down your computer. It's called System Mechanic.

I've been using System Mechanic to speed up my computers and keep them running like new for over 10 years and I wouldn't be without it. It's repaid the small investment over and over again.

And it just keeps getting better and better, with the addition of tweaks underneath the hood that you are never aware of, secure password storage facilities and a built in spyware and virus detector. Even with all that, it keeps getting faster and faster.

I now run it every day as part of my ens of day close down routine. It takes just a few seconds and keeps my computer running like new.

I created a video showing it running on my computer. Click the button below to watch it.

So any time someone asks me "How do I fix my slow computer" I tell them there's just one answer and it's System Mechanic.