It seems like your computer has been losing speed lately. In fact, it's almost as if it keeps slowing down all the time! Though you hate waiting around for long periods of time for your computer to catch up to you, it just doesn't seem like you should have to shell out money for a new one just to get your old speed merchant back in gear.



Well, here are five tips designed to help you get the spring back in your computer's step and get your computer life back operating at full speed again.

Automatic Scan

Sometimes, people tell me their computer is operating really, really slow! However, after further conversation with them, I find what they mean is the computer operates really, really slow, sometimes.

When this happens, usually there is a program automatically being run periodically. When this program is being run, it is using most of the computer's resources. So naturally, the computer is going to operate very slowly. Usually such a program is a virus scanner. What makes a virus scanner so commonly the culprit is the fact Windows XP Pro, for example, makes you install a virus scanner that runs automatically every day.

To find out if this is your problem, when your computer slows down press Ctrl-alt-delete. This will open the Windows Task Manager. Click the processes tab and you can see if there is a program eating up all your CPU resources and if so, you can close that program.

If you find it is a virus scan program that is slowing down your computer, either pause the program until you finish what you're doing, or make sure the program is scheduled to be run when you're not using the computer.

The Heat Factor

Sometimes a computer can slow down because it is heating up too much. Of course, a computer that is overheating can get into much more trouble than just giving you slow performance. Therefore, is very important to keep your computer from overheating.

Every once in a while you should take the cover off your computer and blow the dust out of it with compressed air. Also, make sure your computer is closed tightly when running. If you have removed any cards from slots, make sure you have returned the hole-covers to their original places or you should cover those slots with duct tape.

The cooling system of a computer is designed to work by using a particular airflow scheme. So, leaving the cover off the computer will actually make it run hotter than having the cover on it.

Background Operations

Check your Windows taskbar, which is on the lower right hand corner of your computer screen. This taskbar consist of programs you have running in the background. If you have too many of them, they will steal your computer's resources.

Right click each of them and choose the option to suspend their operations. This is no big deal because these programs can be opened from your start menu. The taskbar just makes them automatically starting programs and, if you're low on computer resources, you don't want things running automatically.

Viruses and Spyware

The biggest resource stealer of them all is spyware and viruses. Make sure you have a good spyware/virus program and run it often. Also, make sure this program is updated frequently. There's not too much more that needs to be said about what one virus or spyware infection could do to your operating system.

Registry Clean

One of the most overlooked reasons a computer will slow down is because the registry has become corrupt. The registry is essentially your computer's operating system. Anytime you're running your computer, entries are being made and deleted from your registry. The effect this has is it leaves false entries in your registry. So, your computer's resources must work around these false entries.

Spyware and viruses leave thousands of false entries in the registry even after they have been removed. This means after you have done a spyware/virus scan and successfully removed parasites, you have to do a registry cleaning in order to remove false entries, or corruption from your registry. Not running a registry cleaner will tend to leave your computer operating at less than peak efficiency.

While there are several more reasons why a computer could be operating slowly, these five tips cover probably more than 95 percent of computer slowdown problems. Remember to take nothing for granted. If your computer should slowdown, check these things even if they seem obvious. Also, remember that a virus scan is run first and a registry cleaner is run after. Do these things, and in the order above, and chances are your computer will stay fast for a long, long time.