When you think back a few years it's sometimes difficult to understand how we could ever get along without the PC. You watch a 1940's movie and you begin to wonder how anyone ever got anything done in those days. Or go back to the early nineteenth century when the fastest information could travel was at the speed of a horse. So with the PC our lives are in many ways being made easier, at least as far as the obtaining of information we need or think we need is concerned.

Each of us have a strong desire to enhance and accelerate our life. Most humans love instant gratification. We love getting things done quickly. When we do not get things done as easily and as quickly as we desire, we become uncomfortable and easily frustrated. One thing that really gets most humans frustrated is a very slow running computer. As mentioned earlier, the computer is an integral part of our life because we use it to fulfill alot of our daily tasks. We use it for work, we use it for school, and we use it to communicate with friends and family via the internet. But when this machine stops operating at a good performance level, we get easily irritated.

Here, we will describe three common steps to getting your machine to run better.

1. Upgrade Your Memory (RAM)

One of the quickest ways our computers date themselves is by not having enough RAM. As new products are released onto the market, the hardware requirements increase. With heavier graphics and processing requirements, theses programs need more RAM (the short term memory of your computer) to keep the program running smooth. RAM (random accessed memory) is one of the easiest upgrades to do your self and will show the best improvement in performance for time spent.

2. Do Some Housecleaning - In This Case Your Computer's Registry

Just as you need to shake out a dust cloth occasionally to keep it functioning well, you need to clean up your computer's registry from time to time. Your computer processes a massive amount of information over time and in the process collects "things". The registry keys in your computer tell your computer how to operate but over time these keys become clogged, or more exactly, corrupted. Corrupted registry keys will cause you computer to slow down and at times do other strange things as opposed to what you want it to be doing. It's a good idea to clean up the registries periodically. Most PC's come with the software to do this but you still may have to initiate the action yourself at times.

3. Do Not Have Multiple Programs Running

In our fast paced world, people love to multitask in order to get things as quickly done as possible. But while doing that, they slow themselves and their computers down. For example, if a person is doing research on the internet, while having Microsoft Word and Microsoft Powerpoint running at the same time, then without a shadow of a doubt, their computer is going to run slow. Each computer has their limit to how much work they can handle simultaneously and if you violate that, then you will cause your computer to operate below the optimal level.