Information Technology Services: General Comments Regarding Computer Slow-ness


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General Comments Regarding Computer Slow-ness

On a computer with fully updated antivirus and no obvious spyware running there are three main causes of computer slowness. The primary cause of computer slowness is multiple programs starting up on startup. If you boot up your computer and instantly you try to log into Skype, MSN messenger and AIM, or if your computer seems to take an exorbitant amount of time to start up more generally this is probably what is causing your slowness. When installed most programs now place a small command to start themselves up on startup, or at least prepare themselves to load. This reduces loading times for their programs. However, if you don't use said programs often, then this is just hurting your performance. Talk to your DSS about slow start up if you think this is an issue.

Hint: If your Mozilla Firefox seems to take forever to load try booting it in safe mode. Click on the Start or Windows icon in the bottom-left hand corner of your screen, Select All Programs> Mozilla Firefox and click Safe Mode. This will launch Firefox without all the add-ons that slows down its opening.

The second cause of slowness is your hardware. A computer that is 6 years old often cannot run the same way a new computer can. The standards have just moved on. However, many machines can extend their useful life by having simple hardware upgrades such as RAM. To check your RAM go into start then right click on my computer (just called Computer for Vista and Windows 7) then click Properties. Your RAM should be listed on the screen. If you think your computer needs more memory, contact your Desktop Support Specialist.

The other common hardware issue is lack of hard drive space. If you are getting warnings for low disk space or notice the bar on your C: drive seems full (Vista and Windows 7 only) the computer will not have enough room to perform simple operations slowing it down. The simplest way to fix this problem is to delete files from your hard drive. Pictures, music, and movies (in increasing order of size) take up relatively large amounts of disk space. To find out the size and the remaining space on your hard drive go to My Computer, right-click on local drive C:, and select Properties. Check out the amount of "Free Space;" it should be more than 15% of the total space on your hard drive. Copying files to WesFiles and then removing them from your hard drive is a great way to get data off your hard drive, while having it safely backed up.