How to Make Your PC Run Faster

There are two very basic ways to make your PC much faster - and there are a few slightly more complicated ways. Always be sure to save your work and back up your files. In addition, you should take safety precautions when performing maintenance of any kind.

The first basic method is performing some preventative maintenance on your tower, mini-tower or traditional desktop. Dust and debris that collects on the cooling fan and the components cause the central processing unit or CPU to overheat and run slowly. It may also cause peripheral devices to malfunction or become slow to respond.

Step one - Make sure the power is off and the power supply is unplugged for risk of electric shock. Be sure to shut down windows properly.

Step two - Purchase a can of compressed air (it retails for about $5). Spray the dust off the cooling fan in the back of the PC and around the ports, front and back.

Step three - Use a cotton swab and rubbing alcohol to clean your optical mouse and a damp cloth to clean your keyboard. To clean a rolling ball mouse, remove the ball and swab the inside.

Step four - (for advanced users). Unplug all peripheral devices and move the PC to a static free area. Remove the case cover(s). Be careful not to touch any of the components. Spray the inside of the PC. You would be surprised how much dust collects inside. Replace the cover and plug in all your devices. Reboot as normal.

The second basic method is to purchase more memory. The higher the processor speed and the more GB (gigabytes) of memory the CPU can handle - the faster your computer will run. Be sure to follow the guidelines in your owners' manual or your hardware configuration settings before getting an upgrade or performing it yourself. Make sure the new hardware is compatible with your system. It will be listed on the HCL, or hardware compatibility list. When in doubt, consult a technician.

Here are a few more ways to get your PC running faster.

Get more storage. An additional hard drive, either internal or external will increase the virtual memory. This is memory borrowed from your storage device (or drive) when the CPU memory is at its processing capacity. An external hard drive is relatively inexpensive and can be easily installed. It typically connects through a USB port.

Get rid of unused or unwanted programs. There are probably programs and software on your PC you never use or you are not even sure what they are. Click the start menu. Click "control panel". Go to "add remove programs". Wait for the list to generate. The traditional rule is, if you are sure you don't need it, delete it. At the same time, if you don't know what it does, don't mess with it. To remove a program click the "remove" tab at the bottom right of the description under the info about how often it has been used.

Run the disk cleanup and defragmenter utilities. Disk cleanup removes most of the junk you collect while surfing the web and opening forwarded emails. It also removes some of the "cookies" from your browser and desktop that may slow down your running processes.

A defragmenter will move stored and downloaded files that may be misplaced or have broken links in the file directory to predetermined areas of your drive to increase the overall performance of the drive and processor.

Click the start menu. Go to all programs > accessories > system tools and choose the utility you would like to run.

I hope this article was helpful to you. Check back in the future for more PC tips and info.

Thank you.