PC slowing you down? Upgrading is easier than it sounds

If you’re a PC owner, there’s a good chance that you’ve been there — that PC that was so sparkling a year ago and is now just a pain to run. While it would turn on almost instantly when you first got it, it now takes forever just to get to the desktop and even longer before you can run any applications. Games that used to boot up in seconds now take interminable minutes, costing you valuable time during Team Fortress 2 matches and World of Warcraft PvP matches. Everything seems to have slowed down.
Don’t put up with a slow computer. Making it as fast as new is easier than you think.
The first step to speeding up your computer is diagnosing the cause of the slowdown. “There are no magic tricks to speed up a slow computer. One must try to determine the nature of the slowness and what factors are causing it,” wrote David Levine, a tech specialist at Colby-Sawyer College. “Is it always slow, or just sometimes? … Does it take forever for the computer to start up? Are there any error messages or other warnings?”
Slow start ups are not uncommon and are an easy way to diagnose a sluggish computer. These can be caused by a number of issues, from inadequate RAM, hard drive errors and malware, to simply having too many processes running.
The latter of these is quite common and easy to fix. First, run your PC’s system configuration. To do this, type “msconfig” without quotes into the start menu on a Vista or Windows 7 machine. For XP, click Start, then Run and type “msconfig.”
Under the “Startup” tab, you will find a list of all the processes and applications your computer runs when it boots up. Odds are, you will be surprised at how many there are. Simply uncheck the boxes to the left of the applications you don’t want your computer to run and startup and click “Apply.” Restart your computer and you should see some immediate improvements.
If disabling startup applications doesn’t work, you will want to check for malware. Run the antimalware software of your choice, making sure that its definitions are up to date. Run a deep scan if possible; it will take several hours, but it will ensure that every location in your computer is scanned.
If your computer is still slow, odds are your RAM, or lack thereof, is to blame. RAM is your computer’s engine and you will want plenty, especially if you regularly use memory-hogging applications or games. To check how much RAM you have, type “dxdiag” into your Start menu or Run application, depending on your Windows version. This will bring up a table displaying all of your computer’s specifications. Your RAM will be displayed under “Memory.” The total will be displayed in megabytes, so “1024 MB” equates to 1 GB of RAM.
If you purchased your computer on the cheap from a store, there’s a good chance you don’t have enough RAM to meet your needs. However, upgrading RAM is simple and new RAM sticks are inexpensive. You just need to figure out your computer’s model and find a compatible stick of RAM.
Disk defragmentation is one last option for speeding up your machine.
When you use files on your computer, they get scattered in pieces around the hard drive. Defragmentation reorganizes these pieces.
While you will only notice a significant change if your computer is severely fragmented, defragmenting is easy and can’t hurt. Windows PCs come with their own defragmentation applications.
Hopefully with these tips you will get your computer running as fast as before. With luck and a RAM upgrade, it might even run faster.