On Thursday 24th October the workshop reviewed the causes and solutions for slow computers.
Temporary slow down.
It can be frustrating when your computer appears to slow down to a crawl when you are trying to use it for some task. A simple solution to this problem is often to simply restart the computer which will clear out many problems.
If the slowdown has started recently run a complete malware scan. A Malwarebytes scan will identify not only virus type programs but also PUPS (Potentially Unwanted Programs) that can affect performance.
Alternatively, if you are curious or the problem persists, use Task manager to end any processing intensive tasks.
Do computers get slower as they get older?
Yes but only because of:
- Dust buildup: Dust clogs fans, heat sinks, and vents, trapping heat and causing components to overheat. To prevent damage from overheating, the computer’s CPU and GPU will automatically reduce their speed.
- Disk drives may slow down.
- HDD may have more errors to correct. The CHKDSK utility will correct drive errors
- SSDs will slow down when the usage approached the capacity of the drive.
The main reason that computers appear to slow down with age is that newer applications and Operating System upgrades require more memory and processing power, which older hardware struggles to keep up with.
To extend the life of your PC, consider hardware upgrades like adding more RAM or replacing an old hard drive with a Solid State Drive (SSD).
What can we do to speed up a computer ?
The following steps are listed in order of effectiveness
Delete unnecessary programs
Removing unwanted programs will contribute to good housekeeping, but the main benefit is in preventing them using resources by running unexpectedly. From the list of installed programs provided by Settings > Apps > Installed Apps, remove unwanted programs such as
- games installed as bloatware CandyCrush, Xbox etc
- programs no longer used
- any unrecognised programs except those from Microsoft or a peripheral supplier. Google the program name and supplier if in doubt
Manage startup programs
Many applications automatically start when the computer boots up, consuming resources even if you aren’t actively using them.
You can manage what startup programs run in the background either from Settings > Apps > Startup or by using the Task Manager.>Startup.
OneDrive and other cloud synchronisation programs have a larger effect on startup times and performance.
Remove Unused Browser Extensions
Browser extensions are programs added in to your browser which will consume resources when enabled. Consider whether to remove or disable these via your browser settings.
Change power plan
On a desktop, set the power plan to “High performance.” On a laptop, use “Best performance” when plugged in, but “Balanced” or “Power saver” when running on battery to conserve power.
Visual Settings
Adjusting your computer’s visualisations likely won’t dramatically improve performance, but it could help in some cases. All you have to do is type adjust the appearance and performance of Windows in the search box and click on the setting that appears — this will open the Performance Options dialog box.
Finally, when using the computer,
Close unnecessary tabs
Keep the number of open browser tabs to a minimum, as each one uses resources.
Turn Off Search Indexing
To help you find the files and programs you need as fast as possible, Windows PCs keep an up-to-date index of all of your drives.
Ironically, building this index takes up system resources (especially for low-powered PCs) and can slow down your computer’s performance. But you can always turn off or tweak search indexing.
To turn off search indexing, go to the Indexing Options Control Panel (type index in the Start button search box) and click on Modify. Deselect all of your computer’s drives if you don’t want them to be indexed.
File Cleanup
Over time, every computer will amass a very large number of redundant files. Generally, all this clutter does not significantly affect performance, but removing these files is a satisfying housekeeping task.
Remove user files Manually
Identifying which personal files are no longer required is a slow and laborious task, so by far the best way to deal with these is to delete them as soon as they are no longer required.
Nevertheless, there are tools to assist in the bulk deletion of files.
- To identify large files to remove, open the File Explorer. Then select This PC. Using the search box on the top right-hand corner, type size:empty. choose a size from Empty to Gigantic. From there, delete any of the “Large”, “Huge”, or “Gigantic” files that are unimportant.
- A duplicate file finder like AllDup can help to remove duplicate files
Remove Temporary OS files
This is the easiest way to remove a large number of unused temporary files from your computer.
Type Disk Cleanup in the Windows search box and click on the app. Then, select the drive you want to access. Click on the Clean up system files button to remove more Windows temporary files.
Clear Browser Cache, History & Temporary Internet Files
In Chrome, go to the main Chrome menu (3 vertical dots) on the upper right-hand corner of your browser and click on History. Select Clear browsing data to see all of your options.
Finally
Empty Your Recycle Bin
PC Cleanup programs
There are a number of PC Cleanup programs programs available of which CCleaner is the most well known. These programs simplify the job of deleting Windows temporary files and browser temporary files in one scan. Most of these programs promote a premium version with extra functionality such as checking for Driver and program updates.
For the first run, we found that Disk Cleanup and CCleaner took quite a long time. Richard reported that he finds CCleaner simple and effective to use and any subsequent Health Check scans are much quicker.
Peter Bayliss