Why Is My Computer So Slow?

While there are inumerable causes of a slow computer, the vast majority are quite similar and can be fixed with relative ease. Your computer runs slowly when it has too many things going on at once, and not enough memory or processor power to deal with them all. What we are going to look at are the different things
than can cause your computer’s processor to become overloaded, how to avoid or fix them, and how to speed up your computer!

Boot Up Overload
The first problem you will encounter, and also one of the most common, is boot up overload. This is quite simple. When you first start your computer, you have too many programs all starting at once, this overloads your system causing it to run very slowly for the first few minutes after you turn it on. The best way to fix this is to make sure that none of your programs are set to start up when you first turn on your computer (except those you use every day). This can be done by going to the options section of each program individually, and making sure they aren’t set to run on startup.

Another cause of boot up overload is invalid registry entries. If you have previously had programs installed that run on startup, and have removed them, the entries in your system registry telling your computer to run them on startup may still be there. Since you have removed the programs, these registry entries tell your computer to start programs that don’t exist any more. This causes your computer to run slowly while it works through all of these invalid entries. To fix this problem you will need to use a registry cleaner, these programs can help with other causes of a slow computer as well, read on for more information or go straight to our Recommended Registry Cleaners section now.

Windows Registry Problems
Your windows registry can also cause your computer to start running slowly in other ways. Your registry is like the master control centre for your computer. It contains information stored in multiple ‘entries’ for every program on your computer. This information tells your computer how and when to run or access each of your programs. Your registry is like a giant filing cabinet, and just like real filing cabinets it tends to get over-full and messy over time. The longer you use your computer and the more programs you install, the size of your registry increases. This means that every time you start a program and windows consults the registry to see how it should run it, your computer takes longer to find the required information. This manifests itself in slower startups, programs taking longer to start, slow shutdowns, and many other problems. Manually cleaning up your registry is incredibly time consuming (there are usually thousands of entries) but luckily there are several good programs available that can clean your registry for you. Have a look at our Recommended Registry Cleaners section, or click “next” at the bottom of the page once you have finished reading.

A Fragmented Hard Drive
Another way you can speed up your computer is to defragment your hard drive. Over time the ‘filing system’ in your hard drive can become convoluted and messy. This means that any time your computer needs to access data, it takes a lot longer. Defragmenting re-arranges your hard drive so that your computer can access information it needs as fast as possible. To defragment your hard drive you need to go to ‘My Computer’ then right click on your hard drive (usually your ‘C:’ drive) and then click ‘properties’. Select the ‘tools’ tab and then you should see a button to defragment. Click that to begin the process. This normally takes a long time – sometimes many hours, so it’s usually best to do this overnight.

Hardware Problems
If you have followed the steps above and your computer is still running slowly it’s possible that your computer hardware is outdated or simply not powerful enough to run the software you have on your computer. You should carefully look at the system requirements of whichever version of windows you are running, and any other software, and make sure your hardware excedes the recommended specifications. If not, you may have to upgrade.

These are the most common causes of a slow computer, and addressing these is the most sure-fire way of speeding up your computer. If you think your computer is running slowly because of registry problems, click next to view our reviews of the best registry cleaners available. Using one to clean your registry will definitely improve your computer’s performance.