Geek Alert: PC Tune-ups

Keeping a personal computer running at its best can seem difficult at times.  Most of us have experienced that after a period of time computers slow down and become less quick responding to our clicks; especially is the case with older machines. There are a few steps that can be taken to ensure that your computer is running at its best.

All programs installed take up valuable resources and memory from your computer. So limiting the number installed can help.   There are little pieces of software called “add on’s”, in the form of toolbars, such as Ask, Bing or Google that can slow a computer down. Limiting the number of program running at the same time also can increase performance.  Look in your control panel and see what is installed; remove the ones you don’t need.

Make sure that your computer has an active and up-to-date antivirus software program and verify that there is a full virus scan of your machine scheduled at least every week. If not, either schedule one to occur weekly, or plan to do a regular manual scan of your machine. Be aware that this will slow your machine down while the scan is running, so this should be done when you are not actively using your computer – and it could take several hours to complete if it hasn’t been done in a while.

Malware is another problem infecting machines.  Not all virus programs do an effective job cleaning or preventing malware. For home users one of the best and more affordable virus malware programs on the market is called Vipre. It cost about $30 a year and uses very little of your computer resources while it runs. There is also a free malware removal program on the market called Malwarebytes. If your computer is showing signs of infection or is running slow downloading, installing and running this program will remove most form of malware.

Finally keeping your computer hard drive free of unnecessary program can help performance. There is a free tool on the Internet called ccleaner. This program is a quick and easy install. It is easy to run and will removal all of the temp and miscellaneous files on your computer.

If this all seems too much to tackle, there are professionals who can help answer your questions and get your computer performing optimally.