My computer is completely slow and I need to speed it up. Is there anything I can download for free to help me
472638
1. Restart your computer\n2. Click Start, then Run\n3. Type in MSConfig\n4. Click on the Startup tab\n5. Uncheck every program that you don't need\n6. If you don't know what it is, you probably don't need it unless it's in a system folder\n7. Restart again\n8. Click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and System Cleanup\n9. After it's done checking, click every box and hit continue/clean/OK/whatever the button is.\n10. Go back to System Tools and click Defragment, then degragment your whole C drive\n11. Go buy SpySweeper and use it on your computer to get rid of all adware, spyware, etc.
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Here are the standard remedies:\n\nA major cause of slow PC's is fragmentation of the hard drive.\nYou need to defragment the HD at least once a week if not more depending on how much you use your computer, and what you do with it.\n\nOne way is to use the defragment utility built into Windows XP.  It is slow but does the job rather well.  Go to:\nStart > Programs > Accessories > System Tools   and then click on System Defrag to run the tool.  It will take several hours so let it run overnight or simply walk away from your PC for a few hours.\n\nA great program for defragging automatically is Diskeeper 10. It costs $30 but is well worth it. Go to www.download.com and search for Diskeeper. Read the Publishers Description and the tech and user reviews. It can be scheduled to run automatically as the program deems necessary, and if you are using your PC and the program launches itself, it will take a backseat to whatever you are doing and give you the priority for CPU usage. I think you'll agree it's a good program to have. It precludes your needing to remember to defrag at regular intervals.\n\nAlso, another major cause of a slow PC is programs that are running in the background. Here's another really good Microsoft tool.  Go to Start > Run >   type in msconfig in the box and click OK.\nThis will bring up a window with several tabs at the top.  Click on the “Startup” tab.  It will list the programs that are running on your PC and eating up resources.  Look them over carefully and turn off any that don’t absolutely have to be running.  Simply click on the “check mark” in the little box beside the program name.  Clicking on it will remove the check mark.  Once you have edited the Startup list, click on Apply and then on OK.  Once you have exited the window, reboot your PC for the settings to take effect.\n\nAnother good thing to have is a little program called FreeRAM Pro. It is free and is available from www.download.com This program puts a little RAM meter on the System Tray and shows how much RAM you have remaining that you are not using at any given time.  I think you may be surprised at how little RAM you have to run other programs. Also, once it is installed you can right click on the little meter, then click on RESTORE and it will open the RAM display window. You can tweak the settings so it will display your CPU usage also.  Then just click “Minimize” and then “To System Tray” to return to the Task Bar.\n\nHope this helps
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Try number 3 as it is the easiest and quickest way to improve speed.\n\n1) Increase RAM (memory).\n2) Increase free disk space (remove unneeded programs from hard drive, delete temp files and folders, switch to a larger hard drive, add a second hard drive)\n3) Reduce the number of programs running in your system tray/at startup. You can do this by going to Start > Run > type "msconfig" > go to the StartUp tab and deselect everything except critical programs like your anti-virus.\n4) Scan for/remove spyware/adware/malware. \n\nCheck out Advanced Windows Care, it will help with most of this automatically and it's free: http://www.iobit.com/
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you can defrag easily if you have XP service pack (it's standard) alothough someone else already said this here is a website that gives step by step with screen shots and also gives some other quick solution for speeding up your computer...http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx\n\nenjoy!
442643
99% of it doesn't work and will make your computer go slower.\n\nIf you want to speed it up remove the things that load on start-up, de-frag your drive, remove un-needed files, and un-install anything you don't use.
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the top reasons why computers run slow are--Not enough RAM and too much Spyware!\n\nThe spyware issue can be fixed for free, so we'll start there.  Go to download.com and download AdAwareSE, it's a free personal spyware removal program, that you can schedule to run at night when you're sleeping even, so you don't even have to worry about it, it'll just maintain itself.  You can also try SpyBot Search & Destroy, another great program...it came on my computer, so I'm not sure where to get it, or if it's free, try download.com or search on a search engine...it's also a good program, but like I said, I have no idea if it's free or not.\n\nWhile we're at it, if you do a lot of downloading all the time (especially from P2P programs like LimeWire), go to freeav.com and download some free anti-virus software, and run that too.  Viruses can make your computer very slow sometimes, along with a million other much more malicious things, so having virus software is good too.\n\nNow of course just downloading these isn't enough, you have to actually install them and run them...may sound silly to you, but a number of people think it's enough to just have them sitting on their desktop (yes mom, i'm talking to you! =D ).\n\nNow that we've got that taken care of, let's talk RAM.  To see how much RAM you have currently in your computer, go to your desktop and right click on the "My Computer" icon.  \n\nClick on Properties (it's at the very bottom of the list).\n\nOn the General tab (this should be the one it opened on) All the way at the bottom it should tell you what your computer is currently running.  processor XXXXMHz X.XXGHz, & XXX GB or MB of RAM.\n\nObviously, the only number that is really important here is the last one.  Your processor speed is actually what decides how fast your computer is capable of going, but most newer (last 5 years or so) computers have enough speed to keep most people happy, so we won't go there.  \n\nNow, how much RAM you need is based on what you want your computer to do.  Basic users, running Windows XP (Home or Professional) need about 512MB to 1.0 GB of RAM.\n\nOf course if you're trying to play all kinds of video games (isn't that what computers are for anyway?), or run lots of programs at the same time, you may need a little more than this.\n\nUpgrading your RAM will cost you money, so I highly reccomend running those programs first, as well as going into your control panel & add/remove programs, and uninstalling any useless programs you may have on there...sometimes programs will be running in the background and you won't realize it, and they're eating up all sorts of system resources, so if it's on your computer and you don't want it--DUMP IT!\n\nHope this helps, I'll check back to see if you update anything, and maybe I'll be able to give you some better answers!
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Try this to speed things up.\n\nTools - Internet Options - Browsing History - Reduce Disk Space to 50.\n\nTools - Internet Options - Advanced - check box  HTTP 1.1 Settings - check box Use HTTP 1.1 through proxy connections\n\nI've done this and my pc is so much faster.\n\nBut bear in mind if you have a Web Site Filter on your anti virus, this will slow things down quite a bit anyway.
938205
A virus can cause a slow computer or if it is over loaded with to much crap. Go to Settings from your start menu and select control panel then select add/remove programs. Here you can clean up your computer and remove unwanted programs. If you don't already have MacAfee virus and firewall protection you can download free trial versions off the Internet. All you can also defrag you computer this compresses all your files. I am not certain how to do this but it does help your computer.
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Be patient and do the following steps, it will definitely speed up your system:\n\n1. Run Disk clean-up. Then delete unused files. (start>program>accessories>sys... tools> disk clean-up)\n2. Check for disk errors. (right click on a disk-drive>properties>tools >error checking, then restart)\n3. Run disk defragmenter.\n4. Delete cookies. (you can do it from your browser options: tools>internet options)\n5. Delete cache or temporary files. (you can do it from your browser options) or, click on 'start", 'run', type 'temp' then click ok. Whatever shows up, just delete.\n6. Delete all history files. (you can do it from your browser options, or, CTRL + H, then delete)\n7. Empty recycle bin.\n8. Delete unused icons & short-cuts from anywhere including desktop.\n9. Uninstall any software or game that you use only once or twice in a week.\n10. Delete temporary internet files. (you can do it from your browser options: tools>internet options)\n11. Delete all recent files. (click on start, click run, then type "recent", delete all the files which show up)\n12. Run a full virus scan. If any threat found, eliminate that completely.\n13. Run a software which can remove any spyware or adware.\nLike: Ad Aware, Windows defender etc.\n14. Click Start > Run and type "msconfig" at the prompt. Click the Startup tab and look at all that junk that loads when you launch your PC. Turn off anything else that looks useless, but be careful not to disable Windows system components.\n\nIf you did these all at the same time, restart your computer. All these to be done once in a week if possible, depending on the frequency of use of your PC.\n\n* Updating: (Needed only when updates are available)\n15. Update your Windows by installing latest updates.\n16. Update your audio & video drivers.\n17. Update softwares, browsers, games that you use.
106954
low memory, virus, to many open programs. try closing all programs and just run virus scanner and see if it speed up ur computer.
606121
Remove your CDROM and check ur system,if ur system still slow. Then may be ur system infected with a virus/spyware etc.\nOtherwise chage ur CDROM.
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I think you may just need to clean out your PC.\n\n1. Defrag your PC.  (Start > Programs > Accessories > Systems Tools > Disk Defragmenter)\n2. Give your PC a good spyware cleaning.  Use Windows Defender for this (http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx)
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Download Accelerator Plus\nyou can find it at http://www.speedbit.com/
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A1. Start Menu\nA2. Search\nA3. Search *.tmp\nA4. Delete all Temporary files\n\nB1. Start Menu \nB2. Accessories\nB3. Disk Clean Up\n\nC1. Start Menu \nC2. Accessories\nC3. Disk Defragment\n\nD1. Control Panel\nD2. Add/Remove Programmes\nD3. Uninstall ALL ADWARES, GAMES, Toolbars etc.\n\nMake sure to restart computer after all stages.\n\nStill if it's slow, scan it with proper updated Virus Utility.........Still it's slow than take back up of all your DATA like pictures, word files, etc. etc. and than format the computer and re-install operating system.\n\nFeel free to talk with me, manish_p_66@yahoo.com\n\nGooluck.
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http://yanswers.blogspot.com/2006/10/pc-running-slow.html
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Do a defrag on your computer...\nClean disk...\nAlso they have RAM chips you can add to your computer which will make it run faster..
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check for spyware, get Windows Defender free from Microsoft, Also you might want to check your CPU fan for proper cooling, if it is if it isnt running at max speed your CPU will overheat causing it to run slow