As months past your PC seems to be experiencing more issues. Nowadays, startups take forever and you’re lucky to turn on your computer without having System32 and L sass.exe errors or stop error codes pop on you in the middle of work. Already, you’re browsing for a new PC and looking for a replacement. If you have a really old computer then it might be time, but if you’ve only had your PC for a few years then it might not be worth the expense. And in any case, a new PC won’t run like brand new for a long time.

It’s not that computers grow old and tired, although overuse and natural wear can slow a computer down. Usually it’s because they get used and abused by their owners! There are people who seem to install every known program under the sun which they never even use. Your hard drive space gets sapped by software which slows you computer. But don’t just go deleting files haphazardly.

Removing programs badly usually means lots of orphaned files, registry keys and device drivers which is a recipe for disaster. Invalid registry entries can cause countless issues including the highly irritating unmountable boot volume’ blue screen! Resintalling Windows is a possible solution for slow computers, but it’s a bit of bother. A fast computer you will get, but you’ll have to add any updates and programs back on that were removed during the reinstall.

The alternative answer to a faster computer is maintenance and a little more restrain when adding programs. Maintenance can take a little work but it will not take long when you grow accustomed to doing it. It’s also a far better choice than experiencing computer crashes and blue screen error codes. Here are some of the basics to get you started:

Firstly, avoid installing programs you don’t need. With so many free applications on the Net, you might get addicted to adding new ones to your computer, but don’t. Go to your programs and note all the ones that you have used in the past 2 months. There’s a good chance that you’ll see a bunch of programs you forgot you even had.

Make a list of unused programs and delete them one after the other. Uninstall programs the correct way by using the Remove Programs utility. Delete any old files and folders that you don’t need anymore. Mp3s, videos and photos can use up masses of space and can easily be transferred to an external hard drive. Just by having more free memory will speed up your PC’s performance.

Defragment your drive several times a month to help speed up programs and use the Clean Disk utility to delete temporary files. Check that you don’t have lots of unnecessary applications running on startup. The bottom right icon box may contain several applications that you can turn off on startup. Be sure to leave essential things running such as antivirus programs. You can also disable any applications by going to the System Configuration Utility. You will notice that your PC doesn’t lag as much during boot-up and shutdown on doing this.

Last but not least, run antivirus software on a regular if not on a daily basis. Millions of PC’s around the world are infected with viruses without their users even knowing. Bots, Trojans, viruses and malware can render your PC useless and even steal personal data. You’ll be surprised on how much faster you can get your PC running from the tips mentioned.