You bought your PC half a year ago, and sometimes you are just amazed at how quickly it seems to run much more slowly than when you just bought it. Since money doesn’t grow on trees, you want to optimize your system in a safe way so you can keep getting good performance from your computer.
I will focus on these 4 key elements:
- Temporary internet files and cookies
- Defragmentation
- System tools running in the background
- Keeping your system updated
Let us begin the journey towards a faster PC. This is great fun once you learn the tricks, and it’s totally free, so you can easily do this on your own machine.
Temporary Internet Files and Cookies
No, it’s not cookies you eat. Cookies are actually small text files that will track your searches online. Haven’t you wondered that you just searched for a drilling machine, and then – when you’re on Facebook – ads turn up that show drilling machines? You need not wonder any more.
You need to enter Settings in your browser menu, and then clean temporary internet files and cookies, delete search history, and delete all unnecessary browser data from time to time. The interval between this depends on how much you actually use your computer, but generally once a week would be a very good idea.
The idea behind temporary internet files is good because it offers you a chance to access internet pages without having to reload everything again. However, this was actually far more relevant back in the days when we had slow internet connections. Nowadays, we all have 20 megabit (or more), and consequently the time involved in reloading the website is far less important than it was before.
Defragmentation
Your hard drive is a bit crazy. It stores files in the first available pocket on your drive, and then finds another spot when the file you are trying to save, and yet another until the entire file has been saved. Over time that causes files to lie scattered all over your hard drive, and this costs quite a bit in loading files once you need to work on your PowerPoint presentations or to watch your videos.
Again, defragmentation was even more powerful when we had slower drives, but nowadays, the challenge is still that hard drives are getting larger as we speak, and therefore the scattering of data is still quite a challenge for many programs.
Your system should defragment regularly, but it all depends on whether you have set up your system to do this. Check your hard drive by right-clicking the C-drive, and choosing Properties. You will then see an option for Optimization that offers you automation under Advanced settings.
System Tools Running in the Background
When you have many programs next to your system watch at the bottom right of your screen, you need to check what you actually use, and what could be removed from starting automatically every time you start up your PC. Freeing even just 5-10% of your system memory can add 25% to your system performance, so there’s quite a bit to be achieved from taking a look at this.
Keeping Your System Updated
Just as with automating defragmentation, then keeping your system updated is important, especially if you only use your computer quite rarely. Your system will check for updates, but if you haven’t turned on your computer after a vacation, it is highly recommended that you check for updates from your control panel. System errors can be avoided when you do this, so this is high priority.
Conclusion
If you follow these four steps, you will see that your system will run much more smoothly, and best of all, these steps were all free of charge – available for all.