My Computer Is Slow! Can It Be Fixed?

We’ve all been in a situation when our computer gets very slow and in some cases “walk away to pick up a cup of coffee and possibly a snack” slow! Let’s face it, the slower a computer is, the more time it takes us to do a task. Additional wait times to handle tasks add to our stress levels and honestly, we have enough stress in our lives (coming out of the COVID-19-era) and a computer running slow shouldn’t be an issue that we need to deal with!

Have you ever asked yourself the question about what you would do if a computer was running slow? The computer speed relies on several factors such as its age, how often it’s being maintained and cleaned, and possibly any adware or malware infections which are normally the primary reasons why a computer is slow. Junk and temp files are a necessary part of how an application works. Files are generated then they are no longer needed. The accumulation of files slows down accessing other files, search results and could take a big chunk of storage.

We as techs have a list of mental steps that we “check” when we are tasked with a slow computer service ticket. These steps combined have a considerable impact on computer performance. DIY is helpful in many cases as you might need your computer optimized right then and there yet a tech cannot get to it at exactly that minute so why not run the initial scans to see where that leads you?

Here are the primary pieces of software that we use when tuning up a computer:

1. Junk files clean up and general optimization: We recommend the use of the free version of CCleaner which you can download from their website https://www.ccleaner.com/. Use this to clean up the junk files. I have personally seen computers that had 100’s of GBs in Junk files cleaned up in no time allowing users to see a considerable difference in performance.
2. Malware scan: malware is a type of malicious software designed to harm or exploit any programmable device or network and it’s being used and deployed in massive numbers through infected websites, SPAM emails, and other sources. One of the best ways to clean your computer of such infections is by using Malwarebytes that you can download from https://www.malwarebytes.com/.
3. Adware scan: adware is a type of malware that is sneaky and performance-altering… it can slow down a computer so much so that you feel it’s time to buy a new one! Before you whip out your credit card, scan your computer with ADWCleaner which you can download from  https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner

Hopefully, those steps are enough to get your computer to behave better! If the steps above did not help and your computer is slow, we are always available to help!