Computer help for a real idiot, please?

Follow this guide on how to speed up your computer:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=1066...

It increased my computer's speed by almost 50%.

Hope this helps.

It could be a series of things that are slowing your computer down. First I would recommend you get 2 things.

#1 Download this program called "Crap Cleaner", which is a small file that can be downloaded at www.ccleaner.com. Once you download this and save it into your computer, run the cleaner so it can clean up all the garbage from your computer. I'm sure there's YEARS worth of stuff on there cluttering up the registry. Secondally after all that's cleaned up, then click on where it says "registry" and scan for issues. Once it does that say you wanna fix the selected issues and yes you wanna back up to registry.

#2 Download this other program called Ad-Aware 2008, which you can get at www.lavasoft.com. Get the one that's for FREE. Once you get this, of course save it onto your computer. Then click "scan now" and run the FULL scan since it'll be your 1st scan ever.

#3 When you're done with those 2 programs, run a disk defragmenter on your "C" drive, which is the main hard drive on your computer. This can be located by clicking 1) start 2) all programs 3) accessories 4) system tools 5) disk defragmenter This could take awhile if you haven't done it ever. lol

These 3 things should speed your computer along nicely! Good luck! ^_^

Right click on 'My Computer' and select 'Manage'. Go down to 'Disk Defragmenter' and click on the button that says 'Defragment'. Also, you may need to buy more RAM. Especially if you use a lot of applications.

Having invalid registry entries can also hinder your performance. To take care of that go here http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.... to download EasyCleaner and install it. Open it up and click on the button that says 'Registry'. Click 'Find' and when it's done just click 'Delete All'. That should take care of the software aspect of it.

You might also want to think about a quality anti virus program. The best one that I have found for free is Avast! You can get it here: http://www.avast.com/

If you don't mind doling out some cash I would go with Kaspersky at http://www.kaspersky.com/

My PC is 5 years old to keep it running at a good speed you should only install software that is low on resources for example forget Norton or Mcafee they will slow computers as old as ours down, instead Avast combined with Comodo Pro will do the same job but use half the resources.

Also go though Add/Remove and remove any programs you no longer need.

To speed up start up: Click Start > Run > Type: Msconfig > Press Enter > Click On Start Up Tab > Untick programs that don't need to load with Windows.

did you remember to empty the recycle bin after you deleted them? also anytime you "clean house" you should run a defrag to speed things up, deleting them alone will not help a lot. virtual memory uses contiguous memory so even if you deleted the files, you're contiguous memory is likely the same or close to it. the defrag will move the existing files, etc around (basically reorganizing them) and will allow the system to use more disk for the page file.

Do loads of clean ups,

Delete programmes you don't want.

OR;

If its seriously slow, you can just Restore it, this will delete everything, and I mean everything.

Programmes,files..etc

make sure you have some sort of anti-virus like avg free edition or something because sometimes viruses will make your pc slow, then go to start, control panel. add/remove programs and delete everything you are not using

Uninstall some of your programs.

get more memory.