We probably stumble upon cases where the computer we were using was working so slow, it could only irritate us to the scale where we just couldn’t work properly. Computers tend to get slow for different reasons. Some are due to the fatigue of the hardware units, they just get old or full of dust, and they just can’t perform anymore with either the resources the operating system requires from it, or just it fails to work properly. Some other reasons might be the amount of running processes/programs at the same time. The operating system might not be able to contain the amount of running processes at the same time, which causes the slowness.

The Microsoft windows operating systems, has some issues with their “Temp” directories. The operating system writes temp files on a temp directory to be able to work faster, and some applications do the same, like your internet browsers which are using internet temp folders, mostly it is due to an assumption that if you visit a website, you might visit it more than once, that assumption is a bit far-fetched. True there are some websites we will visit on a daily basis, but some we might just visit and never go back to. The operating system or the applications will not delete those temp files, and eventually the amount of temp files on those temp directories will affect the computer, and cause it to work slower than it used to.

So, what can we do to either prevent it from happening, or just perform preventive actions to ensure our computer won’t become slow again?

The procedures you might consider taking are:

1. Free disk space – I explained above that the Windows operating system and applications tend to keep temp files for their work. Those temp files slowly increase in size and might cause a lack of space on your system hard drive. In case the system disk becomes full (So there won’t be free space on it, or a very small size of free space) the computer (even on a Linux system) might stop wor
   king, and the system might not load on the next reboot.a.    Remove temporary internet files (Usually it will be on your profile directory – “C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files”) – You can remove all of the files from there (use SHIFT+DELETE – it won’t go through the recycle bin). b.    Empty the Recycle Bin from time to time – (Right Click it, and choose empty recycle bin).c.    Add-Remove Programs you are not using – (Through the “Control Panel”).d.    Remove unused restore-points – which you do not need anymore.

• Automatic processes for keeping temp files off your computer, you can use a local application on your Windows operating system – like “Disk Cleanup” or an external program. (right click the hard-disk of your choice – click the “Disk Cleanup”.

• Once a Week – run hard-disk “check disk”
•     Double click my-computer
•     Choose drive C\
•     Right click + properties
•     Select the “TOOLS” tab
•     Press the “check now” button

• Once a Month – De-fragmentation – it is recommended, since all of our work, removing files and copying files from place to place, causes blank spaces between data which causes the OS to work slower, unless we defrag and combine all of the data files, into a continued space, in one bunch.2.    Upgrade hardware components – In case your computer is a bit old, you might want to consider upgrading some hardware parts of it.a.    CPU – A better more updated CPU will increase performance greatly, there are Dual CPU’s or QUAD CPU’s and of course just faster CPU’s. The processing will become much faster and will boost your operating system performance greatly.b.    RAM – An increase in RAM will enable programs to load into RAM instead of using hard-disk as a place to store temp data for their resources. Larger amount of RAM enable larger blocks of data to be stored in the memory, which boosts processing procedures, and increase performance.c.    Faster Hard-Disk – Faster hard-disk will increase performance as well, most activities on a windows operating system, are writing/reading from the hard-disk. The applications are using the Hard-Disk as a resource for their activity.d.    Graphic Card – Replacing the graphic card with a more efficient and more advanced one, will increase your operating system, especially if it is a GUI one. The Windows operating systems by Microsoft are GUI operating systems, and replacing the Graphic Card, that will be more advanced, and with more RAM on it, will increase performance.3.    Replacing The Operating System – New operating systems are being published from time to time, as they get better, get upgraded, or just replace the old operating system that was in the market. Mostly they are better, more efficient, and will work faster with the resources you have, so you might consider replacing your old operating system, with a more efficient one.