The Lymington Directory August/September 2018

HOW TO MAKE YOUR COMPUTER FASTER
One of the most common complaints I get
is, ‘My computer is running so much
slower than it used to’….. And the follow
on, ‘What can I do about it?’
Why does this happen? Everytime you
install a new program, the chances are it
will also install another program to check
for updates. For example : your printer
software will be phoning home to see
whether there is anything it should be
downloading, and whether the printer has
enough ink.
The programs themselves are not large,
but they take up space that the operating
system and other programs would
otherwise use. The less space in memory,
the more the computer disk drive has to be
used, and that slows things down.
Stopping programs you don’t need from
running at start-up will help, just make
sure they are not vital to the computer!
Without going into detail, the more a
computer is used, the more likely it is that
files will be split up to fill the available
space on the hard disk. Most of the time
this is dealt with automatically by
Windows, through a process called defragmenting.
If this is not set to work
automatically, running it manually may
help speed things up. Apple computers
work differently so they shouldn’t have
this problem.
But there are a couple of things you can do
that, whilst not guaranteed, are very likely
to speed up your computer:
Increase the amount of main memory. If
you are trying to run Windows with 4Gb or
less, increasing to 8Gb or above should
make a difference to the speed, but only if
you are running a 64bit operating system.
You’ll need to Google how to find out how
to check this, as that is beyond the scope
of this article.
Another way of speeding things up is to
install a SSD replacement hard disk if you
have a standard hard disk. SSD disks use
memory chips, and work much quicker
than mechanical hard disks. In fact you
may prolong the need to upgrade for
several years by doing so.
In both cases http://uk.crucial.com/ is a
good place to start . They have the facility
to download a test program which will tell
you what components will work with your
computer. There are cheaper places to buy
memory and SSD drives, but my
experience with them so far has been
good.
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