Why is my computer slow?

To find out why your computer is running slow, you have to ask yourself some questions and do some simple detective work because everyone's situation is different.

There are no one fix it all solution to this problem. Usually computer slowdowns follow a pattern where certain events will trigger the slowdown over a period of time. You need to pay attention to details and be observant of any recent changes that have taken place on the computer. How long has the computer been running slow?

In order to track down the cause of the computer slowdown try to recall if you have recently installed any new software/hardware, and if so when did you notice the slow speeds. The software that is installed on your computer can be the culprit of slowdown issues. Software that is missing critical security patches can pose both security and performance threats to the computers performance.

For a really neat application that can scan your computer for any missing or critical security updates or patches go to http://www.secunia.com and click on the download for the PSI 2.0 it is a free program that has powerful features that detects and installs missing security patches for your PC. Do some house cleaning of your windows Windows has built-in features that do a very good job at cleaning junk files out of the computer.

A Cleanup of the Disk can quickly be done in XP by opening My Computer then right-click the drive the where the Operating System is located once this is done select Properties where at the top of the Properties window General tab is located, there is a Disk Cleanup button located in the lower right section of the General tab that once clicked on will proceed to do a Disk Cleanup and analysis of the selected drive. Once this cleanup scan is completed you have the choice of eliminating a host of useless files such as Temporary Internet Files, Program Files Previously downloaded and no longer needed, Webpage files for offline viewing are also files that can bog down a computer system. These files are not necessary for the computer to function and their removal will recover space on the hard drive and will speed up the system. Make sure to remember to empty the recycling bin to be completely rid of the files and to have access to the recovered space.


To run Disk Cleanup in Vista open Start menu, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.

In the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box, you have the choice to clean up your own files or all of the files on the computer.

If the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection dialog box appears, select the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK.

Click the Disk Cleanup tab, and then select the check boxes for the files you want to delete.

When you finish selecting the files you want to delete, click OK, and then, to confirm the operation, click Delete files. Disk Cleanup then removes all unnecessary files from your computer. This may take some time depending on how much junk has accumulated on your computer.

To run Disk Cleanup in Win 7 click on Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup Select the drive you want to use Disk Cleanup on and click on OK. Check the type of files box that you want to delete, and click on OK.

Click on the Delete Files button.