by Ed Lathrop

Today’s home computers are nothing short of fabulous!  The way they fly through hyperspace and perform operations is absolutely amazing!  Yet many times a PC, for no foreseen reason will slow down, sometimes intolerably.  When this happens it is maddening to say the least as suddenly this powerful speed merchant computer starts acting like a doorstop!

To me, it is understandable to be impatient with a slow computer.  After all, they are supposed to be fast; aren’t they?
You would figure if you got a modern day computer, even if only somewhat up-to-date, one of the advantages would be that it would be fast.  And at one time not that long ago, it probably was.  So, what happened?  Why suddenly has this modern day marvel for super fast communication become slower than molasses?

So, is it possible to get its speed back?  Can this computer once again operate at full speed?  If so, how can you go about getting it back to full speed?  Well, you probably can and in the next few paragraphs I will explain how.

Let’s Talk About Malware

The first thing we have to do to get our slow running computer back up to speed is give it a good spyware scan.  Most people I know already have a spyware cleaner installed on their computers.  A spyware cleaner would be some kind of spyware/malware/adware cleaning program that you have installed on your computer or came on the computer when it was new.

Sometimes a computer will have a virus scanner installed on it and this is OK.  Somewhere along the line anti-virus software and spyware cleaners sort of stole each other’s job.  Any good virus cleaner will take care of any spyware your computer may have and any good spyware cleaner will get rid of the viruses  The key word here is malware.  Viruses, spyware, adware, trojans, keyloggers and any other stuff like this are really malware, or to be more specific; malicious-software.

All this means that the first step in getting your computer’s speed back is making sure you have no viruses or malicious software.  How do you do this?  Scan your computer with a good virus and/or spyware cleaner.  Don’t have one?  Well in that case, you better get one quickly. 

Sadly, there are times a computer is running so badly it is not capable of getting on-line so you could download a spyware cleaner.  If this is the case with your computer you will have to bring it to a repair shop unless you are capable of cleaning out the malware on your computer from another source.

Hurray! I Have No  Virus and Spyware or Malware!

If you are able to a run a spyware or virus scan and you find you are free of these parasites, this is fine and it brings us to this conclusion.  Probably, you have corruption in the registry.  With a slow computer you always have to get rid of the malware first because a registry cleaner won’t.  Then, after you are sure you have no parasites and your computer is still crawling along, it is time to do a registry scan. This is easy and it’s free.  Just go on-line if you can and do a registry scan.

If it is operating, even really slowly, get on-line, go to the site of a top shelf registry cleaner program and take them up on their offer to give you a free scan.  Every good registry cleaner I know of offers a free scan.  By getting one you will be able to see if it is the fact you need your registry cleaned  that is taking all the zip out of your computer. 

If the free scan shows a lot of registry corruption the best thing you can do is go ahead and get the company’s license to clean it out.  There is a charge for this but it is quite small.  I recommend doing this because if you have registry corruption and then you clean it out, great things are likely to happen.  In other words, your computer will be fast again!

I can’t tell you how many computers I seen transformed from crawlers into flyers after they got their  registries cleaned!  Even better news is the fact best new registry cleaners optimize the registry as well.  Optimization will make your computer even faster.  I’ve seen this happen many times.  It is very impressive!  So, there is my advice.  Get and keep your computer’s registry cleaned, keep the spyware out and probably, speed will no longer be an issue!

The author, Ed Lathrop is a comp TIA A+/Network+ certified computer technician familiar with the operation, repair and upkeep of today’s PC’s. His site, Registry Repair, rates the latest registry programs and tells which registry cleaners work and which ones might be dangerous to your computer. Also, make sure to visitRepair Slow Computer.

photo credit: pjf@cpan