Computers are slowed down for a number of reasons, but most of these boil down to us using them. As you download programs, install extensions, surf the web, create files and fill your hard drive with movies and music, inevitably you’ll build up virtual detritus that will impact your PC’s performance. Happily, much of that impact can be mitigated with better electronic hygiene habits. Here is a look at the common reasons why your computer us slowing down.
Solution: Disable or remove browser extensions and tool bars you don’t really need:
Firefox: Hit the menu button on the far right, select Add-ons / Extensions, then select disable or remove for each item on the list.
Chrome: Right-click on any extension button / Manage Extensions, then uncheck the box to disable a particular item, or click the trash can to wave it goodbye.
Safari: Hit Safari (top left) / Preferences / Security / Extensions, then select an item to uninstall. You can also turn off all Extensions here.
Internet Explorer: Tools / Manage add-ons / Show All add-ons, then select the offender(s), and click disable or remove.
2. Failing Hard Drive: Hard drives have moving parts, so they all fail eventually. There’s no way to guard against it except backing up your files. As for solid state drives (SSDs), which don’t have moving parts and are theoretically less likely to break down, that’s kind of a myth Silverman says. While they may not suffer mechanical breakdown, their data can still be corrupted. “When they do fail, it’s much more difficult to recover the data.
Solution:Run a hard drive check. Also install a program called HDTune that runs a health check on your hard drive to diagnose it healthy or ailing. Avoid dropping, throwing or otherwise causing impact to the hard drive to extend its lifespan.
3. Running Too Many Programs at Once: Doing a trillion things at once is exactly why we have computers but, at some point, your little bundle of artificial intelligence is going to falter. Your computer’s ability to run multiple programs at the same time hinges in part on its RAM (random access memory), which allows it to switch from processing one program to another with seeming fluidity, but if the demands of the open programs are outstripping your computer’s memory and processing power, you’ll notice a slowdown.
Solution: Shut them down. For Macs, Windows 10, Windows 7 and earlier versions of Windows, you can close the programs from the file menu. In Windows 8, programs are built so that they run in the background for a while, then automatically shut down. But if you want to manually shut one down and ensure all associated files shut down with it, drag from the top of the screen to the bottom, and hold there until the icon flips over.
4. Too Many Browser Tabs are Open: Having multiple browsers open can slow down the works, just like if you had 20-plus tabs open. Extra slow points if any tabs are also auto-refreshing (say, a live blog). What’s more, having a glut of browser tabs full of supposedly crucial information doesn’t exactly help our efficiency or mindfuless.
Solution: Bookmark those “necessary” links (for organization’s sake, in a Bookmarks folder titled “To Read”) and shut those tabs down. Even better, One-Tab for Chrome and Firefox does the work for you, compiling all your open tabs into a simple list on a single tab, which can then be accessed as needed.
5. Rogue Programs are Hogging All the Processing Power: It’s not always a heavy-duty video or music app that’s eating up your computer’s processing power. Some programs or system processes may be stuck in a loop or have encountered an error.
Solution: Check how much processing power programs and processes are using by heading into Task Manager (Windows; Ctrl+Alt+Delete) or Activity Monitor (Mac; in Applications / Utilities). For both, click the “CPU” tab to order the programs by how much processing power they’re taking up. If a program that you’re not actively using is still up there in the top few programs, you can select to quit the process.
6. An Overzealous Antivirus Program: Having an active anti-malware program is a vital part of computer hygiene – but yours may be running regular background scans at the worst possible times. Virus scans slow down the works because they’re running in the background. Some antivirus programs may be set to weekly full scans, which can take a few hours and suck up a lot of processing power.
Solution: Head into your antivirus settings and configure it to scan late at night when you aren’t using the computer, says Silverman. (However, that feature may not be available on some free antivirus programs – which makes a good case for upgrading.)
7. Virus: If it’s not the antivirus, it could be the virus. Viruses, spyware and other malware can slow down your computer as they mess around with everything from hijacking your browser to pushing advertising or phishing sites, to crashing your computer.
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