Slowing Computer? Why a Computer Slows Down

There are many things that are an affront to our computers' speed. Among them are spyware, viruses, and registry corruption. Another computer speed stumbling block is the simple fact that as time goes on programs we install on our computers get bigger, web pages we visit become more complex and we generally accumulate more stuff on our computers. Of course, this means it takes longer for an operating system to find what it is looking for.

Rapidly Advancing Technology

Let me address the last item first. Nothing becomes outdated faster than a computer. A computer you bought last year is really last year's news! Any program you add to this computer might use up it's resources.

Let's look at the same problem another way. I can remember when 64K, yes, that's kilobytes, was an unheard of amount of RAM. "Forget about upgrading to 64K," I was once told. "Be happy with the 16K you have!"

From this point, we've come to where 2 GB is just about standard and where 64-bit systems are becoming more popular, in part, because 32-bits present us with a limit of 4GB of RAM that can be addressed. If you want to have 5GB of RAM in your computer, you need to have a 64-bit system.

The point is, to keep your PC from lagging behind the continual advances in computer technology, you need to throw a little more RAM into your computer every once in a while.

Viruses and Spyware need to be eliminated

To the first issue, spyware and viruses, let me just say everyone must, in this day and age, have spyware and virus cleaners installed on their computers. I'm sure you do. Not being protected against spyware and viruses can quickly result in an internal PC crash! Even if they don't destroy your computer, viruses and spyware can certainly cause a severe computer slow down. So, if you do need to take care of this issue, you should do so quickly.

Clean Out the Corruption!

The other issue I referred to above was registry corruption. This has truly become a big problem in today's world of PC's. What's more, the upgrades in our operating system, XP to Vista, Vista to 7, don't put a damper on the problem of registry corruption. In fact, registry corruption becomes more problematic all the time.

There isn't too much we can do, as far as using our computer, to eliminate registry corruption from accumulating in our registries. The best move we can make is to use a registry cleaner every once in a while to clean it out. A registry cleaner can be used to clear up any damage that has been done by registry corruption. It can also be used proactively to stop corruption from doing its dirty deeds.

If your computer is slowing down, freezing, crashing, or you are seeing a barrage of error messages on your screen; it could very well be registry corruption behind it all. You can try a free scan and find out if in fact it is. Other than that, make sure your spyware/virus program is up to date and make sure you have enough RAM loaded into your PC to take care of the fact things in the computer realm keep moving on.

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, Compare Registry Cleaners, rates the latest registry programs and tells which registry cleaners work and which ones might actually be dangerous to your computer. Also, Computer So Slow gives you step by step instructions on how to get your computer's speed back!