My Computer is Slow

This blog isn’t related to website design, but rather to the computers you use for your home and business.  Have you noticed how those computers seem to “get slower” as time goes on?  They boot slower, take longer to open programs, and seem to be spitting out errors more frequently.  Luckily, there are some tune-up steps you can take to make things better.[ad#techblog]
First I’m going to warn you of two things.  One, don’t expect to turn a Ford Pinto into a Maserati. I’m going to show you a tool that will help optimize your computer but it’s not going to work miracles.  Second, there always a chance that you can do harm to your computer, including making it unbootable.  Always have a backup!

There are many tools, suggestions, plans floating around the Internet about how to optimize your computer.  Since I know you’re a busy small business owner, I’m going to cut right to the chase and recommend the best, easiest, and fastest solution.

For the Macs, Onyx by Titanium Software is a great tool.  It is a tool that not only helps you clean up your mac, but also to change settings that you normally do not have access to.  Onyx is donationware which means you’re free to donate as much as you like in support of the product.  Don’t skip on donating – even $5 is supportive.

For starters, I would hit the “Cleaning” tab and basically go through each sub-section and execute cleaning of each section.  What’s checked off by default is fine.

For PC users, there’s much more potential for optimization due to the nature of the Windows operating system.  There’s a hard disk and registry to defrag.  There’s also a startup folder which tend to get bogged down with junk.  System Cleaner 5 for XP by Pointstone software is a single tool to handle it all.  The privacy protector, registry cleaner, and disk cleaner sections are pretty straightforward and you can run them with the default settings.  You can further increase performance by running System Cleaner’s startup, uninstall, and Internet Explorer managers, but these require more knowledge in order not to remove something you actually need.  When in doubt — don’t remove it!  Seek professional help.  System Cleaner is $34.95.

Just as you perform regular maintenance on your car, you also need to maintain your computer.  These two tools will go a long way for a optimized experience.