Whether you’re situated in an office or out and about, a slow PC can be a huge annoyance at the best of times. Chances are, you rely heavily on your PC on a daily basis and nothing slows down a business’s performance and productivity than computers that aren’t up to speed. Follow our 7 top tips and improve your PC speed whilst keeping it safe and secure.

Check Your Browser.

One of the main culprits of a slow PC – Internet Explorer! IE has slowly been replaced by a number of browsers over the past few years and users have noticed a huge increase in speeds and much fewer bugs. If you haven’t already, we highly recommend the switch to Google Chrome. Here’s how to set Chrome as your default browser.

Make Adjustments.

If you really want to increase performance and don’t mind missing out on visual effects like mouse shadows, then you can adjust your system settings. Head to the “system properties” section of your computer and adjust as necessary. You can even lower your screen resolution to help speed up your systems and increase the battery life if you work on a laptop.

Minimise Items Running on Startup.

If it’s taking your computer a while to start up then you might have a large number of programs selected to launch automatically when you turn your PC on. To select the programs you do want to run, press the Windows key, select “run” and type “msconfig”. You can then select the startup tab and choose what you do want to run on startup – eg. antivirus.

Empty Recycle Bin.

Maybe an obvious point but lots of people forget about this tool. Don’t leave any chance for unused files to take up space on the hard drive.

Remove Unwanted Programs.

As with any business, programs can become outdated and need replacing. If you have applications that you no longer use or need, get into the habit of removing them as they’re only taking up valuable space and eating memory.

Add More RAM.

Rather than a software change, increasing the RAM involves a physical hardware change. As machines age, you can extend their lifespan and increase performance by adding RAM. This is often preferred as it is more affordable than paying for a completely new computer system.

Scan and Remove Malware.

Malware can be a tricky subject and your PC can easily become infected if the right steps aren’t taken. It refers to a type of virus that cam harm your computer in a variety of ways, but the most common are to reduce speed and performance.

Make sure you regularly scan your PC and as soon as you identify any suspicious software, remove it.

There are a number of free and paid for antivirus software packages available and you can easily request a quote from OmniCom.

 

Next time your PC’s feeling a bit sluggish, try out our tips and let us know how you get on!