Why is my computer so slow?

Just like people, computers age with time. They become slower, fill up with ‘junk, accumulate malware and viruses. In this article, we will touch some of the reasons which may be behind your slow computer. We will also cover what steps you can take to improve the situation.A big part of the issue, is that most users don’t follow basic maintenance, to keep their computers running smoothly – in the same way you would expect a car that hasn’t been serviced for a long time. IT Support companies can often provide a scheduled computer check-up on your machine, to make sure its running as well as it should be.
Its important to note, that experiencing slow webpage loading times, in general slow internet – is often a different issue.

There are certain things which will affect Mac’s and PC’s differently, however there are some generic steps you can take to ensure that regardless of device, you are taking care of things.Firstly, im not quoting The IT Crowd, but “have you tried turning it off and on again?”. This may seem like the default thing that an IT support technician may ask – but its for good reason! Often updates, cache and other aspects of software require a restart every so often. Cache is data that builds up over time, its actually there to make your computer faster, but if it is not cleared often enough, it can become full, and do the opposite.
Some updates require software to be fully reloaded, without knowing what software exactly needs an update, a reboot can often be a ‘go-to’ to fix issues.
Shutting down your computer at the end of the day is always a good idea, not to mention environmentally friendly, as your computer still uses power when it is in sleep!
Scan your computer for viruses. As part of Office 21’s service, we provide AntiVirus software for all of our clients. Often free antivirus doesn’t afford the same level of protection that premium antivirus offers. You may have viruses, malware or other bits of spam software on your computer that is running in the background, you may not know it, but it could be taking up your valuable processing power, which slows down your computer.
Doing daily ‘quick-scans’ and weekly ‘full scans’ something which your IT Professional will be able to help you with, will ensure that your computer is free from unwanted software.
Replace that rotational hard drive with a solid state drive. The hard drive is one of the last moving components in computers. Hard drives are often chosen over solid state drives because they are so much cheaper, however solid state drives are at a minimum 10x faster than a rotational hard drive. This makes start-up and shutdown, opening applications and files, and general use of the computer much faster.When Office 21 is asked to spec computers, we always go for SSDs, they are far more reliable as they do not wear over time. The main cause of data loss that we find, is due to hard drive failures. In all my time in IT, I have never had data loss on an SSD (touch wood!). SSDs do fail, but it is exceptionally rare.
Remove some of your files and put them in the cloud! Keeping the bare minimum on your computer, the documents you use daily and putting the rest, family photos & videos in the cloud. These libraries often take up huge amounts of space.
Do you have a slow computer? Have you tried all of the above to no avail? Call Office 21 IT Support, we would be glad to help.