This is a guest post from Ayodeji Onibalusi. You too can write for us on techatlast.com reading the guidelines on our write for us page.

Without a very fast computer, nothing can be done as fast as you want it to be. And working with a slow computer can be really frustrating. Many people often make the mistake of buying a new computer once the computer they are using becomes slow. If you replace your present computer because it’s performing very slowly, will you keep changing computers like clothes? No, you won’t want to run into debt by doing so.Majorly, your computer performs slowly because of the engagements it is involved in. When your computer becomes to take as long as 5 to 10 minutes to boot and another 5 to 10 minutes before it shuts down, you will definitely get frustrated considering the fact that, if nothing is done to improve it, it will go on to deteriorate until you are forced to get a new system. The good news is that there are a few things you can do to save your money by making your computer fast without necessarily buying a new one.

Below are some tips and tricks you can do to improve your computer’s performance.

Check your System’s Performance

Checking your system’s performance can help you to determine the state that your computer is and what you can do to improve its condition to make you feel better when using it. This performance status will reveal to you the rate at which each program is using your computer memory also giving you clues to how you can cure your computer’s sluggishness.

To do this run Task Manager by pressing ‘ctrl+shift+esc’ or by simply right clicking on the windows task bar and clicking start task manager, when the task manager window pops up click on performance, there you’ll see the graph of how your computer is being used. You can click on processes to see the applications that are using your computer. Right click on anyone you think you didn’t initiate and is running under your user name and not with the User name=system.

Note, if you stop the wrong user application from running it will affect your operating system and will require that you restart your computer. If you are not sure about how to do this well, consider the other tips below.

Improving Your Computer Performance Speed

Manually improving your system’s performance speed is another great way to make your system perform better. Many problems that cause your computer to slow down in speed can be combated without requiring you calling an IT attendant to your aid. These simple tips can help your system improve in speed and make it perform better than before. All you need to do is know the right thing to do at the right time.

Install a Good Antivirus on your PC

Thousands of viruses and spywares are unleashed by unconcerned programmers daily and these harmful software and programs roam about the internet looking for unsecured systems to attack. When a system is attacked by viruses and spywares the performance of that system will reduce as these viruses will be struggling with the other applications on your system. Another harmful thing viruses do is to send information about you to particular database which will be used to hack the victim. With a good and up to date antivirus installed on your computer you will be secured from the attacks of virus. Viruses also affect our computer’s internet connection performance, it can slow down the speed of our connection and make us to start browsing the internet slower than how we suppose to browse.

Keep your antivirus updated

Then you have to make it a point of duty to keep your antivirus updated regularly. Seeing that many computer users are now becoming wise to protect their computers by installing antivirus on it, the hackers that program viruses have tightened their belts and are doing everything possible to make sure their programs are not barred by the antivirus installed on their targeted victim’s computer. For your computer to be fully protected, you have to keep updating your antivirus regularly and make sure that you don’t use any other external hard drive with it without proper scanning.

Stop programs from running on startup

Many programs are programmed to start up along with your system as you boot; this is a process that can hamper the speed at which your computer performs most especially when they are more than one of them. What you can do to help your computer perform better in this case is to stop such programs from starting up with your system and your system will work better.

Defragment your hard disk drive

When your computer works, it saves some files in multiple places and soon fragments them. Finding your particular document within a load of fragmented files will take your system a great time and this will slowdown the performance of your system.