Every career girl needs an efficient laptop and there is nothing more frustrating than when your electronics just won’t play along. A slow laptop can be pretty tedious, but luckily there are some things you can do to help improve the speed of your computer. Here are 10 things to do when your laptop is terribly low.
#1 Run a virus scan
Spyware and viruses are becoming more and more crafty and those sneaky little things can sometimes fall under the radar of a regular virus check-up. Check that your anti-virus software is up to date and make sure to run full virus scans on your computer regularly.
#2 Clean your laptop – literally
Dust gets everywhere, even inside your laptop and it can cause a whole host of problems. The cause of your slow laptop might not be as technical as you think, it could simply be a case of it needing a good, physical clean. There are plenty of online tutorials and instructions on how to clean your laptop at home, but please be sensible; no water!
#3 Uninstall unused programs
A quick visit to the Programs folder on your laptop can reveal a whole list of software and programs that you may never use. The more programs on your computer, the slower it will run, as it is taking up vital memory space. Be sure to remove programs that you don’t use on a regular basis, it can really free up some space and improve speed.
#4 Get an external hard drive
If you, like many others, have folders and folders worth of photos and videos that you just can’t bring yourself to part with, getting another hard drive ensures all your memories are safe, but not cluttering your laptop. Move all your files onto your new hard drive and wipe your laptop clean. You’d be surprised how much space those iTunes albums can take up.
#5 Remove temporary files
Temporary files can build up on your laptop every day and stick on your hard disk, slowing up your computer even more. Removing these files, along with your cookies and history, will definitely free up some space.
#6 Make sure you’re up to date
Be it with Windows, Apple, Java, Adobe or whatever else, making sure you’re all updated can help to make your laptop run that little bit faster.
#7 Clean up your desktop
Having a busy desktop can really slow your laptop down, especially when your computer is just starting up. If your laptop background is a particularly large file, this can make logging in take that much longer. And if you have lots of icons and shortcuts littering your desktop, these refresh every so often while you’re using your laptop, meaning it can make your computer run slower constantly.
#8 Empty the recycle bin
Where do those files all go when you delete them? Well, first of all they stick around in your recycle bin, not completely deleted yet. The files are still on your laptop, meaning that they still continue to take up memory and make your laptop run slower. Delete the unwanted files permanently from your recycle bin and your laptop should speed right up.
#9 Close those tabs
A lot of us are definitely guilty of having multiple tabs open at once on our browser, sometimes even multiple windows with multiple tabs. But this is only slowing your laptop down even more.
#10 Wipe your laptop
Sometimes laptops need a good and proper clean that the above steps can’t do on their own. Wiping your laptop completely is the most effective way at making it run faster. Backup all the files you want to keep, trying to keep as little as possible and then wipe your laptop, returning it to its original, clean and quick state.
We’re so excited! CGD is nominated for the Bloglovin’ Awards 2015 . It would mean the world to us if you could vote for us here!
xx CGD team