The Need For Speed
BOGGED-DOWN BYTES
Here’s how to speed up a computer that has become a slowpoke.
There’s a saying about how when a lion wakes up each morning, it knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or else it will starve. It’s a good parable for the office, too: While you don’t need the fastest computer on the market, the slowest may put you on the endangered-species list.
Although your computer was gazelle-like when you got it, it may no longer be quite as spry. Instead of getting work done, you spend most of your days wondering if your computer will ever respond to your increasingly frustrated mouse clicks. The good news is that you can often get some of that speedy magic back.
If you ask someone in tech support how to speed up your machine, the first thing they’ll ask is whether you’ve checked for viruses, spyware or adware on your computer. It doesn’t really matter how these are classified on your machine—they will all bog down your system. Scads of reputable software products fight these invaders, either as standalone applications for viruses or spyware or a combination of the two. Examples include McAfee VirusScan Plus (www.mcafee.com) or Ad-Aware (www.lavasoftusa.com).
An antivirus program will generally start when your computer boots up, and will continue to operate in the background as you’re working. However, you won’t see a window that indicates the program is running as you would when doing word processing or editing a home video. There are lots of programs that come preset to run in the background but, unlike antivirus applications, not all of them need to. Your scanner or multimedia player might do this, as may countless other programs that you don’t use much. Turning off the background part of programs will allow your computer to breathe easier. Try a program like Startup-Mechanic (www.startupmechanic.com), which will help you decide which programs should stay and which should go.
As you add on more programs—including big antivirus applications—and newer, bigger software versions, more of your computer’s memory will be consumed. If your computer is still slow, it may be time to upgrade your RAM memory (not to be confused with your hard disk memory). If you have 256 MB, try going up to 512 MB or 1 GB. When you buy RAM, know that it varies for different computers. Many sites that sell RAM upgrades, such as Crucial (www.crucial.com), will assist in finding the right product for your computer. Installing RAM isn’t too difficult, but you may want to check with the supplier to make sure you can do it yourself. —Lee Gimpel
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