Hello all,
Before I throw my computer out of the window in frustration is there anyone out there who has advice on how to speed up my computer? I’ve heard that cookies slow down computers. How do I delete them?
Thanks in anticipation.
There’s various things you can do, but if you don’t have the installation disks and you are bit of a novice with the technical side of computers, then downloading the free CCleaner software might be up your street. Haven’t used it myself (I have access to the Windows disks to do a reformat of the hard drive and a fresh installation of Windows) but lots of people swear by it.
There are several things that slow down the computer.
-
Too much on the desktop, it all lives in memory and the less free memory the slower the machine. The desktop icons should all be just links (with the little arrow in the corner) and no files or pics or folders or executables.
-
As Helen says, run CCleaner to clear out the dross that accumulates. (Old temporary files, deleted stuff clogging the Trash can, history files, etc)
-
Some cookies might slow the machine, but very rarely, and most are not harmful at all but actually beneficial as they store info to allow one to not have to keep on typing in the same old data such as logins, addresses etc. The Virus Checker should eliminate the bad cookies automatically.
-
Have you recently upgraded to W10? If not don’t worry about it. But if so it might be doing background tasks without telling you, such as downloading more updates etc, and there is not much you can do apart from doubling your RAM and getting faster broadband and better wifi.
-
Have you recently added a piece of new software? It might be hogging the system in the background even when you are not ‘using’ it. Open Task Manager and have a look at the cpu usage for the ‘Processes’, and then have a look at ‘Performance’ and open the ‘Resource Monitor’. Both of these allow a look into the heart of what is going on inside the machine, and if you see anything you don’t recognise then do a google search on that name to find out if it is needed. Sadly, most of the time it turns out to be needed.
-
Try turning off automatic updates on software from the likes of Adobe and Java and M$, they tend to hog the computer for up to the first ten or fifteen minutes after switch-on. If you use McAfee it is even worse, which is why I use Norton where one can delay the updates to when convenient or set it to a lower priority. However one then needs to remember to do the checks for updates at a suitable time!
-
Lots of things I’ve not thought of… but also not come across.
Good luck.
How much disk space do you have left?
Most computers need some free space for best efficiency, so if you’re running out of disk space, delete some large files (music, pictures, videos).
Navigate to MyComputer and right-click on the C:// folder and click ‘properties’. If you’ve got less than 1 or 2 GB, remaining that might explain (some of) the slowdown.
Assuming Windows which version? How old is the computer? Cookies can slow a PC down but most are passive. Do you have any anti virus software - these often have cookie removal options. I’d also run the defragmenter. If your speed problems are with Internet access then look at your connection speed and wifi. HTH
Hello, thank you all for your help so far. The computer uses Windows XP but states can’t upgrade to later versions of windows. I’m defragmenting the computer at the moment, which seems to be taking ages! It states I have a capacity of 70.52GB and free space of 25GB. l have also run ccleaner to delete temp files. I’ll let you know if the computer is any faster after all this!
the windows xp built in defrag is rubbish it will only reduce defrag by 1% per pass
install the Auslogics free defrag tool it is much better will get to 0% fragmentation in a single pass
http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/
or
Power defragmenter (part of the sysinternals suite which I would also recommend you download)
Is you AV up to date ?
Have you run a scan recently ?
remove unused software
then run ccleaner again to tidy up all the rubbish the windows installer leaves behind
read this
http://articles.iamnotageek.com/10-p1.php
what are you running on it that’s slow? we still have an old XP machine, with very little ram and slow processor, and all we now use it for is to store and update ipods with music and podcasts. We turn it on, come back about half an hour later (no exaggeration) and its fine to use. I stripped back everything on it so it only runs itunes, and then its the oldest version we can get away with, as anything newer will kill the machine. So I wonder if you’ve perhaps updated something recently and the poor old XP machine simply can’t cope anymore. Bear in mind that XP is now pretty obsolete as an operating system, and no doubt the PC spec is similarly ancient, so slow performance is not to be unexpected…
Agree with martin there is a time to put your PC down and that one may well be at that time!
No, cookies won’t slow your computer down.
The suggestions about disk space and RAM are sensible.
The suggestion about desktop icons is not.
You need to provide more information about what is slow, how it’s slow, when did it start going slow, and maybe even some measured timings.
If this is something to do with your web browsing experience, it could be one of those dreaded Firefox updates - every so often they like to add some new code that seems to break things or slow the browser down. The rest of the computer is fine, just the browser. Then they fix it in the next release.
Look for anything that you may have installed and might be checking for updates each time you boot and disable those you don’t need.
e.g.
Adobe PDF reader
Java
DivX
Dropbox
Anti-virus (remember to update manually at your convenience)
Even the Windows Update is pretty irrelevant now for XP.
All these things connect to the internet and take time to sort themselves out before the PC is “ready” to be used.
Also get rid of anything that loads itself such as Skype.
Only keep what you really need and old PC’s can continue serve a useful life for a bit longer 
I agree with those who have suggested that you need to be more specific about what is slow so that it can be addressed. Judging by the fact that you have a small hard drive I would guess that you may also be quite short on memory too (RAM).
These two things could be addressed if your motherboard supports more recent technology but otherwise it is probably time to replace it.
1) If your hard drive is connected via SATA then it could be replaced with a solid state drive of (say) 120GBytes. This would improve boot up times and general program start up times. If its a IDE hard drive and the motherboard doesn’t support sata then it not worth trying to upgrade.
2) Check how much memory you have ( select system from control panel if my memory is correct on XP). If it is less than 2Gb the it is worth adding extra but exactly how you do that is dependant on the motherboard. Memory is very cheap for these old machines.
If your problems are related to internet browsing then I’m afraid its a whole different set of issues. Let us know.
My everyday laptop is also on XP.
As said already, if you’re on XP that presumably means that your
PC is also, in computer terms, very old.
Increasingly, when trying to update software, I receive messages that say
the latest version is not compatible with XP. So no security updates for either the software,
and as XP is no longer supported by Microsoft, none for the operating system either.
Time, then, to move on.
By the nature of what it’s doing, defragging does take ages. It’s not just your PC.
I use http://uk.crucial.com/gbr/en for my memory upgrades. They have a tool which analyses your PC and works out what memory you already have and what the upgrade options are. The stuff is dirt cheap these days and installation is not a big job. Extra memory can only make your PC run faster.
Also, don’t be talked into upgrading from Windows XP unless you need to. We were still using it at work until recently and where Jayne works they still use it. Yes it’s unsupported now but if it does all you want it to does it matter? For ‘old’ read ‘stable’ although no doubt someone will shoot me down in flames for saying that.
they would have you believe though that it also makes it more and more vulnerable to viruses and other such attacks as the software no longer receives any security updates,
There have been two updates that have downloaded my my lap top (Windows 7) that have basically destroyed access to the internet on any browser. The last one was last night and basically just about everything times out on webpages. In both instance I have had to use a system restore which has resolved the issue. It may even be the same update that has caused the problem in both instance. It’s a pain in the arse.
There is no black magic with problems like this. Firstly you should open a command prompt window and ping the offending web site by name. For example
>ping /t www.bbc.co.uk
The result will tell you two things. Firstly that the name resolves correctly to an IP address and secondly that the response back from that address occurs within a reasonable time ( no more than 50 milliseconds should be OK ). If it says could not find host or if there is a long delay before the IP number comes back then you have a fundamental problem with name resolution. If its just very slow you should run a standard internet speed test to see if there is a fundamental problem with that.
You should then run a short test with your anti-virus disabled only accessing web sites that you completely trust. If the problem goes away then you may be able to update your anti-virus program so that it isn’t in conflict with the Microsoft patches.
Patches can be removed individually from the programs and features control panel. Just select view installed updates.
I can’t write a book on this ( well not here anyway ) but I hope this may help.
.Thank you.
It is not a particular website, it is every one, so this one, my own, the BBC, Google, anything. It reports it is a general access issue, so could be something to do with the modem, or as you say, the anti virus as email is also affected. Incoming mail comes in at about the speed they were probably written and out going just fails.
Most sites just time out having failed to make a connection, and if the connection is made then it is terminally slow with much content missing.
Just a thought. Are you using a BT line with some copper in it?
If so, then a bad connection somewhere along it can mess up the internet. My line failed a couple of years ago and the very efficient Muslim engineer worked most of the day through the heat of Ramadan to find it, eventually calling out the cherry picker to access the top of the pole because he didn’t feel safe up a ladder with so much traffic so close.
You can check this by trying the machine at a different site on a different network. Or check with a different machine on the line in question.
Good luck