Tips

If your computer seems sluggish and takes ages to perform even the simplest tasks, then give it a mini spring clean that should take less than 30 minutes, here is how this can be achieved:

• Reduce the amount of computer memory dedicated to video. If part of your computer memory is "shared" with your video, decrease that amount to the bare minimum. Some computers dedicate up to a quarter of the system memory which is far too much.
  
• Clean your hard drive by Downloading, Installing and Running a program called Cleaner. This is a freeware application that will recover precious space by removing unnecessary files.
  
• Defragment your hard drive. Power Defragmenter is one of the most effective tools available and outperforms the Microsoft version on computers.
  
• Viruses and malware are major causes of stamina loss in computers. Ensure you have antivirus, antispyware and a Firewall installed and updated, to remove malware and viruses.
• Many applications are configured to start as Windows is launched which uses precious system memory. The excellent Startuprun application disables some of these applications and improves performance.
  
• Configure Windows to run at its maximum performance by executing steps 1 to 3 from the InformIT tutorial here.
  

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