Slow computer?

Question

Why is my laptop taking longer to load and shut down these days? The hard drive is only half full, I've cleared all the temporary files and cookies and Norton anti virus can't find any problems.

Answer 1

I have found that Norton's recent releases of AV and Systemworks really slow down systems as they attempt to improve security.

Good Anti Adware progs like Ad-Aware or SpyBot will help get you started but someone has also mentioned CCleaner and this cleans up the registry.

Try being brutally honest and uninstalling programs that you don't really use. Don't hang on to something because "Ooh, I might need that." Registry files are the biggest offenders as they hoard everything.

Keep shortcuts only on your desktop - large files or folders containing large files will significantly reduce the speed of your computer - One guy I know had 23GB of files in a folder on his desktop and wondered why his system ran slow. I made a shortcut to this folder after moving to the second partition on his hard drive and the speed increase was very noticeable.

As a last resort, considering doing a full backup and using the restore disk/s to reset your laptop to factory conditions and then reinstalling your applications. Sometimes a good clearout of the whole system can work wonders.

I work in a school and the teachers often have trouble with their laptops and I find a full system restore to be the best solution. Then I simply return the files from the backup to the "My Documents" directory for them.

Answer 2

The speed of computer is dictated by many factors.... Since you deleted unnecessary files, I would look at how applications are installed that you are not using (since this makes your registry larger and make the bootup slower)... Next I would look at defragmenting your hard drive....

Under C:\Windows you will see a lot of file with the following:

$NtUninstallK*****

These are there in case you want to uninstall Microsoft patches.... This tends to never happen so you can delete these also... Finally make sure you empty your recycling bin since the files are not trully delete until you empty your recycling bin....


After this is done... Try to defragment..... This should speed things up....

Answer 3

I had Norton security on my PC and when the subscription ran out i swapped to avast anti virus and zone alarm firewall and my computer doubled in speed. Norton is an excellent product but you need a powerful machine to run it.

Answer 4

You can change what programs are being loaded when you first boot your computer. Click start then click run...type in msconfig then hit enter, this will open up your system configuration utility. Click the tab that says "start up" and you'll be able to see what programs are loading every time you start your laptop. From here you can determine what programs you want to disable. You'll be surprised at how many programs load up that you don't need.

Answer 5

Working with a slow computer can be time consuming as programs/ applications take a long time to start. This problem is more pronounced in computers which have been used for 6 or more months. More information at http://fixit.in/slowcomputer.html

Answer 6

run an alternitive Anti Spy-ware/add-ware. Norton does not pick them all up. Check Computer Actives web site for information and free Anti SW/AW downloads. Hope this helps!! computeractive.co.uk

Answer 7

click ctrl-alt-del to open up the task manager click on the process tab and see what's using most processor time and memory. It's probably Norton Antivirus .

Answer 8

you could try defragmenting your hard drive and run the disc cleaner, click start, all programs, accessories, system tools and disk defragment and disc cleaner. this may help you. also you could download a program called ccleaner, it is a very good program for cleaning your hard drive and files up. Hope this helps you.

Answer 9

try running ad aware good prog

Answer 10

try this use the link to show how too

http://www.technophobik.co.uk/vxp_msconfig/001_config_gen.asp