Why does a PCs performance gradually degrade and what can one do to prevent it.?

Answer 1

after time your computer builds up useless junk and files on your hard drive, that cause it to slow down, in relation to that your hard drive can become heavily fragmented with files. another thing is ad/spyware these can lead to your computer being very unstable. Internally your computre builds up dust, when the dust builds up these can block the fans, which will make your computer overheat, which can therfore slow down your processor.
Solution; for fragmentation get a 3rd party fragmentation software, PerfectDisk is a good one. For useless junk and files CCleaner is very good this is free off there site www.ccleaner. com. For Ad & Spyware, Webroots Spyware is very good they have won awards and stuff, they have a free trial version on www.download.com. for the dust inside if you're not sure if you want to open up your computer u can take it to such places as Best Buy, Compusa, Circuit City or Staples and get it professionally cleaned and vacuumed out (Do Not try to vacuum yourself you can damage your computer)

Answer 2

PCs performance gradually decrease:
1. As you install & uninstall programs, the registry gets crowded.
2. A lot of programs get started at the start up.
3. The temporary files & the prefetch files are not deleted regularly.
4. System restore points are not cleaned reguraly & they take a lot of space. It can be in gigabytes.
5. Anti virus (not necessary for an experienced computer user) & other unnecessary like toolbars etc. are installed.

System's performance can be increased by:
1. Install CCleaner from ccleaner.com which will delete all temporary & unnecessary files & also clean the registry.
2. Uninstall all unnecessary programs & delete all duplicate & unnecessary files.
3. Use Disk Cleanup utility (right click on all hard disk drives) & delete all system restore points (in more options).
4. Run msconfig in Start Menu-Run & uncheck all start up programs which you don't need during start up.

Answer 3

As you use your computer programs get installed and files get created. The extra programs all require system resources to run so they will hog up memory and CPU cycles. The files that you create take up disk space and cause fragmentation of the disk so it makes it less efficient for the computer to find things.

The only way you're going to prevent it is to never use your computer. It's something that you're going to have to live with. The only thing that I can suggest is to defragment your hard disk when you get a chance and closely monitor what's being installed and run on your computer.

Answer 4

A PC's performance is based upon how much free space there is on the harddrive, (among other things). Hard drives will save files in the first available space it has and many times it saves it in fragments, (if your file is over 37K). It doesn't organize them. So, as time goes on and more files get written and deleted, a computer has to look in more places on the harddrive to bring up your file. If you want to help this process, get an external harddrive and archive older files on there. Keep as much as possible on that separate harddrive. Do NOT compress your harddrive to save space, (it increases your chances of file corruption) and defragment your harddrive frequently. This puts all of your files in order for faster reading. I hope this has helped.

P.S. Don't download useless programs, like toolbars and widgets. It takes your computer longer to run them and eats your memory.

Answer 5

Because of all the apps. we install/uninstall on them, all the internet downloads , the lack of defragmenting etc.

Best way is to install windows with all the drivers updates, etc.
and the basic apps. that YOU NEED to use for every day.

Then create an image of this installation.

So next time your system starts degrading, backup the files you want, and re-image the system, then all that remains to do is install the secondary apps. you don't use often and restore your backed up files.

Works great and removes all the bloat.

Answer 6

Because of age and the number of times they are started up and turned on.

To keep a computer healthy and last a few more years.
1. Keep the area around the desk clean.
2. Clean your computer twice a years, for dust and stuff.
3. If it;s a laptop you'll need to clean it more often.