whats a good free program to remedy a slow computer?

Answer 1

http://www.iobit.com

download advanced windows care freebie.

Answer 2

Maybe you have lots of malware use adaware to remove it and CCleaner including the useful scan for issues as well as the cleaner. Both are superb programs and help to clean up the hard drive. My wife recently bought a second hand laptop and CCleaner found and fixed 125 issues! Do you defrag the hard drive, as this will help. Some virus scanners slow computers down the worst being Norton, use a run in the background security suite like Panda Titanium, I use it and its fab but there are many other good ones.
Hope this helps
Andy

Answer 3

First, go to Start>Run & type in MSCONFIG & press OK. Go to the STARTUP tab. This is everything that starts when your computer starts up. Disable everything you can (actually, you can disable everything) then exit. Go ahead & restart your computer.
Next...run scandisk, then defragmenter on "C" drive.
After that...open Internet Explorer & go to TOOLS & then to ADDONS or MANAGE ADDONS. Disable any addons that are browser helpers or search bars. Go to Tools>Internet Options. Go to Browsing history & click on Settings. Change the Temporary Internet Files size to 75 MBs & the History setting to 1 or 2 days. Close Internet Explorer.
Go to Add/Remove programs & uninstall any programs that you do not use anymore.
See how much memory your computer has & how much it will handle. If you have 256 MB (or less), invest in more memory.

Answer 4

There aren't a lot of programs that can speed up a slow computer. The only thing that can be done, normally, is to upgrade the processor and memory.

If you haven't already, try running the Disk Defragmenter tool. It will be in the Accessories >> System Tools menu in the Start menu.

Answer 5

Give these tips a shot ..... they usually help a lot.

A major cause of slow PC's is fragmentation of the hard drive. You need to defragment the HD at least once a week if not more depending on how much you use your computer, and what you do with it.

One way is to use the defragment utility built into Windows XP. It is slow but does the job rather well. Go to:
Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools and then click on System Defrag to run the tool. It may take several hours, so let it run overnight or simply walk away from your PC for a few hours.

A great program for defragging automatically is Diskeeper. It costs $30 but is well worth it. Go to http://www.download.com and search for Diskeeper. Read the Publishers Description and the Editor and User reviews. It can be scheduled to run automatically as the program deems necessary, and if you are using your PC and the program launches itself, it will take a backseat to whatever you are doing and give you the priority for CPU usage. I think you'll agree it's a good program to have. It precludes your needing to remember to defrag at regular intervals.

Another major cause of a slow PC is programs that are running in the background. Here's another really good Microsoft tool. It’s called Autoruns and it was written by SysInternals who were recently bought up by Microsoft.

Before you download the program create a folder under program files called Autoruns. Leave Windows Explore open.

Launch Internet Explored and go to the following Microsoft web page. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/autoruns.mspx

Go to the bottom of the page and download the Autoruns program. After it downloads unzip the file and you will see 4 files. Drag and drop those 4 files to the Autoruns folder you created under Program Files.
Once you have the 4 files in the C:\Program Files\Autoruns folder you can double click on the file titled “autoruns”.

This will bring up a window with several tabs at the top. Click on the “Logon” tab. It will list the programs that are running on your PC and eating up resources. Look them over carefully and turn off any that don’t absolutely have to be running. Simply click on the “check mark” in the little box beside the program name. Clicking on it will remove the check mark. Once you have edited the Startup list, click on Apply and then on OK.
NOTE: Leave items that show Windows; System 32; Program Files; etc. alone. Shutting them off may cause some things not to work. Once you have exited the window, reboot your PC for the settings to take effect.
WARNING: Don’t go into the other tabs and start deleting things. You will probably give yourself major headaches if you do that. Stay focused on the “Logon” List only.

Regularly clean up your browsing history, files, cookies, temp files, etc. A good program to us is Ccleaner and it is FREE. Get it here: http://www.download.com

Also, you need a “registry cleaner”. The registry can get “defragmented and clogged” with various data that you simply don’t need. The only effective way to clean this massive list is to use an automated cleaner. Go to http://www.download.com and search for Registry Cleaners. There should be several FREE ones there for you to use.

Another good thing to have is a little program called FreeRAM XP Pro. It is free and is available from http://www.download.com This program puts a little RAM meter on the System Tray and shows how much RAM you have remaining that you are not using at any given time. I think you may be surprised at how little RAM you have to run other programs. Also, once it is installed you can right click on the little meter, then click on RESTORE and it will open the RAM display window. You can tweak the settings so it will display your CPU usage also. Then just click “Minimize” and then “To System Tray” to return to the Task Bar.

What happens when you run out of or run real low on RAM is that the OS recognizes the low or no RAM situation and starts using a section of your hard drive as memory. This is called virtual memory, or a swap file. The PC is constantly writing and reading from your HD. Comparitively, it is a very slow process. Check your motherboard manual and determine how much RAM each slot can hold. It will also tell you what type of RAM you need. You can also go to http://www.crucial.com or http://www.4allmemory.com and run their analysis utility to determine what kind and how much RAM is installed in your PC. Depend on your MoBo manual to determine the RAM limits of each slot though.

Hope this helps

Answer 6

Advanced WindowsCare

Seach in google and download and scan your computer, it is free.

Answer 7

if you have a pc try looking up "windows cleanup" on google and run the program. It removes a lot of clutter

Answer 8

this is a long list of info THAT WORKS
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/speed.mspx?wt_svl=10073XPHa1&mg_id=10073XPHb1#ELC
these steps below will help clean up your computer and make it faster
In Internet explorer at top of window select tools - then delete browser history
- then another box will open - select delete all- this will not remove your book marks
-Then close explorer then open again .At first pages will be slow once
and then will load fast after it loads 1 time.Also email etc you will have to sign in 1 time with pass word etc.
This will create new cookies.

Also go to start at bottom of on task bar.
click start 1 time then select find or search depending on your operating system.
Select all files and folders - then type in defrag and click search.When icons come up double click
and new box will come up - select analyze then you will see how fragmented you are -
then choose defrag.You can put this program on your desk top by right clicking on the icon you found in search for defrag.
Right click choose create short cut.This will put a short cut on your desk top.Then you can use as needed in future.


GO TO THIS SITE TO
http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

SEARCH
type in disk clean up
go start on blue bar (task bar)
choose search or find
then choose all files and folders
type in word you are looking for
when you see these icons
double click on them until you find what you are looking for
so you dont have to do this again
go back to same icon
right click
choose create short cut on desk top
close all windows
a new icon will be on your desk top
click to open
with disk clean up icon on desk top
open it
then choose more options
you will see remove programs i am not using

-------------------------------------------------------------
ADD AND REMOVE PROGRAMS

remove programs you are not using
click start bottom left on task bar(the blue bar probaly at bottom of your screen)
control panel
add and remove programs
find the program(s) you want to remove
choose remove
reinsall if needed
check status as you do it
be safe

------------------------------
MAJOR FILE REMOVAL

try going to Start>run then type in %temp% and deleting the files that come up.
then go back to the Run mode and type in prefetch and delete the files there. Then run your disk clean up
and defrag

Answer 9

Umm...defragging your HDD is the best free thing I can think of.

Answer 10

defrag our hard drive.
download ad-aware, avast, spybot search & destory.
thats what i use

id defrag bout every 2 weeks..