It doesn’t matter how careful you are about removing programs, if you use a firewall and antivirus program, or even if you use your computer infrequently. It is likely to happen that your computer will start to slow down and frustrate you. It’s like a bad boy rock song that just won’t die and go away. So what can you do to repair your computer cheaply and keep it running like new?
First of all, you need to understand that many antivirus and firewall programs like McAfee and others take up large amounts of your computer’s RAM (or Random Access Memory). This means that there is much less RAM available to run other programs. This can easily lead to your computer becoming very slow or even crashing or freezing. You should also keep in mind that as antivirus programs get updated year after year, they get bigger and take up more and more memory and RAM.
So you can’t have the same memory and computer you had five years ago and expect it to run programs as efficiently today as it did five years ago. My advice to most people at this point is to check how much RAM you have in your computer and see if a RAM upgrade is a viable option. As of this writing, RAM is cheap and you can get 2 megs of RAM, whether you have a laptop or desktop, for around $40-$50.
So if you currently have 2 megs of RAM, you can easily double them to 4 megs of RAM for $40-$50 and it is definitely a worthwhile investment that will greatly increase the speed of your computer and its ability to run various programs on their own. and together with others at the same time. Now keep in mind that if you have a 32-bit operating system you will not be able to add more than 4 megs of RAM to your computer. A 32-bit operating system like Windows Vista can only run 4 megs of RAM. To use more RAM, you will need to upgrade your operating system to a 64-bit operating system such as Windows 7 or Windows Vista 64-bit.
Another idea that I have come across is a very easy solution and basically some people decide to install one antivirus program on top of another. You do not need antivirus programs. Many of these people don’t understand that their computer is ready and comes with one installed, so they see these ads on TV or in a magazine or hear from a friend that they need to have McAfee or another antivirus program and install it on top of the other. This will basically use up all of your RAM and make everything run at a slow pace, unless you have 4 megs or more of RAM in your computer.
If you find yourself in this situation, choose one of the antivirus programs you want to keep and remove the other completely. This will definitely speed up your computer. Another great step is to check your hard drive and periodically schedule it to defrag itself. I recommend that you do this once a month to keep your hard drive in top condition. This is easy to do and Windows has free and pre-installed programs so you can do it with any and all operating systems. Just run it and then schedule it to run once a month or every other month. This will keep your hard drive organized and running at its best speed.
Now, if you don’t have an antivirus program on your computer, what could be slowing down your computer could be a virus, Trojan horse program, worm, or other malware. Make sure you get a clean copy of an antivirus program (never download a pirated antivirus program just because it’s free; 99 times out of 100 it will be loaded with viruses or other malware and take over your computer and mess things up even worse). Antivirus programs are cheap, and the best ones can be had for less than $30. They are definitely a valuable and worthy investment for anyone who is going to do any type of website or business over the Internet.
