It can be frustrating to try and work on a PC when it continually pauses to open applications, bootup or browse the web. If you are wondering why is your computer running very slow then this article will give you the top seven ways to speed it up.

1. Free up some disk space. If you download a lot of videos/music then the drive can rapidly fill up. You should leave 10% empty for use as virtual memory by the operating system.
2. If it is more than four weeks since you defragmented your hard drives then it is time to run the Windows Disk Defragmenter.
3. Open Task Manager on the process tab and check out which applications are using a lot of memory. It could be that they have a fault or are just process-intensive applications. Either way, check the software manufacturer’s website for patches, upgrades and customer support tickets (if others have reported performance problems then there may be a configuration setting/workaround that fixes the issue).
4. If you find your computer running very slow during start up then try using the Microsoft Configuration Utility (to start the application go to the start menu, Run program and enter msconfig in textfield). This tool lists on its startup tab all the services run at boot up. Disable the ones feel can be safely left out.
5. Run a virus scan on your drives. The danger with viruses is that they can damage registry keys and program files and slow your PC down that way.
6. Over time the Windows registry becomes corrupted due to application changes and virus damage. Run a registry cleaner or computer maintenance program to repair faults and optimize system settings.
7. Finally, the brute force approach to getting a faster PC is to add more RAM memory. This can make a huge difference to the running of the entire computer.