Q:
Lately, I've noticed that my computer has started to run a lot slower than usual. I didn't really do anything different, so I'm not sure what could be going on. Do you have any suggestions for me?
A:I'm glad you asked this question, because we haven't run a tip on this in awhile and this is always the perfect refresher for everyone. If your system seems to be running sluggishly, the main cause is usually the extra programs that may be running in the background on your system.
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Before you go and do what that guy is going to do, let's delve into this a little more and fix your problem, shall we?!
When your computer is slowing down, it usually means that you require more memory. Instead of adding more memory, you can easily remove programs and stop them from consuming all of it. The easiest way of doing this is by pressing
Ctrl + Alt + Del and then clicking the
Processes tab.
This window will show exactly how much memory each program is using. You can click the
End Process button to close any program you don't think you need running. Just be careful, you may not want to close any program running under the name of
“System,” because you might shut down something that Windows needs to operate correctly.
Instead of closing all of these programs every time you turn on your computer, you could use the msconfig command to stop them for good. Go to
Start,
Run and type in
“msconfig.” Click the
StartUp tab. You can then uncheck the programs that you do not want to run right when your computer starts and then click
OK. However, you need to be careful again to not uncheck any programs that are required for Windows to work.
For more on fixing sluggish system questions, read this
tip for additional help.
~ Jack William
Subject: Computer runs slower then normal 
