Over time, PCs seem to feel slower. Part of this is due to new applications and technologies, which always seem to be more demanding than the old ones. But a lack of proper maintenance can also sap performance from your PC. Luckily, there are numerous ways to restore your PC's former glory.
So, your PC is running slowly. It's been a trusty companion, but for some reason it no longer seems as spry as it used to be. Using it has become a slow, tiresome affair, which often leaves you feeling like throwing your PC out the window. You're considering buying a new one, or at least installing a few upgrades, but the price-tag has kept you away from those options. What can be done?
A lot, as it turns out. There is a reason why there are entire comic strips devoted to making fun of how annoying PCs can be to use. Virtually all PCs will eventually begin to run more slowly than when they are new, and in hindsight, this makes sense. Most complex technology needs some form of regular maintenance in order to keep equipment in top shape and a PC is no different. There are many ways of maintaining your PC, but unlike a brand new car, a new computer doesn't typically come with a service manual detailing when you need to perform regular maintenance.
Over time, regular use of your hard drive will cause file fragmentation. Fragmentation occurs because of the way mechanical hard drives work. They consist of a read/write head, which reads data from the disc and writes data onto the disk, and the disk itself, which spins at a very high speed. The disk itself is a physical media, which means that each piece of data has a physical location on the disk, and the data can be read only if the read/write head is put in the correct place. Your hard drive does its best to place related bits of data together, but as the disk fills up and files are moved, deleted, and created, this becomes harder and harder. And the further apart two related bits of data are, the more time it will take for your drive to find everything it needs to play a movie or show you a picture.
Thankfully, de-fragmentation is very easy. All modern versions of Windows have a de-fragmentation tool which can be accessed by right-clicking on the hard drive icon, going to properties, and navigating to the tools tab. The de-fragmentation tool will have the hard drive reorganize everything, so that data can be accessed easily. Doing a de-fragmentation on a one or two year old computer can dramatically increase speed, even when doing simple tasks like web-browsing or organizing photographs.