Is it possible to speed up your PC without upgrading it?

9 guaranteed ways of breathing new life into your system

You are probably reading this because you do not want to spend a lot of money purchasing a new PC, but your current one is a bit of mess. Its performance levels is streets behind what it once were, or its state when you had just purchased it. Of course, it is certainly cheaper to revive your current PC than buying a new one, and it has never been this easy.

Regardless of your computer’s brand, model or specifications, these tips are guaranteed to get your system running as close as possible to its original level, or even better in some unique cases:

• Disable Animations or Visual Effects: If your computer does not work as fast as it used to, turning off visual effects would result in a noticeable increase in speed while operating your system.
  If you are running Windows 10, locate Control Center>>Ease of Access Center and Turn off unnecessary animations.
  If you are running an older version (Windows 8 or 7), locate Control Center>>Ease of Access Center>>Make the computer easier to see and disable unnecessary animations.
• Delete programs you never use: If your system manufacturer is HP, chances are that it came along with McAfee antimalware package and a host of others. If you went with Dell, then you were probably presented with Minescraft and other games. The same goes for other PC manufacturers who all infest their products with bloatware. Yes, we need to call them for what they are-bloatware. Initially some of them might appear useful when you have just began to use your PC but over time, they will outgrow their importance and there are even some software you never attempted using, not even once.
  Then there are also some apps you once installed but do not need anymore. These apps should be shown the door too. A lot of valuable space and memory is free up by this action with you losing nothing.
• Update drivers and other software: Outdated drivers or using software already old for your current operating system would generally cause your computer to work slowly. Software development is constantly improving, and new versions of most programs are usually designed to run better than the previous versions while at the same time using fewer resources.
  It is generally advisable to change your windows update option to automatic to allow for the installation of updates and bug fixes are soon as they are available for download. These minor updates often include some optimization and extra additional features.
  Updating your drivers manually is a time-consuming, strenuous and far more demanding task than others. This is because it usually requires you to identify exactly which drivers are outdated, the version numbers and locate where to download them on your PC’s manufacturer page or other sites. You might also make the error of installing wrong or incompatible drives and other unforeseen mistakes. What is stopping you from allowing an awesome program do all the hard, dirty work for you with maximum effectiveness and efficiency?
• Defrag your Hard Disk: When your hard disk drive is fragmented, your drives performs unnecessary hard work that slows it down. Defragmentation would solve this issue. A third party software might be required for this though because the built in tool designed by Microsoft for this is quite limited. This trusted program would defrag your hard disk drive and do just that.
  Do not attempt this fix on an SSD though because it could destroy the drive.
• Reduce Start up programs: There are always some programs that are currently running in the background or are not visible to you, but would open up fast incredibly fast if you clicked on their icons. Some programs begin at boot and consume the precious memory while simultaneously slowing down your start up time.
  You need to disable unnecessary programs from taking advantage of this feature and only your most important applications or the integral systems programs should be afforded this luxury. Go to Task Manager>>Start Up and take note of the programs there especially those with high impact, and disable the required ones, as you deem appropriate.
• Delete spyware, malware and viruses: A slow, buggy system is an accurate representation of a system suffering from a virus or malware infection although the odds of this happening are quite low in actual life. If your systems consistently displays unexpected messages or some applications start automatically, or some other weird events occur frequently, then a virus or malware is possibly present. Spyware are applications, usually secretly installed by some other application or unknown processes, that watch or monitor your internet activities.

Even the class of these programs that are not necessarily or directly harmful tend to slow down your system in some way

These programs most times are difficult to self-identify and delete but a good antivirus might solve this issue easily. It is always better that these programs never come to be in the first place. You should be careful of what you do online, try to thoroughly investigate the programs you install and make sure they are from trusted sources. Regardless, if you are someone who is bound to encounter such issues, installation of a good antivirus or antimalware program should be a top priority. This is still no guarantee that your PC will remain safe though.
Download a powerful antivirus or antimalware program and run a full scan.

• Reinstall Windows: A fresh start might turn out to be the solution to all your problems if regardless of everything you have done, your computer is still running slowly. This option is far from being the most recommended until you have tried every other fix above but to no avail. Reinstallation of windows would speed up your computer by removing all unwanted software (junk files or unnecessary programs) that slow down your PC. A bootable flash or windows CD might be required to perform this act on older versions of windows but a similar process can easily be done on newer versions (windows 8 or 10).
  Under System and Recovery, you can select the option of refreshing your computer without affecting your files. You are not expected to lose valuable files or information using this fix.
  You can also reset your PC but this option causes the removal of all files, so you will have to make a backup for your important forehand. This option is also available under System and Recovery.
  Completely reinstalling windows externally is a more potent option but a backup of important files (preferably to another drive) is still required.
• Upgrade your Memory: It is possible to run windows on a system with 1GB of ram but it runs considerably faster on a system with 2GB or 4GB, and a system with 16GB would be levels above it in terms of speed with all other conditions or specifications remaining constant. Generally, the more RAM you possess, the more programs you can afford to leave running at once, the more tabs you can open in your browser without your PC slowing even when you move between these tabs. If you have X Gigabytes of ram currently, you should consider purchasing extra X Gigabytes at least or even more depending on how deep your pocket is. You can make this easy and relatively affordable upgrade on your laptop even with limited technical expertise.For the drives, you can also buy a solid-state drive (SSD) to replace your hard disk drive (HDD). I cannot overemphasize how much difference this will make in terms of delivering faster boot times, faster program loading times and so on. Solid-state drives, while relatively cheap today, are still significantly costlier than hard disk drives, and you will do well to note this. If you do not want a solid-state drive though and still prefer to continue with hard disks, then consider upgrading the size and speed of your hard drives. Most hard disk drives run at 5400 revolutions per minute (rpm), so an upgrade to 7200 rpm would result in a noticeable speed boost but replacement with SSDs is still the preferred optimal solution by far.
• Use a superb program to fix it all: Auslogics Boost Speed is an outstanding piece of software that has been designed to carry out almost every software related solution or fix already listed here. It contain features to cover every need:

1. Disk Defrag to optimize hard drive and improve its efficiency
2. Service Manager is a unique tool for ending unnecessary processes or services.
3. Disk Explorer scans and analyses your drive, showing redundant files occupying cherished space.
4. Disk cleaner helps recover memory by deleting junk or useless files.
5. Startup Manager is for disabling unnecessary programs that start when you boot up your system.
6. Tweak Manager would adjust relevant settings to deliver an improved all round performance.
7. File recovery can help recover files that were lost to viruses or malware.
8. Internet Optimizer would calibrate your internet settings resulting in an improved connection.
9. System Info is used to obtain detailed information about your computer hardware.
10. Duplication file finder locates files with multiple copies and delete the redundant ones.
11. Uninstall Manager is used to uninstall all software or programs that are not used anymore.
12. File Shredder to permanently delete or destroy files to avoid them being recovered for criminal purposes.
13. Task Manger is used to disable unwanted programs or tasks from running and using valuable system resources.
14. Disk Doctor scrutinizes your drives for errors and attempts to fix them.
15. Registry Cleaner is a tool for deleting invalid entries.
16. Free Space Wiper clears space in your drive to prevent intrusion of privacy.

There is nothing more frustrating than working on a slow and buggy system, especially when you know it still got juice in it. Auslogics Boost Speed is the ultimate solution required to speed up your PC without upgrading it, or even any part of it.