If the thought that your PC seems to be getting slower crosses your mind
occasionally, relax - it is. That's because there are some design flaws in
Windows that are soo deeply rooted that it is unlikely that a room full of
programming elves at Microsoft are ever going to do anything about it. These
design flaws affect the way that your computer stores and uses files. They are
so prevalent that they almost seem to cause your PC to add "Slow down even more
today" to its list of things to do whenever you run it.
One of the worst Windows flaws is called disk fragmentation which is caused by
the fact that Windows has no desire to write files on one contiguous spot on
your hard drive. It drops a bit here. and another bit there, and yet another
bit somewhere else. When you need that file, Windows runs around like a single
mother of twins trying to pick up all of the pieces for you. That takes a lot
of time.
Besides internal Windows flaws there are other reasons that your PC slows down.
Sometimes you simply have too many background programs running that take up
available computer memory. Less available memory means slower processing time.
Perhaps your hard drive is full of "junk" files that eat up space that Windows
needs to write out its "swap files".
Another very common problem is conflicting Windows device drivers. As hardware
and software gets installed and uninstalled various drivers come and go.
Actually more come than go because old drivers have a way of hanging around
after you uninstall anything. If Windows finds two conflicting drivers it might
choose the wrong one or, worse, choose none at all and decide not to boot up.
Another install/uninstall issue occurs when Windows leaves stragglers on your
hard drive in the form of .dlls and other shared files. You get these warning
when you uninstall that say "Blah, blah, blah, shared file. Do you want to
remove it?" If you're like most users you don't have the slightest idea so you
say "No". These orphaned files are like little time bombs waiting to bite
Windows when it isn't paying attention. Even worse, sometimes you say "Yes" and
you end up deleting a file that is like a morning cup of tea to Windows and it
refuses to wake up without it!
So, what do you do? Used to be the answer was to uninstall Windows,
from time to time, reformat your hard drive, and reinstall everything
again. Well, I don't know about you but I'd rather get a root canal then
go through that every few months. My choice is to get one of those
whizz-bang automatic Windows fixer upper software thingies that knows
all about the most common Windows problems and merrily goes about fixing
them every time that you run it. I run mine about every two weeks and my
computer hums like a well-oiled machine. Sure, it's a whole lot less
geeky than formatting your disk and reinstalling Windows, but I leave
geeky things to the geeks. Me? I'm just a PC user that doesn't want to
get grease on my hands. Download your
