If your PC has slowed right down in recent times and you’re not sure what the problem is, you might have infections that you don’t know about. You might have downloaded a file recently or you may have clicked a phishing link that ended up giving you malware without even knowing anything about it. The chances are the malware is lurking in the background and using up CPU and memory and you don’t have a clue what’s going on. If you think this could have happened to you, have a look at the following 6 ways you can get a faster and more secure PC.
1. Run a scan
First thing’s first, run a virus scan and see if there are any viruses you don’t know about. You may even want to consider installing a malware removal product to get rid of some of the malware that has sneaked its way past the anti-virus program you have. Once you have found and removed all of the malware, you may find your computer picks itself up again. There are many malware suites available on the web offering good protection like SpyHunter.
2. Remove old, unused programs
If you have old programs on your PC you may find they haven’t been updated in a while and they could have security flaws. Delete any programs you don’t use at all and you may find your computer has much more space to work with. You may have old programs running in the background that start up every time your PC starts – deleting old programs will see to it that doesn’t happen anymore.
3. Defragmentation
This step may not help with security, but it’s a step you can take to clean up the disk space on your computer. It will clean up a lot of the used disk space and ultimately your PC will run quicker because of it. Having a cleaner PC is ultimately a safer PC.
4. Registry cleaner
You may find downloading a registry cleaning could help speed up your PC and provide you with much more security. This will clean the registry and repair any errors found in the registry so your PCs performance might get better.
5. Start-up programs
You may not know it already, but the PC will start-up and a lot of programs will start up in the background with it. This can slow older PCs down, so it’s important to have a look at the start-up programs list so you can manage it appropriately.
6. Restore
If your PC has slowed right down and you have tried all of the tricks in the book to get a faster PC again, it might be time to restore it to factory settings. Simply save all of the files and programs you need and then give it a restore, you will be surprised how much faster it is when it has been restored.
All of the above tips will help you speed up your PC, but more importantly, it will keep it secure if it doesn’t have any unsecured older programs on it. You may find there are plenty of other tips are available for you to follow and it might even be worth upgrading your hardware slightly to speed the process up.