These days many of us use our computers a lot and they seem to be running slower than it did even last week. What is up? Heres some ways to get back that speed and even improve on it a little and what's really cool is they're easy to do and don't cost anything ! Before we start just make sure you back everything up in case something horrible happens. 1. Clean and organize your hard drive. Sometimes people just dump a ton of files into the root directory of their hard drive making it unorganised and slow. Use Windows Explorer and create a filing cabinet system of folders and sub folders that makes sense to you so and store your files accordingly.

This will also make it easier by the way for anyone else who needs to use your files and find something. While you're in Windows Explorer look for any 'temp' folders with files inside them ending with .tmp and delete them. 2. Check your hard drive. While still in Windows Explorer, right click on the C: drive and select Properties.

Go to the Tools tab click on the Check Now. button. Tick all the options and click on the Start button. Verify that you want to perform a check after a reboot. Do this for any other hard drive you might have in your computer. Reboot your computer and let the system check the hard drives and fix any issues.

This might take some time, so be patient. 3. Clean up Internet Explorer records. Searching the Internet is a certain cause for putting stuff on your computer that will slow it down. Prior to doing anything with your Internet Explorer, make sure you know the critical data you enter at the websites you visit.

You will be clearing the history, and that saved data will be gone. Usually it is not needed, but there might be some things that you have come to depend on, such as passwords, logins etc. For Internet Explorer, choose Tools. Internet Options. A new window will open. In the Temporary Internet records section, choose to Erase Cookies and OK.

Click on Erase Records and OK and then in the History section, click Clear History and Yes. Then choose OK to close the Internet Options. For Firefox, select Tools . Options.

In the Privacy section, select the Clear All button and Clear All Data. Then select OK to close the Options window. For other browsers, there ought to be similar settings. 4.

Update your anti virus software and anti virus signatures. Keep them up to date. I would suggest setting your anti virus software to automatically update every day. Perform a full anti virus scan on your PC. 5.

If you do not have anti-spyware software installed on your system, you definitely need to get one and get one soon. Microsoft has a free one that you can get at their website called Windows Defender and ought be available to download from Microsoft. Make sure you keep your anti-spyware software up to date and keep it up to date. 6. Defragment your hard drives.

From your Explorer window, right click on the C: drive and select Properties. Then select the Tools tab and Defragment Now. button. Highlight the C: drive and select the Defragment button. Carry out this operation for each drive in you PC. Carry out these steps on a routine basis and your computer ought run much better.

Mr James started MyBusinessTipsOnline to provide business advice, etc and write articles about his industry-full article here