Why Is My Computer So Slow?

There are three typical reasons why a residential or small business computer is slow: 1. Unnecessary programs running in the background, 2. Not enough physical memory to run the computer (RAM, not hard drive space) and 3 Norton Antivirus Products. First, the great majority of computer users have allowed largely superfluous programs to exist or be loaded on their computers, running in the background while the computer is being used. These programs take up space in memory, space on the hard drive and steal power from the processor or brain of the computer. Unless you are deriving a significant benefit from these applications, you would be better off removing them. Of course you also need to know if removing these programs will hurt the computer. We do and are happy to help. Second, especially with computers 3 years old or older, the amount of physical RAM installed may not be sufficient to allow the operating system and the programs to run when you are using the computer. If you are constantly getting error messages informing you that you are using Virtual memory or Not enough memory to run the application you clicked on, you probably need more physical RAM. Removing files, creating more storage space, does not improve this situation. For Windows XP we recommend you have at least 1 GB of memory, for Vista 2 Gb of Memory and Windows 7 3 GB of memory. And lastly, we love Norton products, but they have become a behemoth and severely impact most computers. The Norton products are invasive, interfering with almost every computer function, and they require considerable processing power to run, not to mention a large portion of RAM to run in. We routinely remove Norton products and replace them with Microsoft Security Essentials or Symantec Endpoint Protection, two products that do not require an annual fee, update their definitions daily, and check for viruses in real time, not just with scans. If you want a faster computer, resolve these three issues. We will do all the above in a periodic maintenance or tune up of your computer.