If you have had your computer for more than two years, you may need more memory. However, if you followed all the steps above and your computer is still slow, try running a registry cleaner on the computer. We usually do not recommend registry cleaners. If you have a Mac computer, skip this section, as there is no registry in macOS. What hardware device drivers should be updated?Īfter making any of the changes above, reboot your machine.Having out-of-date drivers can cause an assortment of issues, including slow performance. Make sure you have the latest drivers for your computer hardware, especially the latest video drivers. How to disable or remove browser extensions.If your computer runs especially slow when you're using your web browser, considering disabling any browser plug-ins, add-ons, or extensions. How to upgrade your Mac operating system.To upgrade the operating system, use the App Store. To update a macOS computer, run Software Update. How to update a Microsoft Windows computer.To update a computer running Microsoft Windows, run Windows Update. How to Identify problems in the Windows Device Manager.If any exist, resolve these issues as they could be causing your problem. Verify that the Device Manager has no conflicts. Use the free version of Malwarebytes to scan your computer for malware. Even if an antivirus scanner is installed on the computer, we recommend running a malware scan as well. Today, spyware and other malware is a big cause of many computer problems, including slower performance. We also recommend you install an antivirus program for active protection against viruses. If your computer doesn't have an antivirus program installed, run Trend Micro's free Housecall online utility to scan and remove viruses on your computer. If your computer is infected with one or more viruses, it may run more slowly. Use other software tools to test the hard drive for any errors by looking at the SMART of the drive. Run Defrag to help ensure that data is arranged in the best possible order. Click Disk Utility to open the program.On a macOS computer, access the Disk Utility program, and use the First Aid option to check the hard drive for errors. On a Windows computer, run ScanDisk, chkdsk, or something equivalent to verify there is nothing physically wrong with the computer's hard drive.

How to regain computer hard drive space.īad, corrupted or fragmented hard drive Check the hard drive for errors.

How to find how much hard drive space is available.

This available space allows the computer to have room for the swap file to increase in size and give room for temporary files. Verify that there is at least 200-500MB of free hard drive space.

You can delete all files found in this folder and, if any files are in use and cannot be deleted, they can be skipped.

Press Enter and a Temp folder should open.

In Windows XP and prior, click the Run option in the Start menu and enter %temp% in the Run field.

Open the Start menu or and press the Windows key, then type %temp% in the Search field.

Therefore, we also suggest deleting temporary files manually.

Unfortunately, the Disk Cleanup may not delete every file in the temp directory. Windows computersįirst, we suggest using the Windows Disk Cleanup utility to delete temporary files and other files no longer needed on the computer. Deleting these temp files help improve computer performance. Delete temp filesĪs a computer runs programs, temporary files are stored on the hard drive. If this is the case, allow the scan to complete, and the computer's performance should improve. If a scan is in progress, it decreases the overall performance of your computer. If you have an antivirus scanner on the computer, spyware protection program, or another security utility, make sure it's not scanning your computer in the background. If you are running Windows 7 or higher, run Resmon to get a better understanding of how your computer resources are used.

To see what programs are running in the background and how much memory and CPU they are using, open Task Manager.

Pc running slow on vista