Slow response from laptop

[Tilly2]

My laptop is so slow. It is at least five years old and is a generic one from the local computer shop.

The signal strength connection is 'excellent' according to the little monitor icon in the tray.

I thinks it's full of rubbishy stuff. How do I get rid of years of junk without losing all the bits that the computer remembers, like my passwords and identification numbers etc? I often use 'clean manager' but it doesn't have much effect.

[pdq1]

As a start you can use the tools that come with Windows.

Press
Start
All Programs
Accessories
System Tools

and use both
Disk Cleanup
Disk Defragmenter......can take quite a while to complete

[Tilly2]

Thank you for that, pdq1. Can I continue to use the laptop whilst it's doing that?

[VHG]

Yes you can, the clean up may not take long, the defragment may take longer.

But I doubt either will make much difference to the performance.

Dont confuse your laptop with being slow and your broadband being slow. Some people think if their broadband is slow it must be their laptop, which is not the case.

Check your broadband speed and see if it is what you are paying for.

1) Uninstall all programs you KNOW you dont want any more (dont uninstall anything if you dont know what it is).

2) Try to STOP programs starting up when the computer starts up if you dont need them. Each program that autostarts uses up memory and the more full your memory is the slower your computer can get.

3) Make sure there is plenty of real (RAM) memory. Nowadays 2Gb is probably a minimum.

4) Make sure there is plenty of room on your hard disk.

5) Run the free version of Malwarebytes to make sure you have no malware or spyware on your PC.

[Tilly2]

Should I uninstall all those programmes that are 'rarely used'?

[VHG]

>Should I uninstall all those programmes that are 'rarely used'?

Definately not. If you dont know what something is dont uninstall it.

Some programs use other programs that you may not have heard of or installed youself.

But if you uninstall that "rarely used" programs something may stop working and you may have a hell of a job getting it working again.

So leave everthing alone unless you know what it is and have installed it yourself.

[ummmm]

Def be careful. I deleted all the crap the kids had downloaded on the PC and I managed to mess up the internet.

[fender62]

use this it has a cleaner and tools to uninstall and and startup utility and restore
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

[Tilly2]

Thank you, fender. I'll have a look at that.

[tonzer55]

You should buy bigger memory. I had the same trouble. I would click on someting then go and make a dinner and then if I was lucky it would come up!!! Someone told me to buy more memory and I did. Now it works really fast.