If your computer is running slow and not responding the way it is supposed to, then there could be underlying or momentary issues, which are making it behave the way it is. When you use your computer, you surf Internet, download apps or programs, create and store files on your hard drives. Eventually, a lot of debris gets accumulated, resulting into sluggish computer.
Well, as a precautionary measure, a regular cleanup of the system can avoid slow and sluggish performance of the system. However, if you want to get an immediate solution, you need to know the root cause of the issue.
In this post, we have listed some of the probable causes of a sluggish and slow computer.
Top 5 Reason Behind A Slow Computer
1. Plenty of Addons On Your Browser
Addons are very useful and they block pop-ups, adware and some of them work as tools for various purposes. However, not all of them are good, some are adware that slow down your computer. Getting rid of these will help you improve the performance of your system.
Let’s check out the fix:
Removing and Disabling toolbars and extensions can be different on every browser, so we have listed some of the browsers and the steps to disable unwanted extensions:
Chrome:
- Open Chrome browser and beside the address bar, locate three dots arranged in horizontal manner.
- A context menu will appear, choose More Tools, then from sub context menu, select Extensions.
- You will get a list of extensions, disable extensions with a toggle switch or remove them by clicking remove which you don’t find worth.
Firefox:
- Open Firefox and locate and click on the menu bar, from right hand side corner.
- Select Add-ons/Extensions.
- Now you will get a list, select remove or disable to get rid of the extension.
Safari:
- Open Safari browser.
- From the menu bar, click Safari located at top left corner of the screen.
- Click Preferences.
- Select Security -> Extensions.
- Select the unwanted extension to uninstall it.
Note: You can also turn off all the Extensions
Edge:
- Open Edge and beside the address bar, locate and click on three dots arranged in vertical manner.
- From the menu that appears, locate Extensions and click on it.
- You will get list of extensions installed.
- Remove the ones you don’t need.
Internet Explorer:
- Open Internet Explorer, select the Tools button
- Select Manage add-ons.
- Under Show, you will get All add-ons.
- Click on Disable to disable unwanted add-ons.
2. Too many programs running at once
Sometimes, we are working on a lot of things at the same time on our computer, due to which we open a lot of applications. The ability to run multiple programs at the same time depends on a RAM, which enables it to switch from processing one program to another but if the programs using up computer’s memory are more than they should, your computer will slow down.
Fix:
If you notice a slowdown, shut down all the running programs. You can close all the applications manually. To do that, you need to make sure all the related files to a program are also closed.
3. Unnecessary Startup Programs
Every time, when you turn on your computer, as soon as it starts up, a lot of applications launch on their own. These are the startup applications. Having too many of them is one of the factors that makes your computer slow. Before disabling a Startup application always check its publishers, if the publisher is Microsoft or related to your computer manufacturer, then don’t disable them as your computer will not function properly.
Fix:
Mac: On the menu bar, Find Go -> Applications->Preferences-> User Groups-> Login Items, you will get the list of unwanted programs. You can uncheck the unwanted applications and stop them from launching on their own.
Windows 7 & others: Go to Windows’ Start button, type System Configuration. The page is open, go to Startup tab and uncheck the applications that you don’t want to launch at the time of starting.
Windows 8 and 10: Press Windows key and X, locate Task Manager, then Start up tab. You can right click on the program that you don’t want to come up at the time when computer turns on another and chose Disable.
4. Hard Drive Space Maxed Out
We tend to accumulate data on our hard drive and eventually it gets full. It slows down the computer as the program that launches or the update that gets downloaded needs space on the hard drive. Every time you surf internet or open a file, it would need a temporary space.
Fix:
Clearing space on the hard drive is really important, you can recover space on the hard drive by removing unwanted files, deleting trash and temporary files. Moreover, you can also transfer the data from your hard drive to an external drive to make some space.
5. Unwanted Software Updates
Some of the software are installed with feature to download updates on its own. So, whenever an update is available, the application will update itself. This takes up unnecessary space on your computer’s hard drive.
Fix: You can disable all the automatic updates of all the software available on your computer.
So, these are a few things that could slow your computer along with fixes available to get rid of these issues. Try them and let us know what worked for you.