Too often when people have a slow computer they want to jump out there on the internet on google and search for tools to fix the problem. Please don’t do that. You are bringing on a whole new set of problems. There is a very good chance that you will wind up putting malicious software on your computer when you try to install unknown random software. I will discuss some of these myths you see out there. One of these ideas is “driver updates.” They tell you that you just have to do driver updates. In the vast majority of cases this is NOT true. It is quite rare that driver updates help a slow computer. Besides, you generally get automatic driver updates through Windows Updates. Sometimes you can do it manually but it’s just not generally needed. The whole drive update is just so overblown.

What are drivers? Drivers are software that connect hardware together such as a computer and a printer. If these things are operating correctly leave them alone. There is an old saying that if an arm ain’t broke then don’t put it in a cast. In essence, don’t start trying to update drivers unless you have a piece of hardware like a printer or internal wi-fi adapter that is not working. If that is the case I am NOT going to use a driver tool to fix the problem. I am going straight to the hardware manufacturer’s website and download the drivers from there. Those are safe and they generally work. I also know that I’m not going to get malicious software that has been bundled in with this other junk that I find on the internet. There are times when these random driver tools can update perfectly good drivers that are already functioning and it can cause the hardware to stop working. If it works leave it alone. There’s generally not a lot of improvement on something when it is working well.

Another one to stay away from is registry repair tools. DO NOT run these registry cleanup tools. The registry is a deeply embedded database of settings on your computer that contains massive amounts of important information that is used when starting your computer. There are literally tens of thousands of registry entries. When you install new software on your computer it creates lots of registry entries. If that handy dandy registry tool incorrectly takes out a needed registry entry it can cause the computer to not start at all. The problems these tools can cause far outweigh the good they can do by a long shot. The origin of all of this registry cleanup goes back long long ago when hard drive space was at a premium. We’re talking forty years ago. It is pretty much irrelevant now unless you can determine that a registry change is needed. If that is the case, it typically needs to be done manually and not with some general use tool. If I have software that is not operating correctly and I find that I need to go into the registry to make changes I do that very carefully. It is just not something you want to do unless you know what you are doing. If you go to modifying the registry and are not familiar with it you can turn a five minute fix into a nightmare that requires reloading everything.

Another thing to stay away from is these handy dandy fix all computer tune-up tools. Most are generally worthless. They have your disk defragmenter, registry cleaner, driver update, browser cleaner, etc. all bundled in one. I see more and more of these being bundled into anti-virus programs. In general, most of what they do is trivial nonsense that does not fix the real problem. Disk defragmenting is already done automatically by Windows in the background. Generally you are simply paying for something that is already being done for free by Windows. When you install all of this you are just adding more programs to run on an already slow computer. These big software programs with all of these tune-up tools and such just consume computer resources that slow the computer down. You just need a good paid version of an anti-virus program. I would highly recommend the paid version of Malwarebytes. It just a good simple low overhead anti-virus software. It is also really good at picking up adware, which most of the others do not. You do not need these big bulky “Internet Security Suites.”

The biggest problem I see with all of this free handy dandy super tuneup tools is that they generally wind up installing stuff on your computer like this One Launch toolbar or One Launch browser and they take over your computer. When you get out there on google searching around for these miracle working repair tools you are taking some awful big risks. You can literally install malware on your computer and have a scammer recording some of what you are doing. In many cases when your browser gets switched to their browser you are sending them your browsing data and you will be getting all kinds of ads. It’s not worth it. There is a catch to all of these free tools and it is generally that they are feeding you ads and collecting data. The internet has some great tech tools but it also has some really bad invasive stuff that can get you in trouble. You have to know what you are looking at. If you do not know about all of this software just don’t fool with it.

This begs the question. What makes a computer slow? There are generally three key problems or what we would call bottlenecks that slow a computer down. The first potential one is the processor or CPU. If it is an old and slow processor it will affect the speed. On many desktops those can be upgraded but they cannot be upgraded on most newer laptops. Newer laptop processors are soldered to the system board. If you can upgrade one of those processors it is cost prohibitive.

The second potential bottleneck is memory. When I say memory I am not talking about hard drive space. People confuse those two constantly. Memory is RAM and it is a small module that can be removed and upgraded for a larger one or you can in most cases add memory to what you already have. For instance, if you have only 4GBs of memory in your computer nowadays I can promise you that it is going to be slow. Nowadays you must have 8GBs of memory minimum. Memory is so cheap nowadays there is no reason not to upgrade it. Keep in mind that there are different types of memory and you can’t just walk into a store and buy whatever memory you see on the shelf. There is DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, and DDR5 memory and it is different on laptops and desktops. Don’t dare try to install the wrong memory in a computer because you can destroy the memory slot and then you have to replace the system board.

The other potential bottleneck is the hard drive. The hard drive is storage. That is where everything is installed and stored. If you have a hard drive that is failing or degrading in performance it just needs to be changed. Nowadays most computers have solid state drives that are replacing hard drives. That is what the term SSD means. The use of hard drives is declining greatly. A hard drive is a slow mechanical device. They are being replaced with solid state drives that are just a box of chips that have no moving parts. A hard drive can easily be cloned to a solid state drive and swapped out. It will look just like it did before but the computer will be light years faster. These SSDs will do more to improve your computer’s performance than anything piece of handy dandy tune up software that you can find. I would say that this fixes 90% of most problems of a slow computer .

If you have a computer that is slow just take it to a local computer shop. Most of us can tell you in five minutes what the problem is. Besides, most of the fixes are quite cheap and you don’t risk having scammers manipulating your computer. To just run around on the internet downloading unknown software is a risk that can cost you far more.