Easy Computer Tips

Is your computer slowing down? It just doesn't have the kick it did when you first bought it? There can be several reasons for this. One is your computer could be infected with spyware. If this is the case, then your computer will be more than just slow. You will experience pop ups when you surf the Internet or at random intervals. The fix is simple, but not easy. Usually a deep scan from an anti-spyware application such as Spybot Search and Destroy or Lavasoft's Adaware. But these are not always the catch all. My next blog will go more in depth about getting rid of spyware and things you can do to surf safely. Today's blog will discuss another reason for computer sluggishness....all the programs that run at your computer's startup.

If a program behaves like it should, it should ask you if you want it to start up with Windows. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. To see some of the programs that start up, just take a look at the lower right hand corner of your screen. See all those icons? Each icon is a program that started up when you turned on your machine. Are all of these icons needed? This answer can almost always be answered "no." Turning them off is as easy as it was putting them there.

For Windows OS 98, ME, XP, and Vista. For some reason, this program was not included in Windows 2000, however, it can be downloaded for free, or copied from a machine that has the program.

1. Open the "Start" menu and click on "Run"
2. Type "msconfig" without the quotes
3. You should see a row of tabs at the top of the window, click on the "Startup" tab
4. The ones with the check mark are the programs that startup every time you log in. To turn them off, just click to uncheck the item.

"But how do I know if the program is needed or not?" Simple, if you uncheck an item and something breaks, just put the check mark back into it. (Don't forget to reboot after you make your changes.) It is important to know that anything you uncheck here will not affect Windows itself, only the programs that start up. So don't worry about killing your system just because you uncheck something. If something didn't work that used to, turn it back on and reboot.

This isn't going to get back all the speed that has been lost, but it will help. If you don't have many programs that start up and you still have a slow down, then you might have a bigger problem. The next solution would be to check for spyware.