How to Make Your Computer Faster, A Basic Guide for Teachers

Due to their busy schedules, teachers often forget to clean up their computers or laptops. Common complaints you would hear from them sound like the following:

Why my computer is so slow?
Why it doesn’t work like it used to be?
Or worst, why my computer is not booting up?

A computer may slow down due to the following factors:
1. Virus
2. Fragmented hard drives
3. Congested memory
4. Antivirus
5. Insufficient RAM
6. Lots of start-up programs

For some teachers, the terms above might sound ambiguous. (Pardon me for that). But if you’re interested in working in a steadfast computer, you’ll surely learn such terms, just gear up yourself with a little more patience, and practice.

Today I’ll be listing down several ways on how you can make your computer faster. Through my six years of experience in computing, I can prove that these tips actually work. Here they are:

Consider a lightweight antivirus

If you’ll observe the terms I listed above which slow down a computer, you’ll notice that I added antivirus as one of the factors, but why? It’s supposed to make my computer better right? Yes, that’s true, an antivirus makes your computer better by eliminating the viruses but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t affects your computer’s performance. The fact is, most antivirus like Norton and Kaspersky eat a lot of resources especially when performing a scan.


Image source: Pixabay

What should I do?

I would advise you to choose a light-weight antivirus. There are good and free antivirus out there like Avast Free Antivirus and Microsoft Security Essentials. These two doesn’t consume much of your computer’s resources and at the same time protects your computer from viruses.

Use a Memory Cleaner

Over time, after playing games online and offline, encoding documents, watching movies, downloading files, and surfing the net, your computer (as expected) will be more sluggish. An effective remedy to this issue is to install a memory cleaner. I’ll suggest a free but efficient software called, CCleaner. It will help you clean your computer’s memory and free up some space. It’s also easy to use and has a user-friendly interface.

Consider upgrading your RAM

Running several programs simultaneously can instantly use a huge chunk of your computer’s RAM (Random Access Memory). As a result, you will notice a poor performance from your computer. Adding more RAM will surely help your computer to run faster. You may want to consider upgrading your computer’s memory with a 2-4 Gigabytes of RAM.

make your computer faster

Image source: Pixabay

NOTE: Upgrading your RAM might be complicated especially for the non-techies. I would recommend that you consult a technician before purchasing and adding RAM for your computer.

Remove unnecessary start-up programs

When your computer starts up, there are programs that are set to run automatically eating up a lot of your computer’s resources. You should remove the unnecessary programs from starting up automatically. To do this, install a free version of CCleaner. Run the program. On the left side, click the “Tool” button (See image below). Next, click on “Startup”. A list of startup programs will be shown. Enabled programs are marked with “Yes.” To disable a program which is currently enabled, select the program on the list and on the right side of CCleaner, click “Disable.” You may also enable programs you want to start automatically from there.


But wait, what programs should I disable?

You may leave your antivirus as the only program which should run automatically when your computer starts up.

I hope these tips will guide you in speeding up your computer. If you have any question or suggestion, you may leave a comment below. Also, if you like this post, please share it on Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus so others will also be informed. Thank you.

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