By Sonia Cuff - Computer Troubleshooters // 20 January 2010 // Related Categories: Tips

Written by Sonia Cuff from Computer Troubleshooters, a PowerBuy partner.

Do you have time to make a coffee while you're waiting for your computer to respond? One of our biggest frustrations with technology is how slow it can be. So, here are our top tips for improving the speed of your computer:

1. Clean up your disk

As you use files and browse the internet, ‘temporary' files are created and not deleted, taking up valuable space on your hard disk. The easy way to delete these is with Microsoft's inbuilt Disk Cleanup program.

2. Defragment your files

It's hard to find paper documents in a messy filing cabinet. Creating and deleting files can mess up the physical storage on your computer, slowing down the time it takes to open your files. Run Microsoft's Disk Defragmenter program to literally tidy up the ‘fragments' of your files, much like tidying your papers.

3. Upgrade your hardware

As technology advances, new software programs require more computing power. Consider upgrading your computer's memory, hard disk or processor, to speed things up. Additional RAM memory can especially make a noticeable, cost-effective speed improvement. For everyday business use we suggest min 2GB RAM for Vista and 1GB RAM for Windows 7 and Windows XP.

4. Check the scheduling for your software

Software tasks like complete anti-virus scans and system backups can use a significant amount of computer resources, causing things to grind to a halt. If you notice that slow periods are usually worse at the same time of day, check the time that your virus scans and backups are set to run.

5. Upgrade your wireless network

Wireless network technology used to run at a speed of 54 ‘Mbit/s' (megabits per second). The latest standard (IEEE 802.11n) allows files to transfer at a speed of 600 Mbits/s. Ignoring the jargon, anything that has a speed of 600 is an improvement over a speed of 54! Upgrade your wireless router and wireless adapters to ones that support the ‘n' wireless standard.

6. Upgrade to ADSL 2+

Internet speeds have also increased at little extra cost. By changing to the latest ADSL 2+ technology, you may be able to improve the time it takes to download 500Mb of files from 4 hours to 9 minutes!

7. Restrict ‘file streaming'

Watching videos on the internet and listening to online radio stations can be fun. However if several people in your office are doing this at once, it will impact the speed of your computer network. Talk to your computer expert about the best way for you to remove or limit access to these sites.

Our final (and most important) tip is to address little computer problems before they become big ones. If you notice that your computer is getting slower & slower, then call your computer expert. Like anything it can be more cost-effective to fix a minor problem straight away, rather than waiting for it to compound and then require major work.

Computer Troubleshooters (CT) provide on-site computer repair & support for Australian small businesses. Find your nearest CT engineer here.