So Why is Your Computer Running Slow? Antivirus Software

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So Why Is Your Computer Running Slow? Antivirus Software


Today we're going to talk about some of the most popular misconceptions about a slow PC. If your computer is slow, welcome you have come to the right place and you will be helped!

After having detailed these preconceived ideas, we will see how to really speed up our PC.

Slow PC: What You Need to Know First

A PC is slow because it has undergone changes (intentional or not) hardware or software that made it become so.

First, here are 6 misconceptions that a computer is slow.

The most popular misconceptions that a PC is lagging is due to the following facts:

  • Antivirus Software and cleaning software, to stand out from the competition, look for the smallest problems to offer a more complete product than those already in existence. While sometimes these problems are not really. On the contrary, constantly looking in the background for trivial problems can actually slow down the machine. 
  • Popular beliefs that the number of items appearing on the screen (like icons on the desktop) means that the computer has to work with and cannot handle everything at once after a certain threshold.
  • Popular beliefs that a slow computer is bound to be an infection.

Browsers handle tabs well.

If you have a lot of active tabs open, but the Internet pages are fixed, i.e. if there are no incessant refreshes of elements, the load is still not more important once the page has loaded.

Of course, having a lot of tabs consumes more RAM memory and impacts the CPU (which does not change the Internet connection speed). Also, a large number of tabs can especially make the useless pleasant when you get lost with it.40380 tabs. I know what I mean!

Misconception 2: If I Have a Lot Of Files On the Computer, It Will Be Slower

Who has never heard this remark?

Whether the desktop is filled with icons, or empty, the computer doesn't feel the difference. To be more precise, and schematically, let's say that between 1ms and 2ms you don't feel any difference. Indeed, you don't have time to feel the extra millisecond.

The problem would arise if the hard drive was full, but for this operating system, warnings would be displayed long before.

Misconception 3: If My Computer Is Lagging, It Is Full Of Viruses

There are a lot of different reasons that lead to a slow computer. It could be from a virus, but it doesn't always happen. Truth be told, a malware owner will instead try to keep their program as inconspicuous as possible so that it goes undetected.

I have to take this as a preconceived idea because malware is almost always blamed. And this although there are other reasons just as likely, if not more.

We will see other reasons that can make your PC slow later in the article.

Misconception 4: Deleting  Cookies, Temporary Files and Cache Makes My PC Faster

In fact, cookies, temp files, and cache are once again created to go JUST faster.

The cookies are files stored on your computer, I refer you to the 2nd point, like for temporary files. Cookies allow you to remember your preferences so that you do not have to retype them each time you visit a site (usernames, shopping cart, etc.). These are usually very small files since they only contain a few words.

The cache, on the other hand, backs up images, page styles, and other static files to greatly improve browsing speed. for the sites that we visit often. Instead of taking 2 seconds to reload an image over the network, the cache reuses/searches for it directly from your computer in much less time.

The cache can however be corrupted and generate errors, but this is no longer a connection problem. In this case, it is good to empty it.

Temporary files also act as a cache. The only problem with temporary files is that Windows has to iterate through all of the files. So if you have 30 million files, that's problematic, but I'm willing to bet Windows takes care of making space when it needs to.

You can type "% TEMP%" in the Windows start menu search bar to open the list of temporary files and see for yourself the oldest date (which will probably be quite recent anyway).

Note however that after a long time, emptying the temporary files can be used to reset the list to zero , if you need to erase your tracks and / or if your computer is not very powerful.

PS: There are many other temporary files and folders, like the  Prefetch folder (which again speeds up the PC rather than the other way around).

Misconception 5: Cleaning the Registry Speeds Up the Computer

Cleaning software often finds 3000 errors in the registry. These errors are actually what are known as orphan registry keys. . The registry is made up of many configurations related to the applications you use. These same configurations are stored as values ​​in registry keys.

Over time, programs notably create registry keys that refer to files on your disk. When the files in question are deleted, either by uninstalling the affected program or by yourself, the keys refer to empty locations. "Registry errors" are thus flagged.

These orphan keys do not pose major performance problems.

Conversely, there are holes in the registry (in particular due to deletions of these keys) which make access slower.

The ideal would therefore be to "compact" or "defragment" the registry to fill these holes and ensure faster access.

That said, even with these optimizations, the performance gain is still very small and probably impossible to feel.

Misconception 6: Deleting Prefetch Folder Speed ​​Up Computer

Some "cleaning" software or some people on forums suggest that you delete the "Preftech" folder. I just spoke about it in a previous point.

In fact, deleting the files from the Prefetch folder may slow down the PC instead of making it faster.

Each time you start your computer, Windows records how the computer starts up and what files and programs are often opened.

This information is stored in small files in the Prefetch folder. Windows therefore uses them to help speed up startup.

This same folder is self-managed: files are automatically deleted when there are too many .

Deleting these files manually will therefore slow down Windows (a little bit) which will have to save the information in these files again.

The received ideas that we have just seen have more of a Placebo effect than a real action on your computer.



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