How to Make your Computer Faster

Don't we all want to make our computers run faster? How can you speed up your computer? Here are a few tips for everyone from novice to expert:

1. Uninstall programs that you don't need or don't use: This can be a huge, easy win, because not only do these programs take up space, most of the time they are doing things while your computers is running, slowing it down.
2. De-fragment your hard drive: This can realign the files on your disk, so that programs can start faster and you can open up your files quicker.
3. Reinstall everything on your computer: If your computer seems to be a lot slower than it used to, then you probably have too many things on it, and it might be best to just start over. I generally try to do this on my computers every 18 months or so. This will require more than just basic computer skills to do it right.
4. Turn off unused services and start-up programs: This can help quite a bit if your computer seems sluggish, but this is not for the faint of heart. If you turn off the wrong programs, you can end up with major problems and break everything.
   
5. Add more memory: This can be a cheap easy fix that will help some computers, but not all. Also not all computers will have room for more memory and most operating systems can only use 3-4 GB of memory.
6. Buy a new computer: Especially if your computer is more than 2 or 3 years old, your best bet may be to just buy a new one. Chances are that a brand new $300-400 computer will be way faster than whatever else you have.

If any one else has some good ideas, please let me know and I will add them to the list.