Why is my computer so slow? I have work to do! - posted by Day Tooley
Three most-common reasons:
- Slow Internet connection
- Computer is dragging a mob of little hitchhikers, all phoning home
Incredibly, there seem to be a number of business men and women trying to get through their day using a dial-up connection. Often these are professionals who don't realize that a $1 more per day for a broadband connection can save them tons of time. Doing a simple Return On Investment (ROI) and assuming the Oregon minimum wage, spending a dollar is a no-brainer.
The second, often overlooked, reason is caused by uninvited guests living in your computer. Like barnacles on a boat, they need to be scraped off if you want to catch the wind and keep up.
At a minimum, get a copy of a utility such as Ad-Aware. It's free and does a good job cleaning house. Run it every week or two.
Another one is Spybot Search & Destroy, also free. Run it too.
And if you really want to get the rust out, get jv16 PowerTools (30-day free trial, but well worth the $30 to purchase). It has saved me tons of time.
Oh, and reason #3.
Web content is getting richer. In 2002, the average web page was a lean 20K. Even a modem connection would load the page in 4 seconds. Now the average web page is about 100K (got 20 seconds to spare?). With Flash and video and FrontPage creating obese content, a faster Internet connection is the quick fix.
After the novelty wears off, hopefully the professional website designers will use lighter and more responsive tools such as AJAX to create useful content. Until then, it's pretty easy to increase your Internet bandwidth and get rid of the computer hitchhikers and barnacles.
Technorati Tags: Ad-Aware, A-Squared, jv16Del.icio.us Tags: Ad-Aware, A-Squared, jv16
September 20th, 2006 by Day Tooley
