Keep Windows 7 running at top speed

Windows runs quickly and seems the most responsive when it has just been installed or when you buy a new PC. Very slowly over a long period of time it seems to get slower and slower. Why is this?

There are several reasons and one is that as the disk drive fills up it becomes less efficient and files become fragmented. Fortunately, there are some good disk defragmenters that can solve this problem. Windows has it's own disk defragmenter, but if you are looking for a better freebie then try IObit Smart Defrag, it's compatible with Windows 7.

Another reason why Windows slows down is because of updates. Extra features, bug fixes, patches, and service packs are downloaded and installed by Windows update and they add code to the system. The more code there is, the slower Windows runs. Unfortunately, you can't really avoid this and it is a good idea to leave Windows Update turned on for security and stability reasons.

A third reason why Windows slows down is that you install lots of software. Even if you uninstall software you don't need, it's sometimes impossible to remove all traces. As the software builds up on your computer and dlls, registry settings, configuration files and other items are added to the system, Windows gets slower.

Sometimes you can avoid installing software. For example, a device like a digital camera will often work fine if you simply plug it into the USB port of the computer. Windows will detect it and offer to open a window to display the photos on it or download them to the computer. You might not need to install the software that is bundled with the camera. It's the same with other devices - see if they work just by plugging them in and only install software if you have to.

Some software is essential though, such as an office suite or a photo editing program, but even with these you can sometimes get away by not installing anything. Instead of a regular software program, look for what is called a portable app. These are programs that are designed to run from USB flash memory drives (which is why they are called portable), and they don't install anything into Windows. There is a portable version of OpenOffice, Firefox and GIMP, for example. You just unzip the programs to a folder on the disk and that's it. And if you ever decide you don't need a portable app you can just delete the folder. This removes everything and leaves nothing behind. You won't get any uninstall errors or other problems that you occasionally get when removing software.

Sometimes you will find a portable app on a website with the regular app and you just need to look for it. There are also websites that specialise in portable apps, like PortableApps. There are other places, like this article listing 100 portable apps, this Wikipedia article, and Pendriveapps.