Tag Archives: slow computer

Switching your laptop’s DVD drive for a SSD

If you’ve been following this blog, you have probably read our recommendations for computer upgrades that provide the most bang per buck. Of those, you should know that installing an SSD drive is currently the single upgrade that will provide the most significant performance improvements.

The problem being – when it came to upgrading a laptop this would imply having to choose between the higher performance of a SSD and the higher capacity of a conventional HDD.

Well, this article will show you how to easily get around this choice by swapping out your optical DVD drive rather than your HDD, to make room for installing a SSD. Doing so, you’ll effectively get to keep two separate disk drives in your laptop: your current HDD plus a state of the art SSD. This upgrade can be easily done by getting hold of a simple SSD caddy that fits in the place of your DVD drive; the present article will guide you through the procedure as well as helping you evaluate the pros and cons. read more

Concept of Defragmenting: Does it Work

Often when you have been using your home computer for a while you may look into ways to really improve and increase the performance of your PC. One of the most popular options is the defragging your Hard Disks. So, let’s take a more in depth look at the defragmentation process and whether or not it works.

When you use your home computer for work, such as making or saving new files, the files are being continuously created as well as erased from the hard disk. When the disk is empty, Windows will try to store the new files near or next to the location of the previous file. This is done in order to increase the speed of processing the files(s) when they are needed. read more

Disable Search Service in Windows 7 and 8

The Windows Search Service is the service in Windows 7 and 8 that replaced the Windows indexing service from previous versions of Windows. Essentially, the search service runs in the background and scans files and folders to record information about these files and folders.  Then, when you need to perform a file search, it should run much faster due to these records of information that Windows has compiled. However, this improved file search speed comes at a cost of WSS (Windows Search Service) constantly running in the background using system resources. If your computer has enough power, I would recommend leaving this service alone. However, if you are starting to notice that your PC is slowing down, disabling this service will help you to regain some speed. read more