Office of Educational Technology
Steps to Take
The following are steps you can take to speed up your computer. They are ranked according to cost, time involved, technical level required, and level of effect.
- Updates
- Microsoft Updates
- Apple Updates
- Cost: Free
- Time Involved: Varies according to the number of updates needed by your computer
- Technical level: Novice and up
- Effect level: High
- Verify and Update Virus Protection
- Cost: Free
- Time Involved: 10 minutes
- Technical level: Novice
- Effect level: High
- Remove Unnecessary Applications
- Cost: Free
- Time Involved: Varies depending on the number of unnecessary applications. Expect to spend at least an hour.
- Technical level: Intermediate
- Effect level: High
- Disk Cleanup Tool
- Cost: Free
- Time Involved: Varies but usually less than an hour. It can run in the background while you work on other things.
- Technical level: Novice and up
- Effect level: Moderate
- Install Malware Protection
- Cost: Free (depending on what you install)
- Time Involved: Varies. Estimate at least 30 minutes
- Technical level: Novice and up
- Effect level: Moderate
- Defragment Your Hard Drive
- Cost: Free
- Time Involved: ~ hour
- Technical level: Intermediate
- Effect level: Moderate
- Reformat Hard Drive
- Cost: Free
- Time Involved: ~ two hours
- Technical level: high – contact OET-help
- Effect level: High
- Purchase Additional Memory
- Cost: ~$100 or <
- Time Involved: <hour
- Technical level: – contact OET-help for installation
- Effect level: High