There are a host of things that can cause your PC to run slow. The common problems are;

1. Viruses
2. Spy / adware
3. Hardware / Software

Viruses come in a variety of flavours. They differ in name and the effect that they can have on your PC. If your PC is running slower than normal then there is a good chance that there may be a virus infecting your system. The best way to solve this kind of problem is to run a virus scan using your virus software. A full system scan should identify any problems and can be used to remove any infected files. If you think that your virus software is not running or updating let IT Support know.

Spyware is software that is installed on your machine via the Internet and can seriously effect the performance of your PC. There are many different effects that Spyware / Adware can have on your machine from allowing advertisement “pop ups” to appear on your desktop or whilst surfing the Internet to stealing or listening for passwords or security information. To combat this threat there are different programs available free on the Internet that can run in the background and stop your PC being infected. The best and most common one is the Microsoft Anti-Spyware tool. Running this software and selecting a quick smart scan will detect and remove all threats and potential infections. Some spyware can be more difficult to remove and if you are not sure about removing it then contact IT Support.

It is possible for new Hardware / Software to cause a system to run slow after it has been installed. Is there a connection between you PC running slow and the installation of a new program? Or a new piece of hardware eg CD-ROM, Memory etc. If so then it would be a good idea to un-install the suspected bit of software / hardware and see if it rectifies the problem. Another software issue that could effect the PC’s performance is the number of programs that are running in the background. Do you have a large number of icons next to your clock?? If so then the system resources could being used up by these extra programs. Another software issue is that there may not be enough RAM (random access memory) in the PC this too can effect the performance. If you are not comfortable adding or removing software / hardware please contact IT Support.