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My computer is so slow!
It must be too full of stuff, so I’m going to start deleting my photos and music.

This is something I hear almost every day.
Trust me, deleting things from your computer will NOT make it any faster.

The confusion comes from the word “memory”, we use the term to describe two very different things; the RAM and the hard drive. People think that if there is too much in memory then the computer will be overworked and slow down. This is only half true, the computer will only slow down if the RAM is too full.

Let me use an analogy to describe the different types of memory. The RAM is like your desktop and the HARD DRIVE is like your filing cabinet. RAM plays the role of your temporary work place, like a desktop, while the HARD DRIVE plays the role of  the filing cabinet where everything is permanently stored.

Imagine you have a small desk and a large filing cabinet. The desk quickly gets cluttered and your work is slowing down because things are getting buried and you’re trying to do 5 things at once. Then your neighbour the “computer guy” comes over and says “you seem a bit slow today, why not clean out your filing cabinet, then you’ll have more room to work”.

Sounds silly, but this is what happens when you delete files in hopes of speeding up your computer. Your computer would not be any faster or slower if you had 5 or 50,000 photos in your picture folder. But if those same pictures were RUNNING in the background as a slideshow while you were working on some other project at the same time, then it would slow down because of the multi-tasking. It’s like having a small desk with a pile of work on it, then someone throws a phonebook on top of the pile, naturally your work would slow down considerably.

So the question is “how do I clear off the desk without losing files from the filing cabinet?” The simple answer is “turn stuff off!” Turn off the slide show, the music program, the email program, the download program, turn everything off. Then you will have a nice clean and fast desk. (RAM)

I just counted the running tasks on my computer, at the moment there are over 50 programs running! But this is not a problem because I have a more powerful computer than most people. The average computer does not have enough horsepower to keep that many tasks running smoothly, so that list of programs would need to be
cut way down. Turning off programs is not always as easy as it sounds, most of the running tasks are essential while a few are optional, and some of the optional ones I really like to keep running. So how do you know which to keep and which to turn off? That’s where a professional comes in, a simple tune-up by a certified pro will make a big improvement and you won’t lose any files!

So don’t delete your stuff, in-fact you should be making extra copies of everything! (another story). Reduce the number of running programs, or buy a faster computer, or call Webspinner Computer Service for a tune-up.  Home Page

604-318-1035

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