The 13th Prescription when the PC is late: ITMEDIA Enterprise

　If you're working on Windows, you'll often encounter a very fast PC at first, but it's slow while using it.It may be that it is slow when you are doing this operation now, or "every day, constantly slow".

　Like you, my PC is getting slower, and depending on the work, it is extremely slow.If you could see a PC drawing a window frame, it didn't improve your eyesight.So what are the solutions?Here are the methods I use on a daily basis.

　First, determine the cause of the slow.The main tool is "Task Manager".

　If you find it slow, first check the status of the HDD access lamp.Normally, if you are not operating anything, the HDD lamp should just glow once every few seconds.There is a problem if you are not doing any work, but if it is flashing violently or keeping it shining.

　Go to checkpoint 3 and 4 to consider measures.

　Even if it is not heavy tasks such as video encoding, it is often the case that bad applications use the CPU power to fully open and do not let go.In such a case, Windows is of course slow.

　Right -click the taskbar and select "Task Manager" or press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del] to launch "Task Manager".The CPU usage rate should be displayed in the graph.

　If the CPU usage rate is 100 %, the PC will surely be extremely slow.

　If the HDD is still moving or the CPU is turned around, check a little more details in the task manager.Let's open the "Process" tab.

　Here, add a check from "Display" - "Select a Route" to "I/O Read" and "I/O".Then, you can see the CPU load and HDD reading state for each process currently moving.Next, click the tip of the column with "CPU" and sort the process in the order of using the CPU.

　If you're not doing any particularly heavy tasks, but if you use a CPU of about 90 %, this is the suspect.If you end this process application, it may move fast.In some cases, you may not be able to restart, so try it.

　Similarly, check and write on the HDD (I/O reading and writing) to check if some specific processes use PC resources.

　If you find an application (process) that makes such a suspicious movement, continue checking in the future.If you make a strange movement frequently, uninstall it first and install it again.If it's still useless, consider switching to a different application.

　This time, return to the "performance" tab of the task manager.Let's look at the total value of the "commit charge" at the bottom left.Compare the numbers here (about 400m to 1G bytes) and the numbers of "physical memory" in the center right.

　This physical memory is the capacity of the memory in your PC.You can think of the commit charge as the amount of Windows itself or the amount of memory used by the currently running application.

　If this commit charge exceeds the physical memory amount, your PC is insufficient.What happens?

　In the first place, the computer could not move the application more than the memory capacity.However, this is inconvenient, so if the memory runs out, it has evolved to avoid the contents of the memory that is not often used to the HDD (swap) and empty memory.I started using HDD as a virtual memory.With this mechanism, many applications can be operated even on PCs with low memory.However, as you know, the HDD is slower than the memory, so when a swap occurs, the overall operation is slow.

　Your PC's HDD access lamps will often flash, and your PC will be slow.If this situation occurs frequently, adding memory will dramatically improve performance.By the way, especially in the case of laptops, check the maximum memory capacity.In some cases, there is only one memory slot, and it may already be buried, so check it before buying.

　If you can't add memory, go back to checkpoint 3 and don't start using many memory but not required.It is effective simply to stop unnecessary resident software and prevent automatic startup (see the article on August 29).

　I feel that the operation has been slow recently, even though I did not add the application.In such a case, make sure that the HDD is fragmentation (fragmented).

　Open "My Computer" and right -click the HDD.Select the "Tool" tab from "Properties" and select "Optimization" to confirm.If you do "analysis" here, if there are many red "fragmented files", bingo!The optimization (defragment) will increase the performance of the HDD, and eventually lead to high speeds for each application and Windows.

　When I opened a certain application, I thought that the HDD access lamp became longer than before, and that was a signal.Let's try defragmentation.

　If you just think that HDD is a place to save a file, it is different.As I wrote in checkpoint 4, it is also used instead of memory, and the application is HDD that the application read many files.

　As the free space of the HDD decreases, the PC speed may be extremely slow.If possible, I want to secure a free space of about 30 %.Reduce files and secure capacity, referring to "HDD dieting method".

　If you think these methods are still late (compared to the purchase), the last resort is reinstalling Windows.

　When you install the Windows application, many of them write items in the registry.Moreover, even if you uninstall, it often does not return.Under the Windows folder, various files with systems and applications accumulate.The lees gradually accumulate and the movement becomes slower.

　If you check each of the registry and system files and delete unnecessary things, you will be able to regain the original lightness.However, given the difficulty, it is more realistic to reinstall the entire Windows.Instead of overwriting installation, format the HDD and install Windows from Ichi.If it is not your own PC, it should come with a recovery CD etc., so use it.

　Reinstallation work is a troublesome task, but there are also benefits.

　One is, of course, backed up the data in advance and wrote it back after reinstallation.In other words, it is a good opportunity to back up important data.

　The second is that you can separate the problem.Even if you reinstall it and return it to the same state immediately after purchase, it may be unstable or the operation may be strange.This is likely to be hardware failure, not Windows.You can take actions such as repairing or replaying new ones.

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