I have been grumbling about my computer speed for ages and keep thinking I need to find a technician to come out.
Just phoned a friend to ask for a recommendation and she suggested I clear my history first and within 10 seconds my computer speed is absolutely perfect again.
Duh!
I had never known to do that.
Do you?

Another tip is to uninstall any unused programs (if any)

Also delete everything in your Downloads folder

I don't count because I'm in the IT industry, but one thing I would advise anyone who was thinking of spending money on a technician is to Google any problem first. There are tons of tips out there you can try before getting out your wallet, and they're often simple to do.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2016 04:21AM by CarolynC.

Very few of us started using computers and the internet in our very young days and the seemingly simple tip that Helen has posted can make a difference. I used to sit on the floor with my two then very young children while they made up little programmes on our first home computer, it just came so easily to them.
I belong to an IT forum where people are so helpful, they freely give their knowledge and that's great. Sometimes when I ask a question and they give the answer that duh moment pops into my mind.
I use CCleaner (Piriform) a lot, I find that useful.
Carolyn is so right about Google, pretty well whatever your problem, others have experienced the same thing. However, when all else fails we do have a trusty technician we call on.

I hope I can join this thread with my problem. I am a complete amateur on the computer and my backspace key has stopped working.It takes me ages to read foodlovers.At one point early on it told me to hold down alt plus a forward arrow.I have tried this but it won't work.Anyone ever had this problem as well?

Marylew, sometimes it can just be that some crumbs, dust or other small bits of debris have fallen into the keyboard and clogged up the works a bit. This can sometimes be remedied by turning your keyboard upside down and giving it several bangs on the desk to get the dirt to fall back out or shift. Worth a try.

Marylew, adding to J1's excellent advice, you can actually pop the keys off with your fingernail without damaging them which might make it easier to clean underneath. Just press it back into place afterwards. In case it's a software problem rather than a problem with the key itself, here's some more advice I Googled:

"Does it happen on specific programs only like Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word? Try opening Notepad and test if you can do backspace there. If not here are some troubleshooting steps that might help.
- Press Windows key + R at the same time and type in "osk" in the run box that should appear.
- Once the onscreen keyboard is open try pressing the backspace button on it and see if it does work fine using it because if it does there might be a problem with your actual keyboard (backspace) but if it still is not working with OSK a complete factory reset might be necessary to be run in your laptop to correct the problem."

Hope that helps!

Thank you for your advice I will try your remedy's this afternoon.It is a laptop that my daughter helped me buy only twelve months ago so I will let you know how I go. Thanks again.

Oh, if it's a laptop keyboard I don't think I'd be inclined to turn it upside down and bang it several times on the desk then....

Ok so I actually haven't fixed my problem at all.
It did help with my internet speed but my big problem is moving around in Windows. Word, Excel and Outlook are just impossibly slow.

Any tips on what I should do?

Ingrid why delete everything in downloads folder? If I download photos from dropbox can I not keep them in downloads?

Helen, have you upgraded to Windows 10 - I am wondering if you have older Windows programs that may not be compatible, or are a lot slower with 10? That is just a guess on my part

Hi Irene, yes I have upgraded.
I have just phoned Microsoft and took out a $150NZ annual plan whereby they will fix problems relating to their product at any time.
The technician just spent over an hour on my computer so just about to see if it has worked.

It's pretty annoying that Microsoft charges you for fixing the deficits in their own products! However, since you now have the service, hopefully it did the trick. I know versions of Office earlier than 2007 (and there are even some problems with the 2007 version) are not compatible with Windows 10. (I only upgraded from XP to WIn7 this year and plan to stick with Win7 as long as I can.)

CarolynC voiced my thoughts as well, my husband didn't hold back with his opinions, either. I can understand you doing everything you can, though, Helen. So much of our communication relies on our computers.

I have Win8.1 and after much deliberation I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to Win10. Everything ticked along smoothly, I watched for a while, even though it was like watching paint dry. I went upstairs for lunch and when I came back down my computer had shut down. Once it was cold-boot restarted Microsoft had reverted everything back to Win8.1. I got cold feet about going through the same procedure and called in our technician. He collected what he needed from my home and said he would watch what happened. The next morning he phoned and said it couldn't be done without causing so many problems. He had done some research about similar problems with my make and model and I would be better to stay with what I have until it's time for a new computer.

Also, a big plus, he refused to take any payment for the time he had spent on it.

Please let us know how it works out for you, Helen.

Ingrid why delete everything in downloads folder? If I download photos from dropbox can I not keep them in downloads?

Do you also store your photos elsewhere in another folder after you download? If so, you will have two copies of the downloaded photos.

I only keep photos in my IPHOTO (Mac photo library)

I often find my downloads folder is full of stuff I use once, or looked at briefly, but it all takes up space. I guess I download a lot of big files from work, so I need to do some major trashing every week!