There are various reasons for your computer slowing down, including too many unused programs, not enough space on the hard drive, old cached and temporary files, too many programs running at startup or background, corrupted data, and missing or outdated drivers.

So if your computer is running like a sloth, then here are some helpful, simple tips which you can try out to help speed things up a bit.

Defragment your hard drive. When you create, download, or even delete files, your computer stores the date in different locations in your hard drive, causing fragmentation. This in turn causes your computer to slow down in starting up and shutting down, affecting its performance. That’s where the disk defragmenter tool comes in handy (all newer computers have this). Simply locate the Disk Defragmenter via your computer’s search function, or refer to your owner’s manual if you’ve never used a disk defragmenter before.

Uninstall unnecessary software. Most computers come with preloaded programs that you might not be aware of. Some of these programs automatically open when you start your unit, slowing your computer down. Go to your Programs folder and weed out software that you don’t really use. Alternatively, you can go to the Task Manager to check for running programs and processes. Just be careful about ending unfamiliar processes without checking first, because it may affect your computer’s performance.

Schedule your cleanup. Every time you use your computer, it receives unnecessary files like temporary internet cache, downloaded files, etc. Delete the “temp” files from your computer, the “history” files and “cookies” from your web browser so you can free up space more on your hard drive. You can also install and run a registry cleaner, which will periodically clean up all unnecessary files and software without you having to hunt for each manually.