Even computers with the fastest Internet connection can suffer from a lack of maintenance, thus causing their browsing speeds to be slow. Here is quick list of steps to perform to clean up your browsing history, remove any ad-ware from your computer, and to improve your browsing speeds. If you do not feel comfortable performing these steps, please feel free to call us, and we can refer a local technician to take care of your needs.

- Remove any spyware, or data-mining bugs that might be slowing down your computer. When you browse websites, certain sites can put a ‘bug’ that will report your activity back to that website. You can go to http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ to download a free copy of Ad-Aware, so that you can remove the bugs, and keep them off your machine.

- When you browse the web, your computer locally stores pictures and webpages in its temporary files for faster viewing later. You can remove any clutter from temporary files that are slowing your machine down by downloading a freeware system optimization and privacy tool called CCleaner from http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/ Once downloaded and installed, when you run this program, it will empty your trash, your temporary files, and any other temporary documents that might be taking up unwanted space on your computer. - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. The best part is that it's Fast (normally taking less that a second to run) and Free!

- Once your computer has been cleaned up of files, and if you have a Windows based PC, you can defragment your computer to make sure that your hard drive works as fast as possible. Plan to defragment your computers at night, or anytime that you can start the process and step away from the computer for a while. To defragment your hard drive, go to Start -> Programs -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter. Click the ‘Analyze’ button, and see if you need to defragment your hard drive.

Once again, if you do not feel comfortable performing these steps, please feel free to call us, and we can refer a local technician to take care of your needs.