Bring Your Computer Back Up to Speed

Posted: August 12, 2014

[caption id="attachment_11975" align="alignright"] 0811 primary Image from pcworld.com[/caption]A slow computer can seriously limit the amount of work that can be done.....not to mention drive the user crazy. To see what might be bogging it down, check for unwanted programs that are running. Kill unwanted applications and programs to get your computer operating at full speed again.

, Contributing Editor for PCWorld, shares how to kill any programs that are unwanted to keep your computer running fast.

How to kill unwanted processes and applications that slow down Windows

Bobby Ekwere asked "Is there any free software that allows me to see and disable unwanted programs running in the background?"

Probably, but I know something better than free software for this job: software that comes with Windows. All current versions of Windows come with a tool to help you trim back what's running at the moment.

The look, behavior, and feel of this tool changed drastically (and for the better) with Windows 8. I'll cover Windows 7 and Windows 8 here, but the Windows 7 directions should work reasonably well with XP and Vista.

The tool is called Task Manager. To open it, right-click the taskbar and selecting Task Manager or Start >Task Manager, depending on your version of Windows.

In the Windows 7 version, the Applications tab displays currently-running applications.

But what's the difference between an application and a program?

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