Fixing slow computer speed can be attempted in several ways. One way is to upgrade the Windows operating system. You may want to do this, especially if the old OS is outdated. As well as upgrading to a new OS, it could get your PCs lost speed back. However, there is a catch, and because of this catch, sometimes upgrading to a newer Windows version won’t do the trick. This article will explain why and how to go about upgrading for greater speed.
When moving from an older operating system to a newer one, there are two courses of action you could take. One would be to buy the Windows upgrade and the other would be to buy the complete Windows operating system package. Of course, there is a different course of action needed if you are installing a complete package as opposed to if you are upgrading.
XP to Vista
To clarify this, let’s take an example. You now have Windows XP and you would like to upgrade to Vista. If you buy a Vista upgrade package you will be installing Windows Vista over Windows XP. In other words, the upgrade software will add all the files it needs to upgrade to Vista, but it won’t erase all the files on your hard drive. So, some of the files that might have been slowing your computer down might still be installed on your computer after your upgrade. This is the catch we’re talking about.
However, if you install a complete new Vista package, you will have to reformat your hard drive and then you will install Windows Vista and everything will be brand-new. Every file on your computer at this point will be pristine. Of course, before you formatted your hard drive you would have had to back up all of your files, such as your user files and your “my document” files. Actually, you should do this even if you are using the upgrade package because something might go wrong with the installation and it would prevent you from using these files.
So, whether you are upgrading or you are doing a complete install, you need to back up all your files. However, the point is, upgrading your operating system to gain computer speed, might not work. However, doing a complete install, provided your computer is in good shape, will do the trick. Then again, even if you didn’t upgrade but you simply reformatted your hard drive and installed your original Windows XP package, you probably would get all your computer’s speed back.
Or Cleaning the Registry
Possibly even simpler than this would be if you had run a registry cleaner before you upgraded. You may have found this would have gotten your lost speed back. The registry cleaner will erase the corrupted files that were slowing your computer down and write new files so your computer would return to its original fast speed.
Of course, re-installing your Windows XP wouldn’t give you a Windows Vista upgrade, but it would have worked as far as restoring your computer’s speed. Then again, running a registry cleaner would probably have gotten you computer’s speed back, too and it certainly would have been the easiest option.