Learning to Run (Google Tip)

At home I have a laptop, my son's, which began to really slow down as all PCs do over time.  It's the nature of the beast...or at least the PC.   Viruses, malware, extensions running over themselves, and only-true-techies know what else.

There's a point, like a vacuum cleaner, when it can only take in so much junk that it stops working.

So how is this a Google tip, right?

• Run Chrome.  Step one.  Simple, easy and malware resistant.

• Clean up the malware, viruses, registry errors and other junk using the right software.  I always recommend Malwarebytes and CCleaner.  Both are entirely free, take up little hard drive space and only run when you want them.

• Clean your computer using Windows Security Essentials.  It's free virus software and runs shallowly on your computer.  Nortons and McAfee scan everything, take up valuable space and just clog up the system.

• Disable Internet Explorer.  Yes, I said it.  DISABLE IE.  For some reason, IE runs all the time even when it is not open.  Try it.  You can always turn it back on.

Back to my son's laptop.  Over the course of the last two years, it began to slow down, slow down even more, to the point of no one wanting to use it.  Startup was close to 10 minutes.  Internet access was in minutes.  Sound familiar?

Then the dreaded "Virtual Memory Too Low" message.

The idea to uninstall Internet Explorer struck me.  I don't use IE and it runs constantly.  Unfortunately, IE does not lend itself to be uninstalled.

I disabled it.  Turned it off.

Interesting thing happened.  The computer works like brand new.  Brand new.