computer running slowly

[swindontony]

My computer is running slowly, someone suggested to defrag it regularly, how do I do this? Thanks in advance.

[Ethel]

Assuming you have XP.

Start - control panel - performance and maintenance - free up space on hard disk THEN rearrange items on hard disk (defrag

[vehelpfulguy]

Note a defrag can take quite a while and you cannot do anything else on the computer while it is running.

While it may speed it up a little I dont think it is going to make a huge difference.

[Twenty20]

As vehelpfulguy says, youre talking about milliseconds when defragmenting.

It's possible that you dont have enough memory for the applications youre running or that something is running in the background that youre unaware of (this could be a virus or similar if youre on a pc)

[ACtheTROLL]

if it's vista the defragger is built in.

VHG and Twenty are pretty much right ... it won't make a huge difference ..... unless your disc is getting full
(ntfs likes at least 20% free to do it's thing)
also if the temp folder is ridiculously full( <1000 files)
this will slow things down.
use CCCleaner to have a bit of a cleanup
http://www.ccleaner.com/download

then if still no improvement .... consider a memory upgrade (come back with the processor, disc details (or just how old is the machine!) - for advice on how much - or visit
http://crucial.com/
or
http://www.kingston.com/

[Giggsie]

start>all programs>accessories>system tools>disk defragmenter

[webdude]

There could be a number of reasons why a PC runs slowly. Defragging can be one, but it could also be a virus or malware, your registry may need cleaning, you may need to run the disk clean up utility to remove temporary and unused old files, you may have run out of room on your hard drive etc. etc.

Any of the above could apply.