New Computer, or maybe not.

I usually tell people to buy a new computer, and give me their old one. This is certainly the time of year you should have done that, however, I do understand not everyone wants to give up their computer quite yet. If your computer is less than 5 years old, that's not very old at all. If it's over 7 years old, you've definitely gotten your money's worth and should probably consider a new computer. If you are still working on a computer that is 10 years old, then I congratulate your stubbornness.

Whatever you are working on, there are likely ways to get it to run a little faster. Getting rid of clutter is always a great idea, and it's pretty much free to do. Delete documents and pictures you don't need. CCleaner is a free program you can run on a PC or Mac that will clean up the system a bit. There's a paid version too, if you want.

Ultimately, you may need a faster computer. You don't necessarily need a new one, but you may need some newer components. I generally recommend memory as the first step. If you can upgrade your memory, do so. It's generally the cheapest and easiest component upgrade. I've written about upgrading to an SSD drive before. A Solid State Drive has no moving parts, and it will be noticeably faster than a mechanical drive. The prices have come down so much that I just bought a 500gb SSD for $55 yesterday, on Amazon. Just because! I already have an SSD in my computer, so I'll be putting that one into something else. I was looking at daily deals, so check those out. And remember to check the ratings on Amazon before you buy. The price is up to $69.99, still a great price.  Click the Amazon link on the right.
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If you're lucky like I was, you may be in a Goodwill and see an entire motherboard with a core i5 CPU in it. I found one for $10 a year ago and swapped out my mobo with a crappy Atom processor. Not only did it all work, it is SO MUCH FASTER than my old computer, it's wonderful.
​I'm putting in an article about upgrading your computer HERE. You can get some ideas.
Another thing, a free program to download is called SPECCY, from Piriform. It will give you more detailed specs about your computer than Windows will. Just an FYI.