Whenever I get online with Internet Explorer, my computer seems to be very slow compared to the speed I used to have. What can I do?

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A: First, make sure you have a good anti-virus / spy ware installed. You will find articles here that offer comparisons, and how to buy them. If you don’t have one, your computer may be loaded with cookies, spy ware, and / or viruses. Immediate installation and a virus scan are needed.

Assuming you have virus and spy ware protection, along with a firewall, here are some things you may do on your own to speed up your surfing experience with Internet Explorer.

First, open Explorer and click the ‘Safety’ tab at the top right. In the dropdown, click ‘Delete browsing history’. You’ll be offered a menu of options to choose from. You should check them as follows.

‘Preserve favorites website data.’ Check this to allow your computer to retain the data for those sites in your favorites tab.

Check ‘Temporary Internet files’ to delete all the old temporary files your computer keeps to aid you in viewing websites. This file can be huge if you
don’t clear it regularly.

Uncheck, or do not check ‘Cookies’ if you want your passwords, login info, and etc. to remain on your computer. ‘Cookies’ are small files that stay on your drive to automatically fill in passwords on sites you visit often. If you don’t have anti-virus or anti-spy ware installed, delete these files until you get it; you are allowing access to your passwords and personal info.

Check ‘History’. This is a file of all of the websites you have visited since you last cleared it. Just a short time on Facebook, or other sites like it, can put many files on here. This is usually the primary thing that slows down your browser.

‘Form data’ and ‘Passwords’ files should be checked unless, or until, you have anti-spy ware installed. It is very dangerous to even go online without this protection, so never let it lapse. If you have good protection, you may uncheck these boxes.

If you see ‘In private filtering data’, check this block. This is data your ’In private’ filter saves about attempted sharing by websites you visit. Keeping it is not necessary.

Now, click the ‘Delete’ button and you are done. The toolbar should keep your choices, and you should get in the habit of clearing the history on a regular basis. If you are online a lot, delete it daily and you should see a difference in speed.

Once you have cleared your history, click on the ‘Tools’ tab next to the safety tab. Again, you will get a drop-down menu. Click the ‘Manage add-ons’ line. Now, you will see a list of all of the add-ons in your browser. Many of these add-ons come from visited websites, and you may not even know how they got there. Look over the files, disable the ones you don’t need, or are unsure of. Next, click ‘Search providers’ on the left, and do the same, disabling excess add-ons. Keep only the ones you use regularly.

Then, click ‘Accelerators’ and disable the ones you don’t use or want. You may not need ‘News’, ‘Finance’, or ‘Translate’, for instance.

If you encounter any problems running your usual websites, or surfing, go back and enable the items you disabled, one at a time, to see if they are affecting it. When the problem disappears, you should find your browser running faster and smoother. Congratulations, and don’t forget to do these tasks on a
regular basis.

A good security program, such as Norton or McAfee, will also let you run file cleanups and security scans on a regular basis. Use these tools to keep your
computer in top form.

D.Offer writes, Offer writes on behalf of the Facebook login application Chit Chat for Facebook. Chit Chat is a Facebook chat client that enables users to send Facebook messages from their desktop.