Having a laptop that is unable to download files efficiently can greatly reduce your productivity. While high-speed Internet connections promise faster download speeds, the speeds will only be as fast as your laptop will allow. There are many things that can cause slow downloads on your laptop, ranging from your processor type to problems with the Registry. Many of these items are things that you can easily fix on your own. After performing these tasks, you should see a significant increase in your laptop's download speed.
Step 1
Check your laptop to see what type of processor it has. If you are using an older processor, such as Intel Pentium 1, or Pentium 2, consider upgrading to a Pentium 4 or Dual Core processor.
Video of the Day
Step 2
Open your Windows "Task Manager" to "End Task" for any programs that may be running in the background for your laptop. Having the extra programs running can significantly slow down your laptop performance.
Step 3
Clear your laptop's browsing history and temporary Internet files. For Internet Explorer, you can delete these files by clicking on "Tools" and "Internet Options" from the Internet Explorer menu bar. For Firefox, select "Tools" and "Clear Private Data."
Step 4
Perform a disk defragmentation for the laptop's hard drive by clicking on the Windows "Start" button. Perform a file search for "CMD." Press "Ctrl + Shift + Enter" simultaneously on your keyboard to access the Administrator DOS Prompt. The defrag can not be performed from the non-administrative DOS prompt. At the prompt, type "Defrag" and press "Enter" on your keyboard.
Step 5
Use shorter Ethernet and telephone cables for your laptop's Internet connection whenever possible. Longer cables requires the data to travel a longer distance than with their shorter counterparts.
Step 6
Clean up your laptop's Registry to remove all files that are no longer in use or taking away from the performance. One of the popular software programs that you can use to easily clean up your registry is "RegCure."
Video of the Day