If you want to see the best tips and tricks to speed up your Windows laptop in one place, then you’ll LOVE this (updated) guide.
We personally tested, reviewed and updated these tips for Windows. Both free and paid.
Why is my Laptop so slow?
Your OS has to manage the resources of your computer (memory, drive space, processing power) between all the programs that are running on it. There’s a number of things that may be reducing your computer’s performance, but most of the time, they usually boil down to your laptop resources being used inefficiently.
Here are some of the things that slow down your computer:
- Running out of RAM (Random Access Memory)
- Old or fragmented hard drive
- Too many background programs
- Running out of disk drive space (HDD or SSD)
- Malware or viruses
- Too many startup programs
- Falling behind on Windows or driver updates
- Special effects and visual features
If your laptop is running slow, read on for ways to fix each of these issues.
How to speed up your slow Windows 10 laptop ( 2023 Update)
Add An SSD For Faster Boot Up
Adding a secondary SSD – or replacing the hard disk drive – is a sure fire way to get faster boot time and quicker data access. Most laptops have an M.2 or SATA slot.
Check which kind you have before buying an SSD, as the two are not directly compatible. The steps for installing an SSD vary by model. With some laptops you remove a single screw to access an M.2 slot. In others, you remove up to 10 screws and fully pop off the bottom half of the chassis.
A run down on specific procedures can be found here.
Check the warranty information first! You may void the warranty when opening the case and replacing factory parts – even if there is an open slot available for upgrades.
Upgrade Your RAM For Better Performance
Upgrading the physical memory is one of the most cost efficient ways to improve overall laptop performance. More RAM means better speed when running multiple tabs or programs.
RAM access points vary by model, and may require removing a single screw or completely disassembling the laptop. Check out a full video run down on the process
Before buying new RAM, verify the maximum amount your laptop’s motherboard can handle.
Be sure to also check the manual to find out the current RAM configuration. If you have a single 8GB stick for instance, you can double your RAM to 16GB by adding a secondary 8GB module.
Uninstall Unused Apps
Removing old, unused apps frees up disk drive space to make room for new programs. If any of those apps run in the background or automatically start during the Windows boot up process, you will notice a speed bump after they are deleted.
To remove old programs you don’t need, type “add or remove” in the Windows search bar and click the “Add Or Remove Programs System Settings” icon. Click the name of any program you no longer use and then select “Uninstall.” From there, just follow the prompts to remove that program from your laptop.
Clean Your Laptop And Keep It Dust Free
You wouldn’t think something as simple as dust might slow down your computer, but dust impedes airflow and keeps your laptop from cooling properly. Overheating can then directly impact overall laptop performance.
Particularly in gaming rigs where heat management becomes an issue, keeping your laptop dust free is critical to maintaining acceptable overall speeds. Using canned air is a simple and cheap way to clean dust from all the ports and openings on your laptop. Check out a full video guide on how to clean your notebook.
Update Your Drivers
Drivers act as a buffer between your laptop’s hardware and the operating system. If your drivers are out of date, you may experiencing major slow downs. This is particularly true for gaming, but can also affect standard home or office tasks as well.
To update drives, type “Device Manager” into the Windows search box and click the top icon. Click the arrow next to any category, such as Display Adapters, and then right-click an individual piece of hardware and choose “Update Driver” to start the process. Note that some peripherals may have their own software specifically for upgrading drivers. Check your taskbar to find programs like the GeForce Experience or Logitech Gaming Mouse panels for updating drivers.
Defrag Your Hard Disk Drive
If your laptop uses an HDD, data can become fragmented across the drive and take longer to be accessed by the operating system. To keep your data speeds up, you should periodically defragment your hard disk drive.
You can start the process by typing “Defrag” into the Windows search bar and clicking the “Defragment And Optimize Drives” icon. Click your hard drive and choose “Optimize” to manually start a defragment procedure. You can also schedule more frequent automatic defrags in this same screen by clicking “Change Settings” and selecting a shorter time period. Note that defragmenting typically isn’t necessary for solid state drives, which arrange data different than traditional hard disk drives.
Switch To The Linux OS
Windows 10 may be the most prevalent operating system in the world, but it isn’t the fastest. Free operating systems like Linux are better optimized and feature less bloatware. Completely changing from Windows to Linux is a drastic move, but if you aren’t a gamer and only use word processing tools or watch Netflix, there isn’t much downside. Not only will you get faster speeds, but your laptop will be exposed to far less malware and virus activity.
Mint Cinnamon and Ubuntu are two of the most popular Linux versions available right now. A full guide on creating a Linux boot drive to install the operating system can be found here.
Perfrom A Fresh OS Install
More drastic than simply uninstalling old unused apps, performing a clean install of Windows is a last resort scenario. Unfortunately, it is a necessary process to perform periodically, especially when a laptop gets bogged down with malware or has extensive registry changes.
A clean install virtually guarantees faster boot up and better overall speeds while using any programs, but it has a major downside. You lose all your data and start over from scratch! The Windows 10 reinstall tool, and a full breakdown on how to complete the clean installation process, can be found at Microsoft’s website here.
Uninstall Bloatware From Your Laptop's Hard Drive
To keep profit margins up, laptop manufacturers allow companies to install unnecessary programs – known as bloatware – on budget computers. Bloatware eats up memory while running in the background, and these programs are frequently set to automatically load on startup.
To manually uninstall bloatware, open the Control Panel in the Start menu and click “Uninstall a Program.” From there, any app can be easily uninstalled. If you want to get rid of large amounts of bloatware in a single go, programs like PC Decrapifier and Revo Uninstaller can make the process simpler. Want a laptop that starts fresh with absolutely no bloatware? Look for any modeled labeled a “signature edition.” They cost more, but have no bloatware out of the box.
Clean Up Your Laptop's Hard Disk
Over time, your laptop’s hard drive becomes cluttered with unused files and apps. In particular, temporary files created by various programs can clog the hard drive and result in significant speed loss.
Manually uninstalling old programs or bloatware won’t remove these temporary files. To clean them all out in one swoop, type “Disk Cleanup” in the Windows search box and click the icon at the top of the results. For maximum cleaning, click the check box next to each entry and then select “OK” to automatically clear out temporary files, downloaded web pages, unused thumbnails, and so on.
Restart Your Laptop Regularly
It doesn’t take long for an operating system like Windows 10 to get clogged with dozens of processes running simultaneously. The more programs are running in the background, the more memory is used, until eventually you will notice serious reductions in overall speed.
There’s a quick fix for this problem – just simply restart your laptop on a regular basis! Microsoft recommends once a week, but once a day is more helpful. Regularly restarting the OS shuts down any processes running in the background. Make sure to see our tip on stopping programs from running on startup to get even faster speeds.
Repair Your Laptop's System Files
Windows requires a host of different files and settings to work together in harmony to work correctly. If you notice programs frequently crashing or major bouts of lag while performing everyday tasks, then corrupted system files may be the culprit.
To fix these files automatically, type “Powershell” in the search box and then right-click the top result and choose “Run As Administrator.” From there, click “Yes” to open a dialog box. Type the phrase “sfc /scannow” (without the quotation marks) and hit Enter to automatically scan for corrupted files. Follow the prompts to replace any damaged files causing slow downs.
Transfer Your Data To The Cloud
Whether you are using an HDD or an SSD, filling your drive to the point of reaching capacity will result in significantly reduced performance. When a drive is nearly full, it takes longer to write data, which means slower speeds accessing your files or saving new files.
To counteract this problem, we recommend transferring data to a cloud-based backup service. Windows 10 automatically includes Microsoft’s OneDrive, program which lets you store 5GB of data for free.
If that isn’t enough space, other free online storage tools like Google Drive or DropBox can offer additional storage capacity, or you can buy much larger cloud backup through services such as iDrive 8.
Check For Replacement Parts Covered By The Warranty
When you are consistently experiencing crashes and slow downs, there may be faulty hardware to blame.
Laptop warranties can vary widely, however. Some will be as short as 90 days, while others will go out to 3 years! While repairing a laptop is often so expensive it isn’t worth the effort, your machine may still be under warranty and have replacement parts up for grabs.
To check on your warranty (or see if any part have been recalled), head to the website for your laptop’s manufacturer. Navigate to the “Warranty & Services” section of the site to enter your serial number and find out if you are covered for replacement parts.
Use Microsoft Fix It Tool To Troubleshoot Problems
Previously, Microsoft offered the Fix It tool (later renamed to Easy Fix) for finding and quickly resolving specific problems.Unfortunately, both the Microsoft Fix It and Microsoft Easy Fix tools are no longer supported or offered for download.
There is another option that replaces these programs however, and its built right into Windows 10. Open the Start menu and click the gear icon to access the Settings menu, then select the Update & Security option.
Type “Troubleshoot” in the “Find A Setting” search box, and from there just click any option to troubleshoot performance problems, such as Windows Update or Hardware & Devices.
Clean Up The Windows Registry
One area of the Windows operating system that isn’t well understood by users is the registry, which stores information and settings on various programs and drivers. The registry can become cluttered or corrupted over time, which is where a host of registry cleanup programs come into play.
Note that speed gains are typically minimal after running a registry cleaner, unless you have a particularly bloated and messy registry due to frequently installing / uninstalling freeware or moving around files.
If you want to give a registry cleaner a shot, plenty of options are available such as RegSeeker or Registry First Aid. Be sure to to back up your registry before using any registry cleaning software, however!
Use The Performance Troubleshooter
Previous versions of Windows included a tool called the Performance Troubleshooter that sought out problems affecting speed or causing crashes. That tool has been split into two areas with Windows 10.
To troubleshoot specific problems with printers, keyboards, or power settings, just type “Troubleshoot” into the search bar and click the icon. From there, follow the prompts.
To run the Windows 10 version of the Performance Troubleshooter, instead access the Control Panel and then click System & Security. Click the Security & Maintenance link at the top and then click Start Maintenance underneath the Maintenance tab.
Disable Superfetch
Superfetch is a Windows process that is meant to help you load your most frequently used programs slightly faster. Unfortunately, it can bog down overall speeds since it loads so much data into memory.
Superfetch in particular should be turned off if you are using an SSD, as it can wear down your drive much faster with constant data writing processes.
To turn off Superfetch, type “services.msc” into the Search box and click the icon. Scroll through the alphabetical list and double-click Superfetch. Click the Stop button to turn the service off, then change the startup type drop-down box to Disabled to prevent it from turning back on.
Disable Prefetch
Prefetch is a companion process to Superfetch, and is also meant to help programs load faster if you use the same apps constantly. As with Superfetch, it can actually slow down speeds over time as too much data is stored.
To turn off Prefetch, you will need to change a registry value. Type “regedit” into the Search box and click the icon, then choose Yes. Open the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder and then navigate to the file path “SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters.”
Double-click the Enable Prefetcher option and change the Value Data field to “0,” then hit OK. Do the same thing for the Enable Superfetch option, and then restart your computer.
Disable Cortana
Cortana monitors your habits and saves search settings to offer more relevant results. An unfortunate side effect (besides privacy concerns) is that Cortana can cause serious slow downs in overall speed.
Turning off Cortana completely requires changing the registry. We recommend backing up your registry before turning off Cortana.
To get started, type “regedit” in the Search box and click the Icon, then choose Yes. Navigate to the registry file path “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows.”
Right-click the Windows entry and select New and then DWORD (32Bit Value). Type the phrase “AllowCortana” and hit Enter to make the new value. Double-click the new AllowCortana entry then enter “0” in the ValueData field and click OK. Restart your laptop to complete the process.
Go Opaque
The transparency effects that come standard with Windows 10 sure look cool, but they also hog resources. If you have a slower processor or less RAM, its worth going opaque and turning transparency off for a slight speed boost.
To switch from transparent to opaque, open the Start menu and click the gear icon. Click Rationalization and then select the Colors tab at the left side of the menu. From there, scroll down to the More Option heading and toggle off the option labeled Transparency Effect. You may need to restart your laptop for the change to fully take effect.
Turn Off Windows 10 Tips
Since its aimed at the largest possible user base, Windows 10 wants to be helpful to new users who don’t understand basic tasks. That’s why it often pops up tips with information you probably already know.
To offer tips that are helpful, Windows scans your hard drive for past behavior, which does take up memory and CPU cycles. Turning off this feature can give you a slight speed bump and is commonly referred to as “no tipping”
If you want to turn off tips, open the Start menu and click the gear icon. Click System and navigate to the Notifications & Actions tab at the left side. Toggle off the blue button labeled Get Tips, Tricks And Suggestions.
Turn Off Visual Effects
Much like the Start menu transparency option, Windows 10 offers a host of interesting visual effects that look cool, but can be a drain on system resources. If you prefer performance over all other considerations, it isn’t hard to turn off all the Windows visual effects at once.
To get started, type “advanced” in the Search box and click the View Advanced System Settings icon. Navigate to the Advanced tab and click the Setting button beneath the Performance heading. Click the radio button labeled Adjust For Best Performance (or de-select the check marks manually next to each visual effect you want to turn off) and click OK.
Change Windows 10 Privacy Settings
By default, Windows collects an absurd amount of data to provide targeted advertising and suggest content in your searches. Not only are there serious privacy concerns with that policy, but these data collection processes take up memory since they are constantly running in the background.
Ideally you would de-select all the relevant privacy options when setting up Windows for the first time. Since you probably don’t want to perform a clean install, you can turn off some of these settings anytime.
Open the Start menu and click the Gear icon, then click Privacy. Under the General heading, deselect all four blue buttons to enhance your privacy and stop data collection.
Stop Programs From Running On Startup
When Windows gets cluttered with dozens of programs launching at startup, you will notice major reductions in overall speed and performance. Many times, you may not even be aware a program decided to turn on the auto-startup feature.
To see what programs are clogging up your boot sequence, open the Start menu and click the gear icon. Click the Apps option and then select the Startup tab at the bottom-left side. Scroll through the list and toggle any program to Off that you don’t want to automatically launch on startup. Turning off several programs listed as High Impact will give you a noticeable speed boost.
Start Your Laptop In Safe Mode
Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart. After the restart process begins, tap F4 to boot in Safe Mode.\n\nTeam Macbook\nIf Safe Mode sounds scary for you and you have never used it, you have nothing to worry about. Using Safe Mode on your Mac can help you troubleshoot some of the problems including apps, stalled start-up, or a slow running system.\n\nStarting your Mac in a Safe Mode will clear the memory cache and therefore it could speed up the things.\n\nTo boot your Mac into Safe Mode, turn off your Mac. Turn it on again, and as soon as you see the white screen, press and hold the Shift key.\n\nWhen you see the Apple logo, you can release the Shift key and your Mac will take you into Safe Mode.”}” data-sheets-userformat=”{“2″:8448,”11″:3,”16″:8}” data-sheets-ischild=””>Team Windows
When you experience long boot times and major lag running basic applications, starting in Safe Mode is an excellent way to troubleshoot problems. Safe Mode boots your laptop in a very basic state with an extremely limited number of programs and drivers.
If Safe Mode runs faster than normal operation, that’s an indicator you need to uninstall programs, update drivers, or run an anti-malware tool.
To boot in Safe Mode, open the Start menu and click the gear icon. Select Update & Security and then click the Recovery tab on the left side. Click the Restart Now button underneath the Advanced Startup heading.
On the Choose An Option screen, navigate to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart. After the restart process begins, tap F4 to boot in Safe Mode.
Delay Windows Services That Run At Startup
Besides the actual apps you’ve installed that may load at boot up, Windows features several services that automatically load and run in the background. Delaying these services from loading immediately can give you a speed boost, especially if you have a slower processor or a small amount of RAM.
To get started, type “Services” in the Search box and click the top icon. Double-click any service that is listed as Automatic (rather than Manual or Disabled). Open the Startup Type drop down box and choose the option labeled Automatic (Delayed Start). Repeat the process for any other services you want, then click OK and restart your laptop.
By default, your laptop is set to wait to see if you plan to boot an alternate operating system. This is really only helpful if you use a dual boot system and frequently switch between two different operating systems.
If you almost exclusively use one OS, you may want to reduce the wait time to get faster boot speeds. To change the boot menu timeout setting, type “systempropertiesadvanced” (all as one word) in the Search box and click the icon.
On the Advanced tab, click the Settings button beneath the Startut And Recovery Heading. Change the Time To Display List Of Operating systems setting to however many seconds you want, then click OK.
Remove Unnecessary Fonts
Besides the dozens of fonts Windows comes with on every new laptop, there are thousands of fonts available to download on the web.
While having a huge font collection can be helpful, it can also cause speed reductions when first booting up or when loading image editing or word processing programs that have to access all those fonts.
To cull down unnecessary fonts you never use, simply type “fonts” in the Search box and click the Font Preview And Settings icon. Click the name of any font you want to remove, then choose Uninstall. Repeat the process as necessary for any other fonts you no longer need.
Turn On The Fast Startup Feature
Power Options > Choose What The Power Buttons Do (located on the left hand side).\r\n\r\nUnder the Shutdown Settings heading, check the box labeled Turn On Fast Startup. From that point forward, Windows will save a kernel of your current session so it can boot back up faster when you turn the laptop back on.”}” data-sheets-userformat=”{“2″:8448,”11″:3,”16″:8}” data-sheets-ischild=””>You might be surprised to learn Windows actually has a setting specifically for increasing boot up speed. All you have to do is find it and toggle it on!
To turn on fast startup, open the Control Panel, and then navigate to Hardware And Sound > Power Options > Choose What The Power Buttons Do (located on the left hand side).
Under the Shutdown Settings heading, check the box labeled Turn On Fast Startup. From that point forward, Windows will save a kernel of your current session so it can boot back up faster when you turn the laptop back on.
Change The Size Of Virtual Memory
Installing additional RAM is generally your best speed solution, as physical memory such as RAM works much more efficiently than virtual memory. If you frequently run into lag when running certain programs however, you can try increasing the default amount of virtual memory Windows uses.
Type “System” in the Search box and click the View Advanced System Settings icon. On the Advanced tab, click Settings beneath the Performance heading. On the new window, navigate to Advanced
and then click Change beneath the Virtual Memory heading.
Remove the check box from the Automatically Manage setting, and you can know change the virtual memory size to anything you want.
Change Your Laptop's Current Power Plan
Your laptop has probably defaulted to a balanced power plan, which exchanges some performance in order to get a longer battery life. If you prefer speed over battery life and don’t mind plugging in more often, you can switch the power plan so your laptop performs better.
To change this setting type “Sleep” in the Search box and click the Power & Sleep Settings icon. Scroll down to Related Settings and click the Additional Power Settings link. Click the Show Additional Plans arrow, then toggle on the High Performance power plan. Restart your laptop and you should notice immediate speed improvements!
Close System Tray Programs
Not all programs that are running will show up directly on the Start bar. Some are instead hidden in the System Tray area, and they may be eating up memory without you even knowing!
To see what programs are on the System Tray notification area, just click the Up Arrow icon at the far right side of the Start bar.
If you don’t want programs to be hidden here by default, right-click the Start bar and click Taskbar Settings. Scroll down to the Notification Area heading and click and click Select Which Icons Appear On The Taskbar. From there, toggle off any of the apps that you don’t want to be hidden in the System Tray.
Install The Latest DirectX Version
DirectX consists of a series of interfaces that work between hardware and software to render graphics, stream video, or produce audio. If you are using an outdated version of DirectX, you may notice performance problems when trying to play games or stream YouTube clips.
To see if you are using an older version of DirectX, simply type “dxdiag” in the Search box and click the icon. The bottom of the System tab will list your current version.
If you have a version older than DirectX 12, type “update” in the Search box and click the Check For Updates icon. Click the Check Updates button at the top and a new version of DirectX will automatically download.
Employ Game Mode
If you struggle with frame rates while gaming due to low RAM or an older processor, the Windows 10 Game Mode feature can provide a faster, smoother experience.
This mode must be activated for each individual game that you play. When you have a game open, tap the Windows icon and the G key to bring up the Game Mode bar. Click Yes and then tap the gear icon on the bottom of the bar.
Make sure the box labeled Remember This Is A Game is checked, and from that point on Windows will give you enhanced performance with that program.
Close Background Apps
When gaming, especially with games that are always online, Windows background apps can be a big drain on system resources. By default, Windows 10 allows certain apps to always be online and always download updates – even if you haven’t turned them on lately!
To disable these apps, open the Start menu and click the gear icon, then choose Privacy. Scroll down the list of options on the left side and click Background Apps. Toggle off the option labeled Let Apps Run In The Background to turn them all off at once, or instead toggle individual programs in the list of apps.
Adjust Texture And Shader Settings
Running high quality textures and using advanced shader settings for cool effects will bog down your graphics card quickly. Unless you are running a very high end machine, you may want to turn down these settings to get better frame rates and more speed while gaming.
For AMD users, you can change these settings by right-clicking the desktop, clicking Radeon Settings, and navigating to the Gaming tab. Either select a specific game you want to modify, or choose Global Settings.
Click Texture Filtering Quality and choose Performance, then click Shader Cache and select AMD optimized to get the best speed.
Change the WaitToKillService Timeout Value For Faster Shut Down
By default, Windows 10 waits for programs to shut down on their own before automatically killing them during the shut down process. If you want them to close faster, you need to change a registry entry.
Type “regedit” into the Search box and click the icon, then navigate to the path HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Right-click the Desktop folder and select New and then String. Set the name of the new String as “WaitToKillAppTimeout.”
Double-click the new string entry and set the value data to however many milliseconds you want Windows to wait before closing programs on shutdown, such as 5000 for 5 seconds or 2000 for 2 seconds.
Modify the ClearPageFileAShutdown Regisry Value
Windows utilizes a feature called a page file that stores data in virtual memory when the computer is turned off. Some laptops are set by default to clear out this page file at shutdown, which makes the process much slower.
If you want faster shut downs, you should turn this feature off so the page file isn’t purged every time you turn off your laptop. To make the change, type “regedit” in the Search box and click the icon.
Navigate to the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management and double-click the entry on the right side labeled ClearPageFileAtShutdown. Change the ValueData field to 0, then click OK and restart your laptop.
Check Shut Down Events In Event Viewer
If you experience constant sluggish performance and frequent crashes, there may be specific hardware or software issues to blame. To see what’s happening, advanced users can look through the list of shut down events in the Event Viewer.
Type “event” in the Search box and click the Event Viewer icon. In the panel on the left side, open Windows Logs and then click System. In the panel on the far right side, click Filter Current Log.
Underneath the Includes/Excludes Events heading, type the phrase “1074, 6006, 6008” and click OK to filter only the shut down events. In the middle panel, scroll through the list of events and look for anything marked as Error to find info on unexpected shutdown causes.
Overclock Your Laptop's GPU
Overclocking provides even more power out of your graphics card, but the specific steps vary between manufacturers. AMD for instance has built-in overclocking available by downloading AMD’s Overdrive tool.
After installing the tool, click the option to enable Overdrive and then increase the power control settings and GPU frequency with the slider. Make sure to test games and tweak as necessary so you don’t get any crashes.
The new RTX line of NVIDIA cards will come standard with a Scanner program to automatically overclock with 1 click. For now though, its quite an involved process for NVIDIA cards. Check out a full rundown on the tools you’ll need and list of settings to tweak over here.
Cool Down Your Laptop Physically
Computer components generate heat while they operate, which is why your laptop has a heat sink, cooling fan, and exhaust ports. Some notebook computers are better designed than others however, and many of them are prone to overheating.
This tends to be more of an issue for gaming rigs, but any laptop is susceptible to overheating. If your computer isn’t properly ventilating heat, you will suffer on the performance front and notice slow speeds and frequent crashes.
If your laptop gets very hot frequently, try buying a cooling pad with extra fans to keep the temperature down to an acceptable level.
Install the NeverWare OS
For some aging laptops, there isn’t much that can be done to increase speeds without drastically upgrading the hardware. If you aren’t willing to go that route and just want better performance while browsing the web, you may want to try switching from Windows to the NeverWare CloudReady OS.
Essentially, CloudReady strips out Windows and gives you a sleeker operating system much like Chrome OS. Best of all? It’s free for personal use.
If your old laptop no longer runs Windows well and you don’t need all the extra bloat of a full operating system, you can download NeverWare and find the install instructions over here.
Use a Patented Method Such As Sleep Mode To Speed Up Your Laptop
While you can manually find and turn off services that open at startup or run secretly n the background with our other tips, you may want to make things easy on yourself and get a program that does all that for you.
Tools such as AVG’s PC TuneUp provide an option to turn on Sleep Mode, which lets you quickly disable programs eating up resources in the background. By using a method such as Sleep Mode, you don’t need to actually uninstall anything, and those programs will remain available if you want them back on later.
Tweak Your BIOS Settings
Your laptop uses a tool known as the BIOS to issue commands while the operating system is first booting up. The BIOS is often used for overclocking components, but it can also be utilized to speed up the entire boot process.
By default, your laptop checks a variety of different components to find the OS in case you’ve inserted a re-install disc or are trying to boot from a USB drive. If you don’t ever do those things, you can get faster boot speeds by setting your hard drive as the first boot device and then deactivating all other devices.
The specific steps for accessing and modifying the BIOS vary radically between laptop models. Check out a rundown on the process over here.
Run Regular Malware Scans
Just simply browsing the web these days can lead to reduced performance as your laptop gets bogged down with tracking software, viruses, and other kinds of malware.
Running a regular malware or anti-virus scan is critical to keeping your laptop running at peak efficiency. These scans locate and remove known sources of malicious software that tweak your operating system’s settings.
For Windows users, free programs are readily available such as Spybot Search And Destroy or Malware Bytes.
Use Lighter Alternate Programs That Run Faster
No matter what kind of hardware your laptop sports, you may still notice sluggish performance if you are using software that eats up all the resources. Rather than upgrading RAM or tweaking settings, you can just simply try using alternate programs that achieve the same results but use less memory.
For Windows users, a variety of free programs are available that are less resource-hungry than their standard counterparts. For instance, you could use GIMP or Pixlr rather than Photoshop for image editing. If Adobe Acrobat always runs slowly, you could open PDFs with Sumatra instead. Web-based programs like Google Docs or Word Online can also offer a smoother experience for making word documents.
Run With The Default Theme
While the various apps you use generally take up the majority of your laptop’s memory, simple elements such as your operating system’s background theme can also use up resources. To get the best performance on older machines, you should go back to the default theme and turn off any extra bells and whistles.
In Windows 10, right-click your desktop and select Personalize, then click Themes. From there, you can turn off background slideshows and disable extra features like start bar or file folder transparency effects.
Overclock Your CPU
Overclocking is a method of manually tweaking hardware settings to get increased performance, but usually at the cost of extra heat or reduced stability. While overclocking used to be a very complicated task, now processor manufacturers actually release their own tools for helping user overclock very easily.
You can download the Extreme Tuning Utility and find instructions on overclocking Intel processors over here, or grab the OverDrive tool and find info on overlcocking AMD processors at this location.
Boost Windows 10 performance
Well, that’s about it.
This list is just a few random tips that may help you get your slow Window laptops to run a little faster.
Yeah, most of the techniques on this list are obvious, but hopefully, a few weren’t and you learned something new (I hope) that you can apply to your computer and speed it (even just by a little- that’s worth the read)!