A slow-running computer does not necessarily mean the end of its life. Before investing in a new machine, you can always try to give your PC a boost by performing a few manipulations accessible to all.
Is your PC, which is a few years old, starting to show some signs of weakness? If you haven’t maintained it, to a minimum, over the years Windows can suffer from some sluggishness and other hiccups.
And while the more radical will start a complete reinstallation of the operating system, users uncomfortable with such manipulation can still try some of the following tips to try to improve things.
1. Make the dust
If your PC tends to heat up a bit too much and the fan turns on unexpectedly, there is a good chance that your dust, accumulated over the years, is the culprit.
Remove the cover from your PC and using a canister of dry air, blow to remove all the dust from the fan and the hot air exhaust grilles from your PC. A clean computer under the hood will dissipate the heat emitted by the processor much better, which will significantly improve performance.
2. Find and remove malware
Another common factor that slows down a computer is the presence of one or more malware in the operating system. To check this, you can run a scan with two different, but complementary software: AdwCleaner and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.
The first is completely free and runs without installation. The second requires installation and offers a free trial version.
Install these two tools on your PC, run a scan and delete the items detected by these two tools. Your computer will likely need to restart after the scans.
Once this cleanup is complete, you can uninstall Malwarebytes Anti-Malware so that it does not run without your knowledge in the background. Do not hesitate to run again, from time to time, a scan with these tools to verify that a malicious program is not present on your machine.
• Download AdwCleaner for Windows (Free)
• Download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free for Windows (Free)
3. Uninstall unnecessary programs
Over time, you may have installed software when you needed it without necessarily thinking about uninstalling it “as soon as” you need it later.
These unused programs not only clog up your hard drive, but can also take up some of your computer’s resources if they are running in the background. So better go through the ones you really need, and uninstall the others.
To do this, click on the Start menu, and go to Windows Settings. Then click on Applications, then in the Applications and Features section, select a program that you no longer need and click Uninstall to remove it from your machine.
Repeat the operation as many times as necessary to remove any software that you are not using, or no longer.
If you want, you can go even further by removing software that’s preinstalled on Windows 10 and which you never use.
To read: How to remove preinstalled software on Windows 10
The handling is not very complicated and will allow you to get rid of a lot of utilities that you probably never used.
4. Limit the applications launched at startup
Do you find that your PC is much slower to start up than when you bought it? You undoubtedly have a lot of software that starts when Windows starts up and which are not necessarily useful in the daily use of your PC: printer utility, chat software, music player, etc. all of these can be opened manually, retrospectively, when you need to use them.
To limit the number of applications that are automatically opened when Windows starts, open Task Manager using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Del and click Task Manager.
Then go to the Startup tab, right click on the programs you do not want to start with Windows and click Disable.
5. Make room on your hard drive
A lack of storage space can sometimes lead to serious slowdowns of Windows. Remember to make sure there is enough space left on your disk by opening, for example, a file explorer window and going to This PC. If you need to free up space, you can clean your storage a bit by using the dedicated utility in Windows 10.
To do this, click on the Start menu, open Settings, and go to the System menu. Then go to the section dedicated to Storage and check that the Storage Assistant is activated.
You can click Configure Storage Assistant or run it now to change your preferences or launch it immediately by clicking Clean Now.
You can also manually review your disk occupancy distribution. By clicking on each item, you will be able to uninstall Applications and Features, choose Temporary Files to delete, etc.
6. Turn off visual effects
If your computer has a somewhat dated configuration, it could be that the different visual effects of Windows 10 are playing a role in slowing down and sluggishness of your PC. It is quite possible to limit or deactivate them.
To do this, open a Run window using the Windows + R keyboard shortcut, type sysdm.cpl and validate.
The System Properties window should then open. Go to the Advanced System Settings tab, then in the Performance section click Settings.
A Performance Options window opens. Select Adjust in order to obtain the best performance and validate by clicking on Apply then on OK.
The various Windows visual effects should then be disabled.
7. Change the power settings
The performance of a laptop computer may vary depending on the type of power supply chosen. On battery, we will generally prefer autonomy, thus reducing the performance of the computer.
On the other hand, on sector, Windows offers three possibilities and will generally choose the best performance. You can check it, when your PC is connected to the mains, by clicking on the battery icon displayed in the taskbar.
Take the opportunity, by the way, to switch to the power supply mode so that your machine has optimal performance.
8. Disable PC indexing
The indexing of the PC can be a factor in slowing down the latter. While it is very convenient for you to quickly find a file in the Windows 10 search bar, its constant running in the background can in some cases slow down the system considerably. It is then possible to deactivate it.
To do this, open a Run window using the Windows + R keyboard shortcut, enter the command services.msc and validate.
In the list of services displayed, find Windows Search and double-click on it.
In the window that appears, in the Startup type line, select Disable and choose to Stop. Then validate by clicking on Apply then on OK.
If you want to reinstate the indexing of files in Windows, you will have to redo this operation in order to reset the values defined in principle by default. You will therefore have to reset the Startup type parameter to Automatic (Delayed start), before clicking Start to reset the service status to Running.
9. Restart your PC
For some it may seem obvious, but if you are one of those who leave their computer running 24 hours a day, it is perfectly normal that after several days your machine is showing signs of fatigue.
So remember to restart it regularly enough to free the memory and end all the processes that are still active in the background, but which you may no longer need on your PC.
10. Switch to SSD
While most recent PCs are equipped with SSDs, older machines often incorporate a mechanical hard drive, which is much slower than flash memory models.
If you have a little time in front of you, invest in an SSD drive on which you will clone the entire hard drive of your PC with dedicated software like Macrium Reflect Free.
Read: Buying Guide: How To Choose The Right SSD For Your Computer
You will then just have to remove the hard drive from the PC to replace it with the SSD containing the created clone. Not only should your machine boot up in record time, but programs should load much faster as well.