When you get a new laptop or PC, it always starts up and responds quickly. But as you install apps, games and fill up the hard drive with music, documents and photos it can slow down and even take minutes to start up. There are many things that can make Windows slow, but you should be able to restore most of its original speed without spending any money at all.
Here are how you can speed up your slow PC
GET RID OF START-UP PROGRAMS
Part of the reason why well-used PCs take so long to start is because of all the applications and utilities you've installed. Many automatically run when Windows starts up, yet most of them don't need to and should only use up resources when you actually need to use them.
At the right side of the taskbar, click the upwards-facing arrow to display the notification icons. Each is a program that loads with Windows. Some are essential - antivirus software for example - but others may not be. Right-click each one and if there is a Settings menu, select it and turn off the option to start automatically with Windows. Some programs, such as Google Drive, can be manually started when they are needed instead of running all the time.
To disable all the other programs and 'helpers' apps which start with Windows, press Windows+R and type msconfig and click Ok. Select the Services tab, tick ‘Hide all Microsoft services' and see what's left. There may be services you can live without and clearing the tick box prevents them from running. For example, Firefox works perfectly well without the Mozilla Maintenance Service.
UPDATE DRIVERS AND APPS
Out of date drivers, programs and Windows itself can cause the computer to run slowly. Faulty drivers for example, stop Windows shutting down or cause it to start more slowly. Video card drivers are often updated to fix bugs and boost performance, and it is always a good idea to check that you have the latest version.
Even if Windows updates are automatic, go to Windows Update in the Control Panel and manually check for updates. Only essential ones are installed automatically and there may be useful optional ones available.
Drivers are programs that enable Windows to access hardware components like the video, sound, printer, scanner, webcam, and so on. Updating them is a pain and you have to identify the hardware, the drivers and version numbers, the hardware manufacturer's website and the download page.
Take a shortcut by using a free tool such as SlimDrivers Free or Driver Booster Free. These do all the work for you and they are like Windows Update for drivers. They identify the current drivers, check if there are updates, and then download and install them for you.
FREE UP DISK SPACE
Your PC's hard disk slows down as it fills up and uninstalling software helps to free up space giving more room for Windows to work faster. Disk space can be freed up in various ways, and we've written a full guide to finding and deleting large and duplicate files.
You can delete files manually, or install a utility (we recommend some in that guide) to do a deeper search and make the job quicker and easier. There's a right way and a wrong way to use these programs, though.
Select just a few items and clean them, making sure the app backs up the changes. If the PC is working OK, go ahead and clean a few more items, but if it isn't, restore the backup. Do not clean everything in one go because if something goes wrong you won't know where the problem is.
Many PCs are overrun with apps, games and other software. Chances are that you no longer use many of these and they can be uninstalled to free up disk space (and improve boot times).
You can go to the Control Panel, open Programs and Features, and then uninstall software you haven't used in the last six months (or longer).
INSTALL FASTER SOFTWARE
Sometimes it's possible to improve performance by installing better software. For example, if you're still using Internet Explorer, try downloading Google Chrome or one of these other best web browsers
Smaller, lightweight programs are often faster than big, full featured applications. Do you really need Word or is WordPad sufficient for your writing tasks? For example Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 requires 3GB of disk space, but LibreOffice uses just a few hundred megabytes and is nearly as good.
You need 4GB of disk space to install Adobe Photoshop Elements, but only 40MB for Paint.NET and 150MB for GIMP (it sounds dodgy, but it's not). They could be all you need for photo editing. Use alternativeto.net to find alternatives to popular software.
The speed at which games run is highly dependent on the screen resolution and special effects used. Some games provide options to select the screen mode and to turn off some effects that tax the processor and video card. This can make a slow game more playable by increasing the frame rate
UPGRADE YOUR HARDWARE
All of the techniques discussed so far for speeding up the PC take you only so far. They restore the original PC's performance, but this may not be sufficient. An old PC might not be capable of running the latest game or other software you want to use. A five year old model will struggle with the latest games, apps and operating system. For this reason, a hardware upgrade may be required and this will boost the PC's performance beyond its original specification and narrow the gap between your current PC and the latest ones.
Many old PCs suffer from too little memory. Consider 4GB the absolute minimum these days if not more, but note that 4GB is the maximum usable by 32-bit versions of Windows, so upgrading to 64-bit is a good idea. Adding RAM is the second thing to do after installing an SSD (which we mentioned right at the start).
Memory suppliers including Crucial have tools on their website that identify what type of RAM you need. It shows the maximum the PC or laptop can take and this is the best upgrade you can perform. Before you purchase any memory though, examine your PC or laptop because some are easy to upgrade, but others are hard. Buying RAM online and installing it yourself is the cheapest option, but if you aren't confident in your DIY skills, local computer shops can do it.
Comments
Post a Comment
ADD ❤ YOUR COMMENTS