What there is to know
- 5 tips: Clean your hard drive, uninstall programs you don’t need, minimize startup programs, scan for malware and/or reset Windows.
- You don’t have to replace this laptop; A little maintenance can help improve performance.
This article explains how to speed up your Windows 10 laptop and restore the performance it had when it was new instead of replacing it with a new computer.
Clean up your hard drive
You should start by deleting nonessential data and cached files from your hard drive, as this is the easiest and least painful way to restore performance. Over time, your hard drive fills up with temporary files that can slow down your computer’s ability to access the hard drive.
In the search field to the right of the To start Type cleaning and then click disk cleaning when you see it in the search results.
In which disk cleaning of the dialog box, make sure that the C is selected and click OK.
Check all the boxes and click OK.
Uninstall unnecessary programs
After you’ve cleaned up your hard drive, the next step is to remove the programs you don’t need. Installed programs not only take up valuable space on your hard drive, they can often run background processes that slow things down.
If you don’t know what a program does, check the website to see if you still need it. As a general rule, if you don’t know what a program does, you don’t need it and you can remove it, since Windows doesn’t allow you to uninstall programs that are essential to Windows itself.
Click the button To start and then click the button settings (in the form of a gear).
In the search box of the settings window, type “uninstall” and then click Add or remove programs when you see it in the search results.
Scroll down the list of programs at the bottom of the window. If you see a program you don’t need, click and select it uninstall. Then follow the program removal instructions if necessary. Usually the app will uninstall itself.
When the uninstallation is complete, Windows may ask for permission to restart. If so, choose to do it later.
Return to the programs list and continue uninstalling additional programs that you no longer need.
When finished, restart your laptop.
Minimize startup programs
Many programs run automatically when you start your laptop and then run in the background. While this can be handy and help some programs run more efficiently, it also slows down your laptop in general. Because of this, you should reduce the number of apps running at startup.
Right-click an empty spot on the taskbar and click task manager in the context menu.
In Task Manager, click the button tarnishing Tab. This tab lists all the programs that run automatically at startup, and you probably have quite a few of them.
You can sort these programs by their impact on your computer’s startup speed by clicking start-up effect. This should order them from top to bottom.
If you don’t know what a program does, right-click and select it online research. Windows will open a web browser and show you the results of this application. In general, it should be easy to see how important it is to have this program running at startup and what the implications of disabling it will be.
Right-click each program that doesn’t need to run at startup and select Deactivate.
malware scan
Although unlikely, it is possible that your laptop is infected with some form of malware that is slowing down your computer. Check for malware to be on the safe side.
Click on To start and then click settings.
In which settings click on update and security.
In the navigation pane on the left, click Windows security. You should see the security status of your laptop.
Click on Protection against viruses and threats and click Fast scan. Run the scanner. If your computer detects threats, follow the instructions to deal with them.
reset window
Sometimes a laptop’s Windows installation is just too corrupt or cluttered with digital junk for any of the above solutions to fix the problem. There is one last option: you can start fresh with a clean installation of Windows. This is always the last resort as it takes time and involves little risk.
It’s a good idea to have a reliable backup of your data in case something goes wrong.
Windows is designed so that you can restore your Windows installation to factory settings without damaging or deleting your personal data. Note, however, that in this case Windows will remove third-party programs that you will have to reinstall yourself.
Click on To start and then click settings.
In the search box at the top of the settings window, type reset. Click on Reset this PC when you see it in the search results.
In which Reset this PC click on To start.
Click on keep my records and follow the prompts to reset Windows. The process may take a while, but when you’re done, your computer should run like it’s brand new.