I get questions quite often on how an older, or not so much older, computer is slowing down. I can recommend many fixes. The hope is that I will share my top 10 reasons and fixes to help your PC speed back up. Some are free and others are not. They are also listed in alphabetical order, so no priorities on my part.
Have fun learning the way to get it going like the day it came out of the box. You may reach most of these by going to Settings; however, I will show you speedier ways.
- Adjust your power settings. Changing your power settings can help improve your computer’s performance. For example, you can set your computer to sleep when you are not using it to save energy and improve performance. Click on the Windows start button and type, “power sleep” and then click on “Power, Sleep & Battery Settings.”
- Close unused programs. Closing unused programs can free up memory and improve your computer’s performance. To check what is running on your computer, open your computer’s Task Manager. You can access it by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard or right-clicking on an empty portion of your taskbar and choosing, “Task Manager.” Once it is open, you can see, on the Process tab, the programs currently running that you may want to shut down. I use this rarely as I usually shut them down the normal way.
Close unused programs - Defragment your hard drive. Defragmenting your hard drive can help improve the speed of your computer by organizing the files on your hard drive. However, if you have an SSD (Solid-State Drive) you should not run defragmentation on your computer, or it may suggest you do not, see #9 below. But on platter drives, it can help a good bit. To see if you can defragment your drives, open Explorer, right-click on your hard drive and choose, “Properties.” Now you may click on the tab labeled, “Tools” and click one or both of the two settings, to check the drive for system errors or run defragmentation if allowed.
Defragment your hard drive - Disable unnecessary startup programs. This is a biggie since startup programs can slow down your computer when they load up automatically. Most of them are set to start automatically when you install them, and you do not even realize it. Run the “Task Manager” as described above and click on the tab labeled, “Startup apps”. See if you can tell some of them to not start when you start your computer. If you do not know what they do, right-click on their name and then select “Search online” for more information. Disable any unnecessary startup programs to improve your computer’s performance.
Disable Start Menu Items with Task Manager - Restart your computer regularly. Restarting your computer regularly is a simple but effective way to speed up your PC. When you restart your computer, it clears out the memory and closes any programs that may be running in the background. This can help to improve your computer’s performance by freeing up resources and preventing conflicts between programs. It is recommended to “Restart” your computer at least once a week, or more often if you use your computer heavily. By the way, a restart helps you more than shutting your PC down and then restarting. However, I have explained that before.
Next week, we will follow up with five more suggestions for a faster-running computer.
