We all know that Windows PCs slow down over time, and while some of it has to do with aging hardware, how you’ve treated your PC over the past years has also played a big part. Since the release of Windows 10, the operating system has gotten better at managing itself, but there are still some steps you can take to boost your PC’s performance and use it for a few more years. So, if your computer is slowing down or crashing from time to time, here are some steps you can take to clean your computer and make it faster:
Clean Up Your Windows PC and Make It Faster
1. Disk Cleanup
Over the course of several months and years, your computer tends to accumulate junk files that not only take up storage space on your system, but also play a huge role in slowing down the overall system. You should do disk cleanups from time to time to make sure your storage is running at its best and there are no junk files taking up unnecessary space on your hard drive.
Fortunately, Windows 10 allows you to easily perform this action with just a few clicks. To start the disk cleanup of your Windows PC, first, right click on any drive in file explorer and then under General tab select “Disk Cleanup”. Doing so will open a window showing the file types this action will target. Normally, the process targets files including system memory dump files, temporary internet files, and cache files among other things. Review the items you want to delete and press the OK button to confirm the cleanup.
2. Stop Installing Unnecessary Startup Programs
If your computer is taking longer than usual to boot up, one of the reasons for this delay could be startup loading programs. These programs are basically software that you knowingly or unknowingly allow to start when your computer boots up. Since all these programs are started at the same time, they put a lot of load on your computer and cause it to load slowly.. To ensure that no unnecessary programs start when your computer boots up, you will need to revoke the launch permission granted to these programs.
To do this, first use the Ctrl+Shift+Esc key combination to launch the Task Manager utility. Here, click on the Startup tab, where you will find the list of apps that are allowed to start on startup. Here, disable the programs you don’t want to start at startup. On Windows 10 devices, you can also go to Settings -> Apps -> Startup and disable apps from there.. If you find any program that you are not sure about, it is better to leave it as is, as it may block the startup process.
3. Uninstall Unwanted Apps
This step is basically common sense, but I’m still amazed at the number of people who keep dozens of apps installed even though they know they’ll never use them. Not only do these apps take up space on your computer, they may also be consuming all the RAM and processing power in the background. For this reason It’s good practice to check for and remove unwanted apps once in a while.. If you still don’t know how to uninstall apps in Windows 10, open Settings and click on Apps. Here, click on the application you want to uninstall and then click on the Uninstall button.
4. Disable Background Apps
Another thing you should do to make your computer feel faster is to disable background apps. Most of the time we don’t know how many apps are running in the background and consuming our system resources. Background apps are one of the biggest culprits behind the slowness of our computers. Go to Settings -> Privacy to find out the list of apps running in the background and disabling them.Tap and scroll down to find Background apps. Click on it and then disable any apps you don’t want to consume resources.
5. Diagnose Issues and Perform System Maintenance
While all of the above steps can be performed by any regular user, this step requires some technical knowledge of the Windows operating system. Even then, I normally do not recommend users to perform system maintenance on their own. because there are millions of things that can go wrong at any moment. Personally, I trust Windows’ problem diagnosis and maintenance processes with a proven third-party application that can perform these actions with just the click of a button. and my favorite tool to do itto Auslogics BoostSpeed.
The application performs a complete check of your entire system to find junk files, speed throttling issues and the causes of any system or application malfunctions or crashes. Once these issues are found, simply click the Resolve All button to fix the issues. One of the best things about this app is that you can automate the maintenance of your operating system.. Basically, you can schedule automatic maintenance that detects and eliminates problems in real time. This feature makes me forget to manually check the status of things like junk files, system issues, app error and more while BoostSpeed takes care of it automatically for me.
Not only that, if you buy the full version of the app, you can perform most of the other actions mentioned in this list using the app itself. So, even if you want manage startup items, defrag your disk, clean windows registry or do any task Potentially increasing the speed of your PC, Boostspeed can do it in seconds. Basically, it’s the only app you need to keep your computer in the best possible condition. While the app costs $59.95, it has a free version that you can install by clicking the link below. If you decide to buy this app, Use our link to get 30% off the price.
6. Defragment Your Hard Drive
If your computer uses a solid state drive, also known as an SSD, you don’t need to perform this task, but if it uses a spinning hard drive, you’ll need to defragment it from time to time to make it faster. The reason behind this is pretty simple. Over time, files on your hard drive become fragmented and your computer slows down because it has to check multiple places on your drive for these pieces. What defragmentation does is rewrite all files sequentially so it’s easier and faster for your hard drives to access these files.
Now that you know what merging means, let’s see how we can do it. Firstly, open the disk optimization tool by searching for the term “defragmentation” in the start menu. Now, click to select the drive you want to defragment and click the Analyze button. Now, your computer will do its job and output a result that will show you the percentage of fragmented files on your system. While there is no hard and fast rule for defragmentation, as a general rule you should definitely defragment your hard drive when that number rises above 5%.
7. Change the Power Setting to High Performance
By default, every Windows computer runs in “Balanced” power mode; this basically means that the Windows operating system manages performance and battery life. However, if you feel that your computer is slowing down and you are willing to sacrifice a bit of battery life to improve performance, you should change the power setting from Balance to High Performance. To do this, Go to Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound-> Power Options -> Create a Power Plan and then select High Performance setting and build. While your computer’s battery life will suffer a bit, you’ll get the best performance out of it.
SEE ALSO: 10 Best Game Recording Software for Windows
Boost Your PC with These Performance Tips
If you follow all the steps mentioned above, you will see a significant increase in the performance of your PC. I use these steps to speed up my friends’ and family’s computers and each time I see a nice increase in both boot and usage speeds of the PC. Just try them and you will be amazed at the results. Also, let us know how fast your computer is by writing in the comments section below.
