10 Quick Steps to Increase PC
Performance
We are living in the twenty-first century. The coffee
pot is turned on by your living room speaker, the house is vacuumed by a robot,
and the thermostat knows when you arrive home. When your PC slows down, even in
this marvelous era of automation, you'll need to help it out manually.
Check Your Startup
Programs
When a computer takes a
long time to start up, one of the most common causes is having too many
starting applications. In Windows 10, hit the Windows key, then enter (and
pick) Task Manager to resolve the issue.
Click the
"Startup" tab when the Task Manager appears. All of the programs that
are scheduled to start when Windows starts up are listed here. Take a peek at
the Startup Impact column on the far right. Examine everything with a
"high" or "medium" effect rating to see if it's truly
essential.
Is it really necessary
for Steam to start automatically when you log in to your PC, for example? If
all you do on this computer is play games, the answer is probably yes. The
answer is probably certainly "no" if it's a multi-purpose PC. You
don't want to switch off anything mission-critical, even if it has a
"high" impact, but you should examine everything.
Once you've determined
what will be disabled, pick each item with your mouse one by one and click
Disable in the lower right corner.
Adjust
Your Restart Settings
When your computer restarts automatically due to a system
or software update, Windows 10 attempts to reopen everything that was open on
the desktop before to the shutdown by default. It's a wonderful feature, but it
has the potential to degrade speed, and it's simple to disable.
A red arrow pointing towards a Windows 10 on/off slider
button.
In the lower left of the Start Menu, open the Settings app
(click "Start" and then pick the settings cog). Select Accounts >
Sign-In Options from the Settings app. Then uncheck the box next to "Use
My Sign-In Info To Automatically Finish Setting Up My Device And Reopen My Apps
After An Update Or Restart" under Privacy.
Remove
Bloatware and Superfluous Apps
The issue with startup applications is just part of it.
Even when an app isn't operating, some apps contain minor assistance utilities
that operate in the background. Unless you're acquainted with what they're
doing, you shouldn't turn them off manually. A better strategy is to just
uninstall any software that you seldom or infrequently use, including any
bloatware that was preloaded on your computer.
In the Start menu, right-click any unnecessary Windows 10
Store apps and choose "Uninstall." This approach also works for
conventional desktop programs, although we still suggest using the Control
Panel to remove them.
Check Your Storage Space
For examining and managing your PC's storage, Windows
10 has additional built-in information. To locate it, go back to the Settings
app and go to System > Storage. This area displays an overview of your major
storage utilization, including how much space applications and features take
up, as well as your big files and folders, temporary files, and other items. A
blue bar should appear next to the storage use to indicate how close it is to
being full. You have an issue when the bar goes red, and you must begin
unloading data to other disks (or delete them).
This function may assist you in determining what to
remove (or unload), but there are a few items you should avoid touching. First,
do not remove any of the Microsoft Visual C++ redistributables, even if you
notice a lot of them in the "Apps & features" area. Although it
seems to be redundant, various applications rely on distinct versions.
Also, any files called AMD, Nvidia, or Intel should be
left alone if you notice anything in the "Other" section. You should
also avoid the System & Reserved area.
In general, don't remove or delete anything if you
don't know what it does.
You may also turn on a function called Storage Sense
in this area, which deletes temporary files and other trash when they're no
longer required.
Tweak the Power Plan
Windows 10 has a "balanced" power use
strategy by default, which might stifle performance. When your CPU isn't in
use, the balanced plan reduces its speed and places important components in
their appropriate power-saving modes during low-demand periods.
You can turn things up by going to the Control Panel
and selecting "Power Options" (click "Start" and enter
"Control Panel"). Select "High Performance" from the
"Show Additional Plans" menu on the next screen.
Shut Down OneDrive
If you're not already utilizing OneDrive, this is a
simple approach to save up system resources. Turning off OneDrive under the
Startup tab in Task Manager—if it's there—is the simplest solution. You may
alternatively access the Start menu and right-click "OneDrive" under
the "O" area, then choose "Uninstall." OneDrive will be
removed from your PC, but all of your data will remain on OneDrive.com.
Before you do this, make a duplicate of your OneDrive
files to a different part of your computer.
Stop Background Updates
There is a way to stop Windows Update and other
background download functions in Windows from working. These procedures, if
left unchecked, may slow down both your connection and the machine's
performance. From Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi or Settings
> Network & Internet > Ethernet, set your home Wi-Fi or wired
Ethernet connection as metered.
This instructs Windows 10 to refrain from downloading
any major updates while connected to that Wi-Fi network—at least for the time being.
It will eventually demand an update, but for the most part, this option will
assist. It also prevents certain programs from pinging servers, which might
help background operations run faster.
Speed Up Menus and Animations
Windows 10, like previous versions of the operating
system, employs visual effects that might degrade performance. Animations,
window translucency, shadow effects, and other effects fall under this
category.
To get started, look in the taskbar for
"Performance" and then click "Adjust The Appearance And
Performance Of Windows."
By default, Windows 10 attempts to find the optimal
settings for your computer, but you can also choose "Adjust For Best
Performance" and then click "Apply." Another option is to
manually go through the list and uncheck the items you don't wish to utilize.
On mid-range and high-end PCs, this adjustment is
unlikely to make a significant difference, but budget machines with limited RAM
and lower CPUs may benefit.
Recovering From a Sudden Slow Down
There are two issues to check into straight away if
your PC is suddenly slowing down. To see the update history, go to Settings
> Update & Security > View Update History. Have you installed any
updates since your PC began to slow down? If that's the case, look for the update's
KB number (it's in brackets at the end of each update title) on PC news sites,
forums, or Reddit postings to see if anybody else is complaining about it.
If a large number of individuals have reported
problems after the update, you may need to delete it or wait for Microsoft to
deliver a fix—which might take some time.
Hard Drive Tips
This final point isn't applicable to PCs with
solid-state drives (by the way, if you don't already have one, we strongly
advise you to do so), but it is sound advice for those with hard drives.
Spinning drives might benefit from a little additional
care now and again. Longtime PC users should be acquainted with these excellent
old fashioned maneuvers.
ADVERTISEMENT
To begin, use the Defragment and Optimize Drives tool.
It will appear if you search for it on the taskbar. Choose the drives you wish
to optimize, then click the "Optimize" button. You have the option of
enabling automatic optimization. Windows defragments and optimizes your disks
automatically, but if your PC is sluggish, you should check and perform it
manually.
The disk cleaning application is next—again, use the
taskbar or Start menu's search box to look for "Disk Cleanup." Select
and run the drive you wish to clean up.
There's also the ReadyBoost function, which caches
data on a USB stick. However, as we've already said, we're not persuaded that
this will significantly improve performance.
These suggestions merely scratch the surface of what
you can achieve. Looking at the Page file, turning off search indexing, and
upgrading component drivers are all solid options.