How To Get My Laptop To Run Faster

Turn Off Window Transparency

On a similar note, you might have noticed that some menus in Windows are transparent. Open the Start menu, for example, and you should see a faint, blurred impression of whatever lies behind it.

If you don’t want to sacrifice speed for such a small effect, you can turn it off entirely .

Open Settings and click Personalization, and then Colors. You’ll find a small switch titled Transparency effects that you can use to turn the feature on or off.

How To Make A Slow Computer Faster

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Tell me if this sounds familiar. When you bought your new PC you were so happy. The speed at which you could do tasks on it was so fast, and it felt like your life was greatly improved as a result. But its been some time since you bought that PC. Its not new anymore, and things are changing.

Your computer is slow now. Every time you open a new program, or copy a big file, or try and use Photoshop, your PC feels like an old person. If youre asking yourself, Why is my PC so slow? then youve come to the right place.

Add Ram To Your Laptop

If your PC has a lower RAM than the one recommended for running a particular game, increasing the RAM will increase your laptops gaming performance. Suppose your PC is competent enough and has enough RAM to run these games adding RAM will not significantly impact the FPS. In this case, you would want to add RAM if you intend to run this game alongside other processes.

If you want to know how much RAM you need to run a game, look up the specific version online and check for requirements manufacturers always indicate these things. Heres an example for Fortnite.

Adding RAM to your laptop involves you opening it up and manually installing it. If youre competent enough, follow these steps but if youre not, get in touch with a professional and let them install it for you.

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How Can I Fix My Slow Laptop

How can I fix a slow laptop? Restart your PC. Having the ability to put your computer into sleep mode is one of my many blessings frequent PC users love. Check for updates. Delete old programs and files. Utilize cloud storage. Check for viruses. Upgrade your RAM. Upgrade your hard drive. Monitor your internet habits.

Defragment Your Hard Drive

Defragmenting rearranges the layout of files on your hard disk. Its a process to help make accessing the files on your disk faster. To see if defragmenting your drive can improve your laptops performance, follow the instructions below:

1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and type defragment.

2) Select Defragment and Optimize Drivers if youre on Windows 8/10.

3) Select your C drive and click Optimize.

4) Apply this method for all the drives.

This should fix the performance lag on your laptop. If it didnt help, move on and try the next method.

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Strategy Two: Make Changes To The Cpu

CPU is another factor that affects FPS. Some games will eat a lot of CPU. However, the CPU has a protection mechanism. When the temperature is too high, it will reduce the frequency to ensure that it will not be burned. Once the frequency is down, there will be a sudden drop of FPS during the game.

How to make PC games run faster? You should reserve a lot of CPU for games.

Defragment The Hard Drive

If your laptop uses a hard drive, it might need to be defragged. Because HDDs access information sequentially, having information in multiple places increases the time the drive takes to access the information. Defragmenting your hard drive moves data that is on the drive into a logical formation, making it quicker to access.

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Change Your Pcs Power Settings

Your computer sometimes reserves a little bit of performance in order to save energy, especially in the case of laptops that arent connected to a power outlet.

Changing your PCs power settings is easy. Simply click on the battery icon in your Windows tray and slide the slider to Best Performance.

Just bear in mind that this will drain your battery faster if youre not connected to a power outlet.

Disable Some Startup Programs

Some programs have been set to run when you turn your laptop on automatically. I used to have a GIS software called Autodesk that started up when I powered my computer. Since it was heavy software, it used to slow down my games and sometimes they froze. As soon as I disabled it, my laptop ran my games faster. This can also work for you.

To find these programs, you need to open the Task Manager. Then, hold Ctrl+Alt+Delete and click on task manager. Click on the Startup tab you will see a list of programs that automatically launch at startup. To prevent a program from doing this, just right-click on it and select Disable.

A good example is Skype and Spotify these programs should only be launched when you need them and not during start-up. You should be careful about which programs you choose to disable from automatically launching during startup. For example, you could see a program like Realtek HD Audio, responsible for your laptops audio this must be launched during start-up. Only disable programs for which youre sure are not needed. On the bright side, you can always re-enable programs that you have already disabled.

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Uninstall Programs You Don’t Need

After you clean up your hard drive, the next step is to remove programs you don’t need. Not only do installed programs take up valuable storage space on your hard drive, but they can often run processes in the background which slow things down.

If you don’t know what a program does, look it up online to see if it’s something you still need. As a general rule, if you don’t know what a program does, you don’t need it and can remove it, because Windows won’t let you uninstall any programs that are critical to Windows itself.

Third-party software uninstallers like IObit Uninstaller can help you find programs taking up the most space as well as infrequently used software.

How To Update Your Applications

Our studies have shown that over 52% of applications installed on PCs are outdated. Sometimes thats due to people ignoring updates. Other times its because the applications dont include a working updater.

Old apps can cause stability and performance issues, so be sure to check out our guide on updating your apps.

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Is A Higher Performance Setting Safe

Theres no need to worry about the safety of trying these preset performance settings on your laptop. While running a CPU or GPU at higher speeds on a desktopa process known as overclockingcan indeed have its risks, the settings youll find in a vendors utility have been tested and wont push your laptop too far. Some laptops do allow you to tinker further, but that you would do at your own risk.

Keep in mind that if you choose a higher performance setting, the laptops behavior will likely change. It may kick on its fans more often or more loudly. You may notice the laptop feels a little more hot to the touch. The ambient conditions will also affect it: Running a laptop on its Turbo or High Performance setting in a cool, wintertime room will probably yield better results than doing so in the middle of summer, when your room might be hotter.

Laptops can feel slow for a lot of reasons, most of which take a little time to fix. Its worth exploring your laptops performance settings because they could give you an instant boost with minimal effort. If that doesnt work, its time to look at other solutions.

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Uninstall Applications You Dont Need

Its easy to forget about apps you no longer use. Clean up your computer and get rid of unnecessary apps in the Windows Control Panel. Click Programs, then click Programs and Features. Go through the list and uninstall anything you dont need.

Control Panel wont tell you whether a program is important or not, nor will it show you when you last used it. But AVG TuneUp makes it easy to identify programs you dont need. After downloading and installing AVG TuneUp, go to the list of unnecessary programs and move any that that you dont need into the trash.

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Stop Apps Resuming On Startup

Another matter of preference, here well explain how to disable apps and browser tabs resuming upon booting up.

If you use your system a lot and have numerous Chrome tabs you want to preserve, skip this step, but otherwise, take a trip into Accounts Settings. Under Sign-in options, at the bottom of the page, theres a slider for reopening your apps after an update or restart.

It tries to resume the active programs you had running when you last shut down your PC, potentially including non-essential background processes, and that slows down your PCs boot time. Toggle it off.

When To Replace Your Pc

Note that while the following strategies can be used to make your PC run faster, they can only do so much. If your computer is several years old and has been subject to heavy downloading and installation, even the best strategies may only marginally improve your performance. At that point, it may be time to start shopping for deals on computers, so you can replace your unit entirely.

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Check Your Power Plan

Its worth taking a peek at your power plans in the Control Panel on a laptop, found under Hardware and Sound.

If its a powerhouse laptop that youre essentially using plugged-in as a desktop replacement, slap that high performance plan on and call it a day otherwise, youll want to take a trip into the advanced power plan settings.

The default balanced plan is usually a good call, but even then you might want to make some adjustments like disabling certain ports while the monitor is asleep, for example.

How To Speed Up A Laptop Or Computer

There aren’t many more frustrating things than a slow computer. Spending minutes at a time waiting for your laptop or all-in-one to load up a simple web page or Microsoft Office program can make even a sane person want to throw their PC in the bin.

But don’t… there are simple steps you can take to make your computer fast again. Malware removal and a couple of tweaks to your settings are a good place to start. Here are some must-do activities to keep your PC in tip-top condition.

Whatever your budget, our lab tests reveal which models are worth your money and which aren’t. See our expert pick of the best laptops for 2022.

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Clear Browser Cache History & Temporary Internet Files

Unless you have a specific need to keep track of your browser history, you should regularly clear it out. This will prevent your computer and web browser from lagging. When clearing your browsing data, you should also clear cookies, cached images, and other temporary files.

In Chrome, go to the main Chrome menu on the upper right-hand corner of your browser window and click on History. This opens a new window select Clear browsing data from the left-hand menu and another pop-up will appear showing you the type of browsing data you can clear.

Choose the data you want to delete, and the time range All time is the best, particularly if you´ve not done it before and then hit Clear data.

The process is pretty much the same for most browsers just go into your browser settings and clear the history.

Alternatively, you can use third-party tools like TotalAV, which doesnt only offer safe browsing with antivirus protection but also cleans cookies and browsing history with a couple of clicks.

To maintain stable computer speed, make a habit of regularly clearing browser cache, history, and temporary internet files.

How To Keep Your Pc Running Fast And Smooth

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Windows was designed to be user friendly, and this convenience directly contributes to its success. The drawback is that the more convenient something is, the more potential there might be for things to go wrong. However, there are steps you can take to keep your computer running smoothly and fast throughout its lifespan.

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Adjust Your Visual Effects

Windows features a range of stylish visual effects, but you can improve performance by turning them off.

Type adjust appearance into your Cortana search bar or directly into the Start menu. Then, press the Enter key to open the Performance Options.

Select Adjust for best performance to let Windows optimize visual effects automatically. You can also enable or disable individual effects.

Restart Your Pc And Open Only The Apps You Need

Having many apps, programs, web browsers, and so on open at once can slow down your PC. Having a lot of browser tabs open at once can also slow it down quite a bit. If this is happening, close any apps, browser tabs, etc., that you don’t need and see if that helps speed up your PC. If it doesn’t seem to help, restart your PC and then open just the apps, programs and browser windows you need.

To restart your PC

Sometimes apps that were made for an earlier version of Windows will still run on Windows 11, but they might slow down your PC. If this happens after you open a certain program, check the software companys website for an updated version, or run the Program Compatibility Troubleshooter.

To run the Program Compatibility Troubleshooter

PC still running slowly? Continue to the next tip.

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Why Is My Computer So Slow

Usually, your computer slows down because its not using its resources efficiently. Theres only so much processing power, memory, and storage space available on your PC, and the key to speeding up your computer is to optimize all three.

If youre wondering why your PC gets slower over time, its likely due to one or more of the following reasons:

• Its too hot. Your computer will self-regulate performance to compensate for excessive heat. A cool computer is a fast computer. Check your CPU temps to see if things are getting too hot.

• Your software is old. If youre behind on your Windows updates or need to find updated drivers, you might suffer performance losses.

• Its doing too much. If youre running too many programs at once, too many background processes, or if your disk usage is at 100%, your PC wont be able to optimize performance.

• Youre running low on memory. Your PC uses RAM to run its active programs. Maxing out your RAM can lead to a sluggish PC.

• Youre running low on disk space. As your hard drive fills up, your PC has less room for temporary files. Without enough space, your PC wont be able to prevent hard drive fragmentation. Cleaning out your computer will free up valuable disk space.

• Youve got malware. Many types of malware, such as adware and spyware, chew through your PCs resources and slow it down.

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Adjust Or Disable Graphics And Animations

More recent versions of Windows come with lots of graphics, including animations such as fading effects and flyouts. These help make the application appear more sleek and refined and contribute to a better overall user experience. On the other hand, they can also slow down your computer.

Thankfully, its simple to adjust these settings and hopefully save a little processing power. Go to Control Panel> System and Security> System> Advanced system settings. Then, in the Performance section, hit Settings and youll have a full list of options.

You can select Adjust for best performance or opt to remove some individually. Its a matter of preference, but fade and shadow features are some you could probably live without.

Windows 7: Search for Performance Information and Tools, select Adjust visual effects, and use the Visual Effects tab.

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