How To Speed Up My Old Laptop

Pc Booster #: Switch To Linux

A more drastic option to speed up your laptop is to install a Linux distribution instead, such as Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mint, Dolphin, etc.

While its not as flexible with gaming as Windows 10, it is gradually getting closer to that mark, but it is very flexible with many utilities and apps. Linux is versatile, customizable, and fast. Use it for music, word processing, surfing the web, designing apps, building websites, downloading videos, and much more. Its free, easy to install, and there are enough versions to suit everyone, including low-resource options that will make your laptop flyat the cost of features and visual appeal.

Increase Page File Size

On Windows 10, the “page file” is a hidden file on the hard drive that works as memory, and it acts as an overflow of the system memory, which holds data for apps currently running on the device.

If you increase the size of the paging file, it can help to boost system performance.

To modify the page file to increase performance, use these steps:

After you complete the steps, the device will restart, and you should then notice a boost in performance while using apps. The performance will be more noticeable when configuring the page file in a Solid-State Drive.

If the new settings are causing issues or performance does not improve, you can always revert the changes with the same instructions outlined above. However, on step No. 9, make sure to select the System managed size option and check the Automatically manage paging files size for all drives option.

Speed Up Computer By Freeing Up Disk Space

You may not know this, but free space is not being wasted in Windows. Depending on your settings a lot of that free space is going to be used by Windows for updates and the reading and writing of data. Microsoft recommends at least 20% of your system drive be free for Windows to perform at its peak. The more free space you have on your disk, the faster Windows will operate.

There are three main ways to free up space

Also Check: How To Record Podcast On Laptop

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 which 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.

Reduce The Boot Menu Time

When your laptop starts up, the boot menu is displayed for a specific time before the operating system loads. This helps you to start Windows 10 in Safe Mode.

You can save a few seconds from your startup time by changing the boot menu time-out, which is set for 30 seconds by default. To do that, you can follow the below steps:

Step 1) Right-click on the Start button and click Control Panel.

Step 2) Go to System > Advanced system settings, and under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.

Step 3) Next to Time to display a list of operating systems: you should change the value from 30 seconds to 10 seconds and then click the OK button.

Don’t Miss: Can I Sell My Laptop Back To Hp

Turn Off Search Indexing

Especially for lower-powered PCs, search indexing can eat up system resources, if only temporarily. If you do a lot of searching, this won’t appeal to you, as some searches will be slower. To turn off indexing, open the Indexing Options Control Panel window . Click Modify and uncheck locations you don’t want indexed. Choosing Advanced lets you decide which file types should and shouldn’t be indexed.

If you leave search indexing on but find that it occasionally slows down your PC, you can stop its process when you need extra speed. Right-click This PC on the desktop , and choose Manage. Then, double-click Services and Applications, and select Services.

Find Windows Search, and double-click on that. From this Properties dialog, you can choose a Startup type of Manual or Disabled to have the process silent by default. The Automatic startup type according to Microsoft help, “is preferred over the Automatic startup type because it helps reduce the effect on the system’s overall boot performance.” That may be turned on by default.

A final option is to go to the right-hand panel, click More options, and then Stop. You can also simply hit the stop button above the center section. Don’t forget to turn it back on at some point if you want to be able to search your system.

Adjust The Amount Of Virtual Memory Windows Uses

Another quick fix for a PC thats slowing down is allowing Windows to use more Virtual Memory.

Read Also: How To Stop Pop Ups On Laptop

A Few Words Of Warning

Some of our tips and guides concern critical areas of your system. But if you follow them carefully, nothing bad will happen weve tested everything on countless machines!

Nevertheless, if you consider Murphys Law, then you should back up your system. At the very least, create a system restore point. To do that, open the File Explorer, right-click on This PC, and select Properties. From there, click System Protection in the top-left corner and create a restore point. If anything goes awry, you can return here and revert all settings.

Use Your Operating Systems Built

Both Windows and macOS come with a handful of built-in utilities that can put a bit more zip back in your laptop. For example, run the Defragment and Optimize Drive tool in Windows , and you can get Windows to tidy up the local hard drive and make it easier for applications to use.

Another Windows app you can search for from the taskbar is Disk Clean-up. This particular tool removes files on disk that you dont actually needtemporary files, old system update files, cached files from the web, and so on. As you select each category you can see how much space you can free up.

Over on the macOS side, open the Apple menu, click About This Mac, and then switch to the Storage tab. If you then click Manage, youll see a host of clean-up options for your Mac, from deleting temporary files to wiping downloaded movies youve watched .

On both macOS and Windows, make sure all the latest software updates are downloaded and installed . This makes sure youre running all the latest optimizations and bug fixes for your operating system.

Don’t Miss: Hard Factory Reset Hp Laptop

How To Speed Up An Ageing Laptop

Laptop running slow? Heres how to give your computer a new lease of life.

Dont give up on your laptop just because its slowing down. Some simple maintenance and a new part or two could give your computer a second chance at life.

Here are some easy fixes that dont cost a cent:

• Uninstall old programs: Remove apps you dont use anymore. They take up a lot of storage space and could be using processing power in the background.

• Tidy up storage: Take stock of all your files it probably wont take as long as you think. Keep the files you use a lot, delete anything you dont need and move the rest to external storage, such as the cloud .

• Disable programs launching on start-up: Check which programs automatically launch when your computer turns on. We recommend disabling most of them, with the exception of system processes and security software including antivirus and firewalls. To see which programs launch at start-up:

• On Windows, open Task Manager and choose the Startup tab.
• On macOS, go to System Preferences > Users & Groups, select your account and choose Login Items.

Prevent Programs From Running On Startup

Many apps are designed to launch automatically as Windows boots up. If you have too many programs running at launch, youll notice that your laptop takes forever to boot up.

Limit your startup programs to the ones that you can actually need. For instance, having an antivirus program launch during startup makes sense.

On the other hand, do you really need apps like Spotify or iTunes to run as soon as you boot up your laptop?

Bring up the Task Manager by using the Ctrl + Shift + Escape shortcut command. Click the Startup tab and you can view and set which programs should run on startup.

Try This Time-Saving Shortcut

Read Also: How To Change Keyboard Color On Msi Laptop

Clean Up The Windows Registry

One area of the Windows operating system that isnt well understood by users is the registry, which stores information and settings on various programs and drivers. The registry can become cluttered or corrupted over time, which is where a host of registry cleanup programs come into play. Note that speed gains are typically minimal after running a registry cleaner, unless you have a particularly bloated and messy registry due to frequently installing / uninstalling freeware or moving around files.If you want to give a registry cleaner a shot, plenty of options are available such as RegSeeker or Registry First Aid. Be sure to to back up your registry before using any registry cleaning software, however!

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.

Why do we bring this up in our ultimate guide to speeding up PCs? Because old apps can cause stability and performance issues. So be sure to check out our dedicated guide on updating your apps.

In short: Use an automatic software updater, or manually go through your list of apps and make sure theyre all current.

You May Like: How To Show Laptop Screen On Tv

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.

Change Appearance In Performance Options

You can easily get to this setting by typing adjust appearance in the Start menu’s search box. In the dialog, you can use the radio button at the top labeled Adjust for best performance or select which eye-candy features you can live without from the long list of check boxes below these choices. If you choose the overall best-performance button, you’ll lose all of the visual effects. For example, you won’t see the contents of a window you’re dragging move, but rather just a rectangle representing the window’s edges. Keeping the effects that you enjoy checked in the dialog is probably a better way to go. You can also get to this tool from the new Settings app and searching for “maintenance” or “performance.”

Don’t Miss: How To Show Laptop Screen On Tv

How To Do A Clean Install Of Windows 10

Doing a clean install of Windows 10 will wipe it clean and start again factory fresh on your new SSD. If you have files you want to keep that are on your HDD you’ll need to back those up somewhere, because once you have your new Windows install you’ll be wiping that drive and repartitioning it to use as mass storage.

Driver Support Can Refresh Your Computer

Do the right thing for your old computer and give it the boost it needs with Driver Support.

Established in 1996, Driver Support has been helping people just like you for over 20 years. Install the software and enjoy a computer that runs almost as it did when you took it out of the box.

for your computer today and enjoy a smooth running machine without the headaches of performing manual updates.

Read Also: How Much Would It Cost To Repair A Laptop Screen

Analyze Your Web Browser

Minor adjustments surely help you to make a difference with the speed of your Laptop. A web browser you are using may slow down or speed up the rate at which web pages, videos, and images are loading. If you have been using a specific browser and notice that there is a delay time, then you should consider an alternative option with better loading speeds.

Not only the browser you use slows down your System when you are using it, but if you have a full cache that has not been removed in a while, it surely causes a lag in the performance. To solve this, you need to visit your browser settings and make sure that you clear the history, cache, and cookies from the browser.

Your cache only includes what you will get when you are visiting various websites. Many websites use cookies and ads to find out your browsing habits which you may click when you visit a website. A cache holds these files as information.

So if you spend plenty of time online, clearing cache will surely help you speed up your laptop. However, it is easy to fix. There are two methods to do this in popular web browsers:

• For Google Chrome:
• Go to Settings-> Privacy and Security
• Select Clear Browsing Data

You can see that Chrome allows you to delete data within a specific time period. But, if you never deleted the files in your cache before, you should select All time.

• Select -> Cookies and other site data, and Cached images and files.
• Select the Clear data option.

Use Cloud Storage If Youre Running Out Of Local Space

If all the cleaning methods mentioned above arent giving you the space you need, you might consider uploading some of your larger files to a cloud service, such as OneDrive or Google Drive. While accessing files from the cloud might take a bit longer, cloud services are a good solution if youre constantly running low on hard disk space.

Read Also: How To Hard Reset Hp Laptop

Uninstall Bloatware From Your Laptop’s Hard Drive

To keep profit margins up, laptop manufacturers allow companies to install unnecessary programs known as bloatware on budget computers. Bloatware eats up memory while running in the background, and these programs are frequently set to automatically load on startup.

To manually uninstall bloatware, open the Control Panel in the Start menu and click Uninstall a Program. From there, any app can be easily uninstalled. If you want to get rid of large amounts of bloatware in a single go, programs like PC Decrapifier and Revo Uninstaller can make the process simpler. Want a laptop that starts fresh with absolutely no bloatware? Look for any modeled labeled a signature edition. They cost more, but have no bloatware out of the box.

How To Clone Your Existing Drive

Again, you need to make sure you have a backup of any important files before you begin. This process involves creating a carbon copy of your old drive to your new one, and as such you must remember you can’t move more than the capacity of the new drive if you’re installing a small SSD.

The cloning process will take care of partitioning the drive and making sure everything is setup properly. The exact process may vary from software to software, but one we recommend is Macrium Reflect.

In both cases, you’ll need to ensure you go into your PCs BIOS or UEFI and change your boot order to ensure the new SSD is first in the list. If you did a clean install, you’ll have previously set your bootable media as priority, so it’s important to get this done right away or you’ll be back into the Windows install process!

You May Like: Best Buy Laptop Screen Repair Cost

Restore Your Pc From A System Restore Point

Restoring your PC undoes recent changes that might be causing problems. If you think a recently installed app, driver, or update for Windows could be causing problems, you might get things running normally again by restoring your PC to an earlier point, called a restore point.

Notes:

• Restoring from a restore point wont affect your personal files, but it will remove apps, drivers, and updates that were installed after the restore point was created.

• System restore works for changes made in the last 7 to 14 days.

To restore your PC from a restore point

If you dont see any restore points, it might be because system protection isnt turned on.

To turn on system protection

If your PC still runs slowly, try the next tip.