Have you been at home for the holidays and decided to use your home computer or laptop, only to discover how slow it is? Here are some things to look for and things you can do to help your system run faster.

Step one: Let’s figure out what’s slowing down your machine.

You can open Task Manager in a variety of ways. It’s easier for me to do it by tapping these three keys within this combination. Ctrl, Shift, and Esc.

The Performance tab in Task Manager gives you an overview of how Windows and any software you’re running right now are using your hardware.

This tab is further divided into the hardware components that are most crucial to your system’s performance – CPU, Memory, Disk, and GPU, as well as Wireless or Ethernet connectivity (or both). Additional hardware categories, such as Bluetooth, may be added here as well.

You’ll be able to track your usage once you’ve put it up. If something is being overused here, you can look into it further to see what’s causing it.

If your disk is full or an issue, you’ll want to clean up your hard disk. Ideally, you would want to delete any temporary files. which leads me to step two.

Step two: Delete Temporary Files.

To delete temporary files:

  1. In the search box on the taskbar, type disk cleanup, and select Disk Cleanup from the list of results.
  2. Select the drive you want to clean up, and then select OK.
  3. Under Files to delete, select the file types to get rid of. To get a description of the file type, select it.
  4. Select OK.

If you need to free up more space, you can also delete system files:

  1. In Disk Cleanup, select “Clean up system files.”
  2. Select the file types to get rid of. To get a description of the file type, select it.
  3. Select OK.

There are a few different options for deleting temporary files. The method described above is the safest. It is possible to automate the deletion of temporary files. Later on, I’ll write a guide on how to do it.

Step three: Disk Defrag

Your PC will run smoother and boot up faster if your discs are optimized. To improve them, do the following:

  1. Select the search bar on the taskbar and enter defrag.
  2. Select Defragment and Optimize Drives.
  3. Select the disk drive you want to optimize.
  4. Select the Optimize button.
Optimise Drives

Step four: Remove bloatware and other unwanted apps from your computer.

Your computer most likely comes with a lot of unwanted programs that operate in the background and slow things down. They’re commonly referred to as “bloatware,” because they rarely serve a meaningful purpose.

Take a few minutes to uninstall apps from your computer that you don’t want or need.

How to uninstall a program on Windows

Settings
Settings

1. Start Settings from the Start menu. 

2. Click “Apps.”

3. In the pane on the left, click “Apps & features.”

4. In the Apps & features pane on the right, find a program you want to uninstall and click on it. Then click “Uninstall.” You may need to confirm by clicking “Uninstall” in the pop-up window. 

5. The program will be uninstalled by Windows, which will delete all of its files and data. When you click “Uninstall,” the software may have its own unique uninstaller, which should appear when you select “Uninstall.” The program will be removed from the list after it is finished.

If the Uninstall button is grey and unclickable, it’s likely that the program is part of Windows and cannot be deleted.

Here I always search by install date to see an item that I don’t really need. Don’t uninstall something you’re not sure about. Always check to what it is you’re uninstalling.

Apps & Features

Step Five: Keep Windows up to date

Ensure that your computer is up to date. Microsoft releases patches and updates for Windows on a regular basis, and while many of them are focused on enhancing your computer’s security (which is critical), others help boost performance.

To see if there are updates waiting to be installed:

1. Click the Start button and click the Settings icon, which is shaped like a gear and is right above the Power icon. 

2. Click “Update & security.”

3. You can check for updates or install and updates waiting to be installed.

Updates

This was a quick and easy method to look at key things that could help speed up your computer; if there’s anything special you’d like to know about, please contact me and I’ll put something together.