10 Practical Ways to Speed up Windows 10 Laptop & PC

Like any other machine, your laptop also requires regular maintenance.

In the long run, Windows will accumulate a bunch of junk and temp files which will affect your laptop performance. This junk will use a large part of system resources like memory, CPU, and disk space. As a result, your laptop will often get overheated and freeze while performing important tasks. There is no need to say that you end up with less productivity, here is the detailed guide on How to speed up  Windows 10 PC/laptop performance:

Are you planning to buy a new laptop? here’s find out how to choose the right laptop that fits best for your work and lifestyle?

Manage startup programs & Services:

Start-up programs and services run on Windows startup and always run in the background. This will increase Windows loading time and reduce your PC performance and speed.

How to stop unwanted startup programs/apps in Windows 10?

Most of the user download apps are capable of run on Windows startup and use a large number of system resources like CPU, memory, and storage. Also, these startup apps run in the background and slow down your Laptop/PC performance and speed. How to speed up Windows 10 PC by preventing an app from the run in the background?

• Open Task Manager by right click on the taskbar and select Task Manager from the menu or simply press Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
• Click on the startup Here you will see the list of all the startup programs.

• Click on the Startup impact to sort all the programs High to Low
• High impact means that programs will use more system resources and slows down your PC’s performance.
• Find such unwanted programs, right-click, and select Disable from the menu.

How to stop unwanted start-up services in Windows 10?

The ‘System configuration tool’ helps you to prevent unwanted startup services from being loaded on Windows startup.

• Press Win+R to open Ru, type MSConfig, and hit enter to open the system configuration tool.

• Click on the services tab to view all services lists.
• Uncheck the box on the left-hand side of unwanted service to disable that specific service to start, and then press OK.

Disable animations and visual effects:

Have you ever think why your laptop gets overheated often?

Animations and visual effects may please your eyes as you look at it. But, they suck a major part of your system resources. Especially when you are using an older or low specification laptop or PC, the chances are high.  Due to heavy load on your CPU (processor), your laptop gets overheated. Over this, a cooling fan will run constantly & faster to cool down your processor. This will harm your PC in both ways, this slows down your laptop’s performance by using many resources and quickly drains your laptop’s battery. So, if you need to improve your laptop performance, it is recommended to disable all the unwanted animations and visual effects.

How to disable animations and visual effects in Windows 10?

To disable all the unnecessary animation and visual effects in Windows PC, follow the below effects…

• Go to Control Panel → System and Security → System, then you’ll see the window basic system information.
• Click on the Advanced system settings from the left-hand side of the window to open System properties
• Under the Performance section, click on Settings to open the Performance Options

Here you’ll the three predefined settings and custom settings options in the performance options window.

• Choose Adjust for the best performance to get better results.

(OR)

• You can also select the custom option and customize Windows how for your needs.

Also,

• Go to Control Panel → Easy of Access → Optimize visual display to open the Make the computer easier to see

• Under the Make things on the screen easier to see the section, mark the checkbox of Turn of all unnecessary animations (when possible).
• Now click on Apply, then OK.

Use ReadyBoost:

ReadyBoost is Disk Cache Management Technology developed by Microsoft. ReadyBoost used to write cache between Hard Disk and RAM which enable fast access files. It enables Operating System’s (OS) responsiveness and improves performance.

If you are using an older or low specification Laptop/PC, you obviously need to use ReadyBoost to see a significant performance boost in your PC.

How to use ReadyBoost in Windows 10?

You need any USB storage device or an SD card to use as ReadyBoost.

• Plug-in a USB flash drive to your PC.
• Open-File Explorer → This PC then right-click on your USB flash drive and select Properties from the menu.

• Go to the ReadyBoost tab, click on Use this device option.

• Set the memory size to use that space to reserve for system speed.
• Click Apply and then OK.

Search indexing:

Windows search is one of the most useful and handy services is offered by the Windows operating system. It helps you search and find files, folders, and apps within the Windows operating system. It is quite popular among IT-related and data handling professionals but may not for everyday users.

If you don’t want to waste your system resources, you can prevent Windows search service from doing so.

• Press Winkey + R to open Run
• Type services.msc to open Services window.

• Search for Windows search service in the list and double-click on it.
• In the General tab, select Disable from the drop-down menu of Startup type.
• Press the Stop button below the service status, then click on the OK button and Restart your Windows 10 PC.

After restarting your PC:

• Thereafter, open Services and select Automatic (Delayed Start) from the drop-down menu of Startup type and press OK.

You can also completely switch-off the Windows search service if you don’t really want it:

• Open run command by pressing Winkey + R, type appwiz.cpl, and hit Enter to open programs and features in your Windows 10 PC.
• Select the Turn Windows features on or off option for the left-hand side of the window.
• Now, Turn Windows features on or off dialogue box will appear.

• Uncheck the box left side of the Windows search feature and press OK.

Optimizing hard disk:

Hard Disk performance has a great impact on your system speed & performance. An SSD (Solid State Drive) has much faster performance than HDD (Hard Disk Drive) but they are very expensive. If you are using an HDD regular maintenance and optimizing are required to get the best performance out of your Windows PC.

Hard Disk optimizing tips for Windows 10 users: –

Partitioning: Using different partitions for a different purpose is a great idea. It keeps your HDD clean and organized. This will prevent accidental data losses, crashes, and conflicts of files/folders.

Use built-in Disk Management Tools to manage your partition work. Windows Disk Management Utility has a GUI interface and it is easy to use tools. You can easily delete, create, and format partitions. Also, you can shrink and extend your hard disk partitions with data loss using Disk Management in Windows 10.

Cleaning junk files: In the long run, your Windows PC will pile a large number of junk files on your PC. And junk file such as temporary files, cache, error reporting, Internet junk, and thumbnails always affects PC’s performance. It is recommended to keep an eye on junk to improve your PC/laptop performance.

Using built-in Disk Cleanup Utility to clean junk files in Windows 10:

• Click on Cortana and type Disk Cleanup and hit Enter.
• A disk cleanup wizard will appear, select the partition to clean from the dropdown menu, and press OK.

• Now, select the files by simply selecting the appropriate checkboxes from the next window.

• Then press OK, it will ask for confirmation. Click on Delete files in the dialogue box to complete the disk cleanup process.

You can also use third-party software like CCleaner for better features and results.

Disk defragmenting: File fragmentation is a common issue to harm your PC health and performance. In the long run of using your hard disk (read, write) file fragmentation will occur. Fragmentation means single files scatter into multiple places on the physical surface of the hard disk. This will drastically slow down your PC’s performance, as the hard disk head continuously spins further to access all the pieces of a file.

To reduce the file fragment and boost your PC performance a Disk Defragment should be required. Windows 10 has a built-in Disk Defragment Tool to optimize your hard disk drive.

The defragmentation process will relocate and organize your file into a single block to easy and faster access.

How to optimize hard disk using Disk Defragment Tool in Windows 10 PC?

• Click on Cortana and type ‘defragment and optimize drives’ and hit Enter to open Disk Defragment Utility.

• Select a drive you want to defragment from the list in the window, and click on Analyze
• Analyzing the drive, click on Optimize to complete the defragmentation process.

You can also schedule a disk to defragment by clicking on the Change settings button and follow the instructions.

Clean your registry:

In Windows ‘Registry’ is like a configuration file it saves everything that looks and you do in Windows operating system. It allows authorized users to edit settings by making changes to it. Simply, everything you do in Windows PC is will make an entry to the large list of Registry. Software, apps, settings, and even a website you visit also will be registered in the Registry.

But unfortunately, Windows couldn’t able to remove these registry entries every after that you have completed a task or uninstalled an app/software. This large messy registry will slow down your PC’s performance. In results, you will see a slow loading Windows or your laptop will hang often or both.

Use a registry cleaner tools to efficiently clean your registry and boost your Windows OS performance.

Change Power Setting:

Power setting is directly related to your PC performance & speed, especially when you are running Windows 10 on your laptop. Some laptop user will set their power mode to ‘best battery life’ to extend their battery backup, but this will reduce their laptop performance. As a result, it took more time than usual to process the task.

So, what’s the point that you opting out for the best battery life?

High performance = less battery backup

Slow performance = long battery backup

Then you are wasting your precious time for a few minutes of battery life. This will cost you more while you are on a busy working day. Always choose the right power settings for your needs.

Battery saving tips for Windows 10 users:

• Use different power settings for ‘plugged-in’ and ‘on-battery’ modes.

• Enable ambient light sensor if your laptop supports.
• Use the battery saver setting when the battery gets down for certain levels.

• Turn-off unused features and hardware such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
• Remove external plugged in devices when not in use.

Kill bloatware:

Bloatware is software that has a bunch of unnecessary features and uses a large amount of RAM and disk space. It runs in the background and often it has a graphics-rich interface so it also uses more CPU (processor). As a result, your Windows PC will get slow and often gets overheated.

Unfortunately, Windows 10 comes with a bunch of pre-installed software (bloatware). Which are unnecessary for most of the users.

So, how to remove default apps in Windows 10 PC?

You can uninstall these apps just right click on the app in the start menu and select Uninstall in the menu.

Or using Apps & Features…

• Press Winkey and type apps and features and hit

• Select the app you want to uninstall and click on it. Then click on Uninstall below the app.

How to uninstall default apps using Windows Powershell in Windows 10?

Click on Start menu and type Powershell, Right-click on the Windows Powershell, and select Run as Administrator.

Run the following commands in the Windows Powershell:

Get-AppxPackage “app-name” | Remove-AppxPackage

Replace the app-name with the app name you want to uninstall in between the inverted commas (“).

For example: if you want you to remove the music player, you want to replace “app-name” with “Microsoft.ZuneMusic”.

And it looks like below:

Get-AppxPackage “Microsoft.ZuneMusic” | Remove-AppxPackage

Here’s the list of apps and their packages names that would be helpful in removing the apps you actually don’t need.

• 3D Builder: 3dbuilder
• Alarms and Clock: windowsalarms
• Calendar and Mail: windowscommunicationsapps
• Camera: windowscamera
• Groove Music: zunemusic
• Maps: windowsmaps
• Movies & TV: zunevideo
• OneNote: onenote
• People: people
• Photos: photos
• Store: windowsstore
• Voice Recorder: soundrecorder
• Xbox: xboxapp

If you remove the app for all users in the PC, just add –allusers to the command line, and it looks like below:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers “Microsoft.ZuneMusic” | Remove-AppxPackage

Get rid of Malware, Spyware, and Viruses:

No matter how well you optimize your PC for speed and performance, malicious software or virus can break your PC and your need reinstall Windows operating system from scratch.

And the worst thing is your important data will be lost and there might be a potential threat to your online privacy.

With the fast-growing technology and Internet connectivity, online privacy is everyone’s concern these days.

Having an Internet Security and Anti-virus tool is the most essential thing. Parental Control will be a great feature addition to protect your children from being a victim of online threats.

Microsoft offers a free anti-virus tool called Windows Defender with Windows 7 and later versions. Also, there is another free tool called Microsoft Security Essential (MSE) for earlier versions. These tools may not offer advanced features but potential tools to protect you from malicious software and spyware.

How to remove Malware and Viruses from your Windows PC?

There are a bunch of premium Internet Security and Anti-virus tools available. But, here’s the free tool from Microsoft which will scan and remove malicious software and apps that are already have infected to your PC.

Always update Windows:

Last but not least…

I know, you already heard this before that Windows update can speed up your machine performance…

But it is very important to stay up-to-date with the latest Windows updates. It keeps your Windows PC secure and speed. Also, it helps you stay away from malware, spyware, and close the doors for hackers.

Thanks for reading, keep sharing. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more updates from techlurn. Let us know your opinions in the comments section.