Remove programs you don’t use
Type Control Panel > Programs and Features into the address bar. Go through your programs, and if you find one that you no longer use or that you didn’t install yourself, uninstall it. Never delete it directly from the disk, because that leaves traces in the registry as well as icons on the desktop and in the Start menu.
Check which programs run at startup
Launch Windows Defender, where you will find the relevant page.
Disconnect devices you don’t use
The driver problem – the computer has to load the driver and process its output. If it is a lousy driver, the slowdown multiplies.
Make sure all your devices have drivers
A missing driver can cause a real mess.
Defragment your HDD
Defragmentation is a very important operation. It arranges your files so that they are not scattered, so loading will be faster and the disk less “out of breath”.
Clean up files on your HDD
Type Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Performance Information and Tools into the address bar.
Try not to run too many programs at the same time
If you run the same programs, it is not true that you save memory; instead, there may be conflicts when accessing the same files. If you don’t have enough memory, the system starts swapping to disk (see below).
Try restarting
A golden piece of advice that solves most problems, including those caused by Windows getting stuck in a loop.
Turn off visual effects
If you have a weak graphics card that doesn’t support the program’s graphical effects, turn them off. This takes the load off the processor, which is very poor at graphical tricks. Type Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Performance Information and Tools into the address bar; in the left column there is a link Adjust visual effects.
Add more memory
This can speed up your PC very significantly, because data then doesn’t have to be written to the HDD (swapped), which slows things down twice over. It also reduces wear on the HDD.
Check for viruses and spyware
Use Windows Defender or antivirus software and scan your HDD. Create a log in HijackThis! and post it on a website focused on security.
Find out the real speed of your PC
Don’t use this route for it, because it isn’t very objective: in Windows Vista click Start > Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Check your computer's Windows Experience Index base score, or simply type Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Performance Information and Tools into Explorer. Instead, download some specialized program, for example SiSoft Sandra.
Disable services you don’t need.
Press Win+R and type services.msc. Turning off many services can speed up your PC, but be careful, services depend on each other, so everything can turn into a chain reaction. And if you turn off some services, they will not only prevent you from using some system features, but they may also slow it down (for example, turning off the graphics system for a capable graphics card causes a higher load on the processor.)
Check for program updates from the vendor
In Windows, use Windows Update; most programs offer automatic updates, often even without any user intervention.
Check for hardware errors (the program that helps you find them is given in parentheses)
The components most prone to errors are the HDD (scandisk), memory (MemTest!), processor (firmware update) and others.
Don’t use illegal software or poor hardware
Think about the total cost: the initial investment may drain your wallet less, but later it may go so far that you end up buying a better-quality product anyway. Read comparison reviews online.
Adjust the indexed locations
Many indexed files mean higher memory usage as well as disk space, and slower work with the important file indexes. It is a good idea to organize your files logically and index only the truly essential ones, and then ignore that silly message asking whether you want to add a folder to the index, for example when you search in a non-indexed folder. It should only appear when you search there more often than in the indexed ones, but that would probably be asking too much of MS.
Check the event log
Windows Log System has several files and all three entry types: Error, Information, Warning.
Set the performance type to the highest
Install an optimization program. These let you defragment/clean the registry, do the same with files on your PC, and more.
- TuneUp
- CCleaner