You’re likely familiar with this sensation. You go ahead and power up your laptop, open Chrome, and, then, just sit there and start anticipating. The laptop fan is whirring away noisily and all along you start feeling like you need to get yourself a new laptop.
Hang on there! It’s unusual, but for most occasions, it’s not a hardware issue. The slow laptop issue is to do with the clutter that has built up inside it over time. You will be surprised to know that a lot of junk files are gathered, unneeded programs are running, and the configurations need some tweaking.
The great thing is that you can get rid of almost all of the problems yourself.
Table of Contents
Why Your Laptop Feels Slow (It’s Probably Not the Hardware)
Laptops do not slow down as a result of processor degradation. The main reason for their slowness is that.
- There are a lot of programs competing for the limited memory
- The laptop’s storage is almost filled to capacity (in fact, full storage affects even SSD performance)
- There are many background programs consuming processing power without any of the user being aware of it
- The way Windows is configured that gives precedence to aesthetics over speed
None of these situations necessitate changing anything – it only requires a focused effort of roughly 20 minutes.
Removing the Digital Mess
Delete the unnecessary applications
To check useless apps, navigate to Settings > Apps > Installed Apps. You’ll be surprised to see all the abandoned applications on your device, be it trial software you installed years ago, a game you barely played once, or strange toolbars you don’t remember installing. Removing any programs you haven’t actively used or recognized can free up space on your system.
Clear the temporary files and downloads
Your Downloads folder is probably a graveyard of old PDFs and installers. And Windows quietly stores temporary files that never get cleaned up on their own. Use the built-in Disk Cleanup tool or Settings > System > Storage > Temporary files to clear it out in a couple of clicks.
Pro tip: Users of SSDs are encouraged to keep at least 15-20% of memory leave lonely to avoid the drop in the speed of operation.
Get Control Over Your Startup Applications
Have you noticed your laptop is slow to become “ready” as soon as you switch it on? These are applications that launch when your computer does and consume resources before it have even been opened.
To resolve this issue, access Settings > Apps > Startup and deactivate all unnecessary applications like Spotify, Steam, unidentified backup programs and a random PDF opener.
Change Your Power Profile and Go with the Maximum Relax
Commonly, laptops are set to a balanced power settings mode, which combines maximum power and battery life. If you work on your laptop anywhere throughout the day and connect it to power from time to time, you can try the following and enjoy the maximum performance of your laptop.
Get to Settings > System > Power & Battery > Power Mode and select “Best Performance”.
Keep in mind this will result in increased power consumption, so use this option wisely.
Disabling Elaborate Visual Effects
Windows is fond of its visual effects — such as fading effects, shadows, and smooth visual transitions. Visual effects may look appealing but they may put pressure on your system especially if you have an old laptop.
In order to tweak this, you need to search for the term “Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows” and select “Adjust for best performance” option. However, in case you don’t want to lose every single visual effect, you may opt for the “Custom” and disable only those visual effects which you don’t mind losing like animation and shadows.
Organizing Browser (most probably your real problem)
Here’s a well-known fact: For many individuals, the browser represents the computer itself. When there are dozens of open tabs, many of installed extensions, and a sizable amount of cached data then the performance of your computer will be slow.
- Close all open tabs that you no longer need (remember to save them using bookmarks)
- Remove the unnecessary extensions you don’t use anymore
- Clean your cache and information frequently
- Use a lighter browser if yours is too slow
Conduct a Malware Check
The exact meaning of “slow laptop” is not always easy to grasp. In some cases, the cause of the slow functioning of the laptop is malware or adware. For this reason, it is advisable to perform a thorough scan with Windows Defender or another antivirus software.
Control Background Applications and Processes
Apart from the applications launched after the start-up, many programs keep running in the background even after users download them. Consequently, they take up a lot of processing power and memory space without users noticing that. The Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) will help you check which programs may be problematic for your laptop. Users should either research any unidentified application before doing anything about it.
Bring Everything Up to Date — Operating Systems, Drive System, Applications
It may be dull, but obsolete software is one of a few hidden speed boosters. Updates typically bring not only security fixes, but performance enhancements also. Be certain that.
- Your OS is up to date
- Your graphical and chip drivers are in good shape
- Your favorite applications (starting with your browser) are on the latest version
Care Physically for Your Laptop
This is quite an unnoticeable aspect of laptop maintenance. Dust accumulation in the inner parts of laptops leads to insufficient cooling and makes reducing performances necessary. If you have not cleaned your device for a long time, blowing compressed air into the various openings of your laptop will do tremendous benefits.
When These Tricks Aren’t Enough
If you’ve completed every trick in this guide and your laptop continues to be sluggish, it’s likely due to age. This is particularly important if your device is 5 or more years old and is still using a hard drive, rather than solid-state drive. At that point, a relatively simple hardware upgrade (for instance, installing additional RAM or replacing the hard drive with SSD) will perform better than any software improvement, but in most cases of “my laptop has become slow,” you will probably never need to upgrade hardware.
Conclusion
When you have a laptop that is slow, it might seem to be a hardware issue, but it is generally a maintenance problem instead. By cleaning up your computer, reducing the number of startup items, cleaning your web browser, etc., your laptop will begin working properly.
Select three or more of the tips to try out tonight. If you see the results, return after the pampering session to check out and try the other tips provided over this weekend.
Do you know of any laptop tips that can be helpful in cutting down on an upgrade? Please write in comments below.