‘Time will heal all wounds‘ the phrase doesn’t applicable for computing. In fact, the hardware of the laptop performance is slowing down with time because of downloading and installing more things. With the slow laptops, we are all aware of the annoyance of opening a program and it will take too much time to open. Sometimes user packs it up, getting frustrated and buy a new one. But there are some solutions that can extend the lifespan of the laptop by boosting its performance.
In today’s topic, we, Techvaio, will tell you some handy housekeeping tips which will help to boost your laptop performance. Follow the below given processes to boost the performance of your laptop.
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Simple guide to Boost Laptop Performance
Tip 1: Disable start-up apps
Many installed apps of laptop can launch automatically at the start-up time and run in the background continuously. Although these apps doesn’t use on a daily basis, they can significantly slow down the experience by wasting valuable resources of the system. You have to disable these apps to boost your laptop performance. Use the following steps to disable start-up apps in Windows.
- Open Settings > Apps > Start-up
- Click the “Sort by menu” and select the “Start-up impact” option.
- Turn off the toggle switch for non-prioritized applications.
- Restart your Laptop.
After restarting your laptop, your device should be faster than before. Improvement levels depend on the disabled applications and hardware configuration.
Tip 2: Disable relaunch apps on start-up
Windows 10 has a feature to launch the last session used apps after the restart, even before signing in to the account. This feature has been designed to quickly return to the apps to speed up your working process that can also impact on the performance of the system. You can disable the apps which are re-launching during start-up by following these steps if it is enabled.
- Open Settings > Accounts > Go to Sign-in options
- Under the “Privacy” section, turn off the “Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device and reopen my apps after an update or restart.”
After the completion, currently running apps will no longer reopen during restart. It will speed up the overall performance of the system.
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Tip 3: Disable background apps
There are certain number of apps which performs a number of task in the background continuously even you’re not using them. To increase the performance of the system, either you can disable these background running apps or you can disable the entire feature. Use the below given steps to disable background apps in Laptop.
- Open Settings > Privacy > Background apps
- Turn off the toggle switch for the apps to prevent them from running in the background.
- Also, you can turn off the “Let apps run in the background” toggle switch to disable the entire function.
Once you complete the steps, apps will not waste system resources while remaining unused and improve performance. You can adjust the settings to run traditional desktop apps in the background.
Tip 4: Uninstall non-essential apps
When you purchase a new device, there are many pre-installed no needed Apps, along with the unused bloatware and tools that will also be wasting space and resources of laptop. So, user should uninstall all the unused apps to increase performance of the system. Use the following steps to do so.
- Open Settings > Apps > Apps & features
- Select the app you want to remove.
- Click the “Uninstall” button.
After the completion of the steps, you can remove the non-essential apps from your laptop. If you want to remove Microsoft Store app, then you have to click the “Uninstall” button twice. For uninstalling the traditional apps of the laptop, user may need to continue with the on-screen directions.
Tip 5: Reclaim hard drive space
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Solid-State Drive (SSD) or traditional Disk Hard Drive (HDD), it’s never a good idea to fill up the drive because it’ll affect performance. If you have a reasonably new computer and begin to notice that apps, file copying, and other tasks take longer than usual, one of the reasons could be that the drive is running low on space. Usually, this becomes noticeable after filling up around 70 percent of the total storage capacity. One way to keep the storage from affecting performance is to use Storage Sense to delete unnecessary files to reclaim space. To clean up a drive using Storage Sense, use these steps:
- Open Settings > System > click on Storage
- Under the “Local Disk” section, click the “Temporary files” item.
- Check the files, want to delete.
Quick tip: During selecting the temporary files, selecting the Downloads option will delete entire files in “Downloads” folder. Also, you can delete the “Previous Windows Installation(s)” item.
- Click the Remove files button.
By completing the steps, you can reclaim the storage space and boost the performance of the system. If OneDrive is used, then you can use Files On-demand to free up the space. But it’ll take more time to download again.
Tip 6: Run defragmentation tool
While using an SSD, no such benefits will be found by using the defragmentation tool. But, you are still using a traditional HDD in your laptop, then the use of a defragmentation tool can speed up the system storage by increasing the responsiveness of the system. Follow the below-given steps.
- Open Settings > System > Storage
- Under the “More storage settings” section, click the “Optimize Drives” option.
- Select the “Drive” from the list.
- Click the “Optimize” button.
After completion, the tool will organize the files, so that it will take less time to open. As a result of it, user will get a noticeable improvement in performance.
Tip 7: Enable Ready Boost
If you are still using an older laptop with a traditional rotating platter hard drive, then Ready Boost can be used to increase its performance. Ready Boost is a feature that can be performed by using a removable drives such as a flash drive or SD card, and boosts the overall performance without adding more memory. Connect a USB flash drive and follow the given steps to enable Ready Boost.
Important: In case of using an SSD, you won’t get any benefit by enabling Ready Boost.
- Open File Explorer > This PC from the left pane.
- Under the “Devices and Drives” section, right-click the “USB flash drive,” and select the “Properties” options.
- Click on the “Ready Boost” tab.
Quick tip: If drives can handle Ready Boost, then only specific devices can use the feature. Select Dedicate this device to Ready Boost > Apply >OK
Once it is completed, the removable drive will boost your laptop performance. You need a USB flash drive to apply Ready Boost. And, we, Techvaio, recommend the “SanDisk Extreme Go” for its budget price, reliability, and storage capacity.
Tip 8: Check computer for malware
Sometimes malwares such as spyware, adware, viruses, and other malicious programs are taking lot of system resources like memory, processor, and hard drive for turning your laptop slow. Though every upgradation of Windows provides Windows Defender Antivirus, there is still possibility of malware infection. You should run a full virus scan by following the steps.
- Open Start > Windows Security and click the top result to open the app.
- Click on “Virus & threat protection”.
- Under the “Virus & threat protection updates” section, click the “Check for updates” option.
- Click on “Virus & threat protection” from the left pane.
- Under the “Current threats” section, click the “Scan” options.
- Select the “Full scan” option and click the “Scan now” button.
As you complete the steps, Windows Defender Antivirus will detect and delete malware to boost your laptop performance.
Performing a Windows Defender Offline scan
If Windows Defender Antivirus isn’t able to update, and completing the scan, there may be chances of an aggressive malware that infect your laptop. In this case, you should go for offline scan feature to remove those malwares.
- Open “Start.”
- Search for “Windows Security” and click the top result to open the app.
- Click on “Virus & threat protection.”
- Under the “Current threats” section, click the “Scan” options.
- Select the “Windows Defender Offline scan” option.
- Click the “Scan” button.
It will perform an offline scan to detect threats and then remove them. Your computer will reboot automatically as soon as the scan will be completed.
Tip 9: Install latest update
Installation of the latest updates of system and driver is another way to boost your laptop performance — even sometimes, it might be the reason not to working correctly of your laptop.
Installing Windows Latest updates
Windows is updating automatically. But they don’t install without taking user’s permission. After that, you’re still facing performance problems, then you should manually check whether any update left or not, for which problem is occurred. Use the given steps to check updates manually.
- Open “Settings.”
- Click on “Update & Security.”
- Click on “Windows Update.”
- Click the “Check for updates” button.
- Under the “Optional updates available” section, click the “Download and install” option if any update is available.
- Click the “Restart” now button.
Once you finish the steps, your laptop ask for restarting. As you restart the laptop, it will applying the new version automatically. The new updates should help to boost your laptop performance.
Updating device drivers
Manufacturers are applying pre-release versions of a driver a lot of times to boost the performance through their website support. If your laptop is running slow as for compatibility issues or poor driver design, you might be need to update the drivers manually. Make sure before downloading that it is the latest driver package from manufacturer website and then use the below given steps.
- Open Start > Device Manager and click the top result to open the app.
- Expand the branch for the device you want to update.
- Right-click the device, and select the “Update Driver” option.
- Click the “Browse my computer” for driver software option.
- Under the “Search for drivers in this location” section, click the “Browse” button to select the folder with the newest device driver.
- Click the “Next” button.
- Click the “Close” button.
With the completion of these steps, the newest version of laptop drivers will be installed and it will boost your laptop performance.
Updating apps
Outdated apps can also cause to run your laptop slower due to bugs or compatibility problems. From the Microsoft Store, you can update all the laptop apps either automatically or manually. The new installed updates helps to boost your laptop performance.
Tip 10: Change power plan
Windows provides three power plans, including Power saver, Balanced, and High performance to optimize the power usage of your laptop. You should use the “High performance” option to boost its performance and use more power to run faster. Use the following steps to choose a different power plan on your laptop.
- Open “Control Panel.”
- Click on “Hardware and Sound.”
- Click on “Power Options.”
- Select the “High performance power plan.”
You can also create a custom power plan to boost your laptop performance. “Power mode” can be changed by tapping the battery icon in the notification to boost your laptop performance.
Tip 11: Disable system visual effects
Windows provides many visual effects such as animations, shadow, blur and transparency, reveal highlight to deliver more sophisticated visuals. These effects can improve the interaction between the elements on the screen and user’s eye. Although the required additional system resources isn’t a concern on modern hardware, but, if you want, you can disable these effect to save some resources to boost your laptop performance as much as possible.
How to Disable visual effects in Windows
Use the below given steps to disable animations, shadows, smooth fonts, and other effects.
- Open Settings > System > About
- Under the “Related settings” section, click the “System info” option from the right pane.
- Click the “Advanced system settings” link from the left pane.
- Click the “Advanced tab.”
- Under the “Performance” section, click the “Settings” button.
- Click the “Visual Effects tab.”
- Select the “Adjust for best performance” option to disable all the effects and animations.
Quick tip: Disabling such visual effects will also affect the way fonts are rendered. You can select the Custom option to keep fonts crisp and more readable. It will clear all the settings except the Smooth edges of screen font option.
- Click the “Apply” button.
- Click the “OK” button.
The standard visual effects will disable as you complete all the given steps. Then, the interaction with windows and menus, will feel more responsive.
How to disabling transparency effects on windows 10
Also use the following steps to disable Fluent Design visual effects on Windows.
- Open “Settings”
- Click on “Personalization“
- Click on “Colors”
- Turn off the “Transparency effects” toggle switch.
Not only your laptop feels faster, but it will also free up some system resources as soon as you complete all the steps.
Tip 12: Upgrade to faster drive
After spending time to make every possible settings to boost the performance, you’re still facing slow performance, then it’s time to upgrade old rotating platters HDD drive to an SSD.
Upgrading to an SSD is one of the best things to boost you laptop performance. As Solid-State Drives are built without any moving parts, it will read and write the data faster than HDD. Replacing the HDD with an SSD, Windows will start quicker and an improvement would be noticed in demanding apps launching, and the overall performance will be faster and snappier.
We, Techvaio, recommend the “Samsung 860 EVO” SSD for its reliability, fast performance, and a five-year warranty.
Tip 13: Reset your device
If nothing seems to boost your laptop performance, then you have to go for last option i.e. reset the laptop to start with a fresh and clean OS to improve start-up, battery life, overall performance, and shutdown.
Warning: If you want to keep your files, then a full backup of your laptop should be made to an external drive before doing reset.
- Open “Settings”
- Click on “Update & Security”
- Click on “Recovery”
- Under the “Reset this PC” section, click the “Get started” button.
- Click the “Keep my files” button.
Quick Tip: You can also click the “Remove everything” button to install a clean OS by erasing everything. Review the apps that will be removed, and click the “Reset” button.
After completing these steps, system OS will be reinstalled by removing previous configurations and it will boost laptop performance. If you have select the option to remove everything, then you have to restore files from backup after the reset.
Conclusion
That’s it for now. Walking through 13 different ways provided by us you can speed up, optimize, and improve the performance of your laptop. We, Techvaio, now sure that you have to know how to boost laptop performance by reading this comprehensive information. Finally, if you like our article, please share it with your lovable persons and help them to boost the performance of their old laptops. And you can also suggest some other ways to boost the laptop performance in the comments as we, Techvaio, are always looking forward to do something new.