Does your laptop feel sluggish? Do you have to wait five minutes after rebooting your laptop before it responds? Does it struggle to switch between tabs? Well, before looking for a new laptop try these speed-boosting tricks. Here are 8 ways to speed up your laptop.
Improving the performance of your aging laptop can extend its life by a few years.
Table of Contents
1. Restart your laptop:
In India, everything can be fixed by restarting so why not your PC or laptop? It’s cliché but relevant at the same time. A modern laptop is reliable and can be put in sleep mode to save power. there’s no reason to turn it off unless you’re installing a Windows update or troubleshooting.
Give it a try, turn it off and turn it on using the power button. It might start working perfectly.
2. Check your Internet connection:
Most tasks that you regularly perform on your laptop require an internet connection. Web browsing, Netflix, online gaming all require a healthy internet connection. A slow connection can drag down performance.
So you can check your internet connection with a speed test utility like speedtest.net. Run the test a few times to check the download, upload speed. Also, take note of wild swings in performance between tests. That’s a sign of your internet connection being unreliable.
3. Free up RAM:
Your PC or laptop’s Random Access Memory(RAM) is short-term memory. It keeps track of active applications and the data they need. A laptop that runs out of RAM must instead draw data directly from the hard drive.
You can see active programs and the memory they consume. You can launch this from Windows search or by pressing Control+ Alt+ Delete on your keyboard and selecting Task Manager from that menu that appears. Freeing up RAM with Task Manager is a temporary fix. It can help you root our RAM hogs, but it’s likely the apps you had open were open for a reason.
Still, this can work while you search for alternative apps that use less memory or while you plan a RAM upgrade.
4. Free up your Hard Drive:
Your laptop’s hard drive is long-term memory and will cause problems if filled up. You will notice general malice and won’t be able to install any new applications. This happens because many apps, and Windows itself, need a bit of space to store temporary files.
You can check your laptop’s storage by opening Windows’ Settings -> System -> Storage. Windows will display a bar graph showing how much storage is left. The same menu will also provide a list of how your storage is used. Mostly, apps and features take up more space so uninstalling large apps is the most effective way to free up space.
5. Run Windows update:
Windows update may improve performance by updating your laptop’s drivers or installing a new version of Windows.
By default, your laptops should run Windows update regularly, which means you won’t have to update the installs. However, if it doesn’t update itself, you can do so manually by opening the Windows settings menu-> Updates & Security. This will update your system. Download and install pending updates, most updates require you to restart the laptop to finish the installation.
6. Reset Windows:
Resetting Windows is an extreme step but often helps with performance issues. You’re effectively returning the laptop to its factory-default settings. This can resolve application, Windows configuration, and device driver issues that are causing a performance problem.
To do so open the Windows Setting app-> Updates & Security-> Recovery. Click on “Reset this PC” which is at the top of the menu. Press Get Started and then follow the on-screen instructions.
Make sure to back up all important files before you reset Windows. Reset on older devices may take some time.
7. Clean Startup Applications:
A fresh start lets you see what applications launch when your laptop boots into Windows. Many applications are designed to launch when Windows loads and they tend to pile up over time. A large pile of startup apps can slow down your device.
You can do so by going to the Settings app -> Apps from -> Startup. Toggles next to each app let you enable or disable them. Most applications will appear in this list but some may not. You can disable these apps the old-fashioned way with the Windows system configuration application.
8. Upgrade your laptop’s RAM:
The last on the list, to speed up your laptop, is upgrading RAM. If your laptop is still sluggish then a hardware upgrade could be your only hope. Adding RAM will fix the slow performance caused by limited RAM capacity. While you can close programs to free up space, adding more RAM is best for a long-term solution.
However, this isn’t always possible. Modern laptops may permanently fix RAM to the mainboard or may seal the laptop in a way that it becomes difficult. Check your laptop manual to find out whether an upgrade is possible or not.
I hope these ways will help you to speed up your laptop. If it was helpful then do let us know in the comments down below. Also, if you’re interested in similar articles then here are a few recommendations for you guys.
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