Your laptop may be old, but you don’t have to let its performance tell the story. There are many things you can do to make your machine run faster, which means you can save time and energy as well as get more done in less time. Try these tricks next time your laptop starts to act slow and sluggish.
1) Shut Down Unnecessary Programs
It sounds simple enough, but by shutting down unnecessary programs and just letting your computer run when you need it, you can greatly increase the performance of your laptop. There are many things running in the background on a laptop that don’t need to be there, so just removing some of these programs can speed up your laptop significantly. One of the simplest ways is to make sure no more than two or three programs are running at a time and close any programs that aren’t in use before shutting down. Another way is simply waiting for an application you want to use rather than opening it up all the time—it will run faster if it doesn’t have anything else competing with it for processor time.
2) Turn Off Animations
I have one trick that I know will always boost the performance of any laptop. In your settings, head to Control Panel and then choose System. Once you’re there, click on Advanced System Settings. This is where you’ll find all sorts of tricks for boosting your computer’s speed. All you need to do is click on the button labeled Performance on the left. When the window pops up, click on the tab labeled Settings. Inside here you’ll see four different buttons: Visual Effects, Programs, Detail Programs, and Background Services. Select whichever tabs take up too much processing power for your machine and hit them with a slider bar all the way down in order to cut back on CPU usage by disabling animation effects.
3) Remove Unwanted Startup Programs
1. Click the Windows button and press R key on your keyboard to open the Run window. Type in msconfig and hit Enter. Then, from the Startup tab, you can disable any program that loads automatically on startup.
2. Clean out old temporary files with CCleaner by pressing Win+E > Run > %temp% folder . Repeat the process with cleanmgr (Clean up system files) by typing it into the command prompt like so: cmd > cleanmgr > OK.
4) Clean Out Junk Files
1. Disable browser extensions, plug-ins, and toolbars
2. Perform a full system virus scan
3. Use a faster browser
4. Update your OS and computer drivers with the latest versions
5. Make sure you’re not running unnecessary apps in the background
6. Clean up your desktop by deleting unneeded files and folders
7. Defragment your hard drive
5) Enable Power Saving Modes
The first thing you should do is see if your laptop has a power saving mode. If it does, try that and see if it speeds up your laptop. If it doesn’t, go into the settings on your laptop and look for the battery options. In those settings there will be an option called Maximum Battery Life. Change this setting to something more ideal like Good battery life or Balanced. These can make a huge difference in how quickly your battery runs out. If neither of these work then you need to start looking at a more extreme solution. The other settings on your laptop might also contribute to its speed, so don’t just try changing one without considering all of them as well.
6) Get Rid of Resource Hog Programs
Some programs on your computer can be resource hogs, or programs that use up so much of your computer’s resources (such as RAM and processing power) that other programs are slowed down. Programs like Google Chrome can hog a lot of memory. To fix this, you should close these types of programs if you’re not using them, or only open one at a time. You might also consider downloading and installing software called Task Manager which will allow you to see what program is using the most resources on your machine and get rid of it.
7) Update All Drivers and Applications
The best way to boost up your laptop performance is by updating all drivers and applications. This can be done through the Programs and Features section in the Control Panel. Make sure you update every driver for everything that you have plugged into your laptop, including any wireless mouse or keyboard receiver if you have one plugged in. Also, make sure to run Windows Update on a regular basis so that it will automatically update any other necessary drivers when they become available.
8) Optimize Windows Settings
How often do you clean your computer? Running a quick registry scan and removing junk from your laptop are simple ways to speed up the performance. You can also tweak Windows settings for more drastic changes. One option is disabling any unnecessary hardware, such as built-in microphones or webcams, which can make it easy for cybercriminals to access your information by recording video with these devices. Remember, if you’re not using something, turn it off! Use fetch instead of refresh in Safari: The browser will fetch new data instead of asking Google or other sources to do so every time you go back through a site like Facebook or Reddit. This will significantly speed up page load times.
9) Defragment the Hard Drive
Doing this will ensure that all the hard drive data is stored on one side of the disk and so the laptop performance is significantly improved. This is because with its hard drive spread out over two areas, it has to keep moving back and forth between them. And every time it does this, it slows down your laptop. So, first you need to install a good free software for defragmenting hard drives which will take care of this task for you – a software like Piriform Defraggler or something similar. Once installed, run it and then set up automatic updates at least once a month or so, then let it do its work overnight while you’re sleeping!
10) Install an SSD (if possible).
An SSD may not be in your budget, but it can make a world of difference. The hard drive on your laptop is primarily responsible for affecting performance. If you are using a laptop with a mechanical hard drive (spinning disks), then the time it takes to get information from one spot on the disk to another will have an impact on performance. Having all that weight bouncing around inside creates friction and heat which causes degradation of data—and is an energy drain.