How to Fix a Slow Computer – Quick & Effective Steps to Speed Up Your PC

Working on a sluggish PC can be an annoying experience. However, most of these slow computer issues can be sorted on your own, for free. Reading this article can prove to be a lifesaver for you if you’re wondering on how to fix a slow computer. The next time your computer lags or takes forever to boot, you will have all the solutions on hand.

Just so that you know, there are many crucial reasons that hinder your computer to work swiftly. Below we will walk through all the potential solutions that can fix a Slow Computer.

How to fix a slow computer: Quick Tips

Before we go into details, certain tips that can be fruitful for a slow PC. These are the certain and easiest things you should try before going into in-depth solutions.

• Restart your PC: Give your computer a chance to clear its RAM, rebooting your PC is one of the most useful ways of solving the problem.
• Close Apps: In Windows, many applications run in the background and takes a slice from the resources, make sure none of them are active in the notification tray. Applications such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, Discord, etc. sustain in the background. We can simply close these apps by right-clicking on the app icon and select exit/quit.
• Pause OneDrive Sync: This is something that can stall down your machine. You can Pause OneDrive by simply clicking on the OneDrive icon in the notification tray, choose More Setting and then Click on Pause Syncing.
• Turn on Storage Sense: Another thing to do is to check if you’re running okay on the storage space. If your HDD or SSD is running out of storage space, it could be the reason for your sluggish PC. You should also try testing your drive, check if your drive is running in good health.

Now, if you have tried the above tips and they did not help then let us move to the serious stuff. Here we have discussed some of the most useful solutions to fix your slow PC. They will surely help:

1. Disable Unnecessary Startup Apps
2. Terminate Resource Eating Programs
3. Uninstalling Useless Programs
4. Defragmentation of Disk
5. Perform Disk Cleanup
6. Scan For Malware
7. Upgrade RAM
8. Expand Storage, Switch to SSD
9. Adjust Graphics & Animations
10. Buy a New Computer

As we communicated earlier, many applications run in the background and take a slice of resources, this can be a possible reason for your PC to behave sluggishly on the startup.

It is better to disable apps which you use on purpose and are not required at all the times such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, etc.

To disable those apps, simply right-click on the Taskbar and open the Task Manager.

Next, move to the Startup tab, you will see a list of applications that launch on startup. Right-click on the unused app and click disable.

At times there are certain applications that start consuming most of your resources due to some internal issue e.g., memory leak.

Thus, we need to find these problematic apps and ‘end task’ them to keep our PC performance intact.

So, Task Manager is the place to look for,

Right-click on the Taskbar and open the Task Manager. The Task Manager will be showing you a list of apps that are currently being run.

Click More details, a more detailed list of resource utilization will appear covering all the crucial components such as CPU, Memory, Disk, Network, and GPU utilization.

The apps and background processes that are eating your resources will normally be at the top of the list. However, you should scroll down to see every app’s utilization measure and then kill apps from the Task Manager which are the culprit simply by right-clicking them and clicking end task.

Another good practice to follow, with time we install different programs and now they do not fulfill our purpose, or we don’t use those programs now. So, if there is some program that is useless and is not needed in the future such programs should be uninstalled from the computer.

These unneeded programs can be a reason for your lazy computer because they must be consuming disk space and might be running in the background or launching on the startup.

So, it’s good to get rid of these programs here how:

Go to Control Panel by simply searching on the Search Bar,

Change the view of the Control Panel to the category than under Program’s tab Click on Uninstall a program.

Then locate a useless program and just right-click on it and select Uninstall. Done!

Note: if you are using the latest version of Windows or your PC runs on SSD storage then there is no need for defragmentation because the latest versions of Windows do defragmentation automatically in the background.

However, defragmentation is utilized to set data in one place. In contrast, fragmentation disperses the files and data, this formulates an issue where the computer has to take more time to find data.

Here defragmentation comes in as it optimizes the whole thing and improves throughput and calls for efficient use of the computer.

In order to perform defragmentation of your disk, Go to My Computer and right-click on the disk you want to defragment and click on Properties, and then move to Tools. Under ‘Optimize and defragment drive’ – Click Optimize.

Now a list showing the disks installed will appear. Select the desired drive and Click on Analyze option to determine the fragmentation percentage (if below 10%, no need for defragmentation). Click the Optimize option to start the defragmenting of the drive.

Another solution that can prove to be a great deal, Windows comes with its preinstalled Disk, Storage Cleanup tools.

By using these tools, you will be able to delete any temporary files, Thumbnails, Delivery Optimization Files, and perform Windows Update Cleanup.

To perform a Cleanup, Type ‘Storage settings’ in the Search Bar and open it.

Choose the Temporary Files option and check the files you want to delete and click Remove files.

By doing so, you will be able to free a lot of storage space, and your computer will probably work swiftly and efficiently in the future.

Malicious software or files could be another possibility for your PC to act laggy. By Malware, we mean a collective of viruses, worms, trojan, ransomware, and spyware. Malware is something that can make your computer vulnerable as well as can impact the performance par of PC.

So, we recommend you scan your PC using Antivirus software. We can use the preinstalled Windows Security tool for this purpose which can work effectively.

Go to Windows Security > Virus & Threat Protection and Run Full Scan.

Another fix can be upgrading your PC’s components, specifically, adding new memory sticks can be a lifesaver.

Many programs use too much of your RAM resource (as we know Chrome can be a criminal) moreover when users are running several programs simultaneously, it can create an issue if you don’t have enough RAM and technically you will be running out of memory and can cause a sluggish PC.

Random Access Memory (RAM) is crucial, used by the computer at runtime. So running out of Memory is a big No-No!

Therefore, adding a few RAM sticks will keep things smooth and you will be able to multitask quickly.

A pro-tip here, replacing an HDD with SSD could be the best solution because SSDs are faster and reliable than conventional HDDs.

If your computer takes ages to boot, then surely you need to opt for an SSD. Hard Disk Drives (HDD) have masses of moving parts and can take a lifetime to ignite.

In contrast, A Solid-State Drive (SSD) has flash memory and has better read/write cycles and is way more reliable.

Another thing of great concern is if you are running low on storage.

Yes, if your drive is low on free space, it could be a reason for your computer slow speed.

Apparently, a computer running out of storage space is bound to run slower and has the provided audacity to freeze at times. So, expanding the storage is the right thing to do!

With the recent variants of Windows, the operating systems have evolved a great deal in Graphical Interface and Animations. This surely makes the UI look refined and stylish, but a user needs an overall sense, not just the graphics or animations. So, changing the Graphics and Animations preferences according to the capabilities of your computer can be problem-solving.

To do so, simply type ‘Performance Options‘ in the Search Bar, a pop-up will appear then simply choose your preferred preference and click OK.

Despite walking through all the above solutions and still, you did not find peace. There is a chance that your machine is outdated or is not compatible enough with the newer variants of Windows, not enough to handle today’s age software.

These days computers come in an affordable range, so we recommend you opt for a new mid-range device instead of sticking with the current one. You should really think about this because it will be a great fix to all the problems you are facing right now.

Although we have talked much about all the possible fixes to the problems, you’re facing still nothing should be kept unsaid. A few more tips for you which can be helpful,

• Update your Windows – Updating to the latest version of Windows can be useful, as updates include security patches, operating system revisions, device drivers, performance improvements, and newer features. We recommend updating your Windows as if you are not missing anything!
• Cleaning Tool – It can be helpful if you download a free cleaning utility such as CCleaner or Ace Utilities. Because it can help cleaning junk files and can optimize the performance of the computer.
• Overheating can cause problems as it slows the overall computing, look if your processor and other components are running on good temperature measures, a big reason for the overheating can be dust. With time the cooling fans get dusty and clog the overall heat management of the system. So, it is about time that you should realize to vacuum your PC, keeping your system temperature normal, and performance intact.
• One thing to do is to install the Official Assistant Application of the computer brand you are using like SupportAssist by Dell, Intel Driver and Support Assistant, HP Support Assistant, etc.

What is the best free antivirus?

Apparently, the preinstall Windows Security Tool works perfectly and comes free with Windows.

However, there are several good free Antivirus software available:

1. Avira Antivirus: Award-winning software for Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS.
2. Avast Antivirus: The best free Antivirus software, top-product 2020.
3. AVG Antivirus: Award-Winning Protection.

What is the best software to clean up my computer to make it run faster?

PC Cleaners are one of the most useful software you should keep, as they can provide a modest but striking performance boost. These are the best cleanup solutions or utilities you should try:

1. Iolo System Mechanic.
2. Restoro.
3. Piriform CCleaner.
4. Ace Utilities by Acelogix.

Closing Thoughts:

We tried our best to tell you about all the good things that can be done to improve your sluggish computer. And we made sure that you get your solution or piece of advice at least. A sluggish PC can be annoying, to avoid getting annoyed with colorless performance, it is a good idea to keep the list of above tips/solutions as a convenient checklist!

Thanks for reading, we hope you find this article informative and helpful!

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