How to speed up computer
In the following chapters, we will show you both how to optimize the main operating systems available for PCs and some tricks and improvements that can be applied to any computer to speed it up, so that you can start the operating system and programs as if we were using a new computer.
Optimize the system
As for the optimizations to be done on the system in use, we have already explained in other articles what the operations to do are. Speaking of Windows PCs, we can read the guides below:
- Speed up Windows 7
- Speed up Windows 8
- Speed up Windows 10
Obviously, we choose the guide that best suits our operating system, so we can optimize it effectively. In addition to the advice expressed in the guides above, we also recommend turning off animated effects, to limit the Windows Indexing Service, and to configure power management options so as not to limit performance.
If we have a Mac or a MacBook we can optimize the macOS system by reading the advice in the guide Speed up MacOS and avoid slowdowns.
Improve the hardware
Speeding up the PC depends, however, on how the computer is built, and, in particular, on how much RAM it has, on the type of internal processor, and on the disk. In this regard, we must consider two important factors related to computer hardware that can be improved to speed up the PC.
- Add RAM it is possible in almost every desktop and laptop computer, it costs quite inexpensive and gives a huge benefit. RAM is the memory of the computer and a PC with little memory is always slow when opening more than one or two programs at a time or more than 10 browser tabs. RAM is one of the most important components of the computer and, in order to keep up, we recommend that you bring all our PCs to at least 8GB of RAM. We wrote an article about it, explaining how much RAM to buy.
- Install an SSD it’s the best hardware upgrade you can do on a computer. The most frequent cause of slowness for a computer is the traditional mechanical disk (also called hard disk or hard disk) which is slower than any memory or processor, creating a significant bottleneck. We know the difference between a hard disk and an SSD so if we want to speed up a computer, whatever it is, it is necessary to replace the hard disk with an SSD, which is possible on every desktop PC and even on some laptops (putting the SSD instead of the DVD player). If our computer is recent we can also examine the new ones M.2 NVMe memories, even faster and more performing! We talked about it in our guide What M.2 SSDs are, how they mount and where to buy them.
- As for the processor, this cannot be changed as easily as it was a RAM memory or a disk. In general, we can say that if the PC is slow when using advanced graphics and 3D programs, video editing, and modern video games, then the problem is almost certainly in the processor.
Today the processor is only really important for gamers or those who need a lot of processing capacity for particular programs, but it is not decisive for the speed of operations if you surf the Internet or use common programs such as Word or Excel. However, if we want to find out what processor we have and how to change it, we suggest you read our guides See which CPU we have in the PC (model and speed) is How to change PC processor.
Optimize memory, disk, and processor usage through software
To speed up the PC, before maintenance activities, you can use programs that can optimize the use of resources on the computer. In particular, we have seen the best free automatic programs to optimize your PC in another article, like IObit Advanced System Care or Glary utilities.
The best way to optimize the use of RAM memory on a PC is, of course, to avoid occupying all the RAM memory of the PC and therefore slow down performance is to check the automatic start of programs and uninstall programs you no longer use.
We then saw how to optimize disk usage by the programs also advised doing, from time to time, a check for errors on the hard disk or ScanDisk.
To optimize the use of the processor via software, however, there are some tricks to prevent the CPU from being used at 100% by slowing down the computer.
Windows maintenance
Obviously, any computer will be slow if Windows is filled with useless and heavy programs that all remain in the background if it becomes full of junk files because programs are not uninstalled well and, above all, if the PC is full of adware if not viruses and malware. Basic computer maintenance operations are important to speed up your PC when it gets slow and also to maintain high performance over time.
To resume driving on how to do computer maintenance and fix Windows, let’s see what are the fundamental operations:
- Update your PC and install Windows updates, always, to have all the fixed patches.
- Uninstall the programs that are no longer used.
- Manage the automatic start of programs
- Delete unnecessary files, perhaps even with the help of a program like Ccleaner, which is always useful in tracking down and deleting obsolete and temporary files.
- Defragment and optimize mechanical disks or SSDs; in the latter case, they should only be optimized with TRIM and not defragmented.
- Be sure you don’t have any malware and viruses on your computer by running one malware scan with Malwarebytes and remove plugins or adware that slow down your PC using a program like ADWCleaner. Obviously, an updated antivirus must always be active on the computer; we can also use Microsoft Defender, as also seen in the guide How to use “Windows Defender” antivirus.
Reset Windows
If the computer has been running for many years or we just bought a new computer full of useless programs, we can get it back to an original performance by following the guide on how to reset Windows and reset it to return to the initial settings and remove all programs in one go, while still keeping your personal files.
In particular, it is very easy to reset Windows 10, where there is also an alternative option for the clean up of your PC of all programs.
Conclusions
By carefully following all the advice shown above we will be able to speed up the PC to the maximum, even if it has a few years on its shoulders: in fact, it is enough to increase the RAM memory to at least 8GB, install an SSD and perform some optimizations to always have a performing PC even after years of use.
If the computer does not start anymore or gives several problems at startup we advise you to read our guides If the PC does not turn on, how to fix it and If the computer does not start anymore or gives several problems at startup we advise you to read our guides If your PC won’t turn on, how to fix it is Boot CD and PC boot repair rescue disk.
