How To Speed Up Computer

Imagine only ten seconds left for the New Year, and you are all set for the "New YEAR
Wishes" post. The countdown began, and OOPS! What happened?. Your system
suddenly falls out of speed, and your post missed the countdown. It is such a frustrating
moment to begin with the New Year. Such slow speed systems frustrate the mind
deeply and irritate a lot. But, there can be several precautions we can take to preserve
our system from such vulnerable happenings.

Here, we will discuss the points and ways you can speed up your slow-performance
system or prevent your system from poor speed and performance.

Ways to Speed Up Computer

We can follow the below steps to improve the speed and performance of the system:

1. Restart your system: It is the foremost step one can take when you find your system
running slow. Restarting a computer helps to improve speed. The restart option is
available in the Power option with other options. Also, you can use Alt+F4 keys to
directly select the restart option from the dropdown list and click OK. Below, snippet
shows an example to restart a Windows 10 system:

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2. Reset or restore the system: Reset or Restoring is the process of setting the things
back to its original look. Resetting a computer system means to eliminate the issues that
are making the system slow and poor. Although the reset method erases all the changes
we made to the system until now, it upgrades the system and its performance.

How to reset:

To reset the system, open Windows Settings>Update & Security>Recovery in

Windows 10, as shown below:
When we reset the system, we get two options, i.e., to restore and save all the files or
folders or restore without saving the files and folders. Choose the appropriate option
and continue to the system restore.

3. Update Windows and Drivers to the latest versions: Always update the Windows
to its latest version because it leads to a better performing system. Check for the
Windows updates and the system will automatically find the latest drivers.,

How to check for updates

o Windows 10

In Windows 10, automatic updations are done. You can check the updates through Start
> Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Check for Updates.
Check for the available updates, if any, and install them. Restart the computer for better
performance

o Other Windows versions

Go to the Control Panel of the system. Click the System and Security option and then
Windows Update option. The system will show the required updates (if any) and install
them.
4. Open only required programs or apps because if so many apps or programs are
open on the system, it slows down the system's speed. More number of programs open
means that more RAM will be occupied. So, close those programs or apps which are not
required will help improve the system speed.

5. Remove temporary files from the system: These files are the unwanted ones, so
delete them from the system because they occupy the hard drive space unnecessarily.

How to delete:

To delete the temp files from the system, there are the following ways:

o Use Windows Disk Cleanup for deleting the temp as well as other unwanted files
from the system. Select the drive which you want to clean and click OK, as shown
below:

o Type %temp% either on the search bar (near start menu) or in the Run field (by

pressing Window button+R together). Press OK.

A temp folder will open, delete all the files as shown below:
 In case, any file is in use, skip such files. The %temp% command deletes the local
temporary files.
o Type TEMP on the search bar or in the Run field. A Temp folder will open, as
shown below:
Select all files and delete them. If some files in use, skip such files. The TEMP command
deletes the Windows temporary files.

Removing the temp files from the system saves much hard disk memory and improves
the system's speed and performance.

6. Disable the unwanted startup programs: The startup programs begin in the

background automatically whenever we start our computer system. We need to disable
such programs. However, we never determine that some programs are unnecessarily
executing in the background. We need to find out the programs and disable them if not
required.

How to find and disable:

We can use any of the below-described methods to find the overall running startup
programs and disable the unwanted one:
 o Windows 10: Click on the Start button>Settings>Apps>Startup. Select the
programs which are unwanted and set to disable by right-clicking on the
corresponding status of the app, as shown below:

o For other versions of Windows, including Windows 10, the best method to
disable the startup programs is to use Task Manager. Open Task Manager
using Ctrl+Alt+Delete keys together. Select Startup and choose the programs
you want to disable and set to disable.

7. Defragmentation of Hard Drive: Defragmentation is the process of arranging the

unorganized bits of data into sequential and accessible blocks on the hard drive so as to
optimize them. Doing this, filters out the unused free space in the hard drive and speed
up the system. Mostly the causes of the fragmented hard drive are large files such as
videos, heavy software, or games. Thus, defragmentation helps to upgrade the
performance of the computer system. In Windows 10, 8, or 7, the defragmentation
option is scheduled automatically, i.e., once per week. But, there is a manual option of
defragmentation also available.

How to Defragment:

To defragment a file, type 'Defragment' on the search bar and below shown window will
open up:

Optimize the drive by fragmenting them.

8. Scan for viruses and malware: Virus and malware are the malicious programs that
eat up the computer and make it hollow from inside. You should always try to prevent
your system from such disasters. Make a monthly check-up of your system and scan for
such malicious programs. You can use antimalware or antivirus software as precaution.
These antivirus and antimalware are used for the prevention and scan of the viruses (if
any). Every Windows version contains Windows Security, which known as Windows
Defender Security Center. It can be used for the virus or malware scans.

Open Windows Defender Security Center> Virus & Threats, as shown below:

Check and scan for the threats.

9. Stop or Pause OneDrive Synchronization: OneDrive allows storing files and folders

to stay away from attacks or system failure. For storing the files, you need to sync files
between your system and OneDrive and sync makes the speed slow. Thus, we need to
pause or stop the syncing of OneDrive to improve speed and performance.

How to Stop or Pause OneDrive Sync:

To stop the synchronization, one needs to follow the below steps:

Step 1: Open OneDrive on the system.

Step 2: Select More > Pause Syncing.

Step 3: Select the time until when one wants to pause the synchronization.

Step 4: Finally, restart the system and feel the improved speed and performance of the
system as shown below where we have directly opened OneDrive from "Show Hidden
Icons":

If one doesn't feel any change or improvement in the speed and performance, resume
the synchronization by again opening the OneDrive > More > Resume Syncing.

10. Disable the web browser extensions: In some systems, it is seen that when it is not
connected with the internet, it works smoothly and efficiently. But, as it gets connected
to the internet, the speed slows down, and performance degrades. The reason behind it
is the plug-ins, add-ons, notifications, or extensions. Disable such plug-ins if not
required.

11. Manage the animation and Visual Effects: Animations and other visual effects also
impact the speed, and it becomes essential to manage if the RAM of your system is too
limited. Adjust the performance and visual effects for the best performance option.

How to Adjust:

o To adjust the graphics and animations, open the Control

Panel>System>Advanced System Settings and then in
the Performance section, click on Settings as shown below:
o A Performance Options window will open, as shown below: