Introduction
Why is my Laptop so Slow? Here’s How to Fix it, When you first got your laptop, it loaded every website with lightning speed, and you spent hours working, binge-watching the newest series, or playing games while staring at that enormous cinematic screen. Every time you took it out of your bag in public, it gave you an indescribable feeling of happiness. The unfortunate truth is that every wonderful story has a rough patch, and as the years passed, your laptop’s engine began to become clogged with useless files, bugs, and cache information. Sincerely, there is nothing more irritating than a sluggish laptop that takes an eternity to open a single window. However, we’ve painstakingly developed a list of tested hacks that will lubricate your computer’s corroding engine and allow it to resume operating at top speed.
Here’s How to Fix it
1. Disable Startup Programs
When you press the power button on your laptop, if it takes a long time to start up, there may be too many programs running at once. This could include background-running apps, antivirus software, or system processes. giving your CPU a tremendous amount of work, which will negatively affect the loading speed.
You can find and forcibly terminate those pointless programs by carrying out the following actions: Right-click the Task Bar and select Task Manager, or press CTRL+ Shift + Escape, to access the Task Manager.
There will be a popup that appears with a list of all background programs. Look carefully through the list for applications that have a large startup impact but are not system software. Disable the software by performing a right-click.
If you’re not sure of the purpose of the software, you can right-click on the application to check the properties or file location.
Why is my Laptop so Slow? Here’s How to Fix it, Alternatively, you can hit the Google search bar for answers, so you don’t end up shooting yourself in the foot. Freeing up your computer’s RAM during startup will give it much-needed room to process files quickly.
Additionally, closing all programs before putting your laptop to sleep is a healthy way of speeding up your system booting process. And that brings us to another big step to turbo charge your computer.
2. Uninstall Unused Apps
You must have downloaded and installed a number of programs that you hardly ever use at some point or another. Others are pre-installed programs, while others are occasionally used and then deleted. Each of these programs consumes a sizable amount of storage space and degrades CPU speed, which may cause your computer to lag. These programs will always release more system resources for optimum performance after being uninstalled or deleted.
You can take the following actions to clear off unneeded apps that are slowing down your CPU:
Press the “Start” key.
Open the Settings program.
Go to Apps, then choose Apps and Features.
Apps that consume system resources and storage space should be removed.
As a general rule, you should refrain from deleting any software for Windows or Mac OS that lists Microsoft or Apple as its publisher. Additionally, a tool like PC Decrapfier might be helpful in illuminating the significance of each program so you don’t unintentionally remove a crucial system software.
3. Make Disk Space Available
This is the first step that comes to mind when you’re looking to fix up a slow-running laptop. Large files which constitute videos, audio, and games can limit the space used by your processor to ensure a glitch-free performance.
If your storage space hits the red zone i.e 90%-99% full, your computer wouldn’t be able to perform tasks and will lag through every window.
Sometimes we could be guilty of leaving big files like movies that we enjoyed and convinced ourselves to believe that we would re-watch.
An alternative measure would be to move the big files you feel you might need later to an external storage like a flash drive or upload it to a Cloud Storage like Google Drive or Dropbox.
Furthermore, invoking the powers of tools like CCleaner can help crawl through your system drive to dig up hidden files, junk files, cache data, etc.
It can also run scans to show you applications you barely use, this is a hands-free way of managing your files.
Plus, you can bank on a Microsoft disk cleanup program to do the job neatly. To do this follow the steps below:
- Type Disk Cleanup in your windows search bar.
- A dialogue box will pop up with a drop-down menu
- Click on the driver you want to clean up
- Tick all the boxes of files you wish to delete
- Hit the Start button and wait for a few minutes
It’s advisable to keep your storage space within 75% to 80% full to leave enough space for your system RAM to operate efficiently.
4. Scan for viruses & malware
Malicious malware and viruses are the only things that can truly make a CPU stutter. It acts like a parasite that spreads through all applications like a virus until the computer is hardly able to function.
The internet, software downloads, flash drives, and other hardware sources are all potential sources. Your system is under assault if it performs slowly, crashes frequently, has a slow internet connection, loses disk space mysteriously, or displays intrusive pop-up adverts.
There are solutions you may use to remove the malware and speed up your laptop if your machine is already compromised. Malware attacks can be thwarted and eliminated with the use of a variety of antivirus programs, both free and paid.
5. Update the OS and the drivers
Keeping your operating system and drivers up to date is recommended. You will receive software upgrades from Windows or Mac OS on a regular basis that serve to improve system performance and squelch system issues.
If your laptop is running slowly, it may be because your system is using an out-of-date operating system and set of drivers. Follow these steps to upgrade your OS:
Press the Start button.
Go to Settings, then select Update and Security. If Windows Update is available, download it.
Most of the time, Drivers Update comes packaged in the Windows Update, but if for any reason you wish to manually update your drivers follow the steps below:
- Enter Device Manager in the Windows search box
- Select Device Manager
- Navigate to the device you want to update
- Search for updated driver software and update
If you couldn’t find any driver updates, you can look up your manufacturer’s website and download any updates. Regularly updating your browser and applications can also add much-needed life to your computer and ensure a glitch-free performance.
6. Upgrade Hardware
You may improve your hardware in two different ways: by switching from a hard drive to an SSD and by upgrading your RAM.
Your system will run much faster after switching from a hard drive to a solid state drive (SSD), making all operations simple and quick, from booting to shutting down. Many laptops use SSDs, whereas others use mechanical hard drives that are more common.
It gives your processor the extra power it needs to run demanding software, multitask, improve gaming, and load programs more quickly. In terms of speed and effective workflow, work-from-home nomads will find SSD equipped laptops to be a lifesaver in particular. You can also improvise with an external drive if you’re using an older laptop that doesn’t support SSD or don’t want to spend the money on one.
7. Disable Animation and Special Effects
For the best user experience, Windows animations and special effects produce a highly realistic, vibrant, and immersive interface. The drawback is that these animations and fancy effects use a lot of system resources and can cause your processor to lag. It’s time to press the big red button if you can live without the flawless animations and images and their bells and whistles.
The following steps can be used to disable animations and special effects:
Visit the Control Panel.
Choose System and Security.
Select System.
Select performance from Advanced system performance after finding it.
Adjust for best performance to turn off all effects, or select each one to uncheck the ones you don’t need.
8. Change Power Saving
You get the best of both worlds in terms of performance and battery life because your laptop’s power settings are by default precisely balanced to Balanced(recommended).
You must change the power option to High Performance to extract more power to speed up your laptop, but keep in mind that doing so will reduce battery life. The Power Saver power plan, the alternative, is only helpful when your battery is running low because it restricts your processor to save energy. Do the following to change the power setting: Visit the Control Panel.
Find Hardware and Sound and choose Power Saver
9. Clear up the hard drive’s clutter
Your hard drive becomes fragmented or dispersed over several memory locations when you store files on it. Your processor will take longer to organize the pieces of a single file as a result, slowing it down.
In this situation, defragmentation is important. File organization and compilation for quick processing and efficiency are aided by defragmentation.
There is a predetermined schedule for defragmentation in more current and sophisticated Windows updates like Windows 11 and Windows 10, but you can also choose to do it manually.
It’s important to note that we simply defrag the hard drive because it distributes the memory of data due to its rotating platter disk. However, this stands in stark contrast to SSDs.
10. Terminate Background-Running Programs
Some apps tend to consume RAM space while running in the background of your system, sometimes without your knowledge. This results in slow performance. While some of them, like system programs, might be helpful, others might be overtaxing your processor even while not in use. To find those apps and kill them so they can only run when needed, use the Task Manager tab. The Task Manager acts as your personal assistant, helping you keep an eye on every application running on your computer as well as the memory, network, and system resources that are being consumed.
11. Delete Cookies and Cache Data from Web Browsers
Have you ever seen a pop-up ask you to click a “OK” or “Accept” button to save the website’s cookies when you first visit a website? You have, I’m sure. Additionally, I think you opened your browser to examine the last website you loaded, even though there was no internet connection. This is as a result of the page having been cached. It’s possible that a backlog of cached data and cookies from the websites you’ve visited over time is the cause of your poor surfing speed. Your personal information and browsing history are stored on websites in cookies, whilst a temporary web page file is represented by cache data.
12. Remove bloatware applications
Bloatware apps are a collection of programs that your manufacturer preinstalls on your device. While many of them take up CPU time and storage space, some of them can be valuable. To make space for other programs, it would be better if you deleted them. You may get rid of bloatware apps by following these steps:
Press the “Start” key.
visit apps
Remove the bloatware app by selecting it with the right click
Despite the fact that some bloatware applications may not appear in the start menu, you would need to do the following:
Search for Add or remove programs on Windows 11 or 10
Check each application on the list for bloatware.
Install the application by selecting it with the right click
Conclusion
You might try reinstalling your operating system if your laptop is still running slowly, but keep in mind that doing so will clear the system memory. Resetting your laptop will return it to the condition it was in when you initially purchased it. Before doing this, it would be prudent to back up your contents to an external drive or online storage. However, if the issue continues, you’ll need to spend money on a new laptop for smooth operation. Here is a guide to assist you in selecting the greatest laptops for
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