As the government implements aggressive measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees around the world are finding themselves working from home. The last obstacle employees want to face is a slow computer. Hence, here are 10 quick fixes to improve PC performance:
- Check your startup programs: Disable unnecessary startup programs in Task Manager.
- Use the disk clean-up utility: Search for “Disk Cleanup” from the taskbar or Start menu’s search box. Choose the drive you want to clean up and let it do its magic.
- Adjust your restart settings: When your computer restarts automatically because of a system or program update, Windows 10 will try to reopen everything that was open on the desktop before the shutdown. If you find it annoying, turn it off in restart settings.
- Remove bloatware and superfluous apps: Unload the apps that you never or rarely use, including bloatware applications that came preinstalled on your PC.
- Tweak the power plan (for desktop PCs): You can do this by opening the Control Panel and select the “High-Performance” option for your PC.
- Check your storage space: You can use software like TreeSize Free to check what big files are hogging all the storage space, but don’t delete any system folders! In general, if you’re unsure what something does, look it up on the internet first or leave it alone.
- Disable OneDrive on startup: Simply turn off OneDrive under the “Startup” tab in Task Manager.
- Stop background updates: If left unchecked, these processes may reduce your internet connection and PC performance.
- Disable pretty animations: Windows 10’s transition animations can slow down low-end machines. You can disable them by toggling “Adjust For Best Performance,” under “Advanced System Settings” in Control Panel.
- Recovering from a sudden slow down: Check Windows Event Viewer for recent system changes like a background software update. Then do a virus scan with Windows Defender to make extra sure that everything is fine.