Tips and tricks to speed up Windows 10 and make it work faster

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Tips and tricks to speed up Windows 10 and make it work faster

Windows 10 has a ton of cool features, but for some users, starting it up is a slow process. This is especially true after continued use or on older computers. Luckily, with a few tweaks and simple maintenance you can speed up your startup process and resume using Windows 10 without so much waiting around.

How to make Windows 10 run faster?

So, let’s get straight to the point and see what are the best ways to make your Windows 10 work faster:

1. Limit your startup processes

As mentioned in the last entry, a lot of programs install side processes that run every time you start your PC, and some of them are not things you need running on your system all the time.

The easiest way to launch the Task Manager is by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Esc. Switch to the Startup tab, and you’ll see all the programs that load at Windows startup. The dialog box even has a column that shows you the Startup impact for each. The Status column shows whether the program is enabled to run at startup or not.

You can right-click on any entry to change this status. It’s usually fairly easy to see things you don’t want to run. If, for instance, you never use iTunes, you probably don’t need iTunes Helper running all the time.

2. Uninstall crapware

Though the situation is improving, unnecessary preinstalled software installed by PC makers continues to be an issue with some new computers, but during recent years, the count of preinstalled, unnecessary software has dropped.

One reason removing apps helps performance is that many programs load processes at boot time and take up valuable RAM and CPU cycles. While you’re in the Programs and Features section of Control, you can also click Turn Windows Features On or Off and scan the list to see if there’s anything you don’t use.

Now you can simply right-click on any unwanted app tile in Start and choose Uninstall. This will immediately uninstall the program. You can also right-click on the Windows logo Start button, and choose the top choice Programs and Features. Or just type Programs in the Cortana search box next to the Start button.

3. Do a disk cleanup

From the Start menu, type Disk Cleanup. This opens the well known Disk Cleanup utility that’s been part of Windows for several generations now. Disk Cleanup finds unwanted junk such as temporary files, offline Web pages, and installer files on your PC and offers to delete them all at once.

If you don’t have disk defragmentation scheduled regularly, set that up in the Optimize Drives tool, which you can find by typing its name in the Cortana search box next to the Start button. Note that if your main disk is an SSD, then you needn’t bother with defragging, since there aren’t any moving parts reading the disk.

4. Prevent programs from loading at startup

We’ve probably all experienced the sight in Windows, with several apps and features loaded when your machine starts. These are mostly the ones installed by the manufacturers, and others which automatically launch at startup.

Luckily, on Windows 10 (and Windows 8/8.1), you can disable programs from loading at startup using the task manager. To do this, use the Windows + R keyboard shortcut. Type msconfig and hit Enter.

5. Disable special effects

Windows 10 is rather heavy on the special effects side. By default Windows and other features are programmed to fade in and fade out of view. Other resource-intensive but unnecessary features include translucency and animations.

To take your PC back to basics, open the Windows menu and search for “System”, then go to the “Advanced Settings” tab and select “Performance Settings”.

Under the “Visual Effects” tab, click the radio button for “Custom”. From here, you can uncheck the tick boxes next to any visual effects that you’re looking to disable.

Click “Apply” to confirm your changes.

6. Change appearance in the Performance section

You can easily get to this setting by typing adjust appearance in Cortana. In the dialog, you can use the radio button at the top labeled “Adjust” for best performance or select which eye-candy features you can live without from the long list of checkboxes below these choices.

If you do choose the overall best-performance button, you’ll lose all of the visual effects. For example, you won’t see the contents of a window you’re dragging move, but rather just a rectangle representing the window’s edges. Keeping the effects that you enjoy checked in the dialog is probably a better way to go. You can also get to this tool from the new Settings app and searching for “maintenance” or “performance.”

7. Run System Maintenance

Windows 10 has a built-in utility which performs routine system maintenance tasks such as defragmenting the hard drive, scanning for updates, and checking for malware.

These tasks usually run in the background while your PC is idle but if you have noticed an issue with system performance you can run maintenance manually if you wish.

To get started, open Control Panel, select ‘System and Security’ then choose “Security and Maintenance”. Click the arrow to expand the maintenance options. From here you can select ‘Start Maintenance’. Close and save any open files before going ahead.

8. Always keep Windows updated

There is an abundance of updates in the Windows ecosystem that are regularly pushed to the users, sometimes forcefully. But regularly updating your computer can improve Windows 10’s performance in addition to protecting the machine from unwanted threats and newly discovered vulnerabilities.

Starting with Windows 8, Microsoft provides universal drivers for a vast collection of third-party hardware. Updates for such devices are delivered through Windows Update. But in the case of unsupported third-party apps and hardware, you might have to update them manually.

If you’re running recent versions of Windows 10, updates install way faster than before. That’s because Microsoft has optimized the Windows Update process in such a way that most of the installation happens in the background while the user is busy with their work.