It can happen over time as you use your laptop more, or it can happen suddenly. Dealing with a slow computer is very frustrating, especially in the case of laptops, as they will also heat up as they struggle to complete your commands. If you are not careful with how you use your laptop, it can slow down pretty quickly and bring with it a barrage of different issues. If you are using windows 7,8 or 10, this article will help you mitigate some of the problems that might be holding your laptop’s performance back.
If you face lag issues or other clutters in your laptop, you don’t have to trade it in just yet. You can take some steps that will potentially make your laptop faster. You have to first assess some of the conditions and then try and fix them. With some decluttering here and there, you will be able to get back most of the performance, if the hardware isn’t faulty. However, if the issue lies in the hardware of your laptop, it’s suggested that you contact a Computer Support Company to take a look at your system and assess the situation. Also, if you are unsure whether it’s a software or a hardware issue, you can likewise contact a computer support company in helping you figure the core of the problem.
All that said, here are some reasons your laptop might be slowing down and how to fix them.
Stop Unnecessary Startup Programs
Some startup software you want to run, others? Not so much. When you install different software on your laptop or pc, some of them will opt to startup as your pc starts. Try to opt-out of the option by unchecking the “start with windows” option. If you are not given the option, then manually turn off software that you do not need to startup with your laptop.
You want your antivirus software to startup with your windows, but software like Discord, Steam, and Adobe Creative Clouds are a few that are not required for you to start with your windows. As you install more software, you will have more unwanted startup programs, and you need to know how to turn them off manually.
Go to your Task manager or Press Ctrl +Shift +Escape to launch your task manager and to the startup tab. You will see many applications that run on startup and how much impact they have on system performance. You can disable most of them other than the essential ones like your antivirus.
Background Applications
Similar to startup-programs, various applications run on the background. These are software that you manually start as you are using the laptop or some that automatically start with your laptop. Background applications that you are not using can heavily slow down your laptop.
Again, apps like antivirus should be run in the background for good reasons, but not all applications are used by the user all the time. Applications like Discord and Steam goes to the system tray when you close them, so make sure to check the taskbar system tray (click the upward arrow in the right side of the taskbar), right-click the application, and press exit when you are done using them.
You can also check the process tab in the task manager (press Ctrl +Shift +Escape ). In the process tab, you can see a list of processes that are running at any given time. Closeout, some of the applications you are not using that are still running in the background but do be careful when you are lurking through the process tab as the list is long and filled with many-core system applications.
Delete Unnecessary Junk
Much like your room and closets or drawers, our computers, laptops, and smartphones also get cluttered. People who deal with larger files face this issue more often than others. High-resolution videos, images, audio files, and other media files can create an excess amount of cache files and temp files that you want to remove every week or so.
Always empty the recycle bin and use a pc optimization software or clean up software. Software like the CCleaner is lightweight and comes with a free version that you can use to clean up all the unnecessary files from your pc along with other things at one go.
Also, Hard disks run their best until they reach around 90% of their total capacity, so deleting some of the bigger files from your pc might also improve performance. SSDs usually slow down as they are gradually filled up. Try to keep an SSD at least 25% empty.
Adjust your Power Options
Most laptops come with a presser power plan, and the default is “Balanced Mode.” It accounts for both performance and power consumption. Unlike PCs, where you can easily get off of putting the power plan at High performance, you don’t want to do that for your laptop as it will drain the battery out much quicker even when it’s sitting idle.
You can go to advanced settings and change some of the options in order to suit your power needs. When you are plugged to the power outlet, you can definitely switch the power mode to High performance temporarily.
Uninstall Programs You Do Not Use
Sometimes we end up installing too many software on our laptop without really needing to use most of them. These days, some software eats up a huge amount of space in the system while also running in the background, eating necessary resources.
Uninstall the software that you don’t use frequently and be wary of the software with bigger sizes as they also tend to make a lot of temporary files.
In order to uninstall software, you want to head to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features. Go through the list of software installed in your pc and decide which ones you need and the ones you do not. Uninstall any software that’s just sitting there with no use case.