How to speed up Windows 10 – Navigaweb.net

All computers have a tendency to slow down over time and Windows PCs are certainly no exception, which gradually, but inexorably, end up becoming gradually slower, with longer waiting times even for doing simple operations such as surfing the internet. We have listed the main reasons for slowing computers in another article, specifying how and why both old and new PCs can suffer.

Keep your Windows 10 PC fast it is not that easy, in addition to the various programs that work in the background, there are unnecessary Windows 10 processes that take up memory or slow down the performance of the CPU, affecting the performance. In this article, let’s see how to speed up Windows 10 by disabling some features and doing maintenance that can free your computer from ballast and protect it from problems. Some of these solutions to make Windows 10 faster than normal are also applicable to Windows 7, while others concern the configuration of new options present only in the latest Microsoft operating system.

How to make Windows 10 faster

Adjust the power settings

The power saving settings allow you to make laptops last longer, but should only be used when really needed and not by default. The economy mode, in fact, limits the processor power and slows down the PC even significantly.
To make Windows 10 faster, you should always use the high performance plan or, at least, the balanced one. To change this option you have to go to Control panel, then in Energy saving options and select High Performance.
This, as explained in more detail in another post, is the best way to maximize CPU performance in Windows.

Disable Windows 10 Tips

The tips feature for using Windows 10 better is completely unnecessary unless you are a new user with no experience. This feature provides useful tips for beginners, but those with experience of Windows 10 can disable it, mainly because it is a process that many have complained about due to performance problems.
To stop the Windows 10 hints function, open Settings from the Start menu, then go to System> Notification and Actions. Then disable Get tips while using Windows .

NOTE: While we’re on this screen, it would also be good for system performance to turn off notifications from apps that we don’t use or don’t care about receiving alerts. That way those apps will no longer be active in the background.

Uninstall bloatware (useless apps and programs)

With the words Bloatware or crap-ware we mean useless programs, those that are never used, those superfluous, often unnecessarily big. The more serious problem is that these software can start background processes in Windows 10 that are not needed.
While bloatware is also a problem on Windows 7, in Windows 10, given the presence of so many pre-installed apps, they are a rather significant slowdown factor.
To speed up Windows 10 you must therefore uninstall these programs and these apps and there are three sections in which you have to work:

Reduce the number of auto-starting background applications

As with any Windows version, Windows 10 is also important check what loads when the PC starts, which not only slows down the computer’s initial start-up process, but also takes up background resources by staying running.
This can be done from the task manager itself, where you are given the option to control the autorun programs and disable them.
Then press the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys together to open Activity management, go to the Startup tab, press on the application or program to be disabled and press the button at the bottom to disable its automatic start.
Windows 10 also gives a performance impact judgment, highlighting the elements that really slow down your PC.

Those who are experts can speed up the loading of the PC with the Microsoft Autoruns program, as explained in another article, in order not to waste time and resources on the computer in trying to load programs that no longer exist or that do not need to be active in the background.

Run Disk Cleanup on Windows 10

There are a lot of unwanted or temporary files hiding on the system and, in the long run, creating performance problems.
To keep the system fast, it is worthwhile, once a month, to run the disk cleaning tool and remove unwanted and useless files automatically. To open Cleaning disk from the Start menu, using the search bar. Select what to remove and then wait until it is completed.
In Windows 10 this cleaning tool has been deprecated as an old feature (so it may disappear in future versions). It can still be opened Settings> System> Storage and press the link on the right “Free up space now“.

Disk cleaning of obsolete files can also be done with the latest version of Ccleaner, optimized for Windows 10.

It is also important to free up disk space if it is nearly full. The problem with hard drives and even SSDs is that if they are nearly full, they slow down the computer. To speed up Windows 10 it is therefore important to always have some free space on the disk drive. In another article, all the ways to free up disk space on your PC.

Find the programs that take up the most memory and use the most CPU

If you have a slow PC, surely there is some program that is keeping him busy by preventing others from working as they should.
If suddenly every operation you try to do, even the simple opening of a folder, should take longer than it should, it means three things: either that a process is taking up almost all the CPU power or that it is taking up all or most of the memory RAM or that it is using the disk at 100%, preventing other applications from loading or saving data.
To find out what slows down program loads, just press the keys together CTRL-Maiusc-Esc to open the Task manager.
As already explained, the task manager of Windows 10 is much improved compared to that of XP and Windows 7 and allows you to control well how each individual process or program running uses resources.
If the culprit is identified, you can select it, press on it with the right button to find the path of the file that generates it and, therefore, the program to be removed.
If it is not an app that can be deleted, you can terminate the process.

Close running programs from the taskbar, next to the clock

If, in addition to volume, network, language and notification center, you see other icons next to the clock (press the up arrow to show all icons), it means that there are programs in the background.
Among these may be the antivirus or the video card management tool.
To recover memory and speed up Windows, everything that is not needed must be closed by pressing the icon with the right button and then on Close O Go out.
Usually these programs have, in the settings, the option to prevent them from loading automatically when the computer starts.
It is therefore convenient to use it or go to the next point.

Reduce animations

Keeping Windows animations at their finest detail is not helpful and slows down your computer.
The most visible example of these animations occurs when trying to minimize or maximize a window, which isn’t as immediate as a flash, but shows the window moving up or down.
To disable animations in Windows 10 and improve PC performance, press the keys together Windows + X or press the right mouse button on the Start button, go to System, then click, on the left side, on Advanced system settings and, in the card Advanced, press on Settings under Performance.
Then choose the option “Adjust for best performance“to disable all animations, or manually select those to keep and those to exclude.
Personally I have all of them disabled except 4 options on window shading, beveled corners of characters, active peek and previews.
Then go up Start> Settings> Accessibility> Other options and turn off the switch next to the item Play animations in Windows.

Regarding this point, I also recommend discovering the trick that alone makes Windows faster

Lighten the browser used to surf the internet

The browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge) becomes a heavy program when enriched with too many extensions.
Removing extensions can relieve it so you can browse the internet faster.

Check for malware or adware regularly

It is not certain that a virus shows its obvious presence, it may even remain hidden without giving any problem, except to slow down the PC and, above all, browsing the internet.
From time to time it is really worthwhile to do a malware scan to make sure that there are no infected files on your computer or adware, i.e. programs with advertising purposes, which can use resources to collect information on the use of the computer and which can display advertisements everywhere.
There are two programs to always keep aside and to use every month or two: ADWCleaner for adware scans and Malwarebytes for virus scans.
Antivirus, which is required for real-time computer protection, is usually very slow on full scans and often not as efficient as MalwareBytes.

Restart or shut down your PC periodically (if you use suspend or hibernate)

If we often use computer suspend or hibernate, we will have to restart or shut down the PC at least once a week, so that Windows can apply updates and restart all active processes.

Although it may seem like a trivial suggestion, a computer that is never restarted or turned off for a long period of time will get slower and slower, so remember to restart a PC that is set up for hibernation or suspension every now and then or at fixed times (better mark it on the calendar).

Change the mechanical disk with an SSD

It is understood that every computer goes faster if the hardware it is made of is newer and with better performance. In particular, if it hasn’t already been done, it’s really worth it buy a new SSD where to move Windows 10 and keep the old hard drive as a secondary only to save photos, videos, archives and music, so as to speed up Windows 10 to the maximum.

If we do not want to lose the system and the programs already present we can move everything to SSD as seen in the guide Move Windows to SSD without reinstalling everything.

Reset and Restore

Unlike other versions of Windows, in Windows 10 there is a real option of total reset.
We can think of this function as an automatic and fast way to format the PC, reset it and reinstall Windows 10 in the original version, without any pre-installed programs.
So if we have brought with us problems or slowdowns from Windows 7 or Windows 8 or if the computer is full of useless things, we can safely proceed with the reset in Windows 10 which can keep personal files or, if we have saved them in a safe place (another disk), it can be total.

Conclusions

Windows 10 has the advantage of being a particularly fast system but we can maintain it with these performances even after many months or years of use, by carefully following the advice set out in the chapters in the guide above.

Other possible operations to speed up Windows 10 have been explained in our article ai Easier Tricks to Make Windows 10 Faster.
If, on the other hand, we want to speed up the network connection, we recommend that you read our guide How to speed up your Internet connection: expert tricks.