There are countless software solutions to help speed up your PC’s functionality and performance, however, there are also a number of built-in steps you can take to keep your machine’s resources from being used up unnecessarily. Here are a handful to get you started…
Locate greedy programs and shut them down.
Every piece of software downloaded onto your machine is hungry for central processing unit (CPU) resources, in other words, your computer’s brain-space. Some programs, whether you use them frequently or not, are more greedy than others. There is a finite amount of CPU resources on every machine, and to mitigate poor functionality, it’s important to moderate the amount of software exhausting those resources.
Fortunately there is a fairly simple way to find out which program is the culprit…the Task Manager. Within the Task Manager, you can sort the list of applications in use by the amount of resources they’re using, and then you can either close them normally, or force them to close within the Task Manager.
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Adjust the System Tray to close applications.
The notification area displays software launched upon startup that continue to run in the background. These can be cleaned up to free up resources by simply right-clicking the application in the system tray, and closing them.
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Disable startup applications with Startup Manager.
Windows 10 offers a Startup Manager within the Task Manager. First, enter the Task Manager (you can press Ctrl+Shift+Escape to launch it), then go to the Startup tab, then simply disable the startup applications you don’t need. Windows will tell you which programs slow down your startup process the most.
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Disable animations to speed up your PC.
Windows uses a number of slick animation techniques to make your user experience more aesthetically pleasing. It’s great until you have a heavy-hitter project that requires more CPU resources. In such a case, you can disable these little additives to speed up your PC for best performance.
Click the Start button and select System, then Advanced System Settings, then Settings under Performance. Choose Adjust for best performance under Visual Effects.
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Free up your disk space using Disk Cleanup.
There are plenty of disk space cleaners out there, but Windows also includes a built-in tool that deletes temporary files and unimportant data stored on your machine. Simply right-click one of your hard drives in the Computer window and select Properties. Then click Disk Cleanup, and select which files you would like to delete.
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