Interesting Info -> Computer Help -> Speed up Windows 10

After seeing how popular Blifaloo’s guide to virus removal and prevention has become, I decided to write some more articles about how to speed up and optimize Windows 10 on your computer.

Windows 10 is by far the most widely used operating system so it is a good idea to optimize it as much as you can.

Here are some simple things you can do to speed up the overall performance of your PC with Windows 10.

1. Restart Windows 10

This is the most obvious and often the most effective step to Windows 10 optimization. Restarting Windows 10 will shut down background processes and update pending tasks. Save anything you have been working on before restarting.

How to: Click the Windows icon (the “Start Button”) in the lower left of your screen > click the Power icon > click Restart.

* Alternatively, you can click on Shut Down, wait for the computer to completely turn off, then turn it back on. You can also press the power button with your finger. Many computers make you hold down the power button for about 3 seconds before this takes effect.

2. Check For Windows 10 Updates

Windows 10 updates often contain optimization features such as automatic debugging and other fixes. Microsoft is constantly on the lookout for any bugs or issues to improve the performance of Windows 10.

How to: Open Settings > Update and Security > click Check for Updates > click Restart

3. Disable File Indexing for Speeding Up Windows 10

This indexing service gets info from files on the hard drive and creates a “searchable keyword index” for optimizing Windows 10.

If you don’t use the Windows 10 search feature often to look for documents, you can turn this feature off, and the difference you’ll notice is a slight increase in the time it takes for your computer to find a file, but an overall increase in general speed for everything else.

How to:  My Computer > right-click on the C: Drive > select Properties (General Tab). Uncheck “Allow files on this drive to have content indexed in addition to file properties.” Click Apply then OK.

4. Optimize Windows 10 by Cleaning Up Temp and Cache Files

Windows 10 stores a lot of temporary files that can be safely cleaned out once a month or so. This is also good to do before running virus or spyware scans, as it clears many things out of your system that would need to be scanned.

How to : Download CCleaner How to use CCleaner: Download, Install, and Run.

(I’ve gotten a lot of recommendations/hate mail stating that cleaning the Prefetch is unnessary. Keep this in mind, but I still think CleanUp! is a useful program.)

5. Install some RAM

If you are running 256 MB or 512 MB of Ram, it’s pretty cheap and easy to upgrade to 1028 MB. This is the only suggestion I will make that will actually cost money, but it’s also the one that will best improve performance.

How to : Not sure how to install Ram, or even what kind you need or where to get it from? Read Wikihow’s Guide to Installing RAM.

6. Remove Programs & files you no longer need or use

Having old games or other software you no longer use can take up a lot of space on your hard drive, which can lead to an overall decrease in your PC’s performance.

How to : Removing old programs is easy. From the Control Panel click on the “Add or Remove Programs” Icon. You can safely remove programs like games, demos, and other software you no longer use. If you are not sure what a program is… don’t delete it just yet. You can do an internet search to find out more about any mystery programs installed on your PC to decide to delete them or not.

Remember: Mp3 music files and videos you download can take up a lot of space. Go through your media files once a month or so and delete the ones you no longer use.

7. Turn off Windows 10 Animations and Visual Effects

Fancy sliding, fading and animated effects that windows uses by default are easily turned off, and will make the reaction time of simple tasks like opening and moving windows, taskbars, etc… much quicker.

How to : Win-X > System > Scroll down to “Advanced System Settings” > Performance Settings > Disable Visual Effects         From the Control Panel, click on the “System” icon. Click on Ease of Access, scroll down and find Simplify and Personalize. Turn off “Show Animations in Windows”. You’re done.

Just getting rid of all the animated features will help the responsiveness of your PC.

8. Clean Up Hard Drive

If your hard drive is over 75% full it is likely affecting Windows 10 performance negatively. Although you can download free third party apps such as CC Cleaner, you can also use the native Windows 10 cleaner.

How to: Settings > System > Storage > under “Local Disk” click Temporary Files (If you do not see this, click “Show More Categories” > select the files you want to delete > click Remove Files

9. Defragment Hard Drive

Defragmentation is your computer’s way of reorganizing data on your hard drive making it more efficient. Every time you delete a file, leftover pieces of it are left on different parts of the hard drive which can interfere with Windows 10 efficiency. It is a good idea to do a “defrag” on a regular basis.

How to: Settings > System > Storage > under “More Storage Settings” click Optimize Drives > select your drive to defragment > Optimize

* This could take several minutes or even over an hour depending on several factors, such as how old your computer is, so plan accordingly.

10. Remove Unused Fonts

Having too many fonts can really slow down how fast programs start up. Some people say have no more than 500 fonts installed on Windows 10, but I personally try to keep the number of fonts below 200. The less you have the faster your programs that use them (office software, graphic programs etc..) will load.

How to : Open Settings (click start icon, it will be on the left) > click System  click About > under “related settings” click “Advanced System Settings” > click Advanced > under “Performance” click Settings > click Visual Effects > select “Adjust for Best Performance”.

11. Get an Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware and Anti-Malware Program and Clean the System

Chances are you have some sort of virus, spyware or malware on your computer.

How to : Get Adware and Spybot S&D in addition to a Firewall and Antivirus program.

* Editors note (See our guide to virus removal and protection for more up-to-date info.)

If you migrated your data from another computer you may have a lot of random data in your registry. You may consider getting a registry cleaner.

Remember: Keep your anti-virus programs up-to-date. And always research any software you plan on downloading to “help” your PC. Some anti-virus / anti-spyware software actually have spyware. Read about this sort of Malware and how to remove it here.

Hope you found at least a few helpful pieces of information in this article. Thanks for stopping by Blifaloo.com, and don’t forget to check out some of the other stuff on the site.

Also on Blifaloo:

Top Tips & Tweaks for Windows 11 Learn how to speed up and optimize Windows Vista.

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