In the current global pandemic, the way of working has evolved, from adapting offices following social distancing to working completely at home better known as ‘Home Office’. In Mexico, many corporations have decided to implement the Home Office in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19, which made our computer the best ally.
Over time it is normal for our computer to slow down, sometimes it can be software that has infiltrated the computer, excess applications running or simply that the years have taken their toll on the computer.
Next, we will give you 15 tricks to make your PC faster and more efficient.
Delete the apps you don’t use
The first thing you should do is uninstall all the applications that are not necessary, since they may be working in the background and make your PC take longer to work. To do this you must enter the Settings and go to the Applications option.
In the Applications and features menu, review the list of applications, click on the ones you don’t use, following the Uninstall option. Be careful with deleting those created by Microsoft as they are useful for the system function.
Keep your PC desktop free
When you turn on your computer, all the elements of the desktop must be loaded, and it is not a good option that you have it full of shortcuts, one option may be to create a folder on the desktop and put all your essential files there.
3 Decide which applications are running when you turn on your computer
Some applications are configured to run when you turn on the computer, and having too much of it can slow down your computer startup. What you should do is, press Control + Alt + Delete and go to the Task Manager option, followed by More details.
Being in the extended version of Task Manager, click on the Home section of the top row. You will be able to see two columns, the one for Status, if it has the word Enabled it means that they work automatically at startup, in the Startup Impact section it mentions how much it penalizes your PC when it starts up.
Based on the information seen, you will be able to decide which applications you want to stop starting automatically and proceed to the Disable button.
Check that your computer is free of any malicious software
That your computer is slow can also be the cause of a virus, Windows Defender can help you. Enter Settings and go to the Update and Security section, select the Open Windows Security option.
On the main Windows Defender screen, click on the Antivirus threat protection option, you can easily locate it because it has a shield icon. While there, press the Quick Exam button to start an analysis of the system, if you are interested in a more detailed exam select Complete Exam which takes more than an hour to complete.
Give your hard drive a break
In the start, menu type cleanmgr to access the Disk Cleanup application, right-click on it, then select Run as administrator to break down all the options.
A tab will appear in which you will have to choose the hard drive you want to clean, when you have it press OK. This process can take a few minutes. When finished, it will show you a list of the files that you can delete, when you click on each of them it will explain in detail what will be deleted, here you can select the files you want to delete and click OK.
Defragment your hard drive
The files found on your PC seem like puzzles since they are made up of fragments that are not so easy for Windows to locate. The best option is to defragment your hard drive. Open the Start menu and type the word defragment, select the application Defragment and optimize drives.
When selecting the application, choose the hard disk you want to defragment, and press Analyze, to be able to know what the state of the disk is, you can see that in the Current state column.
If you did not get the expected results, press the Optimize button to defragment, the program will only do its job.
Use Virtual Memory
A very effective option is to add virtual memory to the physical RAM, to achieve this, enter the Control Panel, select the System and Security category, followed by the System option.
When you are in System, in the left column select the option Advanced system settings, when a new window opens you will find the Advanced options tab at the top. When selected, press the Settings button in the Performance category.
A window will open, where you must select the upper tab named Advanced Options, when displayed, select the Change button.
In order to change the memory size in MB, proceed to uncheck the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives box. In the window that indicates the available units and the free space in megabytes, write the number you want, one option is to increase 1000 or 2000 MB, which is 1 or 2 extra gigabytes of virtual RAM.
Choose an energy plan according to your needs
Access Control Panel, in the Hardware and Sound section, click Power Options. Upon entering, the default Windows 10 plans will be displayed, if your computer works extremely slow select the High-performance option.
Less is more
Although Microsoft has decided to improve its visual appearance, this can be counterproductive in the performance of your computer. In Control Panel, enter the System and Security category and select the System option.
When entering System, on the left side select the Advanced system configuration option. When the new window opens, select the upper tab, select Advanced Options, when inside, click the Settings button in the Performance category.
Two windows will open, one called Performance Options and the second Visual Effects activated, the last one will show the effects of Windows 10, you must deselect the effects you want to eliminate in order to have better performance of our PC.
Interface without transparency
Open Windows Settings, when entering select the Personalization option to change the aesthetics of Windows.
In the left column select the Colors section. When you do this, go down to the right column, in the More options selection, deactivate the Transparency Effects option.
Don’t let Windows 10 talk
In the Windows Settings part, go to the System section, in the Notifications and actions section, deactivate the option Get tips, tricks, and recommendations while using Windows.
Update your system and drivers
With the passage of time the system is looking for improvements, if your PC has a software problem that already has a solution, the best option is to have it updated, in the Update and security area of the Windows Configuration, in the Windows Update option select Check for updates button and it will automatically download them.
Start from scratch with Windows 10
One option may be to install Windows 10 again. In the Update and Security section found in Windows Settings. On the left side select the Recovery option, you will find the Reset option and click on the Start button.
When you click on start, you will be given several options, some are to keep your files or remove everything to proceed with the clean installation, if your computer is very slow, perhaps your best option is to start from scratch and remove everything. Don’t forget to make the necessary copies of your important files.
Clean inside and out
Having the inside of your computer dirty limits the air passage, which causes it to overheat, try to perform a deep cleaning from time to time, the temperature of your PC will notify you when it needs it urgently.
Replace or upgrade hardware
If you’ve already tried everything and nothing works, you should consider upgrading the hardware, including increasing the RAM memory to have greater support and to be able to handle several applications at the same time, a graphics card can also be of good use. Just remember not to spend more than what it might cost to buy a new device.
