Make Your Computer Run Faster when the computer slowing down ….. how to do it exactly….whizzing and whirring as it tries to keep up with you? Before you spend hundreds or even thousands on a new computer, you may find it only takes a few simple steps to make your Windows or Mac computer run faster.
Let’s perform these simple steps to make computer run faster.
- Before You Start
- Windows
- Macintosh
Before You Start
Back up your computer.
Purchase an external hard drive that is larger than the hard drive you want to back up. Inserting the USB of the external hard drive should automatically prompt your computer to give you the option to use the drive for back up. For a secure backup service, you may opt for a cloud-based service like Google Drive, iCloud, or Dropbox.
Restart your computer.
Restart, or completely shut down the computer, wait a few seconds, and then turn it back on. Ensure you save any projects you are working on before turning off your computer!
Clean the interiors of computer case and vents.
Computers get dusty after a while to cause thermal throttling on the CPU and GPU. You can clean the inside of your computer using a can of compressed air and a dry microfiber rag. Don’t use any liquid cleaners.
Windows
Check your hard disk space.
As a rule, you want to keep at least 15% of the hard disk space free to keep the computer running smoothly. Use the following steps to check your hard disk space:
Open File Explorer resembling a folder with a blue clip in the taskbar or the Windows Start menu. Click Computer to check the disk drive space which are listed below “Drives and devices.” A bar graph next to each disk drive shows how much space is being used.
Remove any programs you do not use.
Right-click app in the Windows Start menu and click Uninstall which opens “Programs and Features” window in the Control Panel. Click a program and click Uninstall to uninstall the program. Remember to empty recycle bin.
Prevent unnecessary programs from starting while booting up.
Use the following steps to disable startup programs:
Right-click the taskbar at the bottom of the screen.
Tap Task Manager -> More Details -> Startup tab -> Tap an app.
Click Disable in the lower-right corner.
Change the power plan of computer to High-Performance mode.
Using High-Performance mode on a laptop will drain battery quicker but the option is not available on all versions of Windows. Follow the steps to switch to High-Performance mode :-
Right-click the Windows Start menu.
Tap Power Options -> Additional Power Settings -> Create Power Plan
Check High Performance -> Next.
Install an anti-virus program, spyware scanner, anti-malware.
The fewer bugs, viruses, and bits of adware computer manages, the more time it will devote to essential processes.
Keep Windows up-to-date.
Windows updates help in smooth running and virus free ride on Windows.
Run a Disk Cleanup.
Clean up hundreds of megabytes by deleting temporary files, unnecessary system files, and emptying recycle bin, can make the computer work faster. Use the following steps to run Disk Cleanup:
Click the Windows Start menu.
Type Disk Cleanup and click on the icon.
Select a drive -> Tap Ok -> Check the file types you wish to clean & Tap Ok.
Run a Disk Defragment.
Disk Defragment organizes data and free up space to access data faster. Windows 7, 8, and 10 defrag the hard drive automatically. Follow these steps to defrag hard drive on Windows 10
Tap Windows Start menu.
Type Defragment and click Defragment and Optimize Drives.
Select a drive -> Tap Optimize.
Disable visual effects.
There are 20 visual effects to turn off or on. Follow these steps to turn off to maximize performance:
Click the Windows Start menu.
Type Control Panel and Tap Control Panel
Tap System & Security -> System -> Advanced System Settings.
Select the bullet “Adjust for best performance”.
Switching to a Solid State Drive.
Solid State Drives are hard drives with no moving parts. They work quieter and quicker. Buy right sized SSD for computer and install it.
Add RAM to computer.
Most computers come with 8 GB of RAM, but add more computer is used to to run many applications. The extra RAM offers more memory to perform tasks with, to make the computer faster.
Clear temporary files on computer.
Computer generates a lot of temporary files each time you boot up and/or use applications which uses a lot of space, in turn slowing down the system. To clean temporary files , press “Win + R” and then type %temp%. Permanently delete all the files present in the folder. Just skip those which are unable to be delete by the system.
Upgrade computer hardware.
Newer versions of the software support older hardware but they start running slow or freezing as they struggle to keep up with the newer software. Better to replace older ones to speed up the system.
Macintosh
Check hard disk space.
Try to keep at least 15% of drive free so as to run general maintenance. Follow these steps to check hard drive space.
Go to the Apple menu in the upper left corner of the screen.
Click About This Mac -> Click Storage tab to show free space on hard disk and a break down of current usage like movie, music, photo, and app files.
Use Activity Monitor.
This will help you find which applications is heavy on the CPU. Follow these steps to check :-
Open the Finder.
Click Applications -> Utilities
Launch the Activity Monitor
Click the CPU tab.
Click the % CPU column. Check whether it is using anything over 50% which may be slowing everything down.
Uninstall unnecessary programs.
You may either uninstall manually by dragging apps into the trash from the Applications folder in the Finder or by downloading a program to help you sort and delete them.
Delete, compress or remove large and unnecessary files.
- To delete, tap on the list icon which is 4 lines at the top. check the file size in the “Size” column and delete unnecessary files by dragging them to the Trash.
- To compress, right-click it and click Compress in the pop-up menu. Open the Downloads folder and click on the Size header and get rid of anything you don’t need.
- To empty, right-click it in the Dock and click Empty Trash.
Prevent unnecessary programs from starting when the Mac boots.
Follow these steps to disable startup programs on Mac:
Click Apple icon in the menu bar -> Tap System Preferences -> Tap Accounts or Users & Groups -> Tap your account -> Tap Login Items to select items you do not require -> Tap the minus (-) sign to remove them.
Repair disk permissions.
If your disk permissions are not properly set, you may have trouble with some of the basic operations on your computer, such as printing, logging in, or opening programs. Always restart computer after running disk repair.
Go to Applications in the Finder -> Press Utilities -> Open Disk Utility -> Select startup disk -> Tap First Aid at the top of the screen -> Click Run
Remove unused languages.
While using Mac OS X, download a free program called Monolingual which will offer to remove languages you don’t use in order to free up space. Never delete English language files or it may cause OS X to malfunction.
Add more RAM to computer.
Follow these steps to check RAM usage in the Activity Monitor app. Just Tap Magnifying glass icon in the upper-right corner and Enter “Activity Monitor” in the search bar -> Open Activity Monitor App -> Check the “Memory Pressure” chart at the bottom.
Hoping that the above information and steps will definitely help you understand your system better and make computer run faster.