On the list of the most annoying things ever, having to wait while your computer is being extra slow is probably in the top five. We all know how frustrating it can be when our devices, on which we rely when it comes to almost everything, start taking their sweet time. In fact, according to Business Wire, close to 66% of Americans admit that one of their major frustrations in daily life is waiting on a system they are sure can run faster.
If a buggy and slow PC is one of your biggest annoyances, you will probably be glad to know that there are ways around it. There are things you can do to make your system run faster — whether you are using a PC or a Mac.
Here are 10 practical tips for making your computer more efficient.
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How to make a PC run faster
As we’ve mentioned above, there are several things you can do to speed things up on your system. They are as follows:
- Stopping programs from running on startup
- Uninstalling programs that you don’t need
- Freeing up space on the hard disk
- Moving old photos and videos to the cloud or an external drive
- Cleaning and repairing your disk
- Changing your power plan
- Having a reliable anti-malware tool installed
- Defragmenting your hard drive
- Upgrading your PC’s RAM
- Updating your software
Below, we will go over each of these options in a bit more detail. Plus, we will also introduce you to several helpful tools that can make optimizing your PC’s performance much easier: Outbyte PC Repair (for boosting your system’s speed and enhancing its performance) and Outbyte Driver Updater (for updating your drivers in just a few clicks).
Let’s get started.
Stop programs from running on startup
Among the most common reasons why your PC may be running slow are the programs running in the background. Many computers will automatically run certain programs as they are turned on. Some of these programs, like antivirus software that keeps your PC safe from online threats, should be allowed to run automatically. Others, however, can be turned off until you actually need them. As programs running in the background consume memory space, it’s best to keep the number of these to a bare minimum. Check which apps are launching on startup on your PC and remove any that you can do without. This should help your system run faster and leave more resources for important operations.
Uninstall programs you don’t need
A lot of new devices, including computers, come with pre-installed software. Pre-installed programs take up space and often consume a lot of resources in the background. Stopping these programs can help save memory and speed things up on your PC. Simply go to your Control Panel and uninstall any programs that you don’t need.
Free up space on the hard disk
Check how much space you have left on your PC. If it’s less than 15%, you could experience a significant slowdown in how processes run on your computer.
In order to get more space, you will need to delete old programs and files that you don’t need or compress large files that you still need to keep on your PC.
Note that if you have freed up space on your PC but your computer is still running slow, the problem may be related to your operating system.
Move your old photos and videos to the cloud or an external drive
We all love to keep memories close to us. However, keeping photo albums and videos on your computer can be a problem. These files tend to take up lots of space and may end up cluttering your system, making it run slower.
A way out of this would be to keep your photo and video files in the cloud or on an external storage device.
Clean and repair your disk
Every time your computer boots up and runs applications, it generates a lot of temporary files. These files may include browser cookies, cache, web search history, and more. As they build up, they end up taking up a lot of space on your hard disk, resulting in slow system performance. Moreover, leftover temporary files may become corrupt and cause glitches, errors and software incompatibilities on your system.
Cleaning your disk manually is always an option. However, it will take quite a bit of time and effort. If you want to keep things simple, you may prefer using a specialized tool like Outbyte PC Repair. So, what does Outbyte PC Repair do? Quite a few things, actually. And all of these things are meant to give your system that much-needed boost.
The program can professionally clean up your disk by removing old junk files and unnecessary elements. This will not only help speed up your system but will also improve your battery life and personal data protection. With all the clutter gone from your computer, you will notice a significant improvement in how things run.
Change your power plan
Computers can run using different power plans. On most desktops, you will have a choice of Balanced, Power Saver, and High Performance:
- Balanced is the optimal power plan for a PC, and it will probably be set by default.
- Power Saver, just as the name suggests, is the type of power plan you should opt for when you want to save resources. If you enable it, you should be ready for slower performance on your PC.
- High Performance, on the other hand, will amp up the speed of your PC, making all system processes run faster.
So, if you do need a power boost for gaming or work, you can switch to the High Performance mode — at least temporarily.
Do keep in mind, however, that this option will work on a desktop PC. Using the High Performance setting on a laptop will simply drain the battery.
Have a reliable anti-malware tool installed
Your PC will have faster and generally smoother performance if it doesn’t have to spend system resources on fixing bugs, removing malware threats and resolving other issues. This is why it is absolutely essential to have reliable protection software installed and active on your PC at all times.
Defragment your hard drive
When data fragmentation occurs on your PC, a lot of time and resources need to be spent on searching for file fragments that could be scattered throughout the hard drive.
Defragmenting your hard drive will not only help keep data organized but also free up space on your PC so that your system can access the needed information faster.
Increase your PC’s RAM
RAM (or Random Access Memory) is temporary storage memory that your computer uses to run programs. The more programs are running, the more RAM is being used.
If you don’t have enough RAM for the number of apps you are using, your computer will start to slow down. What you can do in this situation is simply purchase more RAM. Or you can even completely replace your RAM with a more powerful option.
Update your software
A lot of bugs and glitches that make your PC run slower are actually related to outdated software. Thus, keeping all your programs, your operating system and your drivers up to date can significantly improve your PC’s overall performance.
To check if your Windows OS is up to date, do the following:
Click Start.
Go to All Programs.
Select Windows Update.
Click Check for Updates.
If any updates are available, go on to install them.
On a Mac, proceed as follows:
Click the Apple menu icon.
Go to Apps.
Navigate to About this Mac.
If any updates are available, go on to install them.
While keeping your operating system up to date is quite easy, making sure all your system drivers have their latest versions installed is a bit trickier.
There are two ways in which you can update your system drivers: you can do it yourself, or you can use a specialized tool that will update them automatically.
Updating drivers manually is typically recommended for those who are experienced in doing such operations. If you’ve never updated your drivers before, it can be quite a time-consuming process. What’s more, if you don’t install new driver versions correctly, this may lead to more damage on your PC, some of which may be irreversible.
Updating drivers automatically is a much easier and less risky way to go. To update your drivers, you will need to download a tool like Outbyte Driver Updater. The features of Outbyte Driver Updater let it perform the updating process and leave you with much more free time and much less worry.
The program will go on to scan your computer to locate any outdated or missing drivers. If any are found, Outbyte Driver Updater will locate, download and install the latest available updates for them. The program has access to over 200,000 drivers, so you can rest assured that you will always have the latest updates installed.
We hope that the tips above have been helpful and you have found at least a few ways to speed things up on your PC.
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