8 Tips To Speed Up Your Computer

Don't buy a new computer until you read our guide! 6 tips are FREE and you can do them today Advice from our 30 years in the computer business Extend the life of your PC Easy 15 minute read

 

Introduction

Who are we? Our company is Upgradeable, our names are James Hopkin and Keith Fiertl.

Keith and I have been upgrading computers since 1990! We started as sales people in a distribution company, then we built one of Australia’s first ecommerce businesses in 1999, and we eventually, we bought the computer distribution company!

There is thirty plus years of experience distilled in this page. 

I created this document to help non tech people solve a very simple problem: Why is my computer running slow?

We have observed one unexplainable fact the last thirty years…users of a computer know when it is running slow or if there is a problem.

They might not know what the problem is, but they know they have a problem.

I think that is why you are here, you know something is wrong.

Hopefully in a few minutes of reading we can solve an issue or point you in the right direction. 

These are the tips we like to share with friends and family when they ask why their computer is slow. You can use this page to speed up your computer, we give away all the information for free. We don’t expect anything in return.

However, the last two tips: RAM and SSD is what we sell. You do not have to buy from us, but when everything else fails to speed up the computer, spoiler alert, you need to buy an upgrade.

You can probably tell Keith and I run an online company that is unlike anything else. We decided a long time ago, if we are going to have a business, we want to make it into a business we would want to deal with.

We answer the phone, we publish our phone number to our office (02 93915200), and we provide guides and free technical support.

Enough about us, this guide is for you, let’s try and speed up your computer!!

James Hopkin
Upgradeable

 

Tip 1. Disk Space

We have put our best tip first, because we know most people will not read the whole guide, so if you only read one step, make it this one.

The way your computer optimises itself is it creates a cache on your storage drive. Your disk space or storage is where you save your files, it is either a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a Solid State Drive (SSD). The computer will use this storage to create cache files to help itself run faster. If you have a small SSD and you run out of space then your computer must reduce the size of the cache files, which slows your computer. If your computer is older, 5 to 10 years old, you probably have a mechanical hard drive. Storage might not be a problem but the speed of these drives is a big issue, we will discuss that in Tip 8.

 

Let’s see if we can free some disk space on your PC.

To check for low disk space

1. Select the Start button, then select Settings  > System  > Storage .
   
   ms-settings:storagesense (copy this text and paste it in your browser)
2. Your drives will be listed in the Storage area. Note the amount of free space and total size for each drive.

Note: If your PC is not low on space, try the next tip.

You can use Storage Sense to delete unnecessary or temporary files from your device, which can also free up space. 

If you can't find Storage Sense on your device using the following steps, see the "Free up space with Disk cleanup" section below instead. 

Note: You may not want to delete temporary files to improve performance. While these files may not be used at the moment, they help your apps load and run faster.

To delete temporary files with Storage Sense

1. Open Settings, then select System  > Storage .

ms-settings:storagesense (copy this text and paste it in your browser)

1. Select Temporary files  in the storage breakdown. Note: If you don't see Temporary files listed, select Show more categories.
2. Windows will take a few moments to determine what files and apps are taking up the most space on your PC.
3. Select the items you want to delete, and then select Remove files.

To see what's in your Recycle Bin before you empty it, open it from your desktop. If you don't see the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop, in the search bar on the taskbar, type recycle bin, then select Recycle Bin  from the list of results. 

Note: Windows moves files you delete to the Recycle Bin in case you change your mind and need them again in the future. You might be able to free up a significant amount of space by deleting Recycle Bin files to permanently remove files you've previously deleted.

 

If you turn on Storage Sense, Windows will automatically free up space by getting rid of unnecessary files—including files in your recycle bin—when you're low on disk space or at intervals you specify.

 

Free up space with Disk Cleanup

One of the easiest ways to clean up files you no longer need is by using Disk Cleanup.

1. Open Disk Cleanup by clicking the Startbutton . In the search box, type Disk Cleanup, and then, in the list of results, select Disk Cleanup.
2. If prompted, select the drive that you want to clean up, and then select OK.
3. In the Disk Cleanupdialog box in the Description section, select Clean up system files.
4. If prompted, select the drive that you want to clean up, and then select OK.
5. In the Disk Cleanupdialog box, on the Disk Cleanup tab, select the check boxes for the file types that you want to delete, and then select OK. To remove data from a previous installation of Windows, select the Previous Windows installation(s) check box.
6. In the message that appears, select Delete files.

 

Are you still low in disk space?

Time to get tough and delete things you are not using. Your disk drive is a lot like your garage at home. If you keep putting things in the garage you don’t need, eventually your car does not fit in the garage! The usual suspects are applications, photos, videos and documents. A good strategy is to have an external drive to save files you are not using but maybe need one day.

 

TIP 2. ReadyBoost

This tip is for older computers, that do not have an SSD. If you are unsure if your computer has an SSD you can go to Task Manager, Performance Tab and look at C: Drive. If should tell you if your drive is an SSD. You can try ReadyBoost, if you have an SSD, the computer will tell you ReadyBoost will not increase performance.

ReadyBoost lets you use a removable drive, like a USB flash drive, to improve your PC’s performance without opening your PC and adding more memory (RAM). To use ReadyBoost, you’ll need a USB flash drive or a memory card that has at least 500 MB free and a high data transfer rate.

This tip is for someone at home that has a spare USB and needs to try a few things to improve performance. It is not a long term solution.

To use ReadyBoost

1. Insert the USB flash drive into a USB port on your PC.
2. Select File Explorer from the taskbar.
3. Press and hold (or right-click) the USB flash drive (or SD card if you used one instead), then select Properties.
4. Select the ReadyBoost tab, then select Use this device.
   Windows determines if the device can use ReadyBoost. If it can’t, it'll let you know.
5. After Windows determines how much free space to use to optimize memory, select OK to reserve this space so ReadyBoost can use it.
   
   When you look at the contents of the USB flash drive in File Explorer, you’ll see a file named ReadyBoost.sfcache on the flash drive. This file shows how much space is reserved for ReadyBoost.

Note: We have found formatting the USB as exFat and using default settings gets the best results.

 

TIP 3. Adjust the Appearance of Windows

This tip is for Windows 10 and 11. Both these versions of Windows includes many visual effects, such as animations and shadow effects. These look great, but they can also use additional system resources and can slow down your PC. This is especially true if you have a PC with a smaller amount of memory (RAM). The idea here is to remove all these visual effects to get back some performance.

To adjust the visual effects in Windows

1. Select Search , type performance, then select Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows in the list of results.
2. On the Visual Effects tab, select Adjust for best performance > Apply.
3. Restart your PC and see if that speeds up your PC.

 

TIP 4. Syncing to the Cloud

The cloud is OneDrive or DropBox or a files saving service on the internet. These services are awesome but syncing your files to the cloud comes with a massive performance hit. This applies to any software program that regularly accesses the internet. We had a computer in our office that would slow down at certain times. We discovered the anti-malware software was downloading updates during the day and affecting the computer. Adjusting that time to after hours was all we needed to do to improve performance.

The example we are using here is OneDrive, if you are using another service, investigate how that app is behaving and affecting your computer.

Your PC settings let you choose where files will be saved by default. You can save files on your PC or to OneDrive by default and sync files between the two locations. This lets you get to your files from any device that can connect to the internet, and it helps make sure your files are backed up in case your PC is ever damaged or lost. However, files must sync between your PC and OneDrive, and syncing can slow down your PC. You can pause OneDrive syncing temporarily and see if it helps improve your PC performance.

To pause syncing to OneDrive

1. On the taskbar, look for OneDrive  near the notification area.
2. Select OneDrive  > Help & Settings  > Pause syncing, and then choose how long you want to pause syncing your files.
3. Restart your PC and see if your performance issues have improved with syncing paused.
4. To resume syncing your files, select OneDrive  > Help & Settings  > Resume syncing.

Note: We would not recommend syncing files as it massively effects performance. A better strategy is to just save the files directly to OneDrive.

I can hear you saying, “but I don’t use OneDrive, it can’t effect my computer”…welcome to our next tip:

 

TIP 5. Finding Resource Hogs

Your best friend to help you improve the speed of your computer is Task Manager. If you have done all the obvious improvements, you need to start sleuthing.

 

To start sleuthing with Task Manager

1. Open Task Manager by clicking the Start In the search box, type Task Manager, and then, in the list of results, select Task Manager. You can also right mouse click on your Toolbar and select Task Manager or use the keyboard short cut Ctrl+Shift+Escape.

1. Select the Processors tab, and sort processors by CPU %.
2. This will show you what apps and programs are using the most CPU speed.

 

What to do with this information?

 

We do not want to hunt down core Windows programs that might affect the computer if we delete them. What we are looking for are programs using CPU that we do not use.  In our case, I did this task while writing this guide, and the program that showed was OneDrive! I do not use OneDrive, however it is installed by default in Windows. So I uninstalled OneDrive and claimed back a bit of performance.

This is an example, you might find other programs that are running in the background using resources that is limiting your computers speed.

How to uninstall software in Windows 10 (Win 11 is very similar)

1. Select Start, then select Settings > Apps > Apps & features.
2. Select App you want to remove and then select Uninstall.

Some times it is best to restart the computer after deleting applications.

 

TIP 6. Please Don’t Start Me Up

When you turn on your PC, some programs start automatically and run in the background. You can disable these programs so they do not run when your PC starts. This one of the major reasons PC start up very slow or are unusable for 5 minutes after you start up a computer.

Many programs are designed to start automatically when Windows does. You don’t realize they're running, but they'll open quickly when you go to use them. This is helpful for programs you use a lot, but not for programs you don’t use often because it increases the time it takes Windows to start.

Find the programs that start automatically

Sometimes you can determine which programs start automatically by looking at the program icons in the notification area on the far right of the taskbar. Check there first to see if there are any programs running that you don’t want to start automatically. On the right of the Toolbar is a >. When you click on it, icons appear. These are all the programs that start automatically. To try to find out the name of the program, point to the icon with your mouse pointer. Make sure you select Show hidden icons , so you don’t miss any programs.

Even after you check the notification area, you might still miss some programs that run automatically at startup. Here is how you can find all the programs that start automatically, and stop the ones that you don’t want to start automatically when Windows starts.

To stop a program from starting automatically

1. Select the Start  button, then select Settings  > Apps  > Startup .
   
   ms-settings:startupapps (copy this text and paste it in your browser)
2. In the Startup Apps area, find the program you want to stop from starting automatically and set it to Off.

Note: If you turn off a program and it continues to start automatically when Windows starts, this is an indication of you a virus or malware. Please take appropriate action to remove.

 

TIP 7. Install More RAM

Eventually the free tips run out and we have to take action.

The easiest way to increase a computer’s performance is installing more RAM. This involves buying a new module, shutting the computer down, accessing the RAM slots and installing a new module. RAM is non volatile, which means it does not affect what is on your computer, no documents or programs will be lost, you are just adding more resources for the computer to optimise itself.

RAM is the buffer between your drive and CPU. CPU will temporarily store data from the drive in the RAM to make is quickly accessible. The more RAM, the bigger the caching and the bigger the speed improvement. It does have it’s limitations. In most computers, there is a point where the RAM does not add extra improvement. For general computer this is 16GB. The optimum performance is see between 10Gb and 16GB. For power users like photo and video editing, music production, gaming, then too much RAM is never enough. Power users generally require 32GB to 64GB.

 

Let’s find out if RAM is a problem in your computer, we need to open Task Manager

 

To start Task Manager

1. Open Task Manager by clicking the Start In the search box, type Task Manager, and then, in the list of results, select Task Manager. You can also right mouse click on your Toolbar and select Task Manager or use the keyboard short cut Ctrl+Shift+Escape.

1. Select the Performance tab.
2. Select Memory.
3. The graph and data should show the percentage of your current RAM getting used. Anything above 50% is considered low RAM. If your computer is using 75% of it’s RAM, consider a RAM upgrade.

If you have enough RAM or you cannot install anymore, then Tip 8 is for you (next page)

 

If you want an obligation free phone call to get advice on a RAM upgrade,

Call us on 02 9391 5200

 

TIP 8. You need an SSD (or a bigger SSD)

The biggest speed improvement comes from upgrading from an old mechanical hard drive to an SSD.

Why?

It is the way the SSD works

It is not the raw speed of the SSD, it is how it works. A traditional hard drive is like a record player, when you send data from the HDD to the CPU the computer has to find it, it hunts around the platters looking for all the data. With an SSD, there is no waiting, this is because your data is effectively in a spreadsheet. The SSD knows where it all your data is instantaneously. No waiting. No delay.

The SSD is also made from flash chips that are almost as fast as the RAM. So when your PC runs out of RAM and caches to the SSD (it uses the SSD as RAM) then it does not slow down, because an SSD is really like a big RAM drive!

If you have a SATA drive we estimate the speed is 50mb per second. However, the SATA limit is 500mb/s. An SSD sends data at the SATA limit, this is why we say a SSD will have a x10 increase in the speed of your computer.

How hard is an SSD upgrade?

There are two processes in an SSD upgrade. First is the clone. Second is the actual install.

Most SSD suppliers will provide you with free cloning software. You run this software and it clones your old drive onto the new SSD. Your computer does not know the difference, it will boot as normal, no need to configure or reinstall software. You now have a computer that runs faster!

At Upgradeable we have a clone kit option. It has everything you need to clone your SSD, a cable or case and software plus local phone support. In our experience, if there is a problem with an SSD upgrade, it is with the cloning. We have a local phone number to call for support. We can solve most issues over the phone in 5 minutes. We even have a free service where we clone your computer remotely using Teamviewer.

We have another guide that helps you do an SSD upgrade like a professional. All the industry tips and secrets so you can confidently buy the part and do the upgrade.

If you want to skip the waiting, you can call our office during business hours for a free consultation, no obligation to buy, we can recommend the right SSD and the right cloning software.

If you want an obligation free phone call to get advice on an SSD upgrade:
Call us on 02 9391 5200

If you want a PDF of the 8 tips to read later or offline you can use this link