Sunday, April 23, 2023

Things that may help with a slower computer on Windows

The first thing you should do is make sure you have enough disk space for your computer and that you have enough memory for Windows to run okay. As time goes on with subsequent Windows updates, it gets more hungry for system memory and storage space. Also your files might get in the way, so you might want to delete some files or back them up and move them to storage off your computer(if you're not actively using those files.)

At the time of writing this 8gb of memory is a sufficient amount of system memory to run Windows okay for basic computer usages such as web browsing and word processing.

To check how much memory your computer has in Windows 10, click the search bar in the taskbar and search for “computer”. “This PC' will show up, right click that icon then and click properties in the menu that appears. It'll tell you what CPU you have, and how much system memory you have. If you have less than 8gb of memory it would be a good idea to buy an upgrade. Memory is cheap nowadays, especially used memory.

If you're not comfortable installing memory yourself you can take your PC to a reputable computer shop and they'll be happy to install the memory for you.

Storage space is a cheap upgrade too, though it'll require reinstalling the OS. If you're looking for a storage device get one that is at least 500gb. Even cheap SSD's you can get that much space for cheap at the time of writing this.

Another thing that might help a tiny bit is change the visual effects on Windows. Search for the word performance from the search menu in the task bar. And click “adjust appearance and performance of Windows” in the menu that appears select “adjust for best performance” 

Though you might want to tick the box that says "smooth edges of screen fonts" so that fonts arent pixelated. 

Some programs slow down the boot up process of Windows. From the search bar in the start menu search “start up” and then select “start up apps” tick off any that you dont want to start up when your PC boots. Most of the things in there arent really necessary. Though if you're really not sure google the application to check. Another place to check is in the task manager. Press alt ctrl delete select task manager. There's other places start up programs hide... like in services. Though I dont really want to get into technical things in this guide.

Other than that keep your PC up to date with the latest Windows updates. If you're computer is especially slow dont be tempted to open too many tabs in your browser. Close them when you're done with them and close your browser frequently and open it again.

If your PC ever gets sticky, sometimes it needs a full restart. Windows by default doesnt fully restart or shutdown, it saves things from memory to the storage to make it boot faster. To force Windows to fully restart, click the search bar and search for “cmd” right click the icon that says “command prompt” and click “run as administrator” after that type into the prompt “shutdown /r” this will reboot your computer fully. Sometimes it helps because Windows can get fickle after awhile of being on for a long time. Even if it's shut down from the start menu!

Make sure you keep all your programs up to date, especially your internet related ones. This will save you from the majority of viruses problems and it may fix something that's slowing things down for you as well.

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