Windows 10 has now become one of the most widely used operating systems worldwide. Other than some compatibility issues, and a “lot of bloatware”, Windows 10 manages everything better than its predecessors, as it should, being the latest release. Although we’ve come a long way with Windows 10, there are still many flaws and we aren’t surprised at all, as most of these also depend on your system! Some older systems have trouble running Windows 10, which happens as Windows 10 itself is pretty much resource consuming OS. This article explains some small key tweaks which can drastically improve real-time Windows performance on every system, even if you have an old system.
1) Speed up system boot
Often people ignore the startup speed while optimizing windows, this could actually result in a lite and good start for your system. When you turn on your computer there are many applications that windows fire up, these applications put additional load on your resources at the same time and hence it leads to a slow start. You can always close those applications from the taskbar, but you could also prevent them from starting, this will ensure less load on your system making it more usable.
- Right-click the taskbar and click on task manager.
- Click on more details on the lower left.
- Click on the startup tab on the upper right side.
- Right-click on any application and click disable.
*We recommended disabling only third-party applications.*
2) Disable Background Apps
The title explains itself quite well, background applications are the ones that aren’t displayed in the taskbar, they keep running on the background while using your system resources. This might not be a problem for high-end PCs, but it could be a major pull for low-end computers. Disabling background applications could immediately boost system speed in a bump.
- Click on the Windows icon and click on the settings icon.
- Click on Privacy.
- Scroll down and click on Background apps.
- Now manually disable the background apps which you don’t use.
3) Turn off system updates
I know it sounds odd as we always recommend keeping your system updated, but automatic updates often slow down systems. It’s not the best idea but this can just do the job if you have a really old system and you aren’t planning to upgrade it anytime soon. If you are using a third-party antivirus software instead of Windows Defender, then you don’t necessarily need those system updates on your old PC. Generally, defender updates are only useful to keep your PC safe from malware and malicious programs.
- Press Windows key + R once, type services.msc in the box, and click ok.
- In the new window, find and right-click on the Windows Update option.
- Click on properties, click on Stop under the Startup type.
- Click on apply and ok, and close the open windows.
4) Enable the built-in Performance preset
Windows 10 has a performance option/presets of its own, this can be turned on manually. After you switch it on, it automatically changes the appearance and animations settings of your OS, this results in reduced load on the system and favors performance. This isn’t a traditional boost feature, but it could make your system faster in terms of browsing your drives, opening apps, etc.
- Right-click on This PC icon and click on properties.
- Click on Advanced system settings on the right side.
- Click on Settings under Performance.
- Click on Adjust for best performance and click apply and ok.
5) Check and close background processes
Background processes can sometimes consume huge amounts of resources in the background. Google Chrome is well known for this, it can consume anywhere between 200-1024 Mb of RAM or even more, sometimes. Once you close some unnecessary background processes, you get more RAM and processing power for other tasks. For example applications like Skype keep running in the background even if you aren’t using them, moreover, if you have a low-end PC then consider disabling or closing such processes.
- Right-click on the taskbar and click on task manager.
- Click on more details, search for third-party processes which you aren’t using.
- Right-click on a particular process and click end task.
- This should stop the running process.
*We recommend only closing third-party processes in order to ensure stable performance.*
6) Turn on ultimate performance mode
Windows has some inbuilt power consumption options in the Power settings, these include High Performance, Ultimate Performance, Balanced mode (active by default), and Power saver mode. By default, the system runs in Balanced mode, which adjusts performance based on power consumption. In many systems changing power mode to High performance or Ultimate performance results in an increase in performance. Follow the steps below to enable Ultimate performance mode.
- Hit start, type CMD.
- Right-click on CMD and run it as administrator.
powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61
- Copy and Paste the above-pinned code and hit enter.
- Hit Windows button+I, Click on the System option.
- Navigate to the Power and Sleep option, click the Additional Power settings option on the right side.
- Click on show additional plans, and select Ultimate performance!
7) Clean Temporary/Junk files
Temporary files or junk files are stored in the Windows drive where we install the OS, with time the collected files occupy more space and trim down system performance overall, temporary files are created when you browse the internet, install an application, or just simply use an application. Also, there are many applications that clean Junk files in a click, there’s also an option in Windows 10 which can clean the temporary files without needing any third-party application for the job. Below are the steps to clean junk files in Windows.
- Hit enter and search for Storage settings.
- Click the Storage settings option, click on the temporary files option.
- Select the files, and click remove.
8) Perform disk defragmentation
Sometimes or say most of the times files present in HDD scatter which makes read and write a quite long process, in other words, it makes a system slower. The solution to this is Disk defragmentation, defragmentation basically arranges files in the HDD, which makes it easy to read and write ultimately resulting in a faster system. Windows 10 has a built-in defragmentation tool that just does the job, so you don’t need an additional third-party application for it.
- Hit search and type defragmentation.
- Click on Defragment and Optimize Drives.
- Select the drive which you want to optimize (we recommend defragmenting the whole storage).
Restart your system after you’ve applied the tweaks, some changes will only work after you restart your system.
