Even though anyone with a Windows 7 PC qualifies for a free upgrade to Windows 10, there’s little incentive to do so.Windows 10 may have a few desirable new features and will most likely support new hardware long before Windows 7 will (if it ever supports it all), but that makes little difference to most ordinary users who are happy with what they’ve got. So as far as Windows 10 is concerned, anyone Windows 7 might quite rightly think “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.But that’s not to say Windows 7 still can’t be improved, which usually means making it run that little bit quicker — particularly if you’re running it on an older PC. So here are eight really easy ways to speed things up.Tip 1: Keep it cleanWindows 7 has the same suite of clean-up tools found in earlier versions of Windows to get rid of old unwanted files that waste space and slow down your PC. Using these regularly should keep things running smoothly, so start by opening Computer on the Desktop, right-clicking the icon for your C: drive and selecting Properties.When the dialog box opens, click the Disk Cleanup button on the General tab and wait while Windows examines your C: drive.A list of file types will then appear and it’s safe to tick the box for each entry, before clicking the OK button to delete them. Repeat this process for any other hard drive letters in your PC.Tip 2: Check for hard drive errorsWhile you’re in the Properties dialog box for your hard drive, also click the Tools tab. Here you’ll see a Check now button that will check your C: drive (or any other) for errors that can affect its normal operation. You may see a message about Windows being unable to check the drive when it’s in use, so click the Schedule disk check button and restart your PC to perform the checkTip 3: Defrag your hard drivesHard drives (but not solid-state drives) become ‘fragmented’ with use — parts of files get scattered across the drive and these take time to find and assemble when those files are needed.
Defragmenting the drive remedies this and, again, it’s something you should do on a regular basis.You’ll find a Defragment now button on the same Tools tab of the hard drive Properties dialog box, so click it to start the ‘defrag’ process. This can take some time, but you can carry on using your PC while it’s running. Again, do this for all hard drive letters in your PC.Tip 4: Switch off Search IndexingWindows 7 likes to index everything on your hard drive to make it quicker to find when you’re searching for something. If your PC is feeling its age, or you don’t use Search often enough for this to be a concern, switching off this indexing can give Windows 7 a small performance boost.You’ll find the option on the General tab of the same hard drive Properties dialog opened above. Untick the box for Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed and then choose Apply changes to drive C:, subfolders and files on the next dialog box that opens.
Click OK and wait while Windows 7 makes the necessary changes. Again, do this for all hard drive letters in your PC.Tip 5: Check your power plan settingsWindows 7 optimises itself automatically to give the best performance on a laptop, depending on whether it’s on mains or battery power. If you only ever use your laptop plugged in, you might as well opt for high-performance mode all the time to make Windows run that little bit quicker. It won’t hurt to check this setting if you’re using a desktop PC, either.Open the Start menu, type power plan into the Search box and click Choose a power plan from the list of results.
When the Power Options window opens, select High performance from the list of Preferred plans, or if you can’t see it, click Show additional plans and then select it.Tip 6: ReadyBoostReadyBoost must be one of the least well-known Windows features, but it’s been around since the days of Vista.
Over the last several years working in IT for various companies as a Systems Administrator, a Network Administrator, and a Help Desk professional, I’ve written and learned about many ways to increase the performance of not only my PC, but also of the many PCs on my networks ranging from Windows 98 to Windows 10.In this article, I hope to compile a huge list of all the different methods and tricks that I’ve used to get the last bit of juice out of a slow PC. Whether you are using an old PC or the latest and greatest in hardware, you can still use some of these tips to make your PC run faster.Note that since I write two blogs, Help Desk Geek and Online Tech Tips, I have previously written about many performance tips already which I will link back to throughout. If I have not written about it, I’ve throw in a link to a relevant article from some of my other favorite sites. This list is in no particular order, just written in the order that I could think of them.There are probably a lot of great tweaks and performance hacks that I’ve missed here, so feel free to chime in with comments! Speed Up Your PC List1. Using built-in Windows tools or third-party programs.
You should also if you’re running Windows XP still.3. Being taken up by temporary files, the recycle bin, hibernation files and more. You can also use a tool like to determine what is taking up space on your hard drive.4.
Load up Windows faster by using, a free program that will speed up the boot time of Windows by delaying the startup of programs.5. Speaking of startup programs, many of them are useless and can be turned off. By default, the size of the paging file is controlled by Windows, which can cause fragmentation. Also, the paging file should be on a different hard drive or partition than the boot partition.
Read here for the rules on.7. In Windows, by default, the Windows Search indexing service is turned on for all local hard drives. Is a simple way to increase performance.8. If you don’t care about all the fancy, you can turn them off by going to Performance Options.9. You can using a variety of techniques including updating your BIOS or disabling unnecessary hardware.10.
Clean your registry by removing broken shortcuts, missing shared DLLs, invalid paths, invalid installer references and more. Read about the that I actually recommend.11. One of the main reasons why PC’s are slow is because of spyware. Here is my list of the out there.12. If you have a deeper spyware infection like a rootkit that is very hard to remove, you might need to.13. (aka junk software) from your new PC using PC Decrapifier.14. That slow down your computer.15.
And settings using free programs.16. (User Account Control) in Windows if you’re an advanced user.17. So that you can copy and paste faster, scroll faster, navigate quickly while browsing and more.18.
On your computer using a free program like CCleaner. It can also fix issues with your registry.19., temporary Internet files, and cookies to free up disk space and increase your privacy.20. To improve performance if you’re using Windows XP.21. If you’re a Firefox user, check out my.22. Reduce the number of on startup.23. Is your computer slow to shutdown or? Read the article for fixes.24.
By forcing Windows to use a wired connection over a wireless connection.25. Only if you regularly backup your Windows machine using third party software.26. So that it is on a separate partition or hard drive.27. Troubleshoot a in Windows.28.
Speaking of right-click context menus, you can also and remove unnecessary items to increase display speed.29. Is your Internet running a little slow too? Here are some tips to also.30. In addition, a slow Internet connection could mean someone else is. Make sure no one else is using your WiFi and Internet.31. By upgrading an old router or modem to the latest version.32. Have to copy a large number of small files across the network?
Windows can be slow, so check out some.33. Use the Windows Performance Toolkit and the trace logs to.34.
By using an external DNS server such as OpenDNS or Google DNS.35. Improve Windows, a newer feature whereby can use the free space on your USB drive as a caching mechanism.36. Have a lot of tabs open in your browser window? If you have an overloaded system with tons of programs, etc., it may be a good idea to.38. Are your when playing in Windows. Here are a couple of remedies.39. If you use Outlook desktop, here are several tips for how to.40.
If you’re an overlocker, you might be interested in some.41. Use a program called TeraCopy to in Windows.42. Though I depend on ads for my livelihood, you’ll definitely be browsing faster if you use an. Just whitelist my site please!43.
Invest in a program like if your computer is used by other people, especially kids, who install crap onto your system and slow it down.44. Using a Intel Celeron processor on your PC? Might be worth looking into a.
I9 is just ridiculous.45. In your machine if you are running Windows with anything less than 2 GB of RAM.46. Change your instead of Balanced. It’ll use more energy, but make your computer faster.47. Try out the in Windows 7 and Windows 10.
It actually gives some good advice.48. If you are reinstalling Windows, make sure that you to maximize performance.49.
Is your in task manager? Here are a couple of tips to fix that problem.50. Using Hyper-V for free and visit risky sites or install junk program, games, etc.
In the virtual machine instead of the host operating system.51. Do not unless it is needed for security purposes. Clearing the paging file slows down shutdown.52.
If your XP or Vista computer is not using NFTS, make sure you.53. In Windows, including chipset and motherboard drivers to their latest versions.54. Every once in awhile.55. Use to find resource hungry processes running on your PC.56. From the Add/Remove or Programs and Features dialog in the Control Panel.57.
Use a program click memtest86 or Prime95 to.58. Determine your BIOS version and check the manufactures website to see if you need to.59. Every once in awhile, and other buildup.60. Replace a slow 5400 RPM hard drive with a faster 7200 RPM drive, SATA drive, SSD drive or SAS drive. Here’s how you can.61. On your hard drive configuration can significantly decrease your boot time.62. Perform a virus scan on your computer regularly.
Here’s a list of the and some tips on how to.63. S from your Windows taskbar and from your Internet browser.64. If you’re not really using it for anything important.
All those gadgets take up memory and processing power.65. If you have a SATA drive and you’re running Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can speed up your PC by.66. Learn how to use, or.67. In Windows Vista and 7 to increase computer performance.68. If you are technically savvy and don’t mind taking a few risks, you can try to.69.
Speed up the by typing “sendto” in the Run dialog box and deleting unnecessary items.70. Make sure to, Service Packs, and hotfixes as they “normally” help your computer work better.71. Make sure that there are by using the ScanDisk or chkdsk utility.72. If you are not using some of the hardware on your computer, i.e. Floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, USB ports, IR ports, firewire port, etc., then and disable them so that they do not use any power and do not have to be loaded during boot up.73.
Though it may seem silly, you can actually install faster software on your system. For example, Google Chrome is much faster than Firefox and IE IMHO.
If you are using Adobe Photoshop, you can possibly accomplish the same tasks using Paint.NET. Use LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office. You get the idea, right?74. If you have a dual boot setup, you can so that your preferred OS loads faster.75.
Though it’s less secure, you can always so that you boot right to the desktop after a restart.76. I already mentioned reducing visual effects, but the same dialog has an option for also. You can choose from Programs or Background Services.77. If you have lots of files in a single folder, it can slow down Explorer. It’s best to create multiple folders and spread out the files between the folders.78. If you have files that are generally large on a specific partition, you might want to consider to 16K or even 32K instead of 4K. This will help speed up opening of files.
Only for advanced users.79. OneDrive comes bundled with Windows 10 and eats up resources even if you’re not using it. E if you don’t need the cloud syncing.80. By going to Control Panel, choosing Uninstall a program, and then clicking on Turn Windows features on and off. You can turn off Remote Differential Compression, Tablet PC components, DFS replication service, Windows Fax & Scan, Windows Meeting Space, Media Features, IE 11 and lots more.81. If you have enabled the Hibernation feature in Windows 10, then you should also make sure for quicker boot time.82. Completely uninstall programs and applications using a program like.
It will get rid of remnants left behind by normal uninstalls.83. If you know what you are doing, you can install several hard drives into your machine and, RAID 5, or other RAID configurations. RAID 0 is the fastest.84. If you are using USB 1.0 or USB 2.0 ports,. Or just buy a new expansion card and install it into an empty slot.85.
Remove the drivers for all that you no longer use.86. A more extreme option is to choose a faster operating system. If you find Vista or 7 to be slow, go with Windows 10. OS X or Linux is also an option.87. If you don’t care about the start menu, then you should disable them to improve performance.88. It can be complicated to upgrade a CPU, but that’s not the case for GPUs.
Can increase the performance of your PC even if you have an older CPU.89. Disconnect any unused USB devices from your computer. They will slow down the boot and login processes in Windows.90. If you have a desktop background, make sure it’s a small and simple bitmap image rather than a fancy picture off the Internet. The best is to find a really small texture and to tile it.91.
Speed Up My Pc For Free
So that your PC isn’t always trying to connect to Microsoft’s servers.92. I’ve already mentioned, but it’s worth mentioning that Windows Defender is usually good enough and you should uninstall any third-party anti-virus product as it will slow down your system. I still recommend using an anti-malware program in addition to Windows Defender.93. If you have a custom built computer or a PC that was previously used, make sure to check the BIOS for optimal settings such as enabled CPU caches, correctly set IDE/SATA data transfer modes, memory timings, updated drivers, etc. You can also enable Fast/Quick boot if you have that option.94.
Speed Up My Pc For Windows 7 Full Version Free
If you’ve been using one local account for a long time, it might be worth the effort to with a clean profile. You can then delete the older user account later.95. Though sometimes useful, if you want better performance you can and.96. For advanced users, you can, which checks each program at run-time for compatibility issues.97. If you don’t use the, you can save quite a bit of resources by.98.
Speed Up Windows 7 Software
If you are, you need to get to a 64-bit version ASAP, even if it means upgrading your hardware.99. Buy a new computer!!!;) Pretty easy eh?Whew! If you got through that entire list, I’m very impressed! Not all tips will apply to everyone, but there literally wasn’t anything else out on the Internet that I could add to this. If I have missed a good performance tip, make sure to comment.