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Speed up your PC for free
After a while, every PC starts to show its age. Programs that used to be lightning fast suddenly start to go slow, tasks that used to take five minutes now take 10.
Using your computer for anything in fact starts to feel like a chore. In short, a once-lovely machine becomes a liability, dragging your productivity through the dirt and wasting your precious time.
Fortunately, there's always a way to speed up a PC, whether it's a seven-year-old clunker or last year's model that's just starting to slow. You can even wring some extra performance out of a brand new PC if you know what to do.
In this article, we're going to share a whopping 31 ways to get more horsepower out of any PC, covering hardware, software and operating system tweaks.
Best of all, every one of them is completely free.
Operating system tweaks
The operating system you're using is the foundation of your computer, which means that even the fastest software will limp slowly if the operating system it runs on is sluggish and simply not up to the task.
Accordingly, the first place you should always look for speed-boosting tweaks is within Windows itself.
1. Change the power settings to high performance
If your computer seems like it's going slower than it should, check the Power Options menu in the Hardware and Sound section of the Control Panel and make sure you have the 'High Performance' setting selected.
On a laptop, Windows will sacrifice performance in the name of increased battery life, by putting components like hard drives to sleep faster, or even capping the maximum output of the CPU.
For fine-grained control over your PC's power settings, click the 'Change plan settings' link next to the power plan you've selected, then click 'Change advanced settings'.
2. Turn off Aero
First introduced in Windows Vista, Aero is the name for the set of interface eye candy that includes transparent UI elements and animated window transitions.
It makes post-XP Windows look slicker and more modern, but it can have a surprising effect on system performance. In particular, older systems without discrete graphics hardware can get a substantial performance boost by disabling Aero in the Appearance section of the Control Panel.
You'll miss out on a bit of graphical flair, but the actual functioning of Windows will be completely unaffected.
3. Manually set the processor priority level
Nothing will bring your computer grinding to a halt faster than a program that's monopolizing your processor. Even if your PC isn't actually locked up, other software you try and use will be miserably laggy.
When the resource-hogging program in question is something you actually need to let finish, it can leave you with no good option – you either don't let the program finish, or you give up on doing anything else until it's done.
Fortunately, Windows has an easy way to manually set processor priority. Just open the Task Manager, click over to the 'Processes' or 'Details' tab, then right-click on the offending program, and set the priority to 'Low'.
Now Windows will know to allocate resources to other programs first, and your original program will still be able to complete without a fuss.
4. Use resource monitor to spot the slow coaches
Speaking of the Task Manager, you should know there's a more powerful version of that tool built right into Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10. Just open the Task Manager, then click on the 'Performance' tab.
Towards the bottom of that menu, you'll see a button to open the Resource Monitor. The Resource Monitor is an exceptional tool for finding the programs that are slowing down your PC, with very detailed usage charts for CPU, memory, hard disk space and even network bandwidth that they're taking up.
5. Clean up your startup folder
A major sign of a computer in need of maintenance is a slow boot time. If your computer takes forever to get started, it generally means you've got a lot of software starting up whenever your operating system starts, that's bad for a number of reasons.
First, it means Windows has to get more done before it finishes booting. Also, all that software running in the background drains system resources and causes an overall slowdown.
One of the best things you can do to speed up your PC is to use a free program such as Autoruns to examine what's starting up with your PC.
Chances are you'll find a lot of stuff on the list that shouldn't be there. Have a thorough look through it and disable anything you really don't need.
Other software tweaks
Software can be part of the problem or part of the solution. Some programs are well-intentioned, but make your whole system slower, while others are actively malicious.
On the other hand, the right software can help you reclaim lost speed and keep you safe. In this section we'll look at both.
6. Clear up wasted space with CCleaner
It never pays to be a software hoarder. As with the startup folder items described in the previous tip, excess installed software eats up your hard drive space and jams up your Start Menu, context menus and more.
You can try and uninstall unnecessary programs by hand, but it's a lot easier with the aid of an uninstaller app such as CCleaner, which presents a list of your installed applications, and lets you perform one-click uninstalls.
7. Do a malware scan
If your computer has experienced a sudden and dramatic slowdown, the most likely culprit is malware. Even if you're sure you never installed anything untoward, it's a good idea to periodically run a malware scan.
You can't go wrong with Malwarebyte Anti-Malware, which is an excellent free anti-virus program.
8. Drop the commercial antivirus
These days, commercial antivirus is likely to cause as many problems as it fixes. If you keep Windows current, then the included Windows Defender antivirus will be enough to protect your computer from common attacks.
Practice basic web safety (don't open email attachments from people you don't know, etc.) and you'll stay safe without any security bloatware.
9. Make sure Windows is always up to date
As described previously, you have to keep Windows current in order for Defender to do its job. Automatic updates might be a pain when they happen, but you'll save time in the long run if you keep your computer secure.
You can find Windows update settings in the System and Security tab of the Control Panel.
10. Update your video driver
Most drivers are handled automatically these days, but you should still regularly check your video driver is up to date, especially if you plan to do any gaming.
The video driver is performance-critical, and can be the source of a lot of in-game glitches.
Additionally, updates are frequently published that increase speed in newly-released games, so check back often and you might be pleasantly surprised.
Reinstall Windows or another OS
Most of the issues that slow your computer down can be fixed with a little TLC. As we've been discussing, malware can be cleaned up, application clutter can be pruned and so forth.
Still, sometimes a computer can become so completely, utterly hosed that no amount of maintenance can fix it. The only way to un-hose such a machine is to start fresh with a new Windows installation.
If you've reached that point with your computer, here's a few things to keep in mind as you reinstall Windows.
11. Reclaim your product keys
It's frustrating to reinstall your OS only to realise you've forgotten a CD key and can't reinstall important software.
A program such as Enchanted Key Finder can automatically find most or all of the active CD keys on your system. Especially for industry-level applications like Photoshop, you should manually deactivate your software before uninstalling, in order to save yourself time later on.
12. Make a recovery disc
Make your life easier next time you have to reinstall by creating a recovery disc of your newly-clean PC.
In Windows 8, you access the recovery media utility by opening the Start screen, typing "recovery" and selecting the option labelled "Create a recovery drive".
The recovery drive will allow you to restore your computer to exactly this lovely fresh state without having to do a full reinstall.
If you're using Windows 10 then check out our guide on how to create a Windows 10 recovery disk.
13. Back up your files
This goes without saying, and is something you should be doing anyway. Make sure you've got all your important files backed up to an external drive or the cloud.
Even if your files are on a separate partition from your Windows install, it's better to be safe than sorry.
14. Minty fresh
You could also try a shiny new installation of a free alternative OS from the Linux family. Linux OSes are lighter-weight than Windows, and generally have much easier system requirements.
You can install one as a secondary OS, and only boot to it when you want a more minimal desktop experience.
If you've never tried Linux before, it might seem daunting, but it's actually not that tricky with today's user-friendly Linux distros. In fact, the hardest part might be picking which distro (a specific Linux-based operating system) to install.
For years, the standard recommendation for newbies has been Ubuntu, which is polished, well-supported and very user friendly.
It's still a great option, but lately we've taken to recommending Linux Mint instead. Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, and offers the same professional-quality experience and easy installation.
Where it differs is in the user interface – the UI in Mint is a little more minimalist and will be more familiar to those coming from Microsoft operating systems.
There will obviously still be a learning curve, but you can generally get set up with a fully functional Linux desktop in an afternoon. Check out our guide on how to install Linux to get started.
Try different apps
Sometimes the best way to get a quick performance boost is to replace an often-used piece of software with a speedier alternative.
That can mean giving up some functionality, but more often than not that's a tradeoff worth making. Here are five common apps you might replace:
15. Internet Explorer
It used to be the case that the best advice you could give someone regarding their web browser was to drop Internet Explorer as fast as humanly possible.
Fortunately, IE isn't the absolute stinker it used to be, and IE 11 is actually very competitive in some benchmarks, such as JavaScript performance, where it blows away the competition.
Still, for most common browsing, you're going to see a speed increase if you switch from IE to Chrome or Firefox. Chrome is arguably the fastest of the bunch overall, but it's also noticeably more system resource intensive than Firefox, so if you're trying to speed up an old PC, the latter might be a better choice.
16. Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is the industry standard for text editing, but its expansive feature set comes at a hefty price to your system's resources.
Ask yourself if you really need everything that Word has to offer, and if you wouldn't be better off using an alternative.
If you need a full-featured word processor with a smaller footprint, you can try Writer, part of the LibreOffice suite of free Office replacement applications.
It offers nearly all the features of Word, with a much lighter set of system requirements.
If you want to do some very light writing or note taking, consider the WordPad app that comes installed with Windows – it's low on features, but very fast.
17. Photoshop
Adobe's Photoshop is another widely-used app that can put a major strain on your system resources.
If you're using an older system that's not up to running Photoshop CC (or if you just want to save a lot of cash), check out GIMP. It's an open-source image editor that can do almost everything Photoshop can.
The interface is a little clunky and has a steepish learning curve, but GIMP will run much better on old PCs than newer versions of Photoshop.
18. Adobe Reader
Not to spend too much time harping on about Adobe, but the basic PDF Reader is one of the slowest, most frustrating pieces of software on your computer.
You wouldn't think something as simple as displaying a multimedia document (which your browser does in fractions of a second) would be slow and require a bulky install—and it doesn't have to.
To reclaim lost speed, install the alternative, a free version of Foxit reader. It has a nice interface, takes up very little disk space, and runs faster than Adobe Reader.
19. Replace Windows Media Player with VLC
Speed is only one of the many reasons to replace the default Windows Media Player with a different application, such as VLC. Though VLC is quicker to start playback on media files, the real time savings come from the app's flexibility.
Watching a video in other players can be a stop-and-go experience involving tracking down codecs or differently-formatted media files. With VLC, you know most any file will just work, and it'll work fast.
Also with Windows 10 Microsoft has stopped including Windows Media Player, so you have the perfect excuse to move to VLC.
20. Hand-tune graphics settings in games
If you're experiencing slowdown in games, make sure you're taking advantage of customisation options available in the preferences menu.
Lowering resolution is the obvious way to get better performance, but make sure you're looking at other options as well – turning down anti-aliasing or shadow quality can make a huge difference.
21. Customise your graphics settings automatically
Try out GeForce Experience (for NVIDIA GPUs) or AMD Gaming Evolved, both of which automatically tweak game settings.
They profile your hardware, then consult a constantly refined database of hardware data to suggest optimum settings, without any trial and error.
22. Learn to love jumplists
Introduced in Windows 7, jumplists are a fast way to access recent or frequently used documents or features of programs. Instead of left-clicking on an icon to open it, right-click on it instead – you'll see a context-sensitive list of shortcuts or documents for that program.
23. Free up disk space
Freeing up hard drive space won't always make your computer faster, but it can make a big difference if your drives are almost at capacity.
If you're having a hard time figuring out what to delete, use a free drive visualiser such as WinDirStat to pinpoint greedy programs and docs.
24. Clear up unnecessary browser extensions
It's great how extendable modern browsers are, but it's easy to slow down your web browsing by installing too many add-ons and extensions.
Go into the settings for your browser, and make sure you actually use any active extensions. If you have a toolbar that you can't figure out how to uninstall, try CCleaner.
Hardware tweaks
If you've never done it before, overclocking might seem like black magic. the practitioner delves into the shadowy, mysterious world of the BiOS, tweaks some arcane symbols, and when they resurface, the PC is somehow faster.
But the truth is, anyone with the right hardware can overclock with just a little patience.
25. Overclock your CPU
Before we get into the process, we should point out that only certain CPUs can be overclocked, so you should do a search to see if you have an 'unlocked' processor.
The basic rule for recent Intel processors is that CPUs with model numbers ending in the letter "K" are unlocked.
Check out our how to overclock your CPU guide for the full details on maxing out your processor.
26. Overclock your GPU
For a gaming PC, your GPU performance may well be more important than your processor's. Most modern games are GPU-bound, so eking a little more performance out of your GPU will have a more dramatic effect on your gaming experience than a similar improvement in the CPU.
Head over to how to overclock your GPU to see a step-by-step guide to boosting your graphics for free.
27. Defrag hard drives
One of the oldest computer tricks in the book, defragging your hard drive isn't quite the performance booster it used to be. For one, more and more computers now come with SSDs, which do not benefit from defragging.
Also, Windows 7 and 8 defragment on an automatic schedule, so it's unlikely your drives are fragmented if you use one of those systems. On older versions of Windows, fragmentation can still slow your hard drives down, so it's worth running a disk defragmentation program, such as the built in Windows Dfrg.msc or the free Defraggler.
28. Keep it trim
SSDs don't need to be defragged, but there is one optimisation that can make a big difference, called TRIM support. TRIM prevents an SSD from slowing down as it gets filled with data, and increases its expected life span.
The good (or bad) news is that Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 automatically enable TRIM for SSDs, so you won't be able to get a speed boost there.
However, if you're running Windows XP or Vista, it's definitely worth enabling it. To do this, you'll have to use the third-party management software available from the manufacturer of your SSD.
29. Clean out fans
Not every problem that slows your PC is a high-tech one. Old-fashioned dirt and dust can build up, blocking fans and vents. It may seem trivial, but a jammed vent can cause your PC to overheat and chug.
Airflow obstructions are especially likely in homes with hairy pets. In the worst cases, high heat will cause your components to degrade faster. Get in there with a can of compressed air and make sure nothing's blocking your vents, fans or the fins of your CPU cooler.
30. Adjust USB storage for better performance
If you have an external USB drive you frequently transfer data to or from, you can get a small speed boost by disabling write caching on the drive.
The drawback is that write caching protects USB drives from data loss if they're removed in the midst of a transfer. If you're willing to make sure to press the 'safely remove drive' button every time, you can improve performance by opening the Device Manager, navigating to the drive, then right-clicking it and opening the Properties menu.
In the Policies tab, click 'Better Performance'.
31. Run a smart test
Hard drive failure is one of the most alarming things. Even with a back-up strategy (which you have, right?) the temporary loss of your data is a major inconvenience.
Save yourself some time down the line by running a SMART test on your hard drive – a process that will help you identify soon-to-fail drives. Just download a free SMART diagnostic tool like CrystalDiskCheck, and run it to test your drive.
If the drive fails any of the tests, it's time to get a new one.
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