Sluggish performance on a laptop can be a real bane of today’s digital age. While you might be using your laptop for work, study, entertainment, or gaming, such sluggish performance can lead to frustration and wasted time. Luckily, it is not hopeless; there are a few options to hasten up a slow laptop, be it Windows or Mac.
This article will give you insights into how to enhance the performance of your laptop. These cover benign tweaks to advanced changes.
Understanding Why the Laptop is Slow
Before embarking on solutions, it’s crucial that you understand why your laptop may be working slowly. Some common causes include:
- Too many programs running in the background: Multiple programs running at once may consume CPU, RAM, and disk space.
- Defrag disk or disk is full: If you are using a traditional hard drive, fragmentation of your drive and lack of free space lead to performance issues.
- Outdated software or device drivers: You need to update your Operating System and device drivers regularly to ensure the smooth running of your system.
- Malware or greedy bloatware: Viruses, malware, or unnecessary apps may also slow down a laptop.
- Old hardware: The most common old laptops lack RAM, have old processors, and mechanical hard drives that may stagger on modern tasks.
Now, let’s look into the possible options to optimize and speed up your laptop.
- Free Space Disks
Insufficient disk space is another major reason a laptop can become sluggish, with an overloaded hard drive causing slower data retrieval and performance drop.
For Windows:
- To reset using the Disk Cleanup utility: Windows does come with a built-in utility, called as Disk Cleanup, to remove unnecessary files. To do this:
- Go to Start Menu and search Disk Cleanup.
- Click on the drive you want to clean (normally C: drive) and click on OK.
- It will calculate how much space can be freed. Select types of files to delete, such as Temporary files or System files.
- Click Clean up system files to proceed.
- Uninstall unused programs: Many bundled programs, or applications you rarely use, can occupy a lot of space. For uninstalling them:
- Go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features.
- Check the list of installed programs and uninstall unwanted ones.
- Transfer files on external storage: If very little room is available on the drive, transfer files (photos, videos, or documents) to an external hard drive or cloud storage.
For Mac:
- Optimize storage with built-in tools: macOS includes several options to help you free up storage space:
- Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your screen, then click About This Mac. Under Storage, select Manage, where you can optimize storage by moving files to iCloud, keeping only recent documents, or emptying the Trash automatically.
- Removal of unwanted apps: To uninstall apps on your Mac, drag them to the Trash, or go to Applications and delete apps that you don’t need.
- Upgrade to an SSD.
If your laptop still runs on a conventional hard disk drive (HDD), it’s time to upgrade it to a solid-state drive (SSD) if you’re looking for a significant performance improvement. Solid-state drives are faster, more reliable, and less power-hungry compared to traditional hard drives. An SSD will drastically decrease boot-up time, application loading time, and performance responsiveness.
-a. For Windows:
If you are using a Windows laptop, try installing an SSD and reinstalling Windows on it. Hastard to say, SSDs come in different sizes, and many laptops just allow for SSD upgrades.
-b. For Mac:
MacBook Pro and Macbook Air users do have a wee bit of a challenge about upgrading their storage to SSD, but it can still be applied for older models, being MacBook Air models not capable of modernization because of soldered storage sites.
- Update software and drivers.
Old operating systems and drivers can slow down the function of your laptop. Make sure to keep your laptop updated with the latest patches and updates in order to be able to fix performance issues and improve system stability.
- For Windows:
Update the Windows: To see if Windows has any pending updates, go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update. Click the Check for updates button, which will download and install any updates if needed.
Update device drivers: Right-Click on Start > Select Device Manager. The assorted devices can be right-clicked on, and then select Update Driver. Or alternatively, a driver software can be upgraded through the Windows Updates tool.
- For Macs:
Update OS X: To keep macOS current, go to the Apple Menu > System Preferences > Software Update to download and install any updates.
Update Apps: Update apps installed from the App Store by opening the App Store tab and going to the Updates section.
- Disable startup programs
Many applications and programs set themselves to automatically start when you turn on your laptop. Such programs would drain resources before or during the startup period, hence prolonging the boot time.
For Windows:
- Task manager: Right-click on the taskbar and select task manager. This will show you all programs set to launch at startup on the Startup tab.
- From there, you can disable the applications that you do not find necessary by right-clicking on it and selecting Disable.
For Mac:
- System preferences: Go to system preferences > users and groups > login items. Here, you can remove or hide applications that slow your startup.
- Manage Background Processes and Services
Running too many background processes can drain system resources and slow down your laptop.
For Windows:
- Task manager: Launch task manager by pushing down the Ctrl+open bracket Shift keys together. Under the Processes tab, you will see all opened apps and processes consuming CPU, and find out whichever ones are using a lot of memory and disk space. Right-click on it and end task to terminate any unnecessary processes.
- Services: Start up the services.msc in the start menu and press your enter key. This will give you a list of Windows services from which you can choose to disable services that are not necessary for your usage.
For Mac:
- Activity monitor: On macOS, open the Activity Monitor by navigating to it from Applications > Utilities. On your Activity Monitor, check the list of processes and close any applications or services that consume a lot of system resources.
- Use Lighter Software Alternatives
Heavy software such as Google Chrome, Photoshop, and video editing applications may use too much RAM and CPU. Use lightweight alternatives, if possible.
- Use lightweight browsers: If Google Chrome is consuming too much memory, switch browsers, such as Microsoft Edge or Mozilla Firefox.
- Use simpler software: Consider using alternative programs like Paint.NET or GIMP instead of more resource-hungry apps like Adobe Photoshop for photo editing or office purposes.
- RAM
If a laptop itself is running low on RAM, slowdowns will occur as the system tries to revert to the slower hard drive or SSD for memory usage.
- Upgrade RAM: Most laptops let you add or upgrade the RAM memory. Check with your laptop’s specification if it allows any memory upgrade and add more RAM if required. For most modern laptops, it is usually recommended to have at least 8GB of RAM, although 16GB or more is a more ideal option for heavy multitasking scenarios.
- Cooling Pads: These external devices supply more airflow to your laptop so that they keep it cool and work proficiently.
- Scan for Malware and Viruses
Malware and viruses are harmful because they consume system resources and simultaneously track user behavior and corrupt files so critical for system operation.
- Windows: Perform a full scan using either Windows Defender or third-party antivirus of your choice. Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows security > Virus and threat protection to scan your system.
- Mac: While macOS is more secure, running a tobacco scanner can ensure that you have no infections. Apps such as Malware bytes offer malware protection for Macs.
- Reinstallation of the Operating System
If all else fails, this is perhaps the best option. Format your laptop because the software operating in it was hovering on some serious issues. So it is a good idea to wipe your system clean and restart fresh.
- For Windows: Click Settings > Update & Security > Recovery, and select Reset this PC. From here, you can either keep your files or complete a total wipe.
- For Mac: On a Mac, you can reinstall MacOS by restarting the laptop and holding Command + R during startup to enter MacOS Recovery: from here choose Reinstall MacOS.
Conclusion
Frustratingly slow laptop working, however, if you can restore performance, you can bid adieu to that erstwhile sluggishness and enjoy a fast and smooth experience. Freeing up disk space, going for an SSD instead of an HDD, keeping the software up to date, disabling unwanted startup programs, and pursing other similarly fine-tuned tweaks allow you to boost your laptop speed, no matter if it’s a Windows or macOS operating system.
While older hardware might well be capped by limits, putting the above suggestions in place will let you milk the maximum out of your laptop and nudge it along for years to come in a routine hurry.