Speed up Your Laptop

This wikiHow teaches how to improve the performance of your laptop, whether it's running Windows, macOS, or Chrome OS (Chromebooks).

Steps

Windows

1. Open the Control Panel. One of the easiest ways to help increase performance is to delete old programs you don't need anymore. You can do this from the Control Panel.
   • Windows 10 and 8 - Right-click the Start button and click Control Panel.
   • Windows 7 and earlier - Click the Start button and click Control Panel.
2. Click Programs and Features. If you don't see this option, click "Uninstall a program."
3. Find programs you don't use anymore. You'll see a list of all of your installed programs. If there are programs on the list that you no longer need, removing them will free up space and can improve performance.
   • If you're not sure what a program is for, enter the Name and Publisher into a search engine.
   • Be careful when deciding on which programs to remove, as some may be essential for your peripherals or other programs. You won't break your computer by removing anything from this list.
4. Highlight a program and click Uninstall. You'll see this button appear at the top of the window after selecting a program.
5. Follow the prompts to remove the program. The process will vary depending on the program, but generally you just need to click a button or two to remove the program.
6. Continue uninstalling old programs. Scroll through the list and remove any other programs that you don't use or don't recognize. Make sure to perform a web search on any unknown programs before deleting them.
7. Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Esc. This will open the Task Manager window.
8. Click More details. This button only appears if Task Manager is in miniature mode. You'll see several tabs along the top of the window when it is expanded.
9. Click the Startup tab. You'll see a list of all the programs that start when Windows boots up.
10. Click the Startup impact column header. This will sort the list starting with programs that increase your startup time the most.
11. Highlight a program you want to disable. Disabling a program in this list will prevent it from starting when Windows boots. You'll still be able to start the program at any time, so starting with Windows is typically just a convenience feature.
12. Click the Disable button. This will prevent the program from starting with Windows.
13. Disable any additional programs. Continue through the startup list and disable any other programs that you don't need to start with Windows.
14. Return to the Control Panel window.
15. Click the System option. If you don't see System, click "System and Security" and then "System."
16. Click Advanced system settings. You'l see this on the left side of the screen.
17. Click Settings in the Performance section.
18. Click the Adjust for best performance option and click Apply. This will disable all the additional visual effects for Windows, which can give you a nice performance boost.
19. Click the Start button.
20. Type "disk cleanup" and press ↵ Enter. This will start the Disk Cleanup utility.
21. Click OK to select your hard drive. If you have more than one hard drive installed, the hard drive with Windows on it will be selected by default.
    • It may take a minute or two for the Disk Cleanup utility to scan your system.
22. Check the box for each item you want to delete. Clicking an item will give a brief description.
23. Click OK and wait for the cleanup process. Disk Cleanup will begin removing the selected items, which may take a while to complete.
24. Check your computer for malware. Viruses and adware can have a big impact on your computer's performance, and are a major security concern.
    • Use a program like Malwarebytes to scan for malware and other unwanted programs.
    • Use your antivirus to scan for viruses and rootkits.
25. Consider reinstalling your operating system. As a last resort, formatting your drive and reinstalling Windows can dramatically improve performance. The downside is that all data on the hard drive will be deleted, and you'll need to reinstall all of your programs.
    • If you already keep your data backed up, you can have Windows reinstalled and running again in about an hour.

Mac

1. Click the Go menu from your desktop. Removing old applications is an easy way to free up space and improve performance. You can find them in your Applications folder, which can be found in the Go menu.
2. Click Applications.
3. Drag any applications you don't use to the Trash. Follow any prompts to complete the uninstallation process.
4. Remove excess files and icons from your desktop. Many older Macs start to struggle when there are too many items on the desktop. Moving files to other folders and deleting items you don't need anymore can help improve performance.
5. Click the Apple menu.
6. Click System Preferences.
7. Click the Users & Groups option. If you don't see this, click the ⋮⋮⋮⋮ button at the top of the window.
8. Click your user account in the list. Your active account will usually be selected by default.
9. Click the Login Items tab. You'll see all the programs that launch automatically when your Mac starts, which can bog it down.
10. Click a program you want to remove from your startup.
11. Click the - button. This will remove the item from your Mac's startup sequence.
12. Remove any additional programs you don't need at startup. You can start any of these programs at any time, and removing anything from this list will not prevent your Mac from working. The less programs that start with your Mac, the faster it will boot up.
13. Click ⋮⋮⋮⋮ to return to System Preferences.
14. Click Mission Control.
15. Click the Dashboard drop-down menu and select Off. This will disable the rarely-used Dashboard, which contains memory-eating widgets.
16. Click the Apple menu.
17. Click About This Mac.
18. Click the Storage tab.
19. Click the Optimize button. After confirming, your Mac will delete all of the iTunes movies and TV shows that you have already watched, and will delete old email attachments. You'll be able to redownload any of these items later if you need them again.
20. Click Review Files. This will display files that your Mac thinks may be OK to delete.
21. Find files that you don't need anymore. These could be old installers and other downloaded files.
    • You can switch between the Large Files and Downloads tab to quickly find most files that will be taking up a lot of your space.
22. Click the X next to each item you want to delete. You can also hold ⌘ Command and click each one to select multiple files, then press Delete.
23. Click the Go menu and select Utilities.
24. Double-click Disk Utility.
25. Click the First Aid button.
26. Click Run and wait for the scan to complete. You'll be warned that the boot volume will be frozen, essentially preventing you from using any apps while the scan is in progress.
    • If the scanning process detects any errors, it will attempt to correct them automatically.
27. Consider reinstalling macOS. As a last ditch attempt to improve your performance, you can try reinstalling your operating system. This will delete all of the data on your computer, so you'll need to make sure everything important is safely backed up. You'll also have to reinstall all of your programs afterwards.
    • When you're ready to erase and reinstall, you can do so from the Recovery boot menu.

Chromebook

1. Close any open tabs you don't need. Each open tab is essentially another browser window, so closing tabs you don't need will help free up system resources.
2. Click the Menu button. You'll find this in the lower-left corner.
3. Click Settings.
4. Click the Help tab.
5. Click Update if an update is available. This will install any available system updates, which can help improve the performance of your Chromebook.
6. Open Chrome. You can find this in your task bar.
7. Type chrome:extensions into the address bar.
8. Uncheck any extensions you don't need. Running too many extensions can negatively impact performance. Turn off or completely delete extensions you don't use.
9. Consider a factory reset. This will delete all of the data stored on your Chromebook, but will get it running like new. Make sure to back up any important data that you want to keep first.
   • Open Chrome.
   • Click the ☰ and select Settings.
   • Scroll to the bottom and click Show advanced settings.
   • Scroll down again and click Powerwash. Follow the prompts to reset the Chromebook.

Tips

• If performance is important and cost isn't a factor, consider installing a solid state hard drive (SSD). These hard drives have no moving parts and you will notice drastic improvements to boot and loading times. They are significantly more expensive than standard hard drives, but continue to come down in price.
• If your laptop supports it, Install-RAM will likely give you a performance boost. Laptops are generally more limited than desktops when upgrading your RAM, and you may already be using the most your laptop can take.

Warnings

• Avoid any program advertised online that claims to speed up your computer. Nearly all of these will have little to no effect, and many act as vehicles for more malware.

Related Articles

• Speed up a Windows XP Computer
• Speed up a Windows 7 Computer
• Improve Computer Speed Performance

Sources and Citations

See also

• Use a Laptop on a Sailboat
• Check the Temperature of Your Laptop
• Make Your Laptop Work Faster
• Tether Cellphone Internet to a Laptop
• Buy a Laptop
• Find the Model Number of an HP Laptop
• Clean a Laptop Keyboard
• Build a Laptop Computer
• Optimize Your Netbook
• Choose a Laptop

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• Boost Computer Speed