Clean Your Hard Drive
You should start by removing unimportant data and cached files from your disk since this is the easiest, most painless way to gain some performance back. Over time, your hard drive fills up with temporary files that can slow down your computer’s ability to access the hard drive.
Uninstall Programs You Don’t Need
After you clean up your hard drive, the next step is to remove programs you don’t need. Not only do installed programs take up valuable storage space on your hard drive, but they can often run processes in the background which slow things down.
Reduce Startup Programs
Many programs run automatically when you start your laptop and then run in the background. While this can be convenient and help certain programs run more efficiently, it also slows down your laptop overall. That’s why you should reduce the number of apps that run at startup. Go back to the list of programs and continue to uninstall additional programs you don’t need anymore.
Scan for Malware
While somewhat unlikely, it’s possible your laptop is infected with some form of malware that’s slowing down your computer. To be sure, check for the presence of malware.
Reset Windows
Sometimes, a laptop’s Windows installation is simply too corrupted or cluttered with digital detritus for any of the above solutions to solve the problem. There’s one last option available: You can start fresh with a clean installation of Windows. This is always a last resort because it’s time-consuming and there is some small amount of risk involved. It’s a good idea to have a reliable backup of your data in case anything goes awry.
