Welcome back, in today’s video I’ll be showing you how to make an old or slow PC or laptop run like
new! We have mixture of simple and more complex tips to help, and you can use the chapters to
navigate them. You don’t need to follow all of them, just pick and choose! Remember to
leave a like and feel free to subscribe if the video helps, let’s get into the methods.
Firstly, it’s best to quickly check that your PC or laptop is clean and free from excess dust.
Ensure that the fans are not covered or filled with dust and doing this could help lower your
PC’s temperatures. This will allow your PC to be more efficient and it should run faster.
Also, when you are using your PC or laptop, try and allow for
sufficient ventilation around the device. Up next, it’s worth disabling start up apps.
These apps will run automatically every time your start your PC and they will slow it down. As you
install new apps, some will run at start up and turning them off will help give your PC a boost in
speed. To disable start up apps, head to the main settings page. You can get there by searching for
it in the search bar. In the settings, click on apps from the list of options on the left.
In here, click on start-up which should be the bottom option on the list. On the next page, you
will see the list of apps, and some will be turned on which means they will run at start up. Feel
free to go down the list and turn off any apps you know you don’t use. Disabling them here won’t
make them stop working, but they may take a bit longer to run when you do load them. You can use
the sort function at the top to help show you the apps that have the biggest impact on performance.
The next method is to free up space. This will make a big difference, especially if your drive
is near capacity. A few quick ways to free up space would be to empty the recycle bin,
which can be done by right clicking on it. You could sort through your downloads folder
or uninstall a program you are no longer using. You can uninstall a program by going to settings,
then apps, then apps and features and then finding the app you want to uninstall
and then finally click on the three dots icon and choose uninstall. Click the card onscreen
now to watch a video of mine with loads more methods to help free up space on your device.
Similarly to the last method, it’s worth removing any unused apps so that they do not
run in the background or at start-up. Certain apps could also cause compatibility problems.
Next, it’s worth scanning for viruses just in case. You can use your own anti-virus
software if you have it, however we can use the built-in Windows anti-virus. To scan for viruses,
search Windows security in the search bar and then when the window opens, choose virus
and threat protection from the options on the left. In here, you can choose quick scan or if
you go to scan options, you can click on full scan and then scan now to search for viruses.
Allow Windows to perform the scan and then we can move on to the next tip.
We’ll now check for specific apps that are using a lot of your system’s resources.
To do this, we need to go to the task manager. To get there, right click on the start menu icon in
the taskbar and choose task manager from the list. Make sure you are in the processes tab. In here,
it might be good to look for apps that are using a lot of resources such as CPU or memory and
close these when you aren’t using them. Don’t end the task though for any programs you don’t
recognise as they might be system services. Next, we can try turning on high performance
in the power plan section. If available, this may help boost your PC’s performance too. However, in
most cases it might not make a difference but it’s worth a try. To do this, head to the main settings
page and choose system from the left although you should be in here by default. Now click on
power from the list and find the drop-down box that allows you to change the power plan. See if
you can set it to high performance. Remember that this will use more power and if you are
on a laptop, it will drain the battery quicker. If your PC is really old and is struggling with
even the most basic tasks, we can try adjusting the animation settings to favour performance.
It should help make your PC feel more responsive by reducing the amount of intensive fades and
effects. To change these settings, search for “advanced system settings” in the search bar
and click on view advanced system settings. In the new window, click on settings in the performance
section, it should be the top settings option. This will bring up the performance options window,
and in here you can quickly select adjust for best performance to help speed up your PC
or you can have a look at the individual options to create a custom plan. The fewer boxes you
select, the faster your PC will be, but you will obviously lose some of the animations. Feel free
to play around with each of the options to find out what you prefer and what suits your PC.
The next method will focus specifically on the browser you use.
This might not apply to all of you but if you have any browser add ins, then removing them will help
speed up your browser experience. Remove the ones you don’t use. The method to remove them might be
slightly different on each browser, but on Chrome for example, all you need to do is right click on
the one you want to remove and then choose “remove from Chrome”. Removing these might
also reduce the amount of RAM that your browser uses in the background, which can be quite a lot.
Next, it’s worth checking for any Windows updates. Older versions of Windows 11 might have
compatibility problems or newer versions could have performance upgrades. To update your PC to
the latest version of Windows 11, first go to the main settings page. You can get here by searching
for it. In the settings, click on Windows update from the options on the left side. In here, simply
click on check for updates and install any that appear. Remember to save any work before updating.
If you have a hard drive, it’s worth checking that it has been defragmented recently.
This is a process done by Windows that should help your drive run faster. To run the tool
search for defragment in the search bar and then click on defragment and optimize drives.
Check the last analysed or optimized date and if this is quite recent then you can move on
but if it isn’t, it is worth selecting it and clicking on optimize. You can do this
with an SSD too, but it won’t make as much difference as those of you with a hard drive.
It might take a while to run, and you can click on change settings to set it up to run automatically.
Of course, you could always try completely resetting your PC. You will need to make
sure everything is backed up before doing so but a reset should help make your PC run closer to like
it was out of the box. It’s an extreme step but it might be worth it, it’s up to you. You can reset
your PC by going to settings, then in the system settings, choose recovery and then reset PC and
finally follow the options it gives you. Remember that some of these options will delete your
personal files so bear that in mind and once again please back up your data if you decide to reset.
The final method is to upgrade your PC or elements of it. I’ve left this to the end as it would be
nice avoid doing this, but for some of you a good way to boost performance is by upgrading
one of the components. For example you could double your amount of RAM from 8 gigabytes to 16
gigabytes if that is what is slowing you down. And so those are my methods to try and make an
old and slow PC or laptop run like new in Windows 11. Click the card onscreen now to
watch a video of mine showing you how to improve headphone sound quality on a Windows 11 PC.
Help support the channel by visiting the store – the link is in the description and at the end
of the video. If you have any questions, then let me know in the comments below and if you did find
today’s video helpful remember to leave a like and feel free to subscribe for more tips in the
future. Be sure to stick around to see some of my other videos that you might be interested in.
Thanks so much for watching and I will see you in another video!