Windows 10 is one of most stable and efficient operating systems available today and its popularity with businesses is a testament to this. However, Microsoft’s flagship product has numerous features that use precious hardware resources, and businesses that have opted for cost-effective PCs are subject to mediocre computer performance.
While this is not an ideal situation, there are many ways to optimize your Windows 10 performance and improve your productivity. Here are a few tips that will help you do just that.
1. Sleep mode, updates, and startup apps
Laptops and PC habits have changed a lot over the various iterations of Windows but not all of them lead to better performance. Closing your laptop cover and sending Windows into Sleep mode for weeks at a time will gradually affect computer performance. This is because processes that run in the background steadily increase with constant use and without a restart, your PC will constantly get sapped of resources. Save your work, close your programs, and restart your laptop weekly and you’ll experience a more consistent Windows experience.
Windows updates are also critically important to your user experience because these updates make incremental performance improvements to Windows and add security patches to keep your device safe from cyberattacks. Updating as soon as possible greatly reduces your security risks while boosting your computer’s performance.
Finally, your computer does a lot of heavy lifting when it boots up after a shutdown by launching a number of applications and programs during startup. Find out which programs are not required as soon as you launch your computer and turn them off by opening Task Manager, clicking on the Startup tab, and then right-clicking and disabling unnecessary programs.
2. Conduct extensive housekeeping
Over time, your computer accumulates more and more programs that do not figure in your daily activities. By removing unused programs and disabling certain unnecessary Windows processes, you’ll see a real improvement in your computer’s speed and responsiveness.
Windows special effects, in particular, includes animations and transparency you can live without so go to System > Advanced Settings and select Performance Settings. Here you can disable a number of visual effects boxes.
Removing unnecessary software is also quite simple. Just go to Control Panel > Programs and Features, and select Uninstall a Program to start removing any noncritical apps from your system.
You can also use Disk Cleanup to remove temporary files and cached files that take up valuable disk space. All you need to do is search for Disk Cleanup in your Windows Search and upon opening this program, you will get a number of file options that can be removed automatically. Check the boxes of the files you want to remove and click Clean up systems files to confirm the action. All this extra disk space and the removal of the effects will lead to a sizable performance boost.
3. Hardware upgrades
While most users would prefer to stick with their existing systems and squeeze the most utility out of them, one of the best ways to improve Windows 10 is by upgrading certain hardware components. Windows 10 required at least 4 GB of RAM to run smoothly and even more if you tend to multitask and use more resource-intensive applications. If your PC has just about 4 GB of RAM, Windows will use most of that capacity, leaving little room for anything else.
Instead of getting tied down by RAM, you can easily upgrade to 8 or 16 GB for a very reasonable price. Most computer stores are happy to install the RAM when you purchase it from them, but you can also ask a trusted managed IT services provider like NetQuest to do it for you. They’ll also make sure that the RAM you purchase is compatible with your motherboard.
Another major performance booster is installing Windows 10 on an SSD (solid state drive). These drives have exponentially faster reading and writing speeds than mechanical hard disk drives. They cost more than the regular hard drive but the faster boot and load times are well worth the price. You’ll need to clone your current hard drive using drive cloning software and then move it to your new SSD, but once everything is set up and ready to go, you’ll appreciate your new Windows 10 SSD experience.
Again, if you need help with any of these processes, NetQuest is the go-to MSP for optimizing your Windows 10 experience. Contact our IT specialists today to see how we can help transform your IT and your business.
