How To Make Windows 10 Run Faster: Simple Tips and Steps

A common complaint of almost all Windows users is why their PC is slow. Think about how your experience as a computer user has increased, as well as the work of your favorite computer. But compared to the usage, how much time do we spend taking care of the computer? We may not think that even a device needs regular maintenance unless there is a problem. This can result in problems ranging from computer slowdowns to hardware damage.

However, today we will look at some tips and tricks that will help keep our Windows 10 PC a little bit faster. Some of the tips need to implement once, and some need to perform regularly. Here our goal is to keep a kind of checklist.

Let’s begin.

General Settings to change

• Set the ‘Power Option’ to ‘High performance’.
• Set the Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling from Settings > Display if you have that option available.
• Disable unwanted startup programs.
• Remove Desktop shortcuts.
• Defragment and optimize the system drive.
• Clean up Windows system caches:
  • Delete all the unnecessary temporary files using the windows Run and %temp%, temp, prefetch, and wsreset command.
  • Delete all files from [System root drive]:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download
  • Clear all browser data or browsing history.
  • Clear location history from Settings > Privacy.
  • Run cmd as administrator then type ipconfig /flushDNS then hit enter.
  • Clean up the memory of the system drive using Disk Cleanup > Cleanup system files.
  • You can delete the space being used by the System Restore feature if this is ‘On’ in your system. Create a restore point again of you need.
• Reduce runtime service from Run > MSConfig (Note: Check ‘Hide all Microsoft services’ to avoid deactivating necessary services)
• If you want a faster booting, check No GUI boot from Run > MSConfig > Boot.
• Change Mouse Response time from Run > regedit:
  • 1. Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse > MouseHoverTime > value: 10
  • 2. Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\MenuShowDelay > Value: 10
• Reduce visual effects in Advance System Settings and set it to the Adjust for best performance for your PC.
• Disable unnecessary data collection from Settings > Privacy > General, also check Diagnostics & feedback.
• If you don’t use your PC for gaming, then turn off Xbox Game Bar and Game mode from Settings > Game.
• Turn on Indexer Performance from Settings > Search > Searching Windows.
• Turn off Delivery Optimization from Settings > Update & Security.
• Disable Cortana from Search > gpedit > Computer Configuration > Administrative Template > Windows Component > Search > Allow Cortana > Disable.

Some other ways to clean unnecessary, temporary, or junk files

• Cleaning using Storage Sense from Settings > System > Storage
• Delete unnecessary large files using TreeSize Free
• Check some folders/directories which contain download data, cache, unused application data, etc. Folders like – Users, AppData, Download, Documents, Dropbox, etc.
• Remove unnecessary Desktop Icons. (You can use Fences to organize your desktop icons, but I always prefer not to put many icons on the desktop so that I don’t need to install any extra app to manage the desktop icons.)

I completely agree with you that the above points are not elaborated. These are very general settings and tasks to perform which are very much available on the internet. So I wanted to reduce the size of this article so that my readers didn’t get bored. If you need detailed guidelines please feel free to contact me.

Uninstall Unnecessary Apps

Let’s start with uninstalling some unnecessary Windows Apps. The reason behind uninstalling these apps could be critical vulnerabilities or security risks, performance issue, too much crappy and unnecessary advertisement, etc. But do not just follow this list if you use some of them regularly. The good thing is we have also suggested you the alternatives.

Go to Settings > Apps > Apps & features section. Here, you’ll get the list of all the apps installed on your PC.

List of Apps:

• QuickTime (Alternative – VLC)
• CCleaner! (If you can clean your windows step by step and manually. Also, check if there are any more cleaning apps accidentally installed in your system. Sometimes it happens.)
• uTorrent! (You have better alternatives. Try to use – FDM or qBittorrent.)
• Adobe Flash Player and Shockwave Player (Obsolete these days.)
• Java (Unless you have a particular reason to keep it or you are a Java or Android developer.)
• Microsoft Silverlight (No longer useful like Adobe Flash.)
• All toolbars and Junk Browser Extensions (Go to your favorite browser and see the extension/plugins sections to uninstall unnecessary and unused ones.)
• Manufacturer Bloatware. (Sometime you may find some pre-installed applications by the PC/Hardware manufacturers. You can remove them. If you are not sure which one is what to remove safely you can visit the site shouldiremoveit.com)
• Windows Bloatware – Xbox, Weather, Candy Crush Saga-like apps, if you don’t need them.
• WinRAR, WinZIP, etc. (Alternative – 7-Zip)
• Uninstall big and unnecessary programs which have smaller or web alternatives. Do you know there are good alternatives to some of your large applications even on the web? Sometimes we install Photoshop-like applications just to crop or resize photos that have nice alternatives on the web.

Uninstall Windows Updates

If you feel your windows become slow after an update, then you can take two actions. Either you uninstall windows updates or repair broken files during an update.

To uninstall update:

Go to Windows Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > View update history > Uninstall updates. You will see a list of Windows updates installed. Right-click and uninstall the updates you want to uninstall.

To repair broken files:

Type command prompt or cmd in search > Right-click on the ‘Command Prompt’ App and select ‘Run as administrator’ > Type sfc/scannow then press enter.

Disable Windows Update:

If you want to avoid Windows updates completely then you can disable the Windows update service. To do so:

1. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services -> open the service named Windows Update
2. Press the Stop button in Service status and select the option ‘Startup type’ as disabled. Then press apply.

Resetting Windows without reinstallation

If nothing is improving your Windows performance and it’s become too hard to run regular applications with weird pop-us, then you can try resetting the Windows rather than re-installing it.

To reset Windows you need to go to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery > Reset this PC. But before resetting the Windows read the instructions carefully then choose the suitable option as it may remove applications and delete files from the system.

Install a fresh copy of the Windows 64 bit version

More than resetting the Windows, you can proceed to install a fresh copy of Windows 64 bit. And also try to install the 64bit version of the applications you need to use if available.

Upgrade to SSD

Finally, this is a hardware upgrade to suggest. If your old Harddrive is not a Solid State Drive (SSD) then you can consider upgrading it. Buy an SSD and install Windows on one of the SSD drives. It will definitely deliver a performance boost to your PC you won’t regret.

Thank you so much for reading this article so far. I will update this more time to time and more tips and tricks will be added so that it becomes the ultimate guide on the day of your need. So keep visiting. If you feel there is something to add here, please suggest it in the comment.