So, your computer is running slower than usual. What can you do about it?
You will be surprised at the number of factors that contribute to the slowness of your computer. To actually establish the cause, you will need to run diagnostics. This is the only way you can understand the root of the problem.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to conduct a performance test. We will also provide some tips on how to improve the performance of your computer.
Windows Resources and Performance Monitor
Windows has a built-in diagnostic tool called Performance Monitor. It can monitor your computer’s activity in real time or through a log file. You can use its reporting feature to determine what is causing your PC to slow down.
To access the Resource and Performance Monitor, open Run and type PERFMON.
This will open the Performance Monitor.
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Go to Data Collector Sets System. Right-click System Performance, then click Start.
This action will start a 60 second test. After the test, go to Reports System System Performance to view the results.
In the above report, Performance Monitor noticed high CPU usage due to the running top process, which in this case is Google Chrome.
This makes it clear to me that Chrome is overloading my computer.
The diagnostic tool may offer more detailed explanations. You just need to dive deeper into the sections if you need to learn more.
Improve the speed of your computer
There are several things you can do based on your speed test results. Below are just a few of the actions you can take.
PC Settings
Sometimes your PC settings can interfere with optimal performance. Take power settings, for example. Moving to high performance can give your PC the boost it needs to run faster.
Open Control Panel and switch to View By: Categories.
Go to Hardware and Sound Power Options. Select “High Performance”.
Slow startup
If your computer is slow only at boot time, it may be frozen due to applications that run at startup.
Right-click on Start and select Task Manager. Go to the Startup tab. Here you will find a list of programs that run as soon as you turn on your computer. You can disable apps you don’t use often.
Right-click the unneeded application and select Disable to prevent it from starting on startup.
Slow Internet
If you find that only the Internet is slow, turning off OneDrive can really help.
OneDrive works by constantly syncing your files to the cloud, which can slow down your internet speed. The same principle applies to other cloud services like Dropbox.
Go to the taskbar and right-click the OneDrive icon. Click Settings.
On the Options tab, clear the Automatically start OneDrive when I sign in to Windows check box.
You can also unlink OneDrive by clicking Unlink OneDrive.
Full hard drive
Windows 10 has a Storage Sense feature. It automatically deletes files you don’t need, so the amount of memory never slows down your computer.
Go to Windows Settings Storage. Turn on Storage Sense to enable this feature.
By clicking Change how space is reclaimed automatically, you can control how often files are deleted.
Windows Troubleshooter
When all else fails, you can use the Windows troubleshooter to find out what the problem is.
Open Control Panel and go to System and Security Security and Maintenance. Expand the Maintenance section.
Click Start Maintenance under Automatic Maintenance.
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