PC

A slow computer system can be costly in terms of time and for sure it adversely affects your regular routine, especially when you make a living out of it. The experience is kind of very annoying as it brings down your productivity and make things boring as well. I don't think I need to tell you much about that rather I would help you speed up your PC using these popular tried and tested methods.

Sometimes, In order to be more efficient and productive you need to be smart by learning a few extra things that what your work generally requires. Now, below are some of the very useful tips to maintain your computer's health for a better experience.

Clean Temporary Files

Temporary files hog up your system resources and make your system slow and unefficient. These files are generated by various applicatios on your computer, even application installlers etc. These files are useful for only a certain period of time and then they are just discarded. These files when pile up consume storage space and sometimes become the reason of low performance.

There are various third party tools you can use to clean temporary files or you can manually do it by following the steps below.

• Open Run dialog, by pressing Win+R
• Type %temp%
• Select all the files, press Ctrl + A
• Now delete the files by pressing Delete button.

Scan For Viruses

Viruses are the most common causes for low performance or system malfunction. They corrupt important system files and user data, in worst case scenario making your system totally unusable. With so many applications distributed round the internet, it is somewhat harder to figure out the virus source and that is why it is advised to install applications from trusted sources only.

If you work with user data or services investing in a good anti-virus software is worth the risk. Also, make sure to keep your anti-virus software up to date so that it has latest virus signatures.

Windows 10 comes pre-built with Windows Security a powerful anti-malware software which is simple, powerful and protects your system from various types of bloats.

Run Disk Defragmentor

Read write operations on especially non-ssd disks for longer period of time results in files being scattered around and technically it is known as fragmentation, meaning the files occupy random spaces on a disk like a cluttered room. This makes file operations slower and incase you have a large number of files, this may add up to bad experience overall.

Disk defragmentor is powerful utitlity tool built into windows to rearrange files on a disk to occupy contiguous storage locations, thus reducing the access time of a stored content and improving the system's performance.

Here are the steps to start a disk defragmentor utitlity:-

• Open File Explorer
• Right click on a disk drive and select Properties
• Now Choose Tools tab and under Optimize and Defragment Drive, click optimize

Monitor Programs and Services Consuming Too Much System Resources

Whenever you feel like your system is slow. Take a look at your system resources and identify programs and services hogging up. If they seem suspicious, consider collecting more information about them from google. Though somehwat uneasy but it's very advisable nowadays to keep an eye on running applications on your system.

You can use Task Manager to monitor your systems' resources, the process and performance tab is well organized with reports and can sort programs based on the resource type and its usage.

Disable Unnecessary Startup Programs

Startup programs and services have a higher impact on your systems's overall performance. Too many of applications in startup may result in delay in desktop interactivity after startup. You should check for startup programs and disable the ones that are not too important.

You can again use Task Manager for this

• Start Task Manager by right clicking on the task bar and choosing Task Manager
• You can also use the shortcut key Ctrl + Shift + Esc
• Go to Startup tab and disable programs that you do not want to be started with windows

Reduce Installed Apps

This might seem like an overkill but it's somewhat sensible. It's now so easy to install applications and forget them for forever. These applications stay in your system, hogging up space and sometimes other resources in the backround. You or may not have noticed but after a certain period of time your system for some reasons becomes progressively slower.

This is due the reason that reason that when we install an app it brings up its files with it and when we uninstall it at some point later, the files accompanying it remain forever as residue ultimately the user bearing the cost.

Check Your Power Settings

Check your power settings to make sure your power plan is not limiting the system's performance. Power Options contains various settings that can limit CPU or system performance based on various system states like absence of external power etc.

To check/modify power settings on windows 10, you can follow these steps:-

• Open Run Dialog by pressing Windows + R key
• Type powercfg.cpl and press enter
• Change the plan to high performance
• Manually customize power plan by click Change plan settings

Restart your PC

When your system runs for a longer duration of time temporary errors, memory leaks and other bugs cause it to slow down, so sometimes it's a good idea to restart it once in a while. This clears up the memory and things load fresh.

Please note turning your system off (shutdown) and then starting again is not same as a system restart, though many consider it all same but it's different.

Update your PC

Remember to update your computer software like the operating systems, device drivers etc. regularly to have faster and smoother experience. The latest updates, patches, and fixes remove bugs and improves our system performance overall.

Updating your PC also adds up new features, enhances productivity and obviously makes a user's life easier. Updates are too frequent on Windows nowadays so make sure to have latest updates on your system.

Limit Apps In Background

Too many apps running in backgournd slows down your system, Windows 10 has a built in powerful feature to limit apps from runnning in background, which can be accessed by typing 'Settings' in the Start Menu Dialog and then selecting 'Background apps' from the sidebar of the settings panel.

Choose an appropriate setting and I suggest going through the list of apps therein and choose the ones you know of and disable any others so that they don't run in the background.

Run the System File Checker

The System file checker is a powerful utility program that checks system files for corruptions and fixes them. Sometimes corrupt system files are also reasons for bad performance so running a file checker can be of great help. You can use system file checker to check and fix your system files by following these steps:-

• Open run dialog by pressing Win + R
• Type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift and press ok
• This opens up Command Prompt as Administrator
• Now type sfc /scannow to run the file checker

Reset your PC

If you have tried all the techniques shared above and nothing seems to work, then as a final turnaround I would advice you to Reset Your PC once and for all. This helps you refresh and renews your entire system software. Note that your application programs will be removed, you'd need to re-install them but your files will be safe.

When resetting your PC, Windows will ask you whether you want to keep your files or not. When you reset your PC the operating system would be as new as the day one of the first installation. Windows 10 already has this that allows you to reset, search for Reset this PC through the start menu and get started.

Perform a Fresh Install

If you tried resetting your PC and things still don't seem to improve, the other way would include reinstalling your Operating system. This will completely replace all your system specific files, remove each and eveything. You'll need the operating system installation files in a bootable disk to perform this action, but it's sure to improve your system.

Incase you have loads of data into your system, it's important to take a backup of all the important stuffs.

Upgrade Peripherals and Components

If you're task requires some extensive amount of system resources, you should consider investing in better hardware components. Often times, its the limited availability of resources such as the memory or the storage space that makes the system feel slower. Investing in high performance hardwares components like memory, hard drives, processor, graphics may go long way.

Dedicate sometime to Organize Your Stuffs

At last, a simple productivity tip for you, as the post is about faster workflow, is to be an efficient user. Dedicate sometime to organize you stuffs as overtime things become disorganized and chaotic in respect to the second law of thermodynamics. So take sometime and doing this will certainlyt fasten up regular workflow.