20 Tips | How to Speed Up Windows 11/10 Performance [2024 Updated]

Updated by

Sherly 

Written by

Tracy King 

Last updated on April 19, 2024

How to speed up Windows 11/10 and make it run faster? This article offers you the most comprehensive solutions, and there must be one suitable for you.

1. Restart Your Computer to Speed Up Windows 11/10 2. Install the Latest Updates 3. Change Power Plan Settings 4. Disable Startup Programs 5. Defragment and Optimize Drives 6. More Tips...

While the Windows 11/10 operating system is constantly getting faster, more stable, and more powerful, your PC or laptop might slow down due to various factors, including (but not limited to) compatibility issues, bugs, viruses, bloatware, hardware failure, or other problems. This article is for you if you're wondering how to speed up your computer that's running Windows 11 or 10.

• How to speed up Windows 11/10 boot time?
• How to optimize Windows 11/10 for better gaming performance?
• How to make Windows 11/10 run faster on both laptops and desktops?
• How to speed up Windows 11/10 using Command Prompt?

On this page, we'll show you 20 effective ways to speed up Windows 10 and optimize your PC's performance.

1. Restart Your PC to Speed Up Windows 11/10

Restarting your computer should be the first step to speed up Windows 10. This clears your RAM and stops any processes that might be taking up resources. When you leave your computer on for long periods without turning it off, Windows 10 will put the display to sleep, but any processes that were launched before this will continue running. These can build up over time and slow your computer down.

You can resolve this issue by restarting your computer. After the restart, only open the applications you need, and close them when you're done using them.

See also:

2. Install the latest updates

One of the best ways to get the most out of your computer is to make sure you have the latest version of Windows 10 installed. Updates can fix issues that cause sluggish performance in Windows 10. When you check for updates, your PC also searches for the latest device drivers, which can help improve performance and make Windows 10 run faster.

Step 1: Click the “Start” button, then choose Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Check for updates.

Step 2: Select the updates you want to install, then choose Install. Restart your PC and see if Windows 10 is running better.

3. Change the Power Plan

It's possible that you're using an energy-saving power plan that reduces your computer's performance to conserve power. To speed up Windows 11/10, you should switch to the "High Performance" power plan, which consumes more power but delivers better system performance. Here's how to set it up:

1. Press the Windows key and type Power and sleep. Click on "Power and sleep settings." (If you've hidden the search box, access the settings by clicking the Start button, then "Settings," then "System," and then "Power & sleep.")

Step 2: Click on “More power options” on the right.

3. Expand “Show additional plans” and you should see the “High Performance” option. Select it as your power plan.

4. Disable Startup Programs

If there are too many programs set to start automatically, it significantly increases the system startup time. Also, having too many apps running in the background can cause slow performance in Windows 11/10. Thus, disabling unnecessary startup programs can also greatly speed up Windows 11/10.

Step 1: Right-click anywhere on the taskbar and select Task Manager.

Step 2. In the Task Manager window, go to the Startup tab.

Step 3: Click on any programs you don't use often or don't need to start up with your computer, then click “Disable.” This will remove them from the startup list.

5. Defragment and optimize disks

With the built-in Disk Defragmenter tool in Windows, you can rearrange files on your disk so that they take up contiguous blocks of storage, which speeds up file access. To defragment a drive:

1. Press the Windows key, type defragment, then click on “Defragment and Optimize Drives” in the results.

Step 2: Select your system drive (usually C:) and click on “Optimize.”

How to Speed Up Windows 10 – Defragment and Optimize Drives

6. Speed Up Windows 11/10 with ReadyBoost

ReadyBoost lets you use available space on a removable drive, such as a USB flash drive, to speed up Windows 10 and improve performance on your PC without opening it up to add more memory (RAM). To use ReadyBoost, you need a USB flash drive or storage card with at least 500 MB of free space and a high data transfer rate.

7. Clean up your disk/Clean Disk

Disk Cleanup is not the same as defragmenting, which helps recover disk space by deleting unnecessary files from your hard drive.

Step 1: Open "This PC", right-click on the system disk, and then select "Properties".

Step 2: Click "Disk Cleanup." The tool will scan your hard drive and calculate how much space you can free up.

Step 3: When the scan is finished, click "Clean System Files" in the window to have the tool scan your hard drive again.

Step 4: When the scan is finished, click "OK" on the new window that pops up. A prompt will appear asking, "Are you sure you want to permanently delete these files?" Click "Delete Files." Since these actions only remove unnecessary system files, you don't have to worry about losing important documents.

If Disk Cleanup is not working in Windows 10, get it fixed from here first.

8. Free up space by deleting temporary files

Temporary files are files that are only needed for a short time and will later become useless. It doesn't make sense to store them on a disk with limited space.

Does deleting temporary files speed up a computer? Absolutely. Many users have reported a noticeable increase in computer performance after deleting their temporary files.

Step 1: Press the Windows key, type run, and then click “Run” from the list.

‹Step 2› Type %temp%, and then click OK. This opens the Windows Temp folder.

Step 3: Select all the files in that folder, and delete them.

Step 4: Open the Run dialog box again, type temp, and click OK.

5. When you see the notification that you currently don't have permission to access this folder, click “Continue.”

<Step 6> Select all files and delete them.

Step 7: In the Run dialog box, type prefetch, and then click Continue to delete all of the files in that folder.

9. Extend System C Drive to Boost Windows 11/10 Performance

As an advanced free partition manager, AOMEI Partition Assistant Free enables you to easily expand system drive for better performance.

Aside from resizing partitions, the tool also lets you create partitions and format/convert/copy/hide/erase hard disks or existing partitions. In short, it's a versatile disk/partition management tool that can help you boost your computer's performance in many ways.

Let's see how to use this disk partition manager to extend C drive.

Option 1: Extend System C drive with unallocated space

1. Right-click on the System C drive and select "Resize/Move Partition." 2. Drag the system partition towards the unallocated space to add it to the C drive. Then, click "OK." 3. Click "Execute Task" and "Apply" to perform the operation and extend the C drive.

Option 2: Extend the System C Drive without Unallocated Space

1. Right-click on a large partition with enough space on the system disk and select "Allocate Space." 2. In the "Allocate space from (*) to" section, choose the system drive, then drag the end of the System C drive to the unallocated space. Click "OK" to confirm. 3. Click "Execute Tasks," which will list the pending operations. Then click "Apply" to save the changes and extend the C drive.

0:00-0:26 Extend the system drive using unallocated space; 0:27-0:58 Extend the system drive without unallocated space.

The professional partition tool also allows you to allocate space from D drive to C drive directly to increase the space of C drive when there is no unallocated space on C drive.

10. Modifying the Registry

The Windows Registry stores all the settings needed for your system to run properly and for installed programs to function. You can modify the Registry to optimize your system in a number of ways. Here, we'll show you how to increase your mouse's cursor response time, which will decrease the delay when tooltips appear after you hover over an item.

Warning: The Registry Editor hosts many crucial operations for your system. Deleting processes here may severely damage your system. To prevent any harmful results, proceed with caution and follow the instructions below carefully.

Step 1: Open the Run dialog box and type regedit.

2. Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel, and then double-click Mouse.

Step 3: Double-click on “MouseHoverTime” and change its value to 10.

Step 4: Double-click the Desktop folder > MenuShowDelay, and change its value to 10.

The changes will take effect after you restart your computer. There are many other Registry edits that can speed up Windows; search the Internet for more information.

Disable OneDrive syncing

OneDrive is a built-in syncing service on Windows that lets you sync your files to the cloud and access them from any PC using the same OneDrive account. This can be a useful feature. However, automatic syncing can slow down your computer. After disabling it, you can manually sync important files to OneDrive whenever you want. To see if OneDrive syncing affects the performance of Windows 11/10: Right-click the OneDrive icon on the taskbar; Click Pause syncing and choose a time period. If you notice an improvement in your computer's performance during the pause, follow the steps below to turn off syncing and choose an alternative method for backing up your computer that won't slow it down, like backing up to a USB flash drive.

Step 1: Right-click the OneDrive icon and select Settings > Account.

Step 2: Select “Disconnect this PC” > “Disconnect account.”

The above seven methods are how you can speed up Windows 10 boot/startup or game performance by changing computer settings. The next three solutions leverage third-party software to perform advanced tasks for accelerating your Windows 11/10 system easily.

12. Adjusting the Look and Feel of Windows

Windows 10 has many visual effects, like animations and shadow effects, that make your computer look great. However, these visual effects use more of your system resources and can slow down your computer. If you have less RAM, you can adjust the appearance and performance settings in Windows to make Windows 10 run faster.

How to Disable or Adjust Visual Effects in Windows 10

Step 1: Type Advanced system settings in the taskbar search box. Click the “Advanced” tab, and then click “Settings” under “Performance” > “Visual Effects.”

Step 2: On the Visual Effects tab, select Adjust for best performance, and then click Apply.

Restart your computer to see if it speeds up Windows 10. If the fonts on your computer are affected and you want them to be clearer and easier to read, select “Customize.”

13. Disable Transparency

Transparency effects can consume some resources, which might be one reason for the system running slowly. To reduce memory and resource consumption, you can disable these effects.

Go to Settings > Personalization > Colors, and turn off Make Start, taskbar, and action center transparent.

14. Migrate Operating System to SSD/HDD for Faster Windows 11/10

If you don't have enough space on your system drive and cannot extend the system partition, your best bet would be to migrate Windows 11/10 to a larger HDD or upgrade your system disk from HDD to a better-performing SSD.

Using the Partition Master tool mentioned above, you can accomplish OS migration. The linked articles (including video and text tutorials) provide detailed instructions on how to transfer Windows to another drive. Following the guide will significantly boost the performance of your Windows 11/10 system.

Please check the steps below on how to migrate your OS to an SSD or a larger HDD.

Steps to migrate an operating system to an HDD/SSD:

Launch Partition Master and select "Clone" from the left menu. Check "Migrate OS," then click "Next." Select your SSD or HDD as the target disk, then click "Next." Note: All data and partitions on the target disk will be erased. Make sure you have backed up important data beforehand. If not, please do so now. Then click "Yes." Preview the layout of the target disk, and click "Start" to begin migrating the operating system to the new disk.

Then click “Restart Now” or “Finish,” depending on whether you want to restart the computer from the new disk right away.

"Reboot Now" saves the changes and restarts your computer immediately, while "Done" means you'll need to restart your computer manually later.

Boot options after migrating the operating system to a new disk

Note: If there is insufficient unallocated space on the target disk, the OS migration operation will delete existing partitions and data on the target disk. Back up any important data to an external hard drive beforehand if necessary.

15. Disable/Turn Off Search Indexing

The Search feature is an essential and useful component of Windows 11/10, but its indexing part might temporarily consume a significant amount of system resources, affecting the performance of Windows 11/10. To speed up your Windows 11/10 and make it run better, you can try disabling the search indexing when you know the location of your files.

How to disable search indexing:

Step 2: Click on "Show all" and clear all the selected locations. Then, click on the "OK" button.

16. Remove Unwanted Pre-installed Software

Many computers come preloaded with large programs you don't need or want, which can take up a lot of space on your hard drive and cause Windows 11/10 to run slowly. You can uninstall these bloatware programs to free up space and make your computer faster.

Right-click the Start button, and select “Control Panel” > “Programs” > “Uninstall a Program.” Check the programs you no longer need, then click “Uninstall” at the top of the list.

17. Turn Off Windows Tips and Tricks

Another practical solution is to turn off Tips and Notifications in Windows 11/10. When Windows 11/10 offers you a tip, it does a scan, which can have a slight impact on performance. If Windows doesn't have to generate notifications, your computer will be faster.

To turn these off, go to Start > Settings > System > Notifications & actions, and turn off Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows.

18. Check for Viruses and Malware

If your computer is infected with a virus, malware, or adware, it might run slowly. The best way to deal with these is to try and prevent them by running antivirus and anti-malware programs and keeping them up to date, such as Bitdefender, Norton, Kaspersky, Avast, and so on.

You can also use the Windows Security that comes with Windows 10 to scan your device for viruses or other malware.

19. Upgrade your RAM/Add more RAM

One of the most effective ways to speed up Windows 11/10 is to increase the amount of virtual memory (RAM) it has access to. Windows 11/10 requires a minimum of 4GB of RAM to run smoothly.

When your laptop or PC has too little RAM, it can't support running multiple applications smoothly, and everything runs really slowly. In this case, installing new RAM chips to increase its memory capacity can give your computer a real performance boost.

To check your RAM, click Performance and then Memory in Task Manager.

20. Running System Maintenance

Windows 11/10 includes a utility that can perform routine system maintenance, such as defragmenting your hard drive, scanning for updates, and checking for malware.

These tasks usually run in the background when your computer is idle, but you can also choose to run them manually if you notice performance issues with your system.

Open the Control Panel, select “System and Security,” then click “Security and Maintenance.” Click the arrow to expand the maintenance options, then choose “Start Maintenance.”

In short

This article provides you with the most comprehensive guide on how to speed up Windows 11/10, including restarting your computer, running only necessary applications, utilizing ReadyBoost for performance enhancement, checking and freeing up disk space, expanding your system drive, upgrading to an SSD, increasing RAM capacity, and more. Tailor these suggestions to your computer's specific needs to optimize its performance.

How to Speed Up Windows 11/10: Frequently Asked Questions

Inspect issues that are highly relevant to how to speed up and improve the performance of Windows 10.

**1. Why is my Windows 10 computer running so slowly?**

• Virus or malware attack
• Slow startup
• Lack of disk space
• Dusty fans or cooling system
• Issues with the Windows operating system
• Hard drive problems
• Inadequate virtual memory
• ...

**2. How can I speed up my computer's performance?**

Here are the sentences translated into American English: 1. Speed up your computer by: - Cleaning the hard drive: Remove unnecessary files, programs, and apps to free up disk space. - Disabling startup items: Control which programs launch at startup to reduce auto-running software. - Upgrading hardware: Boost your RAM or switch to a faster SSD for improved performance. - Keeping updates current: Stay updated with OS and software updates for optimization and security. - Scanning for viruses and malware: Ensure your computer isn't infected. - Disabling visual effects: Scale back visual effects to enhance system performance. - Junk cleanup: Use a cleaner tool to get rid of system junk and temporary files. - Optimizing the hard drive: Defragment the disk to enhance read and write speeds. - Minimizing multitasking: Avoid running multiple programs simultaneously to减轻 the CPU workload. - Adjusting power settings: Switch to "High Performance" mode for maximum speed. These tips can help increase your computer's speed, but the actual effect will depend on your computer's configuration and how you use it.

1. Install the latest Windows updates and device drivers.
2. Reboot your computer and only open necessary applications.
3. Utilize ReadyBoost to enhance performance.
4. Ensure the system is managing the page file size automatically.
5. Check disk space and free up space if needed.
6. Tweak Windows appearance and performance settings.
7. Pause OneDrive syncing.
8. Disable unnecessary startup programs.
9. Scan for viruses and malware.
10. Restore your computer from a System Restore point.

To make Windows 10 2022 Edition run faster, give these tips a try: 1. **Free up disk space**: Get rid of unnecessary files, programs, and apps to free up hard drive room. 2. **Manage startup programs**: Disable startup apps to reduce software running at boot, which speeds up the startup time. 3. **Update drivers**: Ensure all hardware drivers are up to date; outdated ones can slow things down. 4. **Optimize your hard drive**: Use the "Defragment and Optimize Drives" tool to enhance disk read and write speeds. 5. **Turn off visual effects**: In "System Settings," adjust visual effects and choose "Adjust for best performance." 6. **Update the OS**: Install all available Windows updates to keep your system current. 7. **Close background apps**: In settings, disable unused background apps to save resources. 8. **Upgrade RAM**: If possible, upgrade your PC's RAM to boost performance. 9. **Disable live tiles**: Turn off live tiles in the Start menu to减轻processor workload. 10. **Regular restarts**: Restart your computer regularly to clear memory and close any stuck processes. Following these steps should help your Windows 10 2022 Edition run more smoothly.

How to Speed Up Windows 10 in 2019, 2020, or 2022:

• Restart your computer.
• Check for updates.
• Check your startup programs.
• Run Disk Cleanup.
• Uninstall unused software.
• Disable visual effects.
• Disable transparency.
• Upgrade your RAM.
• Use an SSD.
• Run system maintenance.