How to make your laptop faster for free

There are lots of ways to speed up your laptop, including disabling startup apps, switching power profiles, and limiting multitasking. Regular maintenance helps too, so make sure you’re installing system updates and deleting apps you don’t use. If you’re looking to improve your laptop’s performance for free, you’re in the right place. I’ll explain how to make your Windows laptop or PC noticeably faster in just a few hours, without spending a cent.

How to speed up your Windows computer for free: short version

There are two main ways to make your laptop faster: reduce its workload or help it work more efficiently.

It’s also important to be realistic about your device’s capabilities – a very old laptop is likely fine for web-browsing but less suitable for gaming or video-editing. Here’s a quick checklist of things you can do to improve system performance on a Windows laptop:

1. Change your power plan to High performance or Ultimate performance.
2. Stop unnecessary programs from running at startup.
3. Try not to have lots of apps running in the background.
4. Limit usage of resource-heavy apps or swap to more lightweight alternatives.
5. Adjust graphics and animation settings.
6. Disable unwanted Windows features.
7. Run a virus and malware scan.
8. Take advantage of the disk cleanup and disk-optimization tools.
9. Make sure Windows, drivers, and apps are up-to-date.
10. Uninstall apps you don’t use.

This post is about making the most of your laptop’s hardware. However, we also have guides explaining why your network is so slow and how to speed up your internet connection.

Your no-fuss guide to speeding up a slow laptop for free

Don’t worry if some of the advice above went over your head; I’m about to walk you through everything, step-by-step. Here’s how to make a slow laptop quicker, free of charge:

Switching to a high-performance power plan

By default, Windows computers use a balanced power plan, which provides decent battery life and performance. You can change this to prioritize performance as long as you’re okay with the battery draining more quickly. If you mostly keep your laptop plugged in anyway, this change provides a noticeable performance improvement with minimal downsides.

To change your Windows power plan, right-click the battery icon in the bottom-right of your screen. Click Power Options, then High Performance.

If you don’t see a battery icon, you can open the menu by clicking the Windows logo in the bottom-left. Type “Choose a power plan”, click the top result, and swap to High Performance or Ultimate Performance (if available).

Preventing apps from running at startup

When you install an app, there’s a good chance there’ll be a pre-checked box allowing it to run at startup. However, having lots of apps start the moment your PC turns on can slow everything down pretty significantly. That’s why it’s a good idea to check which apps have this permission and whether they really need it.

To begin, right-click the taskbar and click Task Manager (or press Ctrl+Shift+Escape simultaneously). Open the Startup apps tab and look for any marked “Enabled”. To prevent a process from starting at boot, right-click it and hit Disable. This won’t uninstall anything, just stop it from running when the laptop turns on.

Closing apps instead of leaving them running indefinitely

Sometimes clicking the X in the top corner of an app doesn’t actually close it. Instead, it just minimizes into the system tray, continuing to run (and use system resources) in the background.

Luckily, there’s an easy fix. Simply click the arrow in the bottom-right of your taskbar. If any programs appear that you’d rather close, right-click them and choose Close, Exit, or Quit.

Identifying apps that use a lot of system resources

There’s no need to guess which apps are using up your laptop’s resources! Right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager, then open the Processes tab. Clicking the CPU and Memory headings reveals which apps are using up most of your laptop’s RAM and processing power.

In the screenshot above, Firefox is using a fair bit of memory. We could either close it, freeing up resources for other apps, or reduce RAM usage by closing a few tabs.

Your two other options are finding a browser that’s less resource-intensive or giving specific apps priority over others. To do this, click Details, right-click a process, select Set priority, and choose a priority level.

Optimizing graphics settings for performance

Next, we’ll try to reduce some of the graphical strain placed on your device. One of the best ways of doing this is turning off some of the fancy transitions and animations Windows uses.

To begin, open the Start Menu, type “View advanced system settings”, and hit Enter. Click the Advanced tab, then the first Settings button. On the next screen, choose Adjust for best performance and click Apply.

We’re not done yet! Type “Animation effects” into the Start Menu, click the first result, and disable transparency and animation effects too.

If you have a 4K screen, you may want to consider reducing your resolution to 1080p. While 4K output looks sharper, it’s four times as much work for your laptop. To change resolutions, right-click the desktop, select Display settings, and change Display resolution to something lower.

Getting rid of unused apps and Windows features

Windows runs some processes in the background, even if you’re not using them. Disabling these won’t provide a huge performance boost, but every little helps. Open the Start Menu and type “Turn Windows features on or off”, then hit Enter. If you see anything you definitely don’t need, uncheck the box and click OK. If you’re unsure whether a feature is important, a quick Google search should clear that up.

While you’re at it, let’s get rid of any unwanted apps. Search for Add or remove programs, then press Enter. To delete an app from your device, hit the three dots and pick Uninstall.

Using Windows’ built-in maintenance tools

Windows has two powerful tools designed to simplify maintenance. Disk Clean-up, which deletes old system files to free up space, and Defragment and Optimize Drives. This second tool is more likely to help with speed.

Hard drive defragmentation rearranges data on the disk, reducing time lost waiting for the internal read/write head to move. SSDs don’t have any moving parts, so if you’re using a solid state drive, clicking Optimize runs the trim command. This tells the system it’s okay to overwrite parts of the disk containing now-deleted files.

Scanning for malware and viruses

If your laptop is running slow but you haven’t noticed anything suspicious, it’s unlikely you have a virus. Still, running a full system scan only takes a few hours and provides total peace of mind.

There are plenty of reputable antivirus apps to choose from, including some that are both free and optimized for low-powered devices. Once the scan is over, just follow the prompts to remove any discovered threats.

Updating Windows, graphics drivers, and apps

Last but not least, make sure you’ve installed all available updates for your drivers, apps, and Windows itself. This is important since updates don’t just patch vulnerabilities; they also improve performance and system stability. Your graphics card software should let you know if your drivers are outdated, and modern apps generally make updates mandatory.
As such, all you really have to do is type Check for Updates into the Start Menu. If any Windows updates are available, you’ll see an option marked Download & install all. Click this, and after a while (and potentially a restart), your device should be fully updated.

Bonus tips for experienced users

The tips above should be enough to increase your laptop’s performance by a decent margin. That said, there are a couple of things more experienced users can do to push its speeds even higher. Novices don’t have to worry about missing out either, since they’re both things any PC repair shop can do cheaply.

First off, clean your laptop’s fans to keep it cool and prevent overheating. Fully power off the device, unplug it, and remove the battery. If you’re lucky, you can access the fans directly by unscrewing a panel on the underside of your device. Hold the fan steady so it can’t spin, then remove any dust using compressed air.

If you can’t tell how to access your laptop’s fans, have a professional clean them for you.

You can also speed up your device by upgrading your hardware. Laptop owners are more limited here than desktop PC users, but there are still options. Swapping your old hard drive for an SSD and adding extra RAM should both have a significant impact.

Finishing up

Hopefully by now, your laptop is running better than it was before. If not, at least you’ve learned a bit more about your device and its capabilities. Sadly, every computer has to be retired eventually, but with a few tweaks, it’s possible to extend its life by a considerable margin. If you do have to replace your laptop, be sure to wipe the drive first. We also have a guide for removing bloatware so you can take full advantage of your new laptop’s hardware.

FAQs about slow laptops (and making them faster)