13 FREE TIPS TO MAKE YOUR WINDOWS PC RUN FASTER

IT'S TIME TO ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES AND OPTIMIZE. YOUR PC WITH SOME SPRING CLEANING

- MARK HACHMAN

Summer is here and that means weeding, cleaning, packing away winter clothes…and tuning up your PC! Optimizing your PC’s performance isn’t as complicated as it sounds, however. Just a few tweaks here and there and you’ll have your PC running faster than ever.

Improving your PC’s efficiency can take a little effort, though some processes can be automated. Your PC is like a Roomba in that streamlining your laptop or desktop often happens when you’re not looking. Below, we’ve listed several ways to improve the responsiveness and overall speed of your PC and to preserve its longevity, too. Some may be familiar, others not. And if you’ve already taken care of these, good for you!

After all, why buy a new PC if you don’t have to?

1. APPLY WINDOWS UPDATES 

Have you tried turning it off and on yet? The U.K.’s The IT Crowd made this a meme, and it’s true. Rebooting can in fact make a wonky PC behave. From experience, though, PCs can also behave badly when an update is needed or downloaded but not yet installed.

Make sure your PC is up to date via Windows Update (open the Settings menu, then Windows Update, and click “check for updates”). Manage Windows updates (fave. co/3WaZXmG) to make them less of a pain. Apply updates to Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge (fave.co/3Bxr5TB), and other browsers by checking them. The Microsoft Store app is the front door for applying updates to Windows apps like Mail or Calendar, though those will happen in the background. Make sure Windows Defender or any anti-malware apps you use are also current, though that should happen automatically.