Need for speed: Follow these steps to speed up your slow PC

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Picture this: Your phone is barely a year old and running at a snail’s pace. You blame the manufacturer and mumble something about planned obsolescence. Before you go off on a rant, check out our guide to the top seven reasons your phone is running slow.

Can you brew a pot of coffee in the time it takes your PC to boot up? Are web pages taking forever to load? You may think it’s time for an upgrade but don’t shell out all that money until you try these fixes to breathe new life into your machine.

1. Did you try turning it off and turning it back on again?

Let’s start with the most basic fix. If your computer is bogged down, turn it off and restart it. Why does it work? Shutting down your computer clears your RAM and closes extra programs and processes running in the background.

2. Disable unnecessary startup programs

Operating systems often come with many preinstalled startup programs, many of which you’ll never use. Downloading additional programs only adds to the bloat.

Most apps don’t need to start every time you boot your PC. Why not just open them when using them?

Here’s how to disable startup apps through settings in Windows:

Open Settings through the Start menu or search for settings in the taskbar.
Select Apps, then Startup.
Click on the slider next to each app to disable or enable it.
Each app has a description showing its impact level. You can disable high-impact apps to speed up your PC.

Don’t stop there! Here are more default settings to change.

3. Uninstall bloatware and other software that’s not needed

The more stuff is installed on a PC, the slower it runs. As with startup programs, you’ll find that Windows PCs come preinstalled with unnecessary apps and programs known as bloatware.

You probably won’t ever use some of these programs, which will only slow you down if you keep them.

Here’s how to remove apps you don’t use from Windows 10:

Open Settings through the Start menu or search for settings in the taskbar.
Select Apps, then Apps & Features.
Click on an application you want to remove and select Uninstall.

Here’s how to remove apps from Windows 11:

Open Settings through the Start menu or search for settings in the taskbar.
Select Apps, then Apps & Features.
Find an application you want to remove and click on the three dots to the right of the app.
Click Uninstall in the popup window.

Run through these steps every few months to drop programs you don’t need.

4. Clean out the junk

Here’s an easy way to speed up your computer: Disk Cleanup. This utility removes unnecessary files, temporary files and other unneeded junk lingering and clogging up everything.

To run Disk Cleanup in Windows:

In the search box on the taskbar, type disk cleanup and select Disk Cleanup from the results list.
Select the drive you want to clean up, and then select OK.
Under Files to delete, select the file types to get rid of. To get a description of the file type, select it.
Select OK.

5. Clear cache and cookies

Cache stores information that will likely be used again, which saves time. For example, when you visit a webpage, the images may be stored in the cache. When you open that page again, those images will be ready to display instantly.

Lighten your load by clearing the cache and cookies to improve your browser’s performance.

How to clear the cache on Chrome:

On your computer, open Chrome.
At the top right, click the three stacked dots.
Click More Tools> Clear browsing data.
At the top, choose a time range. To delete everything, select All Time.
Next to “Cookies and other site data” and “Cached images and files,” check the boxes.
Click Clear data.

How to clear the cache on Safari:

Click on the Safari tab at the top left of your screen and choose Preferences from the dropdown menu.
Select the Advanced tab of the menu that pops up.
At the end of the tab, select the Show Develop menu in menu bar box and close the Preferences menu.
Tap the Develop tab from the Safari menu at the top of the page.
Click Empty Caches from the dropdown menu.

How to clear the cache on Firefox:

Click on the three-line menu button to open the menu panel.
Click History and select Clear Recent History.
Next to Time range to clear, choose Everything from the dropdown menu and select Cache in the items list. Ensure other items you want to keep are not selected, and then click the OK button.

Here’s how to clear browsing data in Microsoft Edge:

Click the three dots in the upper right and tap Settings.
Tap the three-line menu in the upper left and select Privacy, search, and services.
Under Clear browsing data, next to Clear browsing data now, tap Choose what to clear.
Choose a time range from the Time range dropdown menu. You can pick the Last hour, Last 24 hours, Last 7 days, Last 4 weeks, or All time.
Next, choose the types of data you want to clear. For example, you may want to remove browsing history and cookies but keep passwords and form-fill data.
Select Clear Now.

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