Whether you use your laptop for educational purposes, work, or any other purpose, every device begins to lag as time passes. This can also happen with the best-performing devices, causing frustration in users.
However, there are many easy ways to improve a laptop’s performance without needing to approach any professional. Below we have mentioned a few practical tips and tricks that you can consider to boost the speed and efficiency of your laptop.
Table of Contents
9 Tips to Improve Laptop Performance
1) Update Your Operating System and Drivers
Always keep your operating system and drivers updated. This helps maintain the laptop’s optimal performance. Besides performance enhancement, updates include patches for bug fixes and security vulnerabilities.
The components like Wi-Fi adapter, sound card, graphics card, etc all run with their corresponding drivers installed on the system. If those drivers are outdated, it can slow down the performance of the device.
For Windows, navigate to the Windows Update and check for the latest updates available (if any). MacOS users should navigate to Software Update and check for available updates.
Here is the path to follow in Windows:
Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update
For MacOS, follow the below path:
System Preferences > Software Update
To proceed with driver updates, you should visit the manufacturer’s website. Alternatively, you can also use tools such as Driver Booster for automatic updates.
[PS: Also, read our step-by-step guide on How to Upgrade Windows 8.1 to Windows10]
2) Uninstall Unnecessary Programs
Every software program, even those that are no longer in use, installed on your laptop consumes resources. Unuseful programs can cause the system to slow down and occupy valuable storage space.
You should navigate to Control Panel >Programs and Features on your Windows laptop, review the installed programs, and uninstall unnecessary programs.
If you are a macOS user, you can simply drag the unuseful application to the Trash to remove it.
[Note: Be careful while performing the task of uninstallation, and make sure that you don’t end up uninstalling any essential software or driver.]
3) Manage Startup Programs
No matter whether you are aware of it or not. Many programs on your laptop automatically start as soon as you boot up the machine. These programs not only increase the startup time but also consume a considerable amount of system resources.
Hence, you should open the Task Manager on your Windows laptop, go to the Startup tab, and then disable the programs that are not useful. The short command to open the Task Manager on Windows is Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
In macOS laptops, such unnecessary programs that you don’t require at startup can be removed by navigating to Login Items [System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items].
4) Upgrade Hardware
After you have optimized your laptop’s software, check if its performance is improved as per your expectations. And, if it’s still lagging, you should proceed with its hardware upgrades which can lead to a significant improvement in performance.
If you replace your traditional hard drive on the machine with an SSD (solid-state drive), its boot time can be improved dramatically.
Another crucial hardware upgrade you can consider is adding more RAM to the system. You should first check the specifications of your laptop to know its maximum RAM capacity and compatibility to make the right decision.
Increased RAM will allow your laptop to handle more tasks simultaneously.
Sometimes, thermal throttling in a laptop is also one of the primary reasons for its poor performance. To prevent this issue, you can consider using a cooling pad.
5) Free Up Storage Space
If the hard drive on your device is almost full, it may also be one of the primary causes of its slow speed or poor performance. So you should free up the space by deleting temporary files, removing large files, or using cloud services (like Google Drive, etc) to store less frequently accessed files on the cloud.
Tools like Disk Cleanup can be used to clear cache and temporary files on Windows laptops. You can use the Optimize Storage feature to perform this task if you are a macOS user.
To remove large files on the system, first, you should sort all files by their size and then delete the large and unused ones. You can also consider transferring them to an external drive or cloud storage.
6) Run Regular Maintenance
Another crucial tip that you should follow to keep your laptop working at an optimized speed and efficiency is to run regular maintenance. Regular maintenance will ensure that the device continues to perform well.
Defragment your laptop’s drive to organize the stored data more efficiently if you are using a traditional hard drive. If you are a Windows user, navigate to Defragment and Optimize Drives to proceed with it.
You should also use trusted antivirus software to perform virus scanning and remove threats from your laptop. That’s because the presence of malware can also have a significant impact on its overall performance.
Additionally, the use of tools such as CCleaner can also add to the enhancement of the laptop’s performance as these tools clean the Windows registry.
7) Adjust Power Settings
The performance of a laptop can be impacted by making adjustments in power settings. You will end up improving the speed if you choose a high-performance power plan. However, it may negatively influence the battery life of your laptop.
To choose this plan on a Windows laptop, you should navigate to Control Panel > Power Options and then select a high-performance plan. For Mac users, navigating to System Preferences > Energy Saver will take them to the energy settings where they can make adjustments and prioritize performance over energy efficiency.
8) Disable Visual Effects
You must have always been fascinated by visual effects such as animations and transparency on your laptop. These effects look great but no such effect can exist without any load on system resources.
Hence, disabling these effects will reduce the consumption of system resources and eventually lead to an increased speed of the system.
If you are using a Windows laptop, navigate to Settings > System > Advanced System Settings, and then under the Performance tab, make adjustments for the best performance.
Mac users can reduce the transparency by going to System Preferences > Accessibility > Display.
9) Reinstall Your Operating System
Suppose you have tried the above methods, but the issue persists. That means your laptop is still lagging. In that case, consider reinstalling the operating system itself.
The OS reinstallation will provide you with a fresh start. But make sure to have backed up all the important data before you proceed with this reinstallation.
Windows users should navigate to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery and then use the reset option to proceed.
And, if you are a macOS user, you should restart the machine and hold Cmd + R during boot to get into the recovery mode. You can reinstall macOS from recovery mode.
Final Words
Following the above strategies will ensure that your laptop runs faster with more efficiency than before. But in case you have tried them all and the performance of the device is still slow, it might be time to consult a professional for assistance or consider buying a new laptop.