Many people start noticing it after some time, Windows is becoming slow. and start asking themselves Why is my computer running slow and how do I fix it? This has nothing to do with how Windows was designed and Microsoft really can’t help it actually. It’s because of you! But don’t worry you didn’t intend it to become slow, it just happens.
Why does your system become slow? It has multiple reasons but the main reason is bloatware and PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Software) stuff that gets installed with freeware software! Some other reasons are:
- Malware
- Too many running processes
- Too much storage space usage
But how do you solve this and make Windows actually fast(er) again? Well that’s what we going to talk about in this article.
Index
- Removing software you never use.
- Removing all the PUPs from your system (Adwcleaner)
- Removing Scheduled Tasks (Autoruns)
- Making sure you’re not infected with any malware
- Cleaning Some Space
- Conclusion
The next thing left to do is to start! Just hit the next better and let’s get going!
1. Removing software you never use
Software uses space on your harddrive and it has in many cases processes which run alongside everything you do. You might not know it, but I’m sure that at least 20% of the applications in your Software overview haven’t been touched in weeks.
1. Open Start and type Control Panel
2. Then under Programs choose Uninstall a program
3. A huge list will appear with all the programs on your system
Now the next thing you’ll have to do is scroll through the list and start removing applications you never use. Please do know that you should not remove programs like Microsoft C++ and Updates, to be sure just stay away from any Microsoft Product.
For example I sorted the list on storage space in use and started looking, do I still play Simcity? No I do not, right-click remove. Do I still use Microsoft Visual Studio? Yes I do skip. If you do the same and just delete anything you don’t want any more you can save a lot of space!
If you’re ready cleaning up just click the next button below!
2. Remove Unwanted PUPs and other Mess from your system
Now that we’ve successfully removed all that crap that you never used anymore from your system we can move onto more important things: PUPs, toolbars and so on. They slow down your system so incredibly much that’s it becomes annoying. I use Adwcleaner at a lot of people computer when they ask my help and they always see and feel the difference.
1. Download Adwcleaner from their orginal website (Watchout! A lot of fake copies are going around!)
2. After downloading start the application, read and agree to the terms (if you agree of course).
3. Then click the Scan button
4. After the scan finished make sure that it’s not going to delete System files so check if anything is in the System32, Windows or SysWoW folders, if it is then uncheck it
5. Click on Clean
6. Let the program reboot your system
After rebooting you should really feel the difference, especially if it found multiple things. Don’t expect a faster computer if all the tabs were empty, because then it did nothing.
If you ready to cleaning up with AdwCleaner then click the next button below!
3. Removing Scheduled Tasks (Autoruns)
We are getting along quite fine aren’t we? At this moment I hope that your system is already running faster than it was before. We now going to talk about Removing Scheduled Tasks with Autoruns. Autoruns is a program from SysInternals and it’s a great tools to clean-up certain things.
1. Download Autoruns from Microsoft Technet
2. Unzip the program and run autoruns.exe as Administor
3. Wait for the program to show Ready in the left corner.
4. Now open the tab Scheduled Tasks
Within this Window you see all programs that have Tasks scheduled to be executed, make sure to disable stuff like Spotify and such if you rather do that yourself. Please be aware that disabling certain programs could disable these programs or make them stop working.
4. Make sure your not infected
Now it´s time to make sure you´re not infected with any malware, this could render your system incredibly slow and we don´t want that do we? No we do not !
1. Download MalwareBytes
2. Install the program, then start it.
3. Now Run a Full Scan.
4. Remove any infections
Now that we are sure your are all clean (if you had more then 2 infections then contact a specialist (PUPs and Cookies do not count) you might have had a bad infection)
5. Cleaning Up Space
The last step is cleaning up space on your system, throughout usage Windows stores some files and so do your programs. At first this is not much but It could accumulate up to some gigs very fast! Let’s use CCleaner to clean these files up!
1. Download CCleaner from Pirisoft.
2. Install the program and then start it
3. Click on the tab Cleaner, then click on Analyse. This could take some minutes.
4. Now click on Run Cleaner.
Here is the log from me, as you can see I cleaned a whopping
ANALYSIS COMPLETE – (172.187 secs)
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4,368 MB to be removed. (Approximate size)
6. Conclusion
We are all done, I hope that your system is running faster then it did before!
Still not fast enough? Consider upgading your RAM, or replace your old style harddisk with a SSD.