How to Speed Up a Slow Windows Laptop: 10 Powerful Ways to Boost Performance

Last updated on November 19th, 2025 at 07:46 pm

If you are a Windows laptop user and your laptop is running slowly, freezing even while performing basic tasks, or opening any application or program takes a long time, then you are not alone.

Laptops gradually slow down as they become older, whether due to junk files, background programs, malware, overheating, or hardware limitations. In this article, I have discussed some of the ways using which you can instantly speed up a slow Windows laptop by following the simple steps discussed below.

Even a non-technical person can noticeably speed up his or her laptop with a few simple modifications. This guide will consist of a series of steps that will assist you in making your laptop fast and smooth and enhance its use in work, studies, entertainment, and even in games.

How to Speed Up a Slow Windows Laptop

1. Check What’s Using Resources First

This slowing of your laptop may be due to a lot of reasons. To begin with, we must discover the cause of it. One of such is to run the Task Manager and verify tasks that use too much processing power of your laptop.

Steps:

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager
2. Click the Processes tab
3. Check for CPU, Memory and Disk Usage.

• Just note it down in case one of the apps uses much CPU/RAM.
• Close heavy Internet browser windows and programs.
• In case of any continuous high usage, right-click on the process → Open file location → and search it on Google under the name of the process to be sure that it is safe.

This preliminary step enables us to effectively focus on the problems and address them in order to speed up a slow Windows laptop by terminating the resource-hungry tasks or applications.

Also read: How to Remove Safe Mode in Redmi

2. Disable Apps That Start Automatically

Some applications run automatically each time that you switch on your laptop making it slow to start. To stop them, follow the steps given below:

Steps:

1. Open Task Manager
2. Go to Startup Apps
3. Disable apps you don’t need running automatically

Some safe examples to disable are:

• Discord
• Steam
• Adobe Updater
• Zoom (if not used daily)
• Spotify

You will see that now your laptop is booting much faster. One of the most basic ways to speed up a slow Windows laptop is to reduce the amount of time taken to boot by disabling non-essential startup applications.

3. Uninstall Unused Programs & Bloatware

Unused softwares occupy unnecessary space and keep running many tasks in the background. Follow the steps given below and uninstall the unwanted software from your laptop.

Steps:

1. Press the Windows Key
2. Search Control Panel
3. Select Programs and Features
4. Sort by Size or Last Used
5. Uninstall apps you no longer need

This frees disk space and reduces memory load. Deleting applications that you are no longer using is not only a method of cleaning up the available space, but also of clearing background processes and work, which can speed up a slow Windows laptop.

4. Clear Temporary and Junk Files

Over time, Windows accumulates a lot of junk and temporary files. We should regularly clear them to improve performance.

Steps:

1. Press Windows + R
2. Type cleanmgr and press Enter
3. Select your C Drive
4. Select Temporary Files, Thumbnails, and Recycle Bin
5. Click OK

Turn on Automatic Cleanup:

Settings → System → Storage → Enable Storage Sense

Regular deletion of junk files will also keep the disk performance up and will gradually accelerate the performance of your laptop.

5. Scan for Malware & Remove It

Malware has the ability to significantly slow down your laptop due to its invisibility e.g. CPU and bandwidth consumption.

Steps:

1. Open Windows Security
2. Run a Full Scan

Malware removal can give an instant boost and is necessary to speed up a slow Windows laptop without any possible harm.

6. Optimize Your Web Browser

Web browsers are frequently the cause of slowness.

Tips:

• Close tabs you’re not using.
• Remove unnecessary extensions.
• Clear browser cache (Chrome: Settings → Privacy → Clear Browsing Data).
• Alternatively, consider using a small, lightweight browser if you have less amount of RAM.

If your laptop is low on RAM → Use Edge or Brave, as they are lighter than Chrome.

By properly optimizing the browser, closing unnecessary tabs, and deleting unnecessary extensions, we can improve our everyday browsing experience and speed up a slow Windows laptop.

Also read: How to Hide Apps in Redmi

7. Fix Overheating & Thermal Throttling

In case a laptop is overheated, it will slow down on its own. It will automatically throttle performance to protect your laptop from any serious damages.

Fixes:

• Make sure that the air vents are not blocked, and if there’s any dust, blow it away with compressed air.
• When using your laptop in a hot environment use a cooling pad.
• Check whether you have any heavy background tasks that are consuming high CPU at any given time that may be heating your processor.

Fixing heating thermal issues is the best way to speed up a slow Windows laptop when we are putting it under heavy load.

8. Upgrade to an SSD & Add RAM (Best Improvement)

If your laptop is still running slow even after doing all this, then it means that a hardware upgrade is needed since hardware upgrades provide the most performance gain.

• SSD upgrade: If your laptop has a hard disk drive (HDD), switching to a solid state drive (SSD) will deliver a massive speed boost, reducing boot times, reducing application loading times, and making the overall experience even more enhanced and snappier.
• RAM upgrade: If you use very large applications or do heavy multitasking, you may want to upgrade to 8 GB or 16 GB of RAM.

My Personal recommendation: Recently, I installed an SSD in my computer. Earlier, I also had a hard disk that had become very slow. Ever since I upgraded, my computer has become so fast, the boot-up time has reduced a lot, and applications open instantly. I would definitely recommend all of you to install an SSD. This is a very cheap and one of the best ways to speed up slow Windows laptop. I am giving the best buy link of some SSDs below.

Best 250 GB SSD:

Western Digital WD Green SATA 250GB SSD: Check Price

Western Digital WD Blue 250GB M.2 SSD: Check Price

Best 500GB SSD:

Western Digital WD Green SATA 500GB SSD: Check Price

Western Digital WD Blue NVMe 500GB: Check Price

Best 1 TB SSD:

Western Digital WD Green SATA 1TB SSD: Check Price

Western Digital WD Blue NVMe 1TB SSD: Check Price

In case you want to know how to copy all the data and windows in the old hard disk to the new solid state drive after you have installed a SSD in the old laptop, and that too at no cost, then just comment, and I will write the full tutorial and post it.

Best Upgrades:

Upgrades	Impact	Cost	Skill Level
Add more RAM (8GB or 16GB)	Better multitasking	Low-Medium	Easy
Replace HDD with SSD	Huge speed increase	Low	Medium

Switching to SSD can:

• Reduce boot time from 3 minutes → 15 seconds
• Make apps load instantly
• Make the laptop feel brand new

Hardware upgrading can be the best and quickest way to make a sluggish Windows laptop run at a significantly faster speed.

9. Adjust Visual Effects & Power Settings

Windows visual effects can cost performance.

• Right-click This PC → Properties → Advanced system settings → Performance Settings → Set to Adjust for best performance or customize.
• Choose Power & Battery → Power Mode → Best performance (when plugged in).

These modifications minimize idle CPU/GPU overheads and enable to speed up a slow Windows laptop at the expense of usability.

10. Reinstall Windows or Reset as a Last Resort

If any software issue persists and is not getting fixed, we may have to reset or clean install Windows to remove such permanent deep rooted problems.

• Settings → System → Recovery → Reset this PC → Keep files or remove everything.
• Back up important files before proceeding.

When nothing can be done to fix a sluggish laptop, a reset is a well-tested final-stop solution to get the system booted into a usable state.

Extra Tips to Keep Your Laptop Fast

• Windows and drivers should be updated regularly.
• It is advisable to keep off heavy (background sync) tools when unnecessary.
• Unplug external drives when not in use.
• Maintain ~20% free disk space on the system drive for optimal performance.

By following these tips, your slow laptop will run faster, and even after many years, your laptop will continue to run without any problems.

Conclusion

If you want to speed up a slow Windows laptop, follow these 10 powerful steps above, identify the resource-heavy processes, turn off unnecessary startup, delete bloatware, clean junk files, run spyware, optimize your browser, fix overheating, upgrade hardware (SSD + RAM), adjust the visual settings and reset Windows only when necessary.

Also Read: How to Transfer Data Android to iPhone: 5 Easy Methods

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)