Is your computer running slow? Here are 7 ways to speed up Windows 11. (And yes, a lot of these tips will also work on Windows 10 or even Windows 8, although results may vary.)
In this guide
Disk Cleanup
We’ll start off easy, with Disk Cleanup. This is a built-in Windows tool that identifies and removes unnecessary files. This will help free up hard disk space and could help speed things up if your hard drive is nearly full.
Hit the windows or start button and type “Disk Cleanup”. Select the types of files you want to delete and hit “OK.” If you want to clear up even more space, check out the “Clean up system files” option to get rid of things like old Windows update files.
Get rid of unused apps
Unused apps can take up lots of storage space and system resources, and that can cause your computer to slow down. So if you don’t use them, get rid of them. Hit the start button, type add or remove and open Add or remove programs. Select the programs you want to remove, one at a time, and hit “Uninstall.”
Disable Unnecessary Start-up Programs
Apps that start when you log into Windows will sit in the background and take up system resources. Any apps that you don’t need to start when you turn on your computer, disable them. You can still start them when you need them, it might just take a few more seconds.
Right click the task bar and select task manager. Go to the “Start-up” tab and check the list of startup apps. Disable any apps that are not necessary, paying particular attention to the ones marked as having a high impact.
Disable Unnecessary Visual Effects
Windows 11 may feel slow because of all of the visual effects that make it look fancy. And these effects take up system resources, meaning they can also cause Windows to work slower.
To speed things up, disable unnecessary visual effects. To disable them, go to Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings. In the Performance settings window, click the Visual Effects tab and select “Adjust for best performance.”
We recommend turning these four effects back on.
- Show shadows under windows
- Show thumbnails instead of icons
- Show windows contents while dragging
- Smooth edges of screen fonts
Update Your Drivers
Outdated drivers can cause your system to run slow. To check if any of your drivers need to be updated, hit start and type device manager.
In device manager, Right-click on any device with an exclamation mark next to it and select “Update Driver Software.”
Using SFC to speed up Windows
System File Checker or SFC is a built-in Windows tool that can help you scan your system for any corrupted or missing files and repair them.
To use SFC, Windows, type “Command Prompt,” and select “Run as administrator.”
Type in
sfc /scannow
But be careful! Anytime you choose to run something as an administrator you can do damage to your system by doing the wrong thing. So we recommend double-checking whatever a random website tells you to do in here before you go ahead and actually do it.
This command will scan your system for corrupt and missing files and try to fix them for you. Once the process is finished, you should see a message saying that the operation was successful.
Using DISM to speed up Windows
Windows 11 has a built-in tool called DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management). This tool can help you repair any corrupt system files and get your computer running better.
To use DISM, open an elevated Command Prompt window. To do this, press the Windows key, type “Command Prompt,” right-click on the Command Prompt icon, and select “Run as administrator.”
And once again, make sure you know what you’re doing when you run command prompt as an administrator.
Once the Command Prompt window is open, type:
DISM /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
This command will scan for more corrupt files and attempt to repair them. Once the process is finished, you should see a message saying that the operation was successful. And, if anything needs repairing, your computer may run some updates next time you restart.
Want to go in-depth about how SFC and DISM help speed up your Windows computer? Check this article out!
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