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For more details, check out our article on how to properly uninstall programs in Windows. Multitasking is great, and most modern computers can run multiple apps at once without any issues. But if you're running several high-impact apps at the same time — maybe Google Chrome, Zoom, and Adobe Photoshop — it can put a strain on the processor.

If you're looking to make your PC as fast as it can be, close apps when you're not using them, and avoid running too many big apps at once. This might mean you can't multitask as effectively as you like, but it'll help you avoid freezes and crashes.

Most apps will close when you click the X button in the top-right. But some apps, like Spotify and Discord, stay open even when all their windows are closed. In these cases, you can close them by clicking the upwards-pointing arrow at the end of your taskbar, or by opening the Task Manager.

Windows is a prettier operating system than its predecessors, largely due to its special effects. These include small animations when you minimize or maximize a window, keeping the taskbar transparent, and more.

They're subtle, but make the OS look much smoother. Unfortunately, they can also take up more power than they're worth. Luckily, both Windows 10 and Windows 11 let you disable them. Open the Settings app and click System , then scroll down to select About. Click the Advanced system settings option. In the new window that appears, find the Performance box and click Settings A menu will open that lets you pick which special effects and animations you want, and which ones should be turned off.

You can also use the preset buttons at the top to quickly adjust for the best performance. On a similar note, you might have noticed that some menus in Windows are transparent. Open the Start menu, for example, and you should see a faint, blurred impression of whatever lies behind it. If you don't want to sacrifice speed for such a small effect, you can turn it off entirely and probably not notice the difference. Open Settings and click Personalization , and then Colors. You'll find a small switch titled Transparency effects that you can use to turn the feature on or off.

If you play games on your computer, Game Mode can be both a blessing and a curse. This setting detects when you have a game open, and will reroute processing power to help the game run as smoothly as possible.

When you're only focusing on the game, this isn't bad. Select File Explorer from the taskbar and find the files you want to move. Select your removable media from the location list, then select Move. Get more info about freeing drive space in Windows. Windows 11 includes many visual effects, such as animations and shadow effects.

These look great, but they can also use additional system resources and can slow down your PC. Select Search , type performance , then select Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows in the list of results. Your PC settings let you choose where files will be saved by default. You can save files on your PC or to OneDrive by default and sync files between the two locations. This lets you get to your files from any device that can connect to the internet, and it helps make sure your files are backed up in case your PC is ever damaged or lost.

You can pause OneDrive syncing temporarily and see if it helps improve your PC performance. You can also visit Fix OneDrive sync problems to check for any sync issues. When you turn on your PC, some programs start automatically and run in the background.

Many programs are designed to start automatically when Windows does. Sometimes you can determine which programs start automatically by looking at the program icons in the notification area on the far right of the taskbar. To try to find out the name of the program, point to the icon with your mouse pointer. Even after you check the notification area, you might still miss some programs that run automatically at startup.

To stop a program from starting automatically. Open Startup Apps settings. In the Startup Apps area, find the program you want to stop from starting automatically and set it to Off. Note: If you turn off a program and it continues to start automatically when Windows starts, you should scan for viruses and malware. See the next section for more info. A virus, malware, or malicious software could cause your PC to run slowly.

Other symptoms include unexpected pop-up messages, programs that unexpectedly start automatically, or the sound of your hard disk constantly working. The best way to handle viruses and malicious software is to try to prevent them by running antimalware and antivirus software and keeping it up to date. However, even if you take precautions, your PC can still become infected. For more info, see How to protect your Windows PC. If they are, choose the one you want to run, and then disable or uninstall any others.

If you have another antivirus program installed and turned on, Windows Security will be turned off by default. To scan for viruses using Windows Security. Open Windows Security settings. On the Protection updates screen, select Check for updates to make sure you have the most recent updates.

Wait for Windows Security to finish scanning for viruses and malware. Run the recommended advanced scan. This scan takes longer but searches more extensively for threats on your PC. Click Apply to confirm your changes. Besides making heavy use of your system resources to display features like animation, Windows 10 also employs transparency effects for certain features such as the task menu.

This seemingly light and simple effect is actually quite complicated to draw, as the system needs to calculate the same plane twice. To disable transparency effects, open the Windows menu and type 'Make Start, taskbar and Action Center transparent'. This will pull up the Color Settings. From here you can choose to switch off transparency. You can also change the default app mode here between Light and Dark. This won't affect your system speed, but may make your Desktop easier on the eye.

Windows 10 requires a minimum of 4GB to run smoothly, although this does not take into account resource hungry applications such as video games.

The easiest solution to this is to install more RAM. The system will display any memory slots in use as well as the type use e. Installing new RAM chips is quite simple. If you do it yourself use an anti-static wrist strap to prevent damage to delicate components. Alternatively many PC repair stores will be happy to do the hardware upgrade for you, for a small fee.

They allow for much faster access and writing times then traditional mechanical hard drives which use magnetized disks. SSDs do cost much more per GB than regular hard drives, but if you're are willing to pay the cost, you'll notice a huge improvement in boot time, files access times and overall system responsiveness. When you try to speed up Windows 10, it's recommended to disable all the apps running at startup, or, at least, those you do not use regularly. Once you complete the steps, the computer should start faster than before.

Of course, the improvement gain will vary depending on the apps you disabled and hardware configuration. Windows 10 has a feature that restarts the apps from your last session after a reboot, even before you sign in. Although this is a valuable feature that can speed up the process of quickly resuming where you left off, it can also impact system performance.

After you complete the steps, the apps running on the desktop won't reopen during the next restart, speeding up the overall system performance. On Windows 10, some apps can continue to run tasks in the background even when you're not using them. If you want to speed up your computer as much as possible, you can decide which apps can operate in the background or disable the feature to block all apps. Once you complete the steps, apps will not waste any more resources when you do not actively use them to increase system performance.

Typically, new devices come with applications you do not need, including the usual bloatware and system tools that you will never use that will only waste space on the drive and resources.

When trying to increase the system performance, you should always remove those non-essential applications. After you complete the steps, you may need to repeat the instructions to uninstall other non-essential apps from the device. Old and poorly designed apps and apps that load unnecessary features can negatively affect the performance of your computer. Also, just because an app comes from a company you trust does not mean it's a good app. If you want to keep your device healthy and snappy, only install good apps.

Usually, you want to install apps available from the Microsoft Store because they've been reviewed for security and performance. If the app is not available through the store, only download apps from trusted sources and confirm they work on Windows If you are unsure, you can research online to get more information about the app.

For instance, you can check the software vendor's forums to check whether users are experiencing issues or post a question in the forums to find out more details. Once you complete the steps, the app will install on your device. If the app is not available in the Microsoft Store, download the installer from the trusted source, and follow the vendor support website steps to install and configure the program.

If the computer has relatively new hardware and you notice apps, managing files, and other tasks are struggling to complete, it is likely because the drive is running out of space. Usually, this becomes more evident after the drive is filled up around 70 percent of the total capacity.

One way to prevent the storage from impacting performance is to use the Storage settings to delete temporary and unnecessary files to reclaim space. Once you complete the steps, if the system can reclaim enough space, the device's performance should be noticeably improved. In addition to using the Storage settings, you can also use the OneDrive Files On-demand feature to free up space. You can use these instructions to set up Files On-demand opens in new tab on your device.

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