How Do I Make My Computer Run Smoother?

Why my computer runs so slow?

If your computer has been in service for almost 2-3 years, then you might have considered the problem “How do I make my computer run smoother?”

Many factors can cause a sluggish PC. Because your operating system must manage all of your computer's resources, such as memory, disk space, processing power, etc. The most common causes of a sluggish computer are the poor use of your computer's resources.

Here are some common reasons why your computer is slow:

•Running out of RAM (Random Access Memory)
•Running out of disk space (HDD or SSD)
•Old or fragmented HDD
•Too many background programs
•Too many startup programs
•Falling behind on Windows or driver updates
•Malware or viruses
•Special effects and visual features
…

How to make computer run faster?

In this part, you’ll read some methods to speed up windows 11/10, and most of them are also suit for laptops, so if you don’t know how to make laptop faster, you can also try some of them.

Way 1. Check for system updates

Your PC will also look for the most recent device drivers, which can assist improve the performance of your computer, so make sure you have the most recent version of Windows installed. To check the Windows update, you can open Settings.

Step 1. Select the Start button, then select Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Check for updates.

Step 2. If the status says "You're up to date," go to the next tip. If the status says "Updates are available," select Install now.

Step 3. Select the updates you want to install, then select Install.

After the update, please restart your PC and see if it seems to run better.

Way 2. Restart the PC and only run the needed apps

If many apps, programs, web browsers, and so on run at the same time, your computer will slow down. Sometimes, apps designed for a previous version of Windows may still operate on Windows 10, but they also slow down your computer. What's more, a large number of browser tabs open at the same time can also occupy significant PC resources. Close any unnecessary programs, and browser tabs to see if it helps your PC speed up. You can restart your computer and then open only the apps, programs, and browser windows you require the most.

Way 3. Manage pagefile.sys files

Pagefile.sys is a file that was created to support the RAM if it ran out of memory. Windows uses a method named Pagefile.sys to move a portion of the contents of RAM to a disk file. Pagefile.sys files take up a lot of storage space. There is a feature in Windows that automatically adjusts the page file size, which might assist enhance the speed of your PC.

Step 1. In the search box on the taskbar, type “advanced system”, and then select “View advanced system settings”, which has a Control panel listed underneath it.

Step 2. In “System Properties”, select the “Advanced” tab, then select “Settings” in the Performance area.

Step 3. In Performance Options, select the “Advanced” tab, then select “Change” in the Virtual memory area.

Step 4. Make sure the “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives” check box is selected. If it's not, select it and then restart your PC by selecting the Start button > Power > Restart.

Tip: If your PC has 16GB and larger RAM, you can delete paging files.

Way 4. Clean disk and free up more free space for PC

We all know too many junk files or the accumulation of outdated data will take up much disk space and PC resources, so, regular cleaning of your computer can also improve PC performance. In Windows, there is more than one option to clear different junk files, thus, in this part, we’ll separately show how to clean junk files and how to free up more available space for you.

▶ Section 1. Clean junk files

Opt 1. Use Storage Sense

When you enable Storage Sense, Windows will automatically free up disk space by deleting unwanted files (including those in your recycle bin) when you run out of disc space or at the intervals you set. You can also run a cleanup if you need it immediately.

Step 1. Click "Start" and "Settings" in turn, then click "System".

Step 2. In the new window, click "Storage" and turn on "Storage Sense".

To set an automatic cleanup task, you can click "Configure Storage Sense or run it now".

Opt 2. Disk Cleanup

Step 1. Input "disk cleanup" in the search box and press "Enter".

Step 2. In the small popped window, choose the target drive (here we choose C drive) and hit "OK".

Step 3. Tick all the files you want to delete and click "OK".

And if you need, you can do an advanced system cleanup. But please be careful about deleting system files.

Opt 3. Free PC cleaner software

To quickly clean all kinds of junk files on your PC, you can turn to third-party tools instead of Windows built-in tools because most of them can’t remove all kinds of useless files at once. AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a Windows disk and partition manager. Its “PC Cleaner” function can help you clean disk and system junk files such as Temp files, cache files, outdated registry files, etc. after scanning all storage locations. And this tool can also defrag and optimize your HDD, adjust partition size, and so on.

Step 1. Download and open AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. Click “Free up” on the top toolbar and choose “PC Cleaner” in turn.

Step 2. Click "Start Scan" in the new pop-up window to scan your computer for unwanted files.

Step 3. After starting the scan, please wait for a while until the progress bar is loaded.

Step 4. Unneeded data will be automatically selected, you can directly click "Clean All" to delete them. If you still have other unnecessary files, you can tick the boxes of the corresponding files.

Step 5. When you see a correct symbol displayed in the interface, you can click "Back" to leave the function.

▶ Section 2. Free up more disk space

Opt. 1. Uninstall unnecessary apps

Step 1. Select the Start button, then select Settings > Apps > Installed apps

Step 2. Search for a specific app or sort them to see which ones are using the most space.

Step 3. When you find an app to remove, select the More icon next to it and, if possible, select Uninstall.

Opt. 2. Move large apps and folders to another location

If you don’t want to uninstall installed programs or all programs are needed, you can try to move your data folders and installed apps from the current drive/disk to another one. The advanced edition of AOMEI Partition Assistant, the Professional Edition can easily do this for you. The “App Mover” feature can move both folders and apps and the moved apps can run as before, you don’t need to worry about data loss or boot failure.

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant, and click “Free up” > “App Mover”.

Step 2. In the new window, you can choose to move folder or move apps. First, we’ll show you how to move apps.

Step 3. In the pop-up window, choose the partition that you want to free up via moving apps (here is partition C) and click “Next”.

Step 4. In the window, all movable apps on the C drive will be listed. You can choose one or multiple apps that you need to move and the destination partition. Then click “Move” to execute the operation.

Step 5. Confirm that you have closed the apps that you will move from C drive to D drive. Then, click "OK".

Step 5. Wait for the move process to complete. Then, click "Finish".

If you wish to move folders like Users folder, please choose “Mover Folders” and follow the steps.

Step 1. Select the folder you want to move. Choose the location drive under the window, and click “Move”.

Step 2. You will see a pop-up message to confirm forcibly closing running applications when moving starts. Click "OK" to begin the process.

Way 5. Adjust Windows performance

Many visual effects, such as animations and shadow effects in Windows are visually appealing, but they can use more system resources and slow down your computer. This is especially true if you have a PC with limited RAM.

Step 1. In the search box on the taskbar, type performance, then select Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows in the list of results.

Step 2. On the Visual Effects tab, select Adjust for best performance > Apply.

Step 3. Restart your PC and see if that speeds up your PC.

Way 6. Disable OneDrive syncing

Step 1. On the taskbar, look for OneDrive near the notification area.

Step 2. Select OneDrive > Help & Settings > Pause syncing, and then choose how long you want to pause syncing your files.

Step 3. Restart your PC and see if your performance issues have improved with syncing paused.

Step 4. To resume syncing your files, select OneDrive > Help & Settings > Resume syncing.

Way 7. Use ReadyBoost

Normally, Windows 10 constantly stores cached data on your hard disk and then retrieves it when needed. The time it takes to retrieve cached data is determined by the performance of your hard disk, so if you have a conventional HDD, you can speed up your cache by using Windows' ReadyBoost function. This feature allows Windows to save data to a USB flash drive, which is much quicker than a disk.

Step 1. Insert the USB flash drive into a USB port on your PC. Select File Explorer from the taskbar.

Step 2. Press and hold (or right-click) the USB flash drive (or SD card if you used one instead), then select “Properties”.

Step 3. Select the “ReadyBoost” tab, then select “Use this device”. Windows determines if the device can use ReadyBoost. If it can’t, it'll let you know.

Step 4. After Windows determines how much free space to use to optimize memory, select “OK” to reserve this space so ReadyBoost can use it.

Step 5. When you look at the contents of the USB flash drive in File Explorer, you’ll see a file named “ReadyBoost.sfcache” on the flash drive. This file shows how much space is reserved for ReadyBoost.

Summary

“How do I make my computer run smoother?” won’t be trouble for you after reading this post. The computer status needs regular maintenance. AOMEI Partition Assistant is a multifunctional tool for you to manage your disks and Windows. Besides the features we mentioned in this post, it can also clone disks, convert file systems without formatting, convert the disk to MBR/GPT without data loss, etc. And it has the Server Edition for Windows Server 2025/2022/2019/2016/2012(R2)/2008(R2)/2003.