How to Keep An Old Computer Running Smoothly

When you don’t know how to keep an old computer running smoothly, please read this post carefully to learn some practical methods on improving the performance of your PC.

Posted by @Tina July 24, 2024 Updated By @Tina May 12, 2023

How to keep an old computer running smoothly

 

" I have an old computer used for 5 years, it is very slow and takes a long time to boot and run. But for financial reasons, I don't want to get a new computer right now. What causes old computers to be so slow? How to keep an old computer running smoothly? Looking forward to your answer, thanks in advance!"

Why the old computer running slow?

If you are encountering the same problem as the case mentioned, you need to know what causes the old PC to slow down. Here are some common reasons on your computer slows down:

β˜… A lot of dust accumulated inside the computer. β˜… Malware or viruses invade your computer. β˜… C drive almost full due to junk files and installed applications. β˜… The hard disk in your old computer is aged.

How to make an old computer run faster

When your old computer is not running smoothly, to solve the problem of how to make an old slow computer faster, we provide you with the following basic solutions:

β”‚Method 1. Uninstall unneeded programs

If there are too many applications installed on your old PC, there’s no doubt that a large part of the PC space will be taken up. Therefore, you need to consider uninstalling some unnecessary applications to free up space on your old computer. The detailed steps are shown below:

Step 1. Press "Window+R" key at the same time, type "control" and hit "Enter" in the Run program.

Step 2. Click "Uninstall a Program" option under the "Program".

Step 3. Right-click the applications you want to uninstall and then click the "Uninstall" option.

β”‚Method 2. Clean up malware and viruses

Since malware and viruses will generate files that can slow down the computer after invading the computer, it is very necessary to clean up these malware and viruses hidden in the computer. So please download and install a reliable antivirus software from the official website.

β”‚Method 3. Run Disk Cleanup

Junk files on the PC always cause headaches for most Windows users, because they are hidden in the computer, secretly occupying computer space. To delete these junk files to make your old computer run smoothly, you can use the Windows tool Disk Cleanup to find and clean them.

Step 1. Press "Windows" and type "disk cleanup", click "Open" to open this disk cleaning tool.

Step 2. Choose the target drive to find out the junk files (Here, we take C drive as an example.) and click "OK".

Step 3. In the files listed below, select the target files you want to clean up and then click "OK".

Keep an old computer running smoothly with a professional PC optimizer

If you do not get the expected results after completing the above operations, how to make an old computer run faster with other methods? Here, I would like to recommend AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, a powerful old computer accelerator.

When you are still troubled by the problem of insufficient C drive space, AOMEI users have already enjoyed a smooth computer with the help of "Delete Large Files", "Allocate Free Space" and "Migrate OS to SSD" functions. How does it work? Please continue to pay attention to the following.

PS.: If you are unwilling to uninstall the programs, you can try "App Mover" to migrate them without reinstalling.

Free Download Win 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download

Let's see how to keep an old computer running smoothly with it.

β”‚Case 1. Delete large files

Although you can use Disk Cleanup to delete some junk files, it cannot deal with system-related files and registry files. Fortunately, the "Delete Large Files" feature can thoroughly find all the unwanted files on your computer and remove them to speed up your old PC.

Step 1. Download and open the this PC accelerator, click "Free up" in the top task bar and then "Delete Large Files".

Step 2. All partitions on your PC will be listed out, choose the target partition and click "Start Scan". (This tool will select C drive by default, if you don't want to scan for C drive, you can tick it to cancel selecting it.)

Step 3. You can see all the large files of the target drive on the interface, select the large files to delete and then click "Delete".(Be careful with the files marked red.)

Step 4. Here is the space you may get if delete those large files, click "Delete Now".

β”‚Case 2. Allocate free space

When the C drive space is insufficient, it may cause the computer to slow down, and even the computer freezes. Here, you can extend the C drive with "Allocate Free Space" and effectively solve the problem of how to speed up desktop computer or laptop.

Step 1. In the main interface, right-click a drive with much free space. Here, we select the D drive.

Step 2. Set the size and choose target partition, then click "OK".

Step 3. Click "Apply" to extend your C drive.

β”‚Case 3. Migrate OS to another drive

Because the performance of SSD is much better than HDD, when the hard drive is aged, you can fix it by replacing the hard drive with SSD.

Step 1. Make sure the new disk is initialized. Then, connect it with your PC and click "Clone"> "Migrate OS"  on the top task bar.

Step 2. Select the disk space and tick the note "I want to delete all partitions on this disk 2 to migrate system to the disk" shown, then click "Next".

Step 3. Set the size of the system partition by dragging the double arrow leftward or rightward.

Step 4. (Carefully) Read the "Note" about booting OS in the new SSD.

Step 5. Click "Apply" and "Proceed" to migrate the operation system to the new SSD.

Note: To boot your OS from the new SSD normally, please change boot drive first.

Summary

How to keep an old computer running smoothly? In this article, we analyzed the common reasons for the slowness of old computers. On this basis, we shared 3 fundamental solutions, and then displayed 3 advanced methods with AOMEI Partition Assistant.

By the way, if you're a Windows Server user, you can turn to the Server Edition, which is designed for you.