How to Make an Old Laptop Run Faster (Tips That Don’t Cost a Penny)

If you’ve been carrying the same laptop for a long time, chances are its performance isn’t as good as it used to be. Luckily, there are several things that you can do to boost and optimize how your laptop runs without having to buy any CPU upgrades.

How to make my laptop faster you ask?

While most people tend to overspend on their laptops or give up altogether and buy a new one, you don’t have to. Luckily for you, many methods are cost-effective but are as effective.

If you’re feeling lost or want to know more, then we have the perfect guide for you. Keep on reading to find out how to make an old laptop run faster.

Use the Performance Troubleshooter

If you want to learn how to make an old laptop run faster, the first thing you can do is use the performance troubleshooter. It’s built-in software that can automatically find and fix problems on your laptop. It can show you what issues are slowing down its performance and gives you a solution to it.

This software is only available for Windows operating systems. You can open it up by clicking on your Start button and then opening your Control Panel. Afterward, go to the search bar and look for Troubleshooting. 

This will open up the setting for troubleshooting and is where you can find System and Security. Go ahead and select that and under it, click on Check for performance issues. This is a quick and easy fix for helping your laptop get rid of problems that can get solved right away.

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Get Rid of Apps You Don’t Use

One cause of your laptop slowing down could be the lack of space on your hard drive. Learn how to make laptops run faster, get rid of apps that you don’t regularly use. You might not be aware of how many apps take up space on your laptop like free games, movies, and other unused files.

Open Apps and Features and all the programs you have will appear on your screen, you can filter and sort through them as you please. You can sort them by size to see which apps are taking the most space to make it easier to find what you need to remove. 

From there select programs you don’t need and uninstall them from your device. You can also select the Control Panel again and uninstall apps from Programs. You can find the apps you don’t need and right-click then select uninstall. 

To uninstall apps on a Mac, drag and drop the apps you don’t use in the Trash or right-click and select Move to Trash. Sometimes the OS might ask for confirmation but all you’ll have to do is enter your username and password.

Optimize Your Startup

A big reason why your laptop lags or slows down when you start it up is because of all the programs that automatically open. This can become very annoying when you need to do something important right away like print a file.

These programs can be very draining to your CPU, especially if there’s a lot all at once. With a few steps, you can easily fix this and have your laptop’s startup speed increase.

For Windows users, the first thing you need to do is open up your Task Manager and go to its settings. Then you’ll want to go to Apps and then Startup. From there you’ll be able to see a list of the programs the open on startup.

You can sort them through different filters like the level of impact they give on your laptop’s performance. You can see which programs slows it down the most and click to disable it.

For macOS users, go ahead and open your Apple menu then go to System Preferences. Select Users and Groups and click on the account that you using on the device and then go to Login Items. Similar to the Windows process, this will open a list of all the programs that open during startup.

You can then select which of the programs you want to disable by highlighting it. Then clicking on the minus symbol at the bottom of the window to stop it from running automatically.

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Clean Up Your Hard Drive

Learning how to make a laptop run faster without buying anything also requires proper maintenance. Start by cleaning up your hard drive.

Similar to the excess programs, there are lots of files and cache that have been collecting in your laptop that you don’t need. They can take up a lot of space and are a big factor in your device’s slowing down. You can use Disk Cleanup and other similar cleaning programs to help you with decluttering.

When you clear up space on your laptop, you’re essentially giving it more processing power and space to do other tasks and use for more important apps. There are many ways you can go about approaching this.

From clearing your Recycling Bin to deleting extra files that you don’t use or need. You’ll also want to clear the cache on your internet browser. In the same way that other files on your computer accumulate, the cache you collect when browsing the internet adds up.

Taking a few minutes to clear up your browser cache can save you gigabytes of storage. Furthermore, this will improve the total performance of your laptop. The process is different from every browser but regardless of which you’re using you’ll find what you need in its settings tab. 

Now You Know How to Make an Old Laptop Run Faster

We hope that after reading this article, you’ve learned different ways of how to make an old laptop run faster. There are plenty more ways to boost your device but hopefully, you have a good grasp of what to do. The important thing is to remember to keep only what you need and control the programs you use. 

Of course, optimizing your laptop doesn’t end here. If you want to learn more ways to keep it in shape and performing well, feel free to read our other tech guides right here, today!