When you first bought your brand-new business laptop, everything on it probably seemed to work at lightning-fast speeds. Over time, though, it’s begun to show its age. Now, your computer might take ages just to shut down. You may wait forever for something to happen when you click.

Or maybe it doesn’t seem to have as much memory as it used to. It’s all very frustrating.

How to speed up your laptop

Knowing how to speed up your laptop is extremely helpful and doesn’t require much time. We recommend using these strategies.

1. Limit startup tasks and programs.

Many programs automatically open when you switch on your laptop. Not only does that add to the time before you can use the device, but having so many programs operating in the background can drain central processing unit (CPU) usage and slow your computer’s startup times. This makes other applications more difficult to launch, causing a system-wide lag. The solution is to limit the programs and tasks that begin upon startup.

How to limit startup tasks and programs for Windows 10 

1. Open Task Manager.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Apps.
4. Click the Startup tab.

If the Startup tab is not visible in your settings, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the Start button.
2. Select Task Manager.
3. Click Startup. (Sometimes, the Startup button is located under More Details, so look there if you can’t find it.)

Under the Startup tab, you’ll see a list of programs ranked by startup impact. You can enable and disable whichever ones you deem necessary to run or not run each time you power up your laptop. You also can sort the list by the impact level, the name of the application and the status to get a better sense of what’s going on.