Speed up your PC

Speed up Windows — the Overview

Before you dive into individual tweaks: There are five major levers that together provide the most impact. Anyone who pulls all five will have a measurably faster PC – without risk.

1. Clean up Autostart Programs that load automatically at startup are the biggest boot-time killer. Here, you often save 30–60 seconds of startup time.
2. Reduce Background Services Windows runs dozens of services you'll never need. Don't disable all of them – but the obviously unnecessary ones.
3. Remove Data Clutter Temporary files, old logs, browser cache, update remnants. Accumulates and slows down hard drive plus indexing services.
4. Optimize SSD If you have an SSD: Is TRIM activated? Defrag disabled? Write cache correctly configured? Often makes a 20% difference.
5. Reduce Visual Effects Animations, transparencies, shadows – nice to look at, but costs performance. Noticeably affects older PCs.

Optimize Autostart

Every program that loads automatically when Windows starts costs boot time and RAM. Adobe Reader, Spotify, OneDrive, Dropbox, Skype, printer drivers, update helpers – it all adds up.

Open Autostart Manager

1. Start Task Manager Ctrl + Shift + Esc or right-click on the taskbar → Task Manager.
2. Go to the "Startup" tab Here you'll see all programs that start with Windows – including their "Startup impact" (Low / Medium / High).
3. Disable unnecessary ones Right-click → Disable. This doesn't delete the program – it just stops it from starting automatically.

What can go, what must stay?

• ✅ Can be removed: Adobe Reader Updater, iTunes Helper, Spotify, Steam (if you don't want to start games immediately), Skype, cloud sync tools (if not constantly needed)
• ⚠️ Check carefully: Printer driver helpers, webcam tools, antivirus components
• ❌ Do not disable: Audio drivers (Realtek), touchpad drivers, security software, Windows Defender components

Disable Unnecessary Services

Windows services are background programs that run without a UI. The system needs many of them, but many others it doesn't – yet they all start running. Cautiously disabling them saves RAM and processing time.

Open Services Manager

Windows key + R → services.msc → Enter. You'll see a list of all installed services with their status (Running / Stopped) and startup type (Automatic / Manual / Disabled).

Common Candidates for Disabling

• Print Spooler — if you don't use a printer
• Fax service — who faxes anymore?
• Bluetooth Support Service — if you don't use Bluetooth
• Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service — superfluous on desktop PCs
• Geolocation Service — if you don't use location-based apps
• Telemetry services — data transfer to Microsoft (including DiagTrack)

Remove Data Clutter

Over time, gigabytes of temporary files accumulate on every Windows PC: browser cache, update remnants, old logs, aborted downloads, setup files, thumbnails. This not only slows down storage – but also search and the hard drive index.

Built-in Disk Cleanup

Windows has its own cleanup tool: type cleanmgr into search or go to Settings → System → Storage.

What you can remove there

• Temporary files — usually 1–10 GB
• Windows Update Cleanup — old update remnants, often 5–20 GB
• Previous Windows installation — after updates, can be 10–50 GB
• Empty Recycle Bin — self-explanatory
• Downloads folder — Caution: first check what you want to keep
• Thumbnails — will be regenerated as needed

For more thorough cleaning

The built-in Disk Cleanup only scratches the surface. Tools like CCleaner also find:

• Cache of all browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge)
• Cookies (selectively controllable – keep some, delete others)
• Log files from third-party programs
• History content in dozens of applications
• Outdated driver remnants

Free Up RAM

If your RAM is full, Windows offloads data to the hard drive – this is called the paging file and is significantly slower than real RAM, even on SSDs. Keeping RAM free keeps your PC responsive.

What consumes RAM

• Browser with many tabs — Chrome is notorious, each tab is its own process
• Office software with large documents — Excel with huge spreadsheets, PowerPoint with images
• Background apps — Spotify, Discord, Teams, Slack open simultaneously
• Memory leaks — some programs never return RAM, require a restart

How much RAM do you need?

• 4 GB — absolute minimum, already tight for Windows 11
• 8 GB — solid office setup, basic multitasking
• 16 GB — standard by 2026, sufficient for most
• 32 GB+ — Gaming, image editing, video editing, many virtual machines

Free up RAM when things get tight

1. Open Task Manager, identify RAM hogs "Processes" tab, sort by memory. Check the top 5.
2. Close browser tabs Often the biggest lever. Tab manager extensions can create "sleeping" tabs.
3. Close background apps Spotify, Discord, Teams – if you don't actively need them, close them.
4. Reboot if you suspect a memory leak If a program keeps consuming more and more RAM and doesn't release it – a restart helps.
5. Install more RAM If you regularly hit the limit – a hardware upgrade is the only real long-term solution.

Optimize SSD Performance

An SSD is 10–20× faster than a classic HDD. But: SSDs have different care requirements. What was right for HDDs is harmful for SSDs – and vice versa.

SSD Basic Rules

• Activate TRIM — ensures the SSD knows free areas and can write quickly
• Deactivate defragmentation — superfluous and harmful for SSDs (write cycles are consumed)
• Tame indexing service — OK on large SSDs, reduce on small ones
• Activate write cache — significantly speeds up write operations
• Limit swap file — significantly reduce with plenty of RAM (32 GB+)
• Reconsider hibernation — Hiberfile.sys can occupy several GB
• Allow over-provisioning — don't fill the SSD 100%, leave 10–20% free

How do you check if TRIM is active?

Open Command Prompt as administrator, then:

fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

Answer 0 = TRIM is active. Answer 1 = TRIM is deactivated (should be activated).