5 Ways to Speed Up Your Laptop Before You Buy a New One
Since schools are shut down and many offices have become your living room couch or dining room table, that extra slow laptop has probably been driving you insane and making you consider whether it’s time to buy a new one or not.
But as the market runs thin on laptops available due to the manufacturers shutting production to prevent the spread of COVID-19, there is still hope and much cheaper options. Here are some steps I have taken to make my laptop run like new.
1. Disable Programs on Startup
One of the biggest clues to a computer slowdown is the startup time. There have been many instances where I’ve gotten up to make coffee or grab something to eat and made it back to my desk before my computer has loaded the first page on my browser.
Opening up the task manager and going through your programs on startup can handle that initial boot time.
Instead of your computer trying to boot up several different unnecessary programs at once, it can focus on the required windows programs first.
2. Clean Up Your Desktop
Are you guilty of a cluttered desktop? Is your wallpaper barely visible due to the number of programs you have littered among your computer “real-estate”. This could be plaguing your boot up times as well.
Anytime you add something to the desktop, you are increasing the number of programs your computer must go through before it is officially up and running.
Declutter by moving documents to folders and eliminate redundant programs from your computer reduce the time it takes your computer to get to the first internet browser.
3. Empty Your Recycle Bin
Something I learned long ago is that once your computer has “deleted” an item, it does not mean it gets rid of it entirely. The files instead get moved to the recycle bin and are kept there until the bin is emptied.
While this is a safety feature to avoid accidental deletion of important files, it can start to stack up. And if you have never taken the time to empty the recycle bin, then you might find years and years of files just taking up unnecessary space on your hard drive.
4. Clean Up Your Browser’s Cache
Now that your start times have been improved, you can start focusing on the internet exploration times. Many browsers will use a “cache” to reduce your wait times when it comes to frequently visited websites. But after too much data is cached, it starts to slow the browsing experience down.
Clearing out this cache can be beneficial for accessing new and old websites alike. Be warned, depending on the browser, this can log you out of websites and programs you are used to having access to immediately. Make sure you know your passwords before you commit to clearing out the cache.
5. Upgrade to a SSD
The one time where spending money on electronics was 100% worth it. Older laptops are stuck with traditional hard drives, which will slow down over time due to the constant reading and writing on the disk. Hard drives are much better for storing nowadays, compared to solid state drives.
Solid state drives are your solution to bringing your computer to “like new” status. They don’t degrade nearly as fast and are based around quickly opening up programs. With a hard drive, it would take my laptop six minutes to get from pressing the power button to opening Photoshop. On a good day. With the upgrade to the SSD, I was able to bring that time down to ninety seconds.
A small SSD dedicated to booting and running programs is around $50. This is much cheaper than replacing an entire laptop.
Try Before You Buy
Getting a new laptop will always seem like the easiest solution to the problem. But it is not the financially smart move. Considering everything that goes into making a new computer personalized, it can even waste time.
Just like an old car, sometimes all a laptop needs is a little love before it can get back to tiptop shape.
