How to Speed Up a Slow Windows Laptop: 8 Simple Fixes

Quick answer: To speed up a slow Windows laptop, work in this order: restart properly, install updates, disable apps you don’t need at startup, free up disk space until at least 15 percent is empty, run a malware scan, then consider two cheap upgrades, more RAM or an SSD, before buying new.

Every laptop slows down. The fan gets louder. Startup takes minutes. Opening a browser feels like a negotiation.

In the US and UK, a decent replacement laptop costs $500 to $900 (£450 to £800). So it’s worth spending one focused hour on the machine you already own before you spend that money. Most “dead” laptops aren’t dead. They’re overloaded, nearly full, or running software they don’t need.

Work through the steps below in order. They follow the same approach as Microsoft’s own PC performance guidance. They cost nothing until Step 8, and each step tells you how to undo it. Set aside about an hour, plug the laptop in, and save your work before you start.

Step 1: Restart properly (not sleep, not closing the lid)

Why it helps

Closing the lid or using Sleep keeps everything running in the background. A real restart clears memory, finishes stuck processes and completes pending updates. Many people haven’t truly restarted in weeks.

How to do it

1. Save your work and close your apps.
2. Select Start > Power > Restart. Choose Restart, not Shut Down, because modern Windows uses a hybrid shutdown that doesn’t fully clear the system.
3. After it restarts, open only the apps you need and see how it feels before continuing.

Step 2: Install Windows and driver updates

Updates fix performance bugs as well as security holes, and a laptop stuck mid update can crawl for days. Go to Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates and install everything offered, restarting when asked. Then check Advanced options > Optional updates for driver updates, especially graphics and storage drivers. Readers in our Cybersecurity section will recognise the double benefit: an up to date machine is also a safer machine.

Step 3: Stop apps from launching at startup

Why this is usually the biggest win

Every app that launches itself at sign in adds seconds to startup, then sits in memory all day. Chat tools, game launchers, updaters, cloud drives you rarely use. Microsoft itself warns that too many startup apps slow you down, and Task Manager even rates each app’s startup impact.

How to do it

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
2. Select Startup apps.
3. Look for apps marked High impact that you don’t need immediately. Right click and select Disable.
4. Don’t disable your antivirus, or driver utilities for your touchpad, audio or graphics. If you don’t recognise something, leave it and search the name first.

Disabling isn’t uninstalling. The app still opens normally when you click it. It just stops pre loading every morning.

Step 4: Free up disk space (aim for 15 percent free)

Windows needs breathing room on its system drive for temporary files and virtual memory. When the drive is nearly full, everything slows down. Microsoft’s guidance covers these built in tools in its Windows settings documentation and performance pages. Here’s the practical order:

1. Go to Settings > System > Storage to see what is using space.
2. Select Temporary files, review the list, and select Remove files. Check Downloads carefully before ticking it, because that folder holds your real files.
3. Turn on Storage Sense so Windows cleans up automatically from now on.
4. Uninstall apps you no longer use under Settings > Apps > Installed apps.
5. Move large video files and photo libraries to an external drive or cloud storage if the drive is still over 85 percent full.

Step 5: Run a malware scan

Malware and bundled adware quietly eat CPU and disk in the background. You don’t need to buy anything. Open Settings > Privacy & security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection and run a Quick scan. If it finds anything, or the laptop still behaves strangely, run a Full scan and then the Microsoft Defender Offline scan offered on the same screen. Avoid “free PC cleaner” downloads from adverts. They’re a common source of the very problem you’re fixing.

Step 6: Check what is actually slow in Task Manager

Find your bottleneck

Open Task Manager and select the Performance tab while the laptop feels slow:

• Memory near 100 percent: close heavy apps. Browsers with 40 tabs are the usual suspect. Or add RAM in Step 8.
• Disk at 100 percent on a hard drive (HDD): the classic sign your laptop needs an SSD in Step 8.
• CPU pinned by one app: that app is the problem. Update it, reinstall it or replace it. More Software guides on TechPure cover lighter alternatives.

Step 7: Quick settings that help older machines

• Visual effects: search Start for “Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows” and choose Adjust for best performance, or manually untick animations. Less pretty, noticeably snappier on old hardware.
• Power mode: in Settings > System > Power & battery, choose Best performance while plugged in. Accept that on battery it will drain faster and run warmer.
• Browser discipline: remove extensions you don’t use, and let the browser sleep inactive tabs. Both Edge and Chrome offer this. For many people, the “slow laptop” is really a slow browser.
• Pause OneDrive syncing during big uploads or video calls if your connection or disk is struggling, then resume it afterwards.

Step 8: The two upgrades worth paying for

An SSD, if you still have a spinning hard drive

This is the single biggest upgrade for an older laptop. Faster startup, faster app launches, faster everything. A 500 GB to 1 TB SSD typically costs $50 to $90 (£45 to £80) in the US and UK. Many local repair shops will clone your drive and fit it for a modest labour fee if you’re not comfortable doing it yourself.

More RAM, if you have 4 GB or 8 GB

Check your current amount in Task Manager’s Performance tab. Moving from 4 GB to 8 GB, or 8 GB to 16 GB, commonly costs $25 to $60 (£20 to £50) for compatible laptop memory. But only if your model allows upgrades. Many thin modern laptops have soldered memory that can’t be changed, so check your exact model’s support page first.

The step everyone skips, and what we learned

Here’s what we see again and again when we help people with slow laptops. They jump straight to buying something. A cleaner app. More storage. Sometimes a whole new machine.

Then we open Task Manager together, and the real culprit is sitting right there. One app using most of the memory. A drive at 99 percent. Twelve programs launching every morning for no reason. Ten minutes of unticking boxes did more than any purchase would have.

So don’t guess. Measure first, using Step 6. Slow laptops usually have one main cause, and it’s rarely the one people expect.

What NOT to do

• Don’t use registry cleaners. They don’t measurably speed up modern Windows, and they can break it.
• Don’t download “driver updater” tools from adverts. Get drivers from Windows Update or the laptop maker.
• Don’t defragment an SSD. Windows optimises drives automatically, and manual defragging is an HDD era habit.
• Don’t disable your antivirus or Windows Security to “make it faster”.

When it really is time to replace it

If the laptop can’t run a supported version of Windows, the battery is failing and no longer holds a useful charge, or it still crawls after an SSD and RAM upgrade, replacement is the honest answer. When that day comes, guides on TechPure can help you choose. The same is true if AI features are your reason to upgrade, since newer machines handle tools like those in our AI search and AEO guide far more comfortably.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much free disk space does Windows need?

Aim for at least 15 percent of your system drive free. Below that, updates can fail and virtual memory gets squeezed, which is when slowdowns become severe, especially on smaller 128 GB and 256 GB drives.

Will resetting Windows make my laptop fast again?

Often yes, and it’s a reasonable last software step: Settings > System > Recovery > Reset PC, choosing “Keep my files”. Back up anything important first anyway, and note you’ll need to reinstall your apps. If it’s still slow after a clean reset, the hardware is the limit.

Is 8 GB of RAM enough in 2026?

For email, browsing, documents and streaming, 8 GB is workable if the rest of the system is healthy. For many browser tabs, photo editing, virtual meetings plus several apps at once, or any AI heavy work, 16 GB is the comfortable standard now.

Why is my laptop only slow at startup?

That pattern points at startup apps (Step 3) and a nearly full or aging drive (Steps 4 and 8). If the laptop is fast five minutes after signing in, your hardware is probably fine. Your startup list is the problem.

Final Takeaway

Slow is a symptom, not a verdict. Restart properly, update, cut the startup list, free the drive, scan for malware, find the bottleneck, and only then spend money, on an SSD or RAM, not a whole new machine. An hour of methodical work saves most people $500, or £450. For more step by step fixes, browse our Software section. And if you get stuck on a step, contact TechPure with your laptop model and Windows version, and we’ll point you at the right next move.