How to Optimize Windows 10 Performance with or without PC Tune-Up Utilities

To optimize Windows 10 performance, you can use any PC Tune-Up utilities. But, You also can do it without these tools. This article will explain both methods in details.

After using Windows PC for a few months, you may suddenly notice that it has been very slow nowadays. What to do? You definitely want to speed up Windows performance. But, You may not know the proper way to do it. There was a time when users thought only re-installing Windows is the only way. But, It has changed now. You can gain a significant performance boost without doing complex things.

If you use Windows for a long time properly, your PC may not lose performance capability that much. This article will give you some information and the instructions to speed up Windows with or without a third-party PC optimizer. However, Before that, you also need to know some other things.

What Slows Down a Windows 10 PC?

There are infinity of things that can slow down your desktop, laptop and tablet PC. But, There are some particular things that are valid for most people’s Windows computers. Here are they-

1. Large Amount of Temporary Data

The first and most common thing you will see on every Windows PC is the temporary data issue. After using it for a few months, you will always find a decreasing order in the available disk space. It is because of many software and Windows stores temporary data on local disk C or any other drives. It slowly gets bigger. After a certain period of time, it becomes a problem for your PC performance.

2. Background Activities

If you don’t install anything on Windows 10, you will experience good performance for a very long period of time. But, After installing some software, it will get slower. In fact, you may end up installing a lot of software and services. For example, You have antivirus, Photoshop, third-party browsers like Chrome, VLC media player, Microsoft Office or any similar tools, any messenger app, Steam, A Music Player, IDEs like Intellij, PyCharm, PHPStorm if you are a programmer, Internet Download Manager, A Video editor, iTunes, Driver Updater, etc. You may have ended up installing a lot more tools on your PC. All of them add several services in the background. That consumes your CPU power and RAM. As a result, Windows gets lower resources for normal tasks, and you experience slow performance.

3. Registry Corruption

The registry plays a significant role in the Windows operating system. It is like the central database. Windows OS and the software installed on it may rely on the registry entries. However, For many reasons, it may get corrupted. That can cause performance issues for third-party software or the Windows itself.

4. Low Disk Space

Having lower available disk space is a prevalent reason for not getting maximum performance for your PC. For many reasons, Windows may use your available disk space temporarily, for example, as virtual memory. When It can’t do it smoothly, users get significant slow performance.

5. Disk Fragmentation

Although SSD has gained a lot of popularity these days, it is still costly compared to the traditional hard disks. That’s why most people use SSD as a system drive and hard disk to store documents and other contents. Also, There are a lot of PCs that don’t have an SSD. In general, traditional hard disk gets fragmented easily. That affects the read and write speed. So, When your hard disk gets fragmented significantly, you will surely notice very slow performance in your PC.

6. Excessive Startup Items

When Windows OS boots up completely, some software and services run automatically and remain active in the background. These are called startup items. If the list of startup items gets bigger, you will experience notably slow and sluggish performance. Especially, it affects the total Windows startup time. If the list is excessively bigger, it may take a longer time to boot up Windows.

7. Outdated Windows

When Windows remains outdated, it also may become slower overtime. Because it may not be well compatible with the latest software and drivers installed on your PC.

8. Incompatible Drivers

The drivers are very important in Windows. Without it, no third-party or built-in devices and hardware can be run on Windows. But, If the driver versions are not compatible with the OS and other software, users will notice very sluggish performance.

9. Outdate Software

There are many apps and software that are not supported by developers anymore. But, These are available online. If you have such software installed on your PC, sometimes, that may create performance issues. Also, If you don’t update the software you use on your computer, it may cause performance problems.

10. Low Available Memory

The system requirements for Windows 10 are very basic. But, It’s not the true story. You need many more resources to get usable performance. Also, If you use a lot of things on your PC or laptop, more memory means more performance.

11. Low CPU Power

Sometimes, It doesn’t matter if you have a lot of available memory on your PC. If your processor is not up to the mark, you can’t expect a significant performance boost. A dual-core processor in a laptop won’t get close to a laptop with a quad or octa-core processor.

12. External Devices

You may have a lot of external devices connected with your computer. That may be a reason it is not performing up to the mark.

13. Graphics Card Issue

Graphics card problem is a very common thing for a PC user. If it becomes incompatible with the modern version of Windows 10 or it has some manufacturing faults, you may get performance issues.

14. Old Hardware

If your PC is very old, its processor, RAM, GPU, motherboard, etc. are also old. Then you may be experience PC slowdown issue for two reasons. Incompatible hardware, drivers and also the decreased capacity of the hardware.

15. Hardware Problems

Physical hardware problem can be another reason for slow performance problem.

These are the most common reasons why your Windows PC has become very slow. If you want to fix the issues and speed up PC, follow the next part of the article.

How to Optimize Windows 10 PC to Speed Up Performance

To optimize and speed up Windows 10 performance, there are two major things to consider. If the reasons are related to the hardware like processor, RAM, GPU, etc., you will have to upgrade them. Otherwise, it won’t be possible to get a performance boost.

Another thing is software related. You can tweak several things to gain performance in Windows 10 PC. But, there are two options in your hand. You can either use a good PC Tune-Up utility to fix all performance issues automatically, or you can do it manually without using any third-party software. You are going to know both of these options.

Optimize Windows 10 with Third-Party PC Tune-Up Software

It is the most popular way to speed up Windows 10 performance. Because many high-quality PC TuneUp tools can optimize PC performance automatically without any manual effort, it saves a lot of time. So, Many people rely on these tools. If you are not sure if you should use third-party tune-up tools or not, we have an article for you. You can read: Should You Use PC Tune-Up Tools?

If you want, you can have a look at the top 5 best PC TuneUp Software for Windows 10. You can use any of them. But, In this article, I will recommend a few of them.

1. Optimize PC with Advanced SystemCare [Feature Rich]

The IObit Advanced SystemCare is one of the most popular PC optimization utilities out there. It has a lot of features. You probably don’t need all of them. So, You can follow some recommended instructions to speed up Windows 10 using this software.

• At first, Download and Install Advanced SystemCare on your PC.
• During the installation process, be cautious. Don’t check anything that will install any other software.

• After that, Open Advanced SystemCare. By Default, You will see AI Mode is enabled. I suggest you use the manual way. AI mode is impressive. But, the manual mode will give you flexibility in choice.
• Now, Check Privacy Sweep, Junk File Clean, Shortcut Fix, Registry Clean, Disk Optimization, Software Health, Hardware Health.
• Now, Hover your mouse cursor on Privacy Sweep. A Setting icon will appear. Click on it.

• Then, Now, Look at the section called Objects you want to clean. Under the browsers like Chrome, Edge, etc, uncheck Cookies, Sessions, History, Saved Passwords, Saved Form Information and click on OK.
• Now, Click on the Scan button. It will start scanning for problems.
• At last, Click on the Fix button when it appears. It will instantly speed up your PC.

In that recommended steps I showed above will clean junk files, temporary internet files, fix defragmentation issues, fix registry problem, Update Outdate Software and Also show you the list of outdated drivers.

You also can enable and use many other features like Turbo Boost, Auto RAM Clean, Startup Optimizer, etc.

Please note that not all features are available in the free version. But, the Free version is enough for basic optimization.

2. How to Optimize PC with CCleaner [Most Popular]

CCleaner is a well known, popular, and reliable PC optimization software. It doesn’t have so many features. But, It comes in handy in quickly fixing performance-related errors. To optimize your PC with CCleaner, you can follow these recommended instructions.

• At first, Download & Install CCleaner.
• Don’t accept anything to install third-party software during the installation process.
• After installing, Open CCleaner.
• Now, Go to Custom Scan.

• Then, Under each browser, uncheck Internet History, Cookies, Session, Saved Passwords, Saved Cards, Saved Form Information, etc.
• Then, Click on Analyze.
• After finishing the Scan processor, click on Fix. It will fix the major performance issues.

To fix registry issues, you can go to the registry tab and use appropriate options. In tools tab, you will also find features like startup optimization.

How to Optimize Windows 10 PC Performance without Third-Party Software

Though you can’t optimize PC performance manually as much as with a PC TuneUp utility, it still works great. To achieve maximum performance from your computer, you can go through these steps.

1. Clean Disk Using Disk Cleanup or Storage Sense

Windows 10 has excellent built-in tools to clean common junk files from your hard disk or SSD. It gives some performance boost too. If you want to optimize a PC without third-party software, this is the first step to follow.

Use Disk Cleanup:

To use disk cleanup, follow these steps:

• At first, Open the start menu, type cleanup.
• You will see the Disk Cleanup utility. Just open it.
• Now, Choose a disk drive and click on OK.

• After scanning, It will show you some results. You can choose whatever you want to clean. But, I suggest you click on “Clean up system files.”
• Clicking on it will again let you choose a disk drive. But, This time it will run deep scan and find more even the temporary system files.
• You can check everything and click on OK to clean.

Use Storage Sense:

Storage sense is a feature of Windows 10. It is similar to the disk cleanup. In the future Windows 10 version, the disk cleanup tool will not be available. The storage sense is the future. However, To free up the disk using storage sense, follow these steps.

• At first, Open Settings in Windows 10. To open it quickly, you can use the keyboard shortcut: Win+I.
• Now, Navigate to Settings > System > Storage.
• Then, It will scan and show you the overage disk usage data. You can click on Temporary Files.

• Now, Check everything and click on Remove Files.

It is not as superior as the disk cleanup right now. But, In the future, It may get more features. However, You can configure storage sense to run automatically schedule-wise.

2. Optimize Disk Drive

To optimize a fragmented disk drive, Windows has a built-in tool. To use this tool, follow these steps:

• At first, Open the Start Menu, type optimize.
• You will see the tool “Defragment and Optimize Drives.” Open it.
• Now, Choose any drive and click on optimize. It may take a while to complete the optimization.

After that, you will notice performance boost in certain tasks or in overall everything.

3. Reduce Startup Items

Startup items affect Windows 10 performance a lot. So, To speed up Windows, you can disable the unnecessary programs from the startup. To do it, follow these instructions.

• At first, Right-click on the taskbar and then click on Task Manager.
• In the task manager, go to the Startup tab.
• Now, Disable all the unnecessary items.

You will notice the effect in next startup of Windows 10.

4. Reduce Background Services

If you don’t know what you are going to do, ignore this method. It may cause problems if you do anything wrong. To reduce background services, you will need to know about Windows well. And, You also should have a clear idea about the services you are going to disable. If you still want to decrease background services manually, follow these instructions.

• At first, Open Run by pressing Win+R on the keyboard.
• Now, Type msconfig and press enter. It will open System Configuration Window.
• Then, Go to the Services tab.
• Now, Check Hide all Microsoft Services.
• Then, You can uncheck the items you want to disable.
• Save the settings and restart.

There is another method you also should check. Here are the instructions:

• At first, Open Run, type services.msc and press enter. It will open the services Window.
• Now, You will see a list of services. Most of them are Windows services.
• Find any third-party services you want to disable and double click on them on by one.
• Set the startup type as manual for any services you don’t want active in the background.
• At last, Restart Windows.

I don’t recommend you to follow this method until you know what you are doing. However, Many software has options in its settings to prevent that from being appeared during startup or remain active in the background. You also can check for similar options in the individual software you are using.

5. Update Windows

You already know an outdated Windows version can be a source of performance-related problems. So, You should update it to the latest version. To do it:

• At first, Navigate to Windows 10 Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update.
• Then, click on Check for updates.
• Install if any update is available.

6. Update Software

Updating all software on your PC is tricky. But, As you don’t want to use any third-party tools, you will have to update them manually. However, If you want, you can use IObit Software Updater.

7. Tweak Advanced Settings

There are a few more things you can consider to do. It may improve Windows 10 performance significantly, especially in low-end computers. You can tweak some settings in visual effects that should work great. Here are the instructions.

• At first, Open the Start Menu, type sysdm.cpl, and hit enter.
• Then, Click on the Advanced tab and then click on Settings under the performance section.
• Now, Under the visual effects tab, you can adjust the settings for best appearance, best performance, or what is ideal for your PC. You also can choose custom and enable/disable visual effects to see the impact on performance.

• Save your preferred settings.

It should be effective immediately. If not, you can restart your PC.

8. Update Drivers

The latest drivers come with performance improvement and bug fixes. So, If you have an outdated driver, you may get slightly lower performance. So, You should keep them up to that.

Read: How to Update Drivers in Windows 10

9. Disable Delivery Optimization

It will require another article to explain the delivery optimization feature in Windows 10. However, It can affect performance and also cause low disk space issue. So, You should disable it if you don’t need it. Here are the instructions.

• At first, Open Windows 10 Settings and navigate to Update & Security > Windows Update.
• Now, Click on Advanced Options.
• Then, Click on Delivery Optimization.

• At last, Disable the Delivery Optimization by toggling the Switch.

10. Update BIOS

Outdated BIOS/UEFI firmware also may cause slow performance issues on Windows. Though, you won’t have to update the BIOS regularly. But, If you notice slower performance and haven’t updated it for a long time, you can consider updating the BIOS. To learn how to do it, follow this article: How to Update BIOS/UEFI

These are the most effective ways to optimize Windows 10 and speed up the performance. Doing it with a good PC Tune-Up utility is much easier. But, Doing it manually is also effective. You can go with either one method. But, I suggest using a good PC optimization software if you don’t want to spend time on optimization.