If your computer is running slowly, we have a few suggestions that might help speed things up. The steps are in order, and we suggest the following from start to finish for the best improvements. However, you can certainly skip a step if you already tried something similar steps.
Restart your computer and open only the apps you need. Having many programs open, or many browser tabs open at once can slow down a bit. When this happens, close any apps, browser tabs, etc., that you do not need. This should help to speed things up. If it does not help, restart your personal computer and then open just the apps and browser windows you need.
To restart your personal computer, select the Start button, then select Power > Restart.
After your personal computer restarts, open just the apps you need, and then close them when you are done.
Sometimes apps that were made for an earlier version of Windows will still run on Windows 10, but they might slow down your personal computer. If this happens after you open a certain program, check the software company's website for an updated version, or run the Program Compatibility Troubleshooter. To run the Program Compatibility Troubleshooter.
How to download and install drivers using Detect Drivers?
To allow the Dell Support website to identify and scan the Dell computer for existing drivers and utilities:
Follow the on-screen instructions to install SupportAssist. SupportAssist analyzes the computer to find the latest updates. After the scan is complete, click Download and install. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the drivers and utilities installation.
How to download and install a driver manually if Detect Drivers fails?
Sometimes the automatic download can fail, or you might prefer a higher degree of control and prefer to select and download drivers manually.
Manually download and install the driver:
Startup programs:
When you turn on your personal computer, some programs start automatically and run in the background. Depending on how many programs are set to autostart this can quickly consume critical computer resources like memory and CPU. You can disable these programs, so they do not run when your personal computer starts.
Many programs enable autostart even though the application might not be critical to you. If the application is important to you, leave the startup status at enabled. If you never heard of the application, or you do not use the application every day, change it to disabled.
Sometimes you can determine which programs start automatically by looking at the program icons in the notification area if there are any programs running that you do not want to start automatically. To try to find out the name of the program, find out the program's name, point to the icon with your mouse pointer. Ensure you select Show hidden icons, so you do not miss any programs.
Changing the startup behavior:
Background apps:
The workload of your computer's workload depends on many aspects and how apps and programs are started, how long they are up and when they can consume resources such as memory, CPU, and network bandwidth. This is often the overlooked as it cannot be easily detected.
Disabling Background apps:
Check for low disk space and free up space:
Ensure you have enough free disk space available.
Delete temporary files with Storage Sense:
To see what is in your Recycle Bin before you empty it, open it from your desktop. If you do not see the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop, in the search bar, type recycle bin, then select Recycle Bin from the list select.
Turning on and configuring Storage Sense:
If your computer does not have Storage Sense, you can use the Disk Cleanup tool to delete temporary files and computer files from your device.
Run Disk Cleanup:
If your personal computer still runs slowly, try uninstalling apps that you do not use anymore.
Uninstalling apps, you do not use:
If your personal computer still runs slowly, try moving files to another drive.
If you have photos, music, or other files that you want to keep but do not use often, consider saving them to removable media, like a USB drive. You will still be able to use them when the drive is connected, but they will not take up space on your personal computer.
Moving files to another drive
Windows 10 includes many visual effects, such as animations and shadow effects. These look great, but they can also use additional computer resources and can slow down your personal computer. This step is especially helpful if you have a personal computer with a smaller amount of memory (RAM).
Adjusting the visual effects in Windows:
A virus, malware, or malicious software could cause your personal computer to run slowly. Other symptoms include unexpected pop-up messages, programs that unexpectedly start automatically, or the sound of your hard disk constantly working.
The best way to handle viruses and malicious software is to try to prevent them by running anti-malware and anti-virus software and keeping it up to date. However, even if you take precautions, your personal computer can still become infected.
You can scan your personal computer for viruses or other malicious software by using Windows Security (formerly Windows Defender Security Center), which is in Windows 10. For more info, see: How to protect your Windows 10 PC
Restoring your personal computer undoes recent changes that might be causing problems. If you think a recently installed app, driver, or update for Windows could be causing problems, you might get things running normally again by restoring your personal computer to an earlier point, called a restore point.
When applications suddenly hang (unresponsive for several seconds), freeze (do not respond at all, and cannot be closed without ending the app in Windows Task manager, or the computer even bluescreens you can likely fix this by following these steps:
Problems after a recent Windows Update.
If the problem started after a recent Windows update, you should first check the Windows Health Dashboard to see if the symptoms are already being reported. If so, the dashboard has likely information for a fix, or at least for a helpful workaround until a final solution is in place.
While many of the updates are released by Microsoft, the packages often include driver, firmware, and application updates from other companies. You can get the details for each update from the Windows Update History:
Check Windows Update History:
Check the recent history of updates installed on your computer, including quality updates, drivers, definition updates (Windows Defender anti-virus), and optional updates.
Uninstalling Windows Updates:
If there is no solution in the Windows Dashboard, consider uninstalling the most recent Windows update. We have a short video here that guides you through the process. Reboot the computer after the update was removed and check if the issue is resolved. If the issue persists repeat removing the most recent updates until the problem is fixed.
If you experience hanging applications, app crashes or bluescreens we must take a closer look at the root cause. Windows has a user-friendly tool for this type of investigation, called Reliability Monitor.
If the computer is unresponsive with a Bluescreen, it is likely caused by a driver. Common applications are rarely the culprit for bluescreens. Keep this in mind and if in doubt update the drivers of your Dell computer. If you have other devices that are installed like monitor, mouse, keyboard, printer, external video cards ensure you update the drivers from the website of the manufacturer.
When applications crash it is good practice to use the repair feature, ensuring the app settings are not corrupted.
Repairing Windows Store apps:
Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
Should the issue persist, use the Windows Store Troubleshooter:
Repairing Windows Applications
There are multiple factors that impact the performance of a video meeting.
Dropouts for audio or video
If audio playback stutters, or the video stream buffers or even drops, you should update the audio and video driver for your computer. If video continues to be an issue, try reducing the screen resolution to reduce the amount of memory that is required to render the stream. If you have an HDR display reduce the resolution during the meeting to 1920 x 1080 by following these steps (How to Change the Video Settings or Improve Text in Windows 11 and Windows 10). If you use multiple monitors on an external dock, try disconnecting the computer from the dock and use the inbuilt screen during the meeting.
Effective content sharing
If you share slide presentations or videos, the memory requirements increase significantly which can sometimes lead to reduced performance. Consider using the inbuilt sharing options in Teams to reduce the bandwidth and memory demands, in Zoom share the slides in a window
.
Use the web app
Try using the web app instead of the desktop application. Both, Microsoft Teams and Zoom
offer this option. When using the web app, it is good practice to close tabs you do not need while attending the video call to improve overall performance.
Internet speed
If the tips above do not yield noticeable improvements, you should check the throughput of your Internet connection by performing a speed test in your web browser. Here are a few services that you can safely use Fast , Open Speedtest
, or Google Speedtest
and run the Windows Network Troubleshooter
to resolve potential issues with the network connection.
With the ongoing pandemic, we all make the best use of our resources, and this can sometimes mean that multiple people share the same computer. Windows 10 is fully capable of handling multiple users, however there are a few best practices that can improve the experience for everyone.
Use separate user profiles
Create a dedicated user profile for each person that uses your computer. This allows to contain the files and workload for each user separately and helps against creeping resource consumption. More information about how to create user profiles can be found here: Create a local user or administrator account in Windows . While tempting, do not make everybody and administrator. Using the standard user adds additional protection from unwanted applications and malware.
Sign Out when you are done
When you are ready to hand the computer to the next person, ensure you sign out from the computer. This allows Windows to end all your applications and free up the computer resources for the next user.
Yes, it is tempting to Log out (Windows Key + L) but this forces Windows to keep your workload and makes the computer slower for the next user.
Shutdown your computer
When everybody is done for the day, consider shutting down the computer. This allows Windows to end all applications and resources and provides a better experience the next day.
If your computer shows frequently 100% CPU usage, you might want to consider reducing the telemetry data exchange with Microsoft servers.
Windows Telemetry contains multiple collectors, and we have to disable those step by step:
Windows Compatibility Telemetry
Click Start, type: Task Scheduler, and then press Enter.
On the Task Scheduler window, go to this path: Task Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows\Application Experience.
On the Application Experience folder, look for Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser.
Right-click it, select Disable, and then confirm to complete the process.
Feedback and Diagnostics:
Click Start, and then the wrench icon.
Click Privacy.
Change the Feedback and Diagnostic option from Full to Basic.
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