How to Improve Windows 10 Performance

Although Windows 10 is designed to be as user-friendly as possible, some default and/or custom settings may decrease its performance over time. Even though this decrement is almost negligible and remain unnoticed, with regular use and several apps installed, you may start experiencing some sluggish behavior.

Here’s how you can customize some settings and revert a few to default in order to improve your Windows 10 performance:

Method 01: Disable Startup Programs

■Open Task Manager
Right-click the Taskbar, and click Task Manager from the context menu. This opens the Task Manager box. Here you can find all the programs that are currently open.



■Get to the Startup tab
Click More details from the bottom-left corner of the Task Manager box, and click the Startup tab when the box expands. This takes you to the Startup tab. All the programs that are configured to initiate automatically when Windows 10 starts are listed here.






■Disable non-essential/unwanted apps

Select the app you don’t want to initiate during Windows startup (Internet Download Manger for this example), and click Disable from the bottom-right corner. This keeps the app from starting up along with Windows 10. Since each app takes some amount of time to initialize thus slowing down the boot process, disabling the unwanted programs here remarkably expedites Windows’ booting.




Note: Repeat step 3 while on the Startup tab to disable other non-essential/unwanted programs as well. You must do this for each app individually.
Method 02: Reset Power Plan

■Get to the Power Options window
Right-click Start, click Power Options from the context menu, and click Additional power settings from the Related settings section in the Power & sleep window. This opens the Power Options window. From here you can manage various power settings such as selecting a suitable power plan for your computer, configuring how your computer reacts when the Power or Sleep buttons are pressed, or when the lid is closed in case of a laptop.






■Reset power plan

Select the Balanced power plan (if not already selected) from the Select plan section, click Change plan settings, click Restore default settings for this plan from the Edit Plan Settings window, and click Yes on the box that appears. This ensures that the Balanced power plan is selected and is set to its default configuration, thus providing optimum performance for your PC with least possible battery consumption.




Method 03: Disable Hints and Tips

■Get to the Notifications & actions window
Click Start, click the Settings icon, click the System tile, and click Notifications & actions category from the left pane. This opens the Notifications & actions window, displaying all its options in the right. From here you can manage which notifications you want Windows 10 to show.









■Disable hints and tips

Turn off the Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows switch from the Notifications section. This disables the tool-tips (hinds that appear on the screen when you hover mouse to any icon or feature) or suggestions. Disabling hints and tips keeps Windows from consuming additional processing and RAM that it would to otherwise.