25 Oct Improving performance with your at-home Windows system

Stability and performance tips for the remote worker

Remote working exposes you to a variety of different concepts and tasks. And, by proxy, you might be working from a PC more often than not. It means a few things: you manage more things by yourself, and there are additional tools to know and understand.

However, you can actually acquire lots of additional knowledge and skills for general, on-the-go use. Now more than ever, it’s a good idea to get deeply acquainted with your hardware. It doesn’t mean you need to become an expert overnight. However, tech readiness and comprehension are big parts of modern work, and as trends continue towards a remote-work-based world with tech infrastructure, it’s just good info to have on hand.

So, what are some easy things to learn that help improve system performance? We’ll show you a few, and tell you how to do them. These are also things you can do without purchasing hardware upgrades.

General PC Improvement Speed Tips

Disk Defragment

Over time, as you save and move files, information on your system gets fragmented into smaller chunks of useless data which causes slower performance. That’s because your HDD must discover files that are “farther” apart. Defragmenting consolidates and puts files in blocks, while removing useless data, and making reads easier. You’ll gain back a little HDD space too.

Take note, when you perform disk defragmenting, the process can take a while, especially if there’s a great deal of memory to sort through, so think of this like a “set and forget” task.

The good news is that disk defragmentation is typically set as an automatic background process. However, it’s good to check just in case.

Clean Temporary Files

Temporary files can be a lot of things, but mostly deal with internet pages. Over time, if left uncleaned, temp files can take up gigabytes of space on your drive. Cleaning temp files is an easy and routine thing to do, so make a note to perform a cleanup once a month or so. However, note that removing temp files can remove auto logins and web history, so if you rely on those for organization, you should bookmark your important sites.

Delete Bloatware

If ever you bought a laptop or prebuilt PC, chances are it came with some extra programs which are entirely needless. A good rule of thumb is to never have something on your PC that isn’t necessary to its core functions and software you didn’t install.

Removing bloatware is a key part of system performance. Bloatware usually serves little, if any function, takes up space, and eats up processing power. Check through your task manager and uninstall programs you don’t recognize or want (and if it’s something you need, you can always find and download it again).

Bloatware also has the “fun” interaction of creating intrusive pop-ups, links, and ads on your desktop, which is unacceptable.

Check Your Anti-Virus Software

First off, anti-malware software should be installed on your system. If not, get it there ASAP. But what software? Primarily, the type which uses minimal system resources and performs as needed. Most anti-virus programs have a free version suiting all general needs.

You can check your system resource usage with Task Manager and see how much (or little) anti-virus resources use.

And speaking of Task Manager. . .

Check System Resource Use

Task manager is your friend and will give you an x-ray of system specs and current performance. It will list out all current processes and programs, along with their memory use. Normally, it’s expected for modern programs to take up more resources. However, if you notice unusual slowdowns and unfamiliar programs/processes taking up memory, it’s a good idea to check in on that. Task manager also closes unresponsive programs, which will prevent system crashes.

Use Performance Utility Tools

One helpful resource is to use disk checkers and system info tools. These are basic programs which, like task manager, give you a fast rundown of your system hardware and specifications. They also include other helpful info bits like write speeds and system temperature.

These quick tips are all easy to apply and can easily improve Windows performance without the need to purchase and install new hardware.

If it calls for it, you can opt to upgrade with more RAM, or, an SSD (solid-state drive). But do so only if you feel it’s absolutely necessary.

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