How to Improve Performance on a Laptop
Laptops began outpacing desktop sales in 2005. More people now prefer the convenience of a laptop over the power of a desktop. However, because laptop hardware is harder to upgrade, try to improve the performance of your laptop using software before considering upgrading the hardware. This can be done by defragmenting the hard drive to avoid the disc reading parts of the same files at different physical place on the hard drive, checking for malware and spyware, and not loading unneeded software during startup.
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Instructions
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Defragmenting
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1
Launch Disk Defragmenter from the "Start" menu then choose "Accessories," and then "System Tools."
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2
Select the "C:" drive and click "Analyze Disk" to determine what percentage of your disk is fragmented.
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3
Press "Defragment disk" if the fragmented part of your disk is above 15%.
Startup programs
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Go to the "Start" menu, click on "Run" and type "msconfig" and press "Start."
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5
Go to the "Startup" tab and look for programs you don't use often or do not need running all the time.
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Uncheck these programs and press "Apply" before restarting your computer.
Malware
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7
Update your antivirus and anti-malware software and run a scan of your system.
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Go to Housecall from Trendmicro or Kaspersky Online Scanner to scan your computer for free if you do not have an anti-virus or anti-malware software.
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9
Remove any malware that may clog your computer.
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Tips & Warnings
Free tools like Disk Defrag, as Defraggler or Mydefrag will usually provide more options and promote hard-drive optimization.
Do online research before removing any software that you cannot identify from the Startup menu.
You can scan with various anti-malware; some are better at identifying specific threats than other.
If software optimization does not sufficiently improve the performance of your laptop, the first hardware option you should consider is adding more RAM.
Do not install more than one antivirus program; they might interfere with each other.
Defragmenting your hard drive can take several hours.
