New laptop owners might be surprised to learn how much to consider as far as performance goes. That’s especially true if you went from a desktop to a laptop.
Despite many aspects remaining the same, laptops require extra attention in certain areas. The failure to maintain your computer properly will eventually result in significant performance issues.
You must take action if you wish to avoid this situation or if you have already noticed that it takes longer for your laptop to boot after each restart.
Inside the dust
Laptops are harder to clean than desktop computers. It’s not difficult to take apart a PC case for cleaning. If you want to clean out your laptop, you’ll have to take it apart.
Make sure the laptop is clean and free of dust so that it does not overheat. Even though this is not the most exciting task, it will improve the overall performance of the equipment if you ensure that there is as little dust as possible inside the machine.
Storage
A laptop can run out of space on its hard drive pretty quick. It’s even worse if your laptop has an SSD instead of HDD because the latter offers less storage.
Generally, laptop hard drives should have about 20 percent of total storage free. So make sure you have as much free space on your laptop as you can.
You should begin by reviewing the files you have installed or downloaded. It is recommended that you permanently delete media files, email attachments, video games, software and other data you no longer need.
You may wish to use external storage if you have files you wish to keep but do not wish to clutter your hard drive. An external hard drive or a USB flash drive can be purchased for a relatively low price these days.
As well as this, you can transfer files to cloud storage, although you will probably have to pay a monthly fee for sufficient storage for that purpose.
Finally, you should use a clean-up utility tool to remove temporary system junk, including old backups or software caches. The use of software is preferable to performing the task manually since you might accidentally delete some important files.
Malware
Despite your awareness of cybersecurity threats, you should not discard the possibility that your computer could attract unwanted malware, viruses, phishing, and other threats.
It is important to be wary of public WiFi networks as a laptop user. If you access the internet at your local library or fast food joint for free, there may not be any security measures in place.
Some hackers may be waiting for unsuspecting people to join a network and expose their devices. Make sure that you connect to the Internet via a virtual private network if you intend to use the public network.
You may also be victimized by shady URLs or files sent to you by someone other than public Wi-Fi networks. If a link or file appears to be random or suspicious, you need to ignore it. If you click on it, your device may also become infected.
The last point about malware should be self-evident-you must use reliable antivirus software to remove corrupted files. A program like this should also be running in the background and detecting potential threats before they cause problems for the laptop.
As far as antivirus software goes, you can always rely on some of the best and most well known products like Malwarebytes, Bitdefender, Norton, and McAfee.
Accessories and Hardware
You may have to spend more on laptop accessories and hardware, but they can significantly boost the performance of your laptop.
Apart from that, if you own a relatively old computer, it probably has pretty outdated hardware, and it is probably due for an upgrade if you do not plan to purchase a new laptop any time soon.
A solid-state drive is the most common upgrade for laptop hardware. Alternatively, you can get an external graphics processor, but a good GPU can be quite costly. Last but not least, you can upgrade the RAM on your laptop if there is sufficient space.
If you are specifically looking for accessories to enhance the performance of your laptop, there are not many options available. An excellent choice is a cooling pad. Alternatively, you can invest in an external storage device as well.
Background Processes
Laptops have limited memory and other resources. Keep an eye on the background processes if you’re trying to optimize it.
Some of the background applications running in the background are redundant since you aren’t using them at the time, but you forgot to close them when they shouldn’t be running. You might also have too many startup items running in the background.
Check the number of background processes running on your laptop if you notice sudden drops in performance. If you have a MacBook, you can use Activity Monitor; if you have a Windows computer, there is a Task Manager.
Internet Browser
Considering how frequently we surf the internet on computers, an internet browser deserves a separate section.
Your ISP might be to blame for a poor performance of your browser, so check with them first. You will need to find a solution yourself if your internet provider says everything is fine.
Did you install too many extensions or enable pop-ups that caused your browser to slow down? Has your browser cache been left uncleaned for too long?
By cleaning the extension cache, you should improve the performance of the browser. The issue might persist if you keep using the same browser.
