How to Clean Up a Slow Performing Computer

This wikiHow teaches you how to clean out old files, programs, and settings which cause your computer to slow down. If your computer is still performing slowly after these steps, consider taking additional steps to speed up your Windows or Mac laptop or desktop.

Method

1

Cleaning up the Disk on Windows

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Open Start Image titled Windowsstart.png. Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

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Type in disk cleanup. This will search your computer for the Disk Cleanup program, which is a utility that finds and deletes unnecessary files on your computer.

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Click Disk Cleanup. It's a flash drive-shaped icon at the top of the Start menu. Disk Cleanup will open in a separate window.

If you have other windows open, you'll need to click the flashing Disk Cleanup icon at the bottom of the screen before proceeding.

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Click Clean up system files. This option is in the bottom-left corner of the Disk Cleanup window. Doing so allows Disk Cleanup to find even more files to delete.

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Check every box on the page. Every item on this page can be deleted in order to free up space on your computer.

You will have to scroll down to see all available boxes in the main window.

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Click OK. It's at the bottom of the window.

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Click Delete Files when prompted. Disk Cleanup will begin deleting your computer's unnecessary files. This can take a while, so be patient.

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Uninstall unnecessary programs. If you have any applications or programs which you don't want to keep on your PC, deleting them will clear up some space and help your computer run faster overall.

Method

2

Cleaning up the Disk on Mac

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Open the Apple menu Image titled Macapple1.png. Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of the screen. A drop-down menu will appear.

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Click About This Mac. It's near the top of the drop-down menu. The About This Mac window will open.

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Click the Storage tab. This option is at the top of the window.

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Click Manage…. It's in the upper-right side of the window. Doing so opens a new window with storage options.

Depending on your Mac version, you may instead click Details... here.

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Click Optimize…. You'll see this to the right of the "Optimize Storage" heading. Doing so will prompt your Mac to get rid of any temporary or unnecessary files, as well as move your watched movies and TV shows into iCloud.

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Uninstall unnecessary programs. If you have any applications or programs which you don't want to keep on your Mac, deleting them will clear up some space and help your computer run faster overall.

Method

3

Emptying the Recycle Bin on Windows

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Open the Recycle Bin. Double-click the Recycle Bin app icon, which resembles a white bin with a blue recycling icon on it. It should be on your desktop.

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Restore any items you don't want to delete. If you find an item that you wish to place back on your computer, double-click the item, then click Restore in the resulting pop-up menu.

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Click the Manage tab. It's in the upper-left side of the window. A toolbar will appear near the top of the window.

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Click Empty Recycle Bin. You'll find this on the left side of the toolbar.

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Click Yes when prompted. Doing so will delete all files in the Recycle Bin.

Method

4

Emptying the Trash on Mac

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Open the Trash. Click the Trash icon in your Mac's Dock. The Trash window will open.

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Restore any items you don't want to delete. If you want to move an item from the Trash back to your Mac, click and drag the item from the Trash window onto your Mac's desktop.

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Click and hold the Trash icon. Doing so will prompt a pop-up menu after a second.

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Click Empty Trash. It's in the pop-up menu.

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Click Empty Trash when prompted. This will cause the Trash folder to empty.

Method

5

Adjusting Open and Startup Programs on Windows

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Open Start Image titled Windowsstart.png. Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

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Type in task manager. This will search your computer for the Task Manager, which is a program that can close troublesome programs.

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Click Task Manager. It's at the top of the Start menu. The Task Manager app will open.

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Click the Processes tab. You'll see this in the upper-left side of the Task Manager window.

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Close a program if necessary. If you see any high memory usage apps which don't need to be running right now, click one app's name, click End task in the lower-right corner of the window, and repeat until you've closed every app or program that you want to close.

This process is easier if you click the Memory tab to sort the programs from greatest to least in terms of memory use.

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Click the Startup tab. It's at the top of the Task Manager window.

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Review the list of startup programs. Every program on this list will start up with your computer by default, which can slow down your computer's performance.

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Disable a startup program. Click a program for which you want to revoke startup access, then click Disable in the lower-right side of the window.

If the button in the lower-right side is Enable instead, the program is already disabled.

You can repeat this process for as many startup programs as needed.

When you're done here, feel free to close the Task Manager. Your settings will be saved.

Method

6

Adjusting Open and Startup Programs on Mac

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1

Open Spotlight Image titled Macspotlight.png. Click the magnifying glass-shaped icon in the top-right corner of the screen.

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2

Type in activity monitor. Doing so searches your Mac for the Activity Monitor program, which allows you to review and quite high-memory programs.

EXPERT TIP

Gonzalo MartinezGONZALO MARTINEZ

Computer & Phone Repair Specialist

Use "Activity Monitor" to track your running applications. Gonzalo Martinez, an Apple repair specialist, says: "Activity Monitor is a built-in application on your Mac that shows all the running applications. If something is running in the background that you aren’t aware of, or if your web browsers are taking up processing speed, you can force quit the applications."

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Double-click Activity Monitor. This option is in the Spotlight results. Doing so opens Activity Monitor.

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Click the CPU tab. It's at the top of the Activity Monitor window.

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Select a program to quit. Click a high-memory program to do so.

Make sure you don't select a program which you're currently using (e.g., your browser).

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Click X. It's in the upper-left side of the window.

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Click Quit or Force Quit when prompted. Clicking Quit will allow the program to attempt to create a recovery save if you have work open, while clicking Force Quit will immediately close the program in question.[1]

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Open the Apple menu Image titled Macapple1.png. Click the Apple logo in the upper-left side of the screen. A drop-down menu will appear.

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Click System Preferences…. It's in the drop-down menu. Doing so opens the System Preferences window.

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Click Users & Groups. You'll find this option in the System Preferences window.

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Select your name. Click your username on the left side of the window.

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Click Login Items. It's a tab at the top of the window.

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Disable startup programs. Uncheck any item's box on this page to disable the item at startup.[2]

You may have to click the lock icon in the bottom-left corner of the page and enter your password before you can edit this menu.

Method

7

Defragmenting Your Hard Drive

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Understand what defragmenting does. Defragmenting a hard drive is only necessary on heavily used Windows computers. As the hard drive ages, pieces of data become scattered throughout it, thus increasing the amount of time it takes for that data to be retrieved. Defragmenting the hard drive places all of the "fragments" back in the same general part of the hard drive.

If your computer uses a solid-state drive (SSD), you should never defragment it.

If your computer's hard drive is almost full, defragmenting it may not have much of an effect.

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Open Start Image titled Windowsstart.png. Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

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Type in defragment and optimize drives. This will search for the Disk Defrag app.

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Click Defragment and Optimize Drives. It's at the top of the Start window.

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Select your hard drive. Click the hard drive that you want to optimize. On most PCs, the main hard drive's name is OS (C:).

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Click Optimize. You'll find it on the right side of the window. Disk Defrag will begin running.

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Allow Disk Defrag to run. It may take several hours for your computer's disk to finish defragmenting, so just make sure that the computer is plugged in and free of external interruptions.