I get this one a lot. Someone messages me saying their PC is “running like it’s from 2009” and they’re convinced they need a new machine. Nine times out of ten? They don’t. The problem is almost always fixable — and it doesn’t require spending money or calling a technician.
Here are five things that genuinely work, along with the honest reason most people miss the real fix.
1. Disable Startup Programs
This is almost always the first thing I check. When your PC boots up, dozens of programs try to launch themselves in the background — Steam, Spotify, Teams, Skype, OneDrive, whatever you’ve installed over the years. Most of them you never open intentionally. They’re just there, eating RAM and slowing your boot time from 30 seconds to 3 minutes.
How to fix it: Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager. Click the Startup tab (or Startup Apps on Windows 11). You’ll see everything that launches at boot. Right-click anything you don’t need immediately and hit Disable. Don’t worry — this doesn’t uninstall anything, it just stops it launching automatically.
If you’re not sure whether to disable something, Google the name. As a rough rule: anything from a game launcher, a printer, or an older communication app can usually be disabled.
2. Check What’s Actually Using Your RAM Right Now
While you have Task Manager open, click the Performance tab and then Memory. If your RAM is sitting at 80% or above before you’ve even opened a browser, that’s your problem. Then go to the Processes tab and sort by Memory. Whatever’s at the top — that’s what’s eating your PC.
Common culprits: browser tabs (each one uses more memory than you think), Teams (notorious for RAM usage), antivirus software that’s scanning in the background, and Windows Update doing its thing at the worst possible moment.
The fix: Close browser tabs you don’t need. Restart apps that are using disproportionate memory. And if Windows Update is running in the background, let it finish — once it’s done, performance usually improves.
3. Free Up Storage Space (Especially on Your C: Drive)
Windows gets noticeably slower when your system drive is more than 85-90% full. This isn’t a myth — Windows genuinely needs space to create temporary files, manage virtual memory, and do basic housekeeping. If your C: drive is sitting at 95% capacity, your PC will feel sluggish no matter how much RAM you have.
Quick wins:
- Search for “Disk Cleanup” in the Start menu and run it. Select everything it offers to delete, including system files if the option appears.
- Open Settings → System → Storage → Temporary Files and delete what Windows flags.
- Check your Downloads folder. Mine had 11GB of forgotten installers last time I looked.
- Empty the Recycle Bin. Sounds obvious but it’s easy to forget.
4. Update Your Drivers — Particularly GPU and Chipset
Outdated drivers are one of those things that cause slowdowns that are genuinely hard to diagnose. Your PC might feel fine except for specific tasks — video playback that stutters, apps that lag when switching windows, games that run worse than they should. Often the culprit is an outdated graphics or chipset driver.
If you have an NVIDIA GPU, open GeForce Experience and check for driver updates. AMD users should use the AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition app. For Intel integrated graphics and chipset drivers, go to Intel’s download centre and search for your processor model.
This one takes maybe 15 minutes and can make a real difference — especially if the last time you updated drivers was “never” or “when I bought it.”
5. The Real Fix Most People Miss: Check Your Thermals
Here’s the one that catches people out. A laptop or desktop that was fast when new but has gotten progressively slower over 2-3 years is often not a software problem at all — it’s heat.
When a CPU or GPU gets too hot, it throttles — it intentionally slows itself down to prevent damage. This is called thermal throttling, and it’s extremely common in laptops that haven’t been cleaned in a while. The fans get clogged with dust, the thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink dries out, and suddenly your “fast” laptop is running at half speed.
How to check: Download HWMonitor (free) and look at your CPU temperature under load. If it’s consistently hitting 95°C or above, thermal throttling is almost certainly your issue.
The fix: For desktops, open the case and carefully blow out dust with compressed air. For laptops, it’s more involved — you’ll either need to clean the vents carefully yourself or have someone do it. This single fix has made more “slow PCs” feel new again than any other thing on this list.
A Few Things That Won’t Help (Despite What You’ve Heard)
Before you do anything else, let me save you some wasted time. These popular “speed fixes” mostly don’t work:
- “PC cleaning” apps — Most are either useless or actively harmful (some are malware). Windows has perfectly good built-in cleanup tools. You don’t need CCleaner.
- Adjusting visual effects — Turning off animations and transparency effects gives you almost no real performance benefit on any PC made in the last decade.
- Defragmenting your SSD — Don’t do this. It doesn’t help and can actually shorten the lifespan of your drive. (Defragging a traditional HDD is fine, but Windows already does it automatically.)
If you’ve tried the five steps above and your PC is still painfully slow, it might be worth a proper diagnostic. Our remote support team can run a full system check and tell you exactly what’s holding it back — and whether it’s a fixable software issue or a hardware problem. You can book a session here — it usually takes under an hour and we sort it out while you watch.
Have a specific error or problem? Drop it in the comments below. I read every one.
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