A sluggish Windows PC doesn't always need new hardware — often it just needs its settings brought back under control after years of accumulated software, background processes and defaults that were never optimised for your actual usage. Below are 15 practical, low-risk changes you can make today, roughly in order of the impact they tend to have, along with exactly where to find each one.

1. Switch to the Best Performance Power Plan

Windows can quietly throttle your CPU to save power, which is great for laptop battery life but unhelpful if you're chasing speed.

  1. Go to Settings > System > Power & battery > Power mode.
  2. Choose Best performance.
  3. On desktop PCs plugged into the mains permanently, this has essentially no downside.

2. Trim Your Startup Apps

Every extra program launching at login adds to your boot time and eats RAM in the background.

  1. Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and click the Startup apps tab.
  2. Disable anything with a Medium or High impact that you don't need running constantly.

Pro tip: See our dedicated guide on managing startup apps for a full walkthrough, including hidden startup items Task Manager doesn't show.

3. Turn Off Unnecessary Visual Effects

Windows' animations and transparency effects look nice but cost CPU and GPU cycles, particularly on older or integrated graphics.

  1. Press Windows key, type "adjust the appearance and performance of Windows", and open it.
  2. Select Adjust for best performance, or manually untick items like "Animate windows when minimising and maximising" and "Show shadows under windows" if you want to keep some visual polish.

4. Disable Transparency Effects

A related but separate setting controls the frosted-glass transparency used in the Start menu and taskbar.

  1. Go to Settings > Personalisation > Colours.
  2. Toggle Transparency effects off.

5. Check and Reduce Background Apps

Some apps continue running and syncing even when you're not actively using them.

  1. Go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps, or check Privacy & security > Background apps on Windows 11 (this menu varies by version).
  2. Disable background permissions for apps you rarely use.

6. Run Disk Cleanup and Enable Storage Sense

A drive that's nearly full runs noticeably slower, especially for the system drive holding your page file and temporary data.

  1. Search for Disk Cleanup, run it on your C: drive, and select Clean up system files for the deepest clean.
  2. Turn on Storage Sense under Settings > System > Storage so this happens automatically going forward.

7. Check Your Drive Isn't Overly Full

Aim to keep at least 15–20% free space on your system drive (more if it's an SSD, for optimal performance and longevity). Check under Settings > System > Storage.

8. Update Windows and Drivers

Outdated drivers, particularly graphics and chipset drivers, can cause real performance problems and stability issues.

  1. Go to Settings > Windows Update and install any pending updates.
  2. Check Device Manager for devices flagged with a warning icon and update their drivers (see our dedicated driver guides for details).

9. Run a Malware Scan

Malware and adware are a surprisingly common cause of a PC that's "suddenly" become slow, often running hidden background processes that consume CPU and network bandwidth.

  1. Open Windows Security > Virus & threat protection.
  2. Run a Full scan, not just Quick scan, if you suspect something.

Warning: If your PC has become dramatically slower overnight, or you're seeing pop-ups you don't recognise, treat malware as a real possibility and scan before assuming it's a hardware issue.

10. Disable Search Indexing on Non-Essential Drives

Windows Search indexes your files in the background to make searches faster, but this can be a drag on older mechanical hard drives.

  1. Press Windows key + R, type control /name Microsoft.IndexingOptions, and press Enter.
  2. Click Modify and untick locations you don't need indexed, such as secondary data drives.

11. Adjust Virtual Memory (Page File) Settings

If you're low on RAM, Windows uses a page file on your drive as overflow memory. A poorly sized or misplaced page file can hurt performance.

  1. Search for "Advanced System Settings" and open it.
  2. Under the Advanced tab, click Settings under Performance, then the Advanced tab again, then Change under Virtual Memory.
  3. For most users, leaving this on Automatically manage paging file size is fine — but if you have multiple drives, ensure the page file sits on your fastest one (typically your SSD).

12. Disable OneDrive Sync If You Don't Use It

OneDrive runs continuously in the background syncing files, which can noticeably affect performance on lower-spec machines.

  1. Right-click the OneDrive icon in the system tray.
  2. Go to Settings > Account and choose Unlink this PC if you don't rely on it, or simply exit the app if you only need it occasionally.

13. Turn Off Tips, Tricks and Notifications

Windows periodically shows suggestions and "tips" that run background processes to generate.

  1. Go to Settings > System > Notifications.
  2. Scroll down and untick Show the Windows welcome experience, Get tips and suggestions, and similar options.

14. Set Apps to High Performance in Graphics Settings

If you have a dedicated graphics card, make sure demanding apps are actually using it rather than defaulting to integrated graphics.

  1. Go to Settings > System > Display > Graphics.
  2. Select an app, click Options, and choose High performance.

15. Restart Regularly Rather Than Always Sleeping

Constantly putting your PC to sleep instead of restarting means background processes, memory leaks and temporary files accumulate over days or weeks without being cleared.

  1. Aim to fully restart at least once a week, ideally after installing updates.
  2. This clears RAM, applies pending updates properly, and resets background services that may have become sluggish over a long uptime.

Pro tip: Combine a restart with checking Task Manager's Performance tab to see whether CPU, memory or disk usage is regularly maxed out at idle — that's a strong sign something specific (rather than general clutter) needs investigating.

Putting It All Together

None of these individual changes will transform a genuinely underpowered PC into a gaming rig, but together they routinely make a real, noticeable difference to everyday responsiveness — especially on machines that haven't been maintained in a while. Work through the list in order, restarting once you've made the first handful of changes to see the effect before continuing.

When Settings Aren't Enough

If you've worked through all 15 changes and your PC is still struggling, that's a sign the bottleneck is likely hardware rather than software — commonly insufficient RAM (8GB is now a bare minimum for comfortable everyday use) or a traditional hard drive rather than an SSD. Both are often affordable, straightforward upgrades even on older machines, and we cover them in more detail in our upgrade guides elsewhere on the site.

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