How to Speed Up a Slow Laptop—7 Things to Try Before Buying a New One

A laptop that used to feel fast and now takes five minutes to start up is one of the most frustrating tech problems there is. The temptation is to assume it’s worn out and start shopping for a replacement—but in the majority of cases, a slow laptop just needs some attention.

Here are seven things that genuinely help. Most of them are free and can be done in under an hour.

1. Restart it properly (really)

This sounds obvious, but many people leave their laptop on sleep or hibernate for weeks or months without ever fully restarting. Updates queue up, programmes pile on, and background processes accumulate. A proper shutdown and restart clears all of that out.

If you can’t remember the last time you restarted properly: Start → Power → Restart (not Shut down, which can leave certain things running on Windows).

2. Check how full your hard drive is

Windows needs roughly 10–15% of your hard drive free to operate properly. When a drive gets full, it slows dramatically because it runs out of space for temporary files it needs to work.

To check on Windows: open File Explorer, right-click on This PC (or Local Disk C:) and select Properties. You’ll see a pie chart showing used and free space.

If you’re over 85–90% full, that’s likely a significant contributor to slowness. The fastest fix is to move photos and videos to an external hard drive or cloud storage—these are usually the biggest space users.

3. Disable start-up programmes

When you install software, many programmes add themselves to the start-up list so they launch automatically every time you switch your laptop on. Most of them you never actually use—but they all consume memory and slow down start-up.

On Windows 10 or 11: right-click the taskbar → Task Manager → Startup apps tab. You’ll see a list of everything that starts automatically, and whether each one has a “High”, “Medium”, or “Low” impact on start-up time. Right-click anything you don’t recognise or use and select Disable.

Don’t disable anything called “Windows” something, or your antivirus. Everything else is usually safe to disable.

4. Run Windows Update

An operating system that’s years out of date can cause all kinds of performance and stability problems. Windows Update isn’t just about security—it includes performance improvements too.

Go to Settings → Windows Update → Check for updates. If there are updates waiting, let them install and then restart. This can take a while, but it’s worth doing.

5. Check your antivirus isn’t running a scan

Some antivirus programmes run full scans in the background—which can bring a laptop to its knees while it’s happening. If your laptop is suddenly slow, check your antivirus software to see if a scan is in progress. If so, let it finish—it’ll speed up once it’s done.

If your antivirus seems to be running constantly, it may be misconfigured or there may be something worth investigating.

6. Check the battery health (on laptops)

A failing laptop battery can cause the laptop to throttle its own performance to reduce power consumption. On Windows 10/11, you can get a basic battery report by opening Command Prompt and typing:

powercfg /batteryreport

This generates a report you can open in a browser. Look at the “Design Capacity” vs “Full Charge Capacity”—if the full charge capacity is less than 40% of the design capacity, the battery is significantly degraded and may be affecting performance.

7. Consider whether a reinstall is needed

If none of the above makes a meaningful difference, the most reliable fix is often a fresh reinstall of Windows. This clears out years of accumulated clutter and brings the laptop back close to how it performed when new.

This is something I do regularly for customers across Falkirk and Central Scotland, and the difference is usually dramatic. I’ll back up your files before starting, do the reinstall, and set everything back up so you’re not left with a blank machine.

If you’ve tried these steps and your laptop is still struggling, or you’d rather have someone sort it for you, I visit homes across Falkirk, Grangemouth, Larbert, and the surrounding area.

Find out more about laptop help in Falkirk—or call 07944 156 453 to describe what’s happening. No fix, no fee, 7 days a week.