Restarting your computer system will clear memory saved on RAM and reset all the running programs and applications. However, this method won’t clear the complete memory but it will boost up the processing speed of the system. By cleaning up apps running on the background on Windows 10.

What is taking up space on my hard drive?

If you haven’t got space on your computer for that new app or game, or the clutter on your hard drive is just driving you crazy, you’re not alone.

With the introduction of SSDs (solid-state drives) offering loads less space than traditional mechanical hard drives, in conjunction with games and applications requiring more and more disk space, your hard drive can easily become full.

In this article, we’ll go through the top 8 ways to clean up your Windows hard drive: finding out what is taking up so much space on your hard drive, reducing the clutter and creating space for those all important new applications or files. So, without further ado, let’s get started…

Using Mac instead? Find out how to clear disk space on Mac >

Jump straight to:

1. Right click the Windows task bar and select Task Manager. Click on the Processes tab. Sort the processes by Memory and look for programs at the top of the list that you don’t recognize. If you spot any problem applications, go into the Control Panel, click on Programs and Features, and uninstall those problem applications.
2. If your computer is not functioning and all you plan to do is recycle it or give it to someone to scrap for parts, you need to physically erase the hard drive. To do this, first get a copy of your computer's owner manual.
3. 6) Now click on Clean Up System Files at the bottom of the window. 7) Click on Ok again. 8) Wait for few seconds. Now, select all the cached items which you want to delete from your PC. After cleaning the temp files, check if the slow computer problem persists. If it is still there, check the next method. #6 – Unsync Onedrive.

New Update: Windows Storage Sense

Since the initial publication of this article, Microsoft have been busy working on the issue of saving space on people's computers. The amalgamation of their hard-work comes in the form of 'Storage Sense' - An all-in-one, intuitive feature which cleans a computer of unwanted files easier and more efficiently than ever before!

If you are using Windows 10, you can use this feature in place of the 'Windows Disk Cleanup' and 'Take out the Trash' sections of this article. This is because these steps are now covered by Storage Sense (Disk Cleanup and Recycle Bin are still available too if you prefer to use those, or if you are running another version of Windows like Windows 7). Let's see how to use this new feature...

• Use Storage Sense on demand
• Set up Storage Sense to run automatically

How to use Storage Sense on demand

If you don't need to clean up your computer files very often, or if you want control over exactly what files are deleted, I would recommend using Storage Sense on demand, rather than allowing it to run automatically. Here's how:

1. Click your Windows icon and open 'Settings'.
2. Click 'System'.
3. Select 'Storage' from the list on the left.
4. Under 'Storage Sense', click 'Free up space now'.
   
5. Your computer will be scanned for temporary files which may want to delete.
6. Once the scan is complete, tick the files you want to delete.
7. Click 'Remove Files' to permanently delete the files from your computer.

How to configure Storage Sense to run automatically

If you often need to clean up your computer for temporary files and like the sound of automating the process, I would recommend using Storage Sense to automatically and periodically clean up your files. Here's how:

1. Click your Windows icon and open 'Settings'.
2. Click 'System'.
3. Select 'Storage' from the list on the left.
4. Under 'Storage Sense', click 'Change how we free up space automatically'.
   
5. Choose your preferences (set when you would like Storage Sense to run, what to delete, and how long).
6. Once you're happy with your selections, toggle Storage Sense on.
7. Click 'Clean Now' if you want to start your first scan now.

The tool is great, right? It's a massive improvement over the separate, hard-to-find features from before. However, it still does not deal with duplicate files, uninstalling unused programs and more... Jump to: finding and deleting duplicates now >

1. Windows Disk Cleanup

Windows comes with a handful of great tools to help keep your computer’s storage nice and tidy. The problem is, not everybody knows where to find these functions, or what to look for.

Disk Cleanup is the first of these tools. It allows you to delete data such as temporary files, which can amount to GB’s (gigabytes) of data over time.

To access the Disk Cleanup function:

1. Go to your Computer window (Start -> Computer)
2. Right-Click your hard-drive and select ‘Properties’
3. Under the ‘General’ tab, click ‘Disk Cleanup’
4. Windows will scan your drive and let you know how much space you can save by running Disk Cleanup
5. Select the files that you wish to delete form the drive, and hit OK

Another function to mention here is ‘Clean up system files’. Using this function, you can remove older Windows restore points from your drive, leaving only the most recent one. If you wish to use this function, please ensure that your computer is running as expected, as once the restore points are removed, you will not be able to fall back to them.

To use ‘Clean up system files’:

1. Click Clean up system files
2. Go to the ‘More Options tab’ in the Disk Cleanup window
3. Click ‘Clean up…’ under the ‘System Restore and Shadow Copies’ heading

2. Uninstall Programs

For many computer users, most of the disk space used is by applications and games. If you find that you no longer use certain programs, you can uninstall and remove them from your hard drive.

Again, Windows provides the ability to easily get rid of any unwanted programs that we may have on our computer. To uninstall/remove programs, follow the steps below:

1. Start -> Control Panel -> Uninstall a program
2. Sort the list of programs by file size by clicking the ‘Size header’. Now you can see which programs take up the most space on your computer.
3. Click any program that you wish to remove, and click ‘Uninstall’

3. Remove Duplicate Files

It is likely that you’ve accumulated duplicate files over time, which are unnecessary for the running of your computer. Unfortunately, Windows does not provide an easy way to find and remove these duplicate files, so a third party software is needed.

There are a number of applications for the removal of duplicate files, but we’ll look at Duplicate Sweeper here. Duplicate Sweeper has a clear and easy interface, and finds and removes duplicates easily.

Let Duplicate Sweeper automatically select duplicate files for removal, using your preferences, or select individual files yourself.

Duplicate Sweeper can find duplicate files, photos and music on your computer, and remove them for you, freeing up loads of space for the stuff you really want.

Try Duplicate Sweeper free ▼

Receive an email with a link so you can download the free trial on your computer:

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On a similar point, you can also delete any duplicate tracks in iTunes which can take up a lot of disk space. This function can be found in iTunes -> File -> Library -> Show Duplicate Items. From this list you can delete any duplicate tracks.

However, if you have loads of duplicate files listed, which ones should you delete? To manually go through each track and pick the best may take some time. For this reason, many people use a third-party software to help out.

One such application is Tune Sweeper. Tune Sweeper can quickly search your iTunes library for duplicates, and automatically select which to remove based on preferences such as highest quality, longest duration or latest played.

Tune Sweeper can also tidy up your iTunes library by fixing track information, downloading missing album artwork to tracks, removing missing tracks and loads more.

For more information about Tune Sweeper, or to download the free trial:

4. Temporary Files

“Wait, we just removed temporary files using Windows Disk Cleanup”, I hear you say. Yes, we deleted temporary files containing webpages, stored on your hard drive for quick viewing. Unfortunately, the Disk Cleanup method did not include files saved by external apps such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. There may still be gigabytes worth of cookies, internet history and caches stored on your computer.

You can delete this information directly from your browser, or by using a third-party application.

For example, using Google Chrome, you can open the settings menu (the 3 dots next to the address bar) -> More tools -> Clear Browsing data… From here you can select which data you wish to remove, then click ‘Clear browsing data’.

5. Take out the Trash

Some of these files which we have removed using the above steps may end up being moved to the Recycle Bin. This is a nice safety measure, because if you make a mistake and have removed a file which you now want back, you can easily restore the file from the Recycle Bin.

However, the files in the Recycle Bin are still taking up space on your computer. If you’re sure that you would like to remove the files in your Recycle Bin, you can select files and right-click to delete them, or simply click ‘Empty the Recycle Bin’ to permanently delete all of the files.

6. Store data on External Storage or in the Cloud

All previous methods in this list describe how to delete or remove files from your computer which you may not need. However, what of the files which you wish to keep, such as precious photos, video and music? These media types can accumulate to some serious storage space, but if you no longer have space for them on your PC hard drive, you still have options!

A common method for keeping data safe is to transfer it to external storage. There are 2 platforms for storing your data elsewhere from your main computer: physical storage and cloud storage.

Physical storage comes in many different shapes and sizes, but can most commonly be seen as USB Drives or external hard drives. Transferring data from your PC hard drive to an external hard drive allows you to delete the original files on your PC, while still keeping them safe in storage. Needless to say, this can clear a huge chunk of storage space on your PC.

Cloud Storage allows you to store your files on remote servers, and access them via the internet. There are many different cloud service providers: Apple iCloud and Microsoft OneDrive are only two examples. Most providers offer a certain amount of storage space free, and then give the option to pay monthly for more storage space if you should need it.

Consider also that cloud storage is not immune to duplicate files. Since many cloud services charge for more space, it is crucial to remove duplicate files to save valuable space and save yourself money. Check out our guide on how to manage Google Drive files and remove duplicates.

7. Defragment your Hard Drive

When adding a new file to your computer, a particular portion of your hard drive is allocated to store the file. However, after constantly saving and deleting files, a disk will become ‘fragmented’. This means that there are gaps in your hard drive where subsequent files would not fit, so they are left vacant.

As well as affecting your usable free space on your hard drive, fragmentation also has a negative impact on your computer’s ability to store your data in sequence, hence slowing down it’s speed.

Luckily, Windows has us covered, providing a ‘Disk Defragmentation’ tool. Using this tool, we can analyze which of our drives would benefit from defragmentation, before we commit to defragging. This is very useful, as if you have a large drive full of data, it may take a substantial amount of time to defrag.

To make use of this tool, hit your Windows icon, or Start menu, then start typing “Defragment”. From the search list, click Disk Defragmenter. Once you see the tool’s window, you can elect each drive and analyze them to determine what percentage of them is fragmented. Higher percentages mean higher fragmentation.

To defragment your disk, just hit “Defragment Disk”.

Note:

• It is not advised to defragment your hard drive too often, as the constant writing and erasing of data can reduce the lifespan of your hard drive.
• It may also be worth pointing out that there has been some debate as to whether defragmentation of SSDs (solid-state drives) is beneficial or detrimental to the drive. If you are unsure, you can read up on the discussion at PC World.

8. Sufficient RAM

RAM (Random Access Memory) is the hardware in your computer which determines how you store data. RAM stores data or instructions which you use frequently, providing fast read or write processes to improve the general speed of your computer experience.

Sounds great, right? Right. However, if you don’t have sufficient RAM, your computer will start to store the overflow of information which should be stored in RAM, in your hard drive instead. Then, when your computer wants to read or write this data, it is a much slower process between hard drive-computer than RAM-computer.

For these reasons, make sure that you have enough RAM for the processes that you generally do on your computer. It may be worth pointing out that the average user, who’s agenda may be text editing and web browsing, will not require as much RAM as a user who frequently runs multiple programs at once including photo or video editing and rendering software.

You can find out how much RAM you currently have installed in your computer by going to Computer > Properties.

Are you tired of your Windows 10 Computer working slow? Do you feel irritated when it acts like a tortoise when all you wanted was it to work like a rabbit? Do not worry. This article will help you tackle the biggest pain of all time: A Slow Computer. However, before we jump out to the tricks you can use to speed up and optimize your Slow Windows 10 Computer, you need to know what causes this problem. Users across the globe have cited many reasons behind the same. Some of them are:

• Multiple applications running in the background.
• Too many Applications start running during startup of Computer.
• Temporary Files taking up too much space.
• Your computer has a Virus in it.
• You do not reboot your computer on a regular basis.

Here are some methods to Fix Slow Windows 10 PC:

Look out for bonus tips at the end of the article

#1 – Turn off Background apps

1. Click on start button and then click on gear shaped icon to open settings panel.

2. Click on Privacy

3. Now, go to background apps from the left menu.

4. Turn off , Let apps run in background.

Note that, if there are certain apps, which are necessary to run in background for you, just leave let apps run in background app on, and turn off each app below except important one.

#2 – Turn off Almost everything in Privacy

1. Click on start button and then click on gear shaped icon to open settings panel.

2. Click on Privacy

3. Now, keep clicking on menu items in the left and for each menu items , turn off everything on the right to disable items.

#3 – Disable Search indexing process running on your PC

This method will disable search indexing and when you will search something , windows 10 will not be able to find newly created or downloaded files, but if your PC is really slow, you can go ahead and do it. You can always turn it back on again.

Step 1 – Search services.msc in windows 10 taskbar search.

Step 2 – Click on services.

Step 3 – Now, find windows search entry from the list.

Step 4 – Double click on it. Choose startup type as disabled from the dropdown.

Step 5 – Click on stop. Finally press OK.

#4 – High performance power plan

1. Search powercfg.cpl in windows 10 search box.

2. Now, choose High performance power plan.

#5 – Delete Temporary and Unnecessary Files

Temporary files are those files that your PC stores over time. If they accumulate, they can slow down your PC and take up unnecessary space. It is recommended for you to keep cleaning the temp files from time to time.

1) Click on Start.

2) Search for Cleanmgr

3) Cleanmanager is used to clean unnecessary files in drive.

4) Manually Select the various hard drives you have installed eg: C:, D: etc. ONE by ONE and click Ok.

5) Select the various file types you want to clean up in the next window. Select all if you want to flush them all.

6) Now click on Clean Up System Files at the bottom of the window.

7) Click on Ok again.

8) Wait for few seconds .

Now, select all the cached items which you want to delete from your PC.

After cleaning the temp files, check if the slow computer problem persists. If it is still there, check the next method.

#6 – Unsync Onedrive

1. Right click on Onedrive icon located in taskbar.

2. Click on Pause syncing and pause for 24 hours.

3. If it speeds up your PC, its better to disable one drive and unlink your PC.

4. Right-click on the cloud icon in the bottom right corner of the taskbar

5. Choose Settings

Sometimes the One Drive icon is hidden so click on the Show hidden icons arrow as shown below and find the icon there.

6. In the Settings Window, Go to the Account tab and Choose Unlink this PC

#7 – Disable Startup items

1. Press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC together to open Task manager.

2. Go to startup tab.

3. Disable unnecessary items and programs by right clicking on it and clicking on disable.

#8 – Disable animations

1. Press Windows key + R to open run.

2. Write sysdm.cpl in it and click OK.

3. click on Advanced tab.

4. Click on settings under performance section.

5. This will now open up a box with the header “Performance Options.” From the different tabs that you can see, choose “Visual Effects” tab.

Then click on the third radio button which mentions “Adjust for best performance” and finally press the “Apply” button.

#9 – Increase Virtual Memory Size on PC

When your PC’s RAM cannot handle the tasks going on in the system, it can also cause your system to slow down. This can be fixed with the help of Virtual Memory.

There is a Virtual Memory, also known as Page File in Windows. It uses some of the memory space on your computer’s hard disk to process some of the data that RAM is supposed to process, but is unable to. Follow these steps to increase Windows Page File or Virtual Memory on your PC:

Step 1: Open the Run box on your PC by pressing Windows + R keys. Type sysdm.cpl in the Run box and press Enter. This will open the System Properties window.

Step 2: Open the Advanced tab in the System Properties window. There, go to the Performance section and click on the Settings button.

Step 3: A new Performance Options window will open. Here, navigate to the Advanced tab. In the Virtual Memory area, click on the Change button.

Clean Computer Memory

Step 4: Again, a new window will open up. Here, deselect the Automatically manage paging file size for all drivers option, then select the Custom size option. In the Initial size and the Maximum size fields, you will have to enter custom values to increase virtual RAM memory.

What are the values you should enter in Initial size and Maximum size fields? Notice a Currently Allocated value at the bottom of this window? In the Initial size field, put a value higher than the Currently allocated size. In the Maximum size, enter the value of your physical RAM multiplied by 3 (max).

Note: The values should be entered in MB (1 GB = 100 MB).

Finally: Once you set the values, press Ok. After closing all the open windows, reboot your computer.

See if increasing the Virtual RAM Memory fixed slow computer or not.

#10 – Troubleshooting with the help of System Maintenance

Troubleshooting is an inbuilt feature in Windows 10 that helps Windows 10 users tackle their PC related problems. If you are facing a Slow PC, you can use this feature to fix the problem. Please follow these steps thoroughly:

Step 1: Open Control Panel by going to Search and typing “Control Panel”.

Step 2: In the Control Panel, change View By to Large Icons.

Step 3: Click on Troubleshooting.

Step 4: Under the System and Security options, click on Run Maintenance Task.

Step 5: The System Maintenance box will open up. Click on Next and it will start detecting issues.
If it does not detect any issue, it will ask for your permission for Troubleshooting as an Administrator. Click on the option to grant it permission and continue.

Follow the instructions as they come up on the troubleshooter if any issue is there to fix.

After performing this solution, reboot the PC and see if your slow Windows 10 Computer was fixed. If not, try the next method.

#11 – Clean Boot PC to Fix Slow Computer (Windows 10)

A Clean Boot is just a way of starting up your computer with a minimum of programs. It lets you make sure if the program(s) and driver(s) starting up with your PC are causing it to startup slow. It does not delete your personal files such as documents and pictures. It just helps to identify if your computer is running slow due to the normal boot procedure.

Go here to see the steps to Clean Boot a PC. Check if the slow Windows Computer is working fine now. If not, go to the next method.

#12 – Scan and Fix Corrupted Files with System File Checker

How To Clean Computer Memory Before Selling

Often system files get corrupted due to incompatibility, virus and malware attacks, wrong updates and downloads and cause a slow PC. You can perform these steps to run a System File Checker:

Step 1: Open the Run box by pressing Windows + R key together.

Step 2: Type cmd in the Run box and press Ok to open Command Prompt.

Step 3: After command prompt opens, type sfc/scannow and press Enter to execute the command.

Step 4: When the command prompt is done checking the files, restart the PC and check if the problem persists.

Note: The scan may take several minutes to complete, so wait until the scan is over and do not disturb it.

#13 – Reset PC to Fix Slow Computer (Windows 10)

Resetting your PC should be one of the things that you should consider if none of the above methods are working for you. Resetting a PC means reinstallation of Windows freshly on your PC, while keeping your personal files. While your personal files will be safe, such as videos, music, pictures, etc., the software installed on your PC and our personal settings would be deleted during this process.

How To Check And Clean Computer Memory

Here is an extensive guide to Reset Windows 10 without losing Personal Files.

Some Extra Tips to fix a slow PC:

• Do not open too many (unnecessary) tabs in your web browser.
• Do not let unnecessary software run in the background when not needed.
• Keep deleting unwanted files on your system from time to time.
• Uninstall software that you needed in past but do not need now.

I hope one of the solutions work out for you to fix slow computer. If there is any other trick which has helped you to improve your PC’s speed, do share it with us in the comments section for our readers. Also, help us to identify the best solution among the above mentioned ones.