3 tips to make your Windows PC start faster

Windows PC | Make Windows start faster | Windows boot faster

Windows PCs tend to slow down over time, especially if you have a lot of programs installed. (Image Source: Pixabay)

New Windows-powered PCs often boot up in a few seconds, but most of them start slowing down over time. If you are looking for some ways to reduce your PC’s starting time, here are three tips and tricks that can help you shave off those precious seconds and save a lot of time in the long run.

Task Manager

Like me, you may have a lot of apps that are automatically run on startup. (Express Photo)

Disable startup apps

Like Android and iOS-based mobile devices, Windows PCs also load some programs every time you start them. While mobile phones have a few processes loading in the background, Windows PCs have a lot going on. These programs may increase over time as you install new software on your system, slowing your PC down to a crawl. However, most of them can be easily disabled from the Windows Task Manager’s Startup section.

To do so, open the Task Manager either by right-clicking on the taskbar or using the Ctrl+Alt+Del shortcut on your keyboard and clicking on Task Manager on the window that appears. Once done, find and press on the ‘Startup’ tab on the top bar. You will see a list of apps that are loaded whenever you start your PC.

Most of them are safe to disable, but some make certain features unavailable. However, these programs work normally when you open them manually. Also, right-clicking on the app name will give you the option to search what the app does on the Internet.  Windows 10 and Windows 11’s redesigned Task Manager also shows how much of an impact every program makes when you boot your PC, so you can easily disable the ones you don’t want.

Upgrade your HDD to a SSD

There are several software tricks that might help you save a couple of seconds when starting your PC, but there is only so much software optimisations can do. If you are using a Windows PC with a hard disk and can spend some bucks to make it faster, make sure you upgrade your old mechanical hard disk to a Solid State Drive, also known as SSD. Compared to traditional hard disks with moving parts, these drives offer huge speed improvements across the board.

Installing Windows on an SSD also makes your overall system faster and more responsive, with app loading times also seeing a performance gain. Since Windows takes anywhere between 20GB to 50GB space, those can always go with a cheap 120GB drive which starts from Rs 1,000. We already have a list of budget-friendly SSDs, so you can check that out as well.

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HIbernate

For reasons unknown, the functionality is disabled by default on some systems. (Express Photo)

Hibernate or put your PC to sleep

While these options technically don’t make your PC start faster, they are helpful if you are someone who often checks their system every few hours or doesn’t want to shut down their machines. Most modern laptops automatically enter sleep mode whenever you close the lid, allowing you to quickly resume your work a few seconds after you open them again.

However, the sleep mode is not ideal for desktops as we tend to switch off the power plug when done with it. This is where the hibernate option comes in. If you hibernate a Windows machine, it will save whatever apps that were open at the time you pressed the button while allowing you to turn off the main power. However, this feature is disabled by default.

To turn the hibernate option on your Windows PC, open the Start menu and search and click on ‘Control Panel’.  Now, click on ‘Power options’ and on the left panel, select ‘Choose what the power buttons do’ option. Now, click on ‘Change settings that are currently unavailable’, tick the ‘Hibernate’ box and press the ‘Save changes’ button at the bottom.

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