Some apps and the use of a hard disk with a lot of data saved on it can slow down the startup of our PC, here’s how to solve this problem
Sometimes it can happen that our computer takes longer than it should to turn on and become operational. This is a major inconvenience especially if we are looking for a fast device for work. Luckily, if we use a PC with Windows 10 we can remedy this problem with just a few clicks.
The good news is that Windows 10 has a startup application manager that is able to inform us if some programs slow down the proper startup of the computer. To access the Startup Manager, just right-click above the taskbar (the one at the bottom of our desktop). At this point a menu will appear and we’ll have to click on the item Task Manager. After that a new page will appear with a series of sections. We have to go to the one called Startup. Here we’ll find a list of apps that have a low, medium or high impact on our computer’s startup time.
Disable apps
Disabling a program that slows down PC startup too much is really easy. From the Startup list in the Task Manager we can click on the app that is slowing down performance and then press disable at the bottom, or right-click on the program’s name and select Disable from the popup menu. This way your PC will turn on much faster and we can use it right away. Please note that disabling apps from the system tray does not mean that you cannot activate them later. They simply won’t be ready for use once you turn on your PC.
Enable Quick Launch
To further improve your computer’s startup performance we can enable Quick Launch. To do this, simply go to the Start menu by pressing the Windows icon in the lower left corner of our desktop. Here we look for and click on Settings. At this point in the page that opens we will notice in the center a bar for searches, there we must write “power settings and suspend”. In the page that opens we must click on Related Settings. At this point a new window will appear and then we must click on the words “Specify what happens when you press the power button”. After that we will be redirected to another new page. Here we put the tick on the voice Enable Windows 10 Quick Start. And we confirm the operation by selecting Save Changes.
Disable Background Apps
To speed up startup, but also to improve performance and decrease battery consumption of the laptop, the advice is to disable apps that run in the background. That is, that remain active even when we don’t use that particular service. To accomplish this we need to go to the Notification Center, the small message-shaped section at the bottom right of our screen. Here we click on the save battery button. This feature not only decreases the brightness of the screen but also closes the apps that are running in the background. Be careful, it only works if the PC is not connected to the power supply.
Modify BIOS
To speed up the startup of the PC we can also modify the BIOS. The Basic Input-Output System (acronym BIOS) in computer science, is a set of software routines, usually written to ROM, FLASH or other non-volatile memory, that provides a set of basic functions for accessing the computer hardware and built-in peripherals. When we first install the PC, the BIOS is automatically configured to “make things easier” for us. However, we can change these settings at any time. There are different methods to access the BIOS, this is because motherboards from different manufacturers may use different methods to access the BIOS. Usually you just have to press the DEL key (or Del depending on the keyboard layout) or F8 while turning on the PC. But in case this technique doesn’t work, just look in the manual of your motherboard. Once in the BIOS we just have to activate the Quick Start feature and move the hard disk to the top of the boot priority list.
Installing an SSD
The hard drive can be one of the main causes of our computer slowing down during start-up. That’s why we can think about replacing the hard disk with an SSD, or solid-state drive. This device has much faster reading times than the classic hard disk and helps improve the performance of our PC.