Extend the useful life of your old machine.
You’re not alone. Many people with older computers face this struggle. The machine they’ve been using for years seems to get slower and slower with each subsequent update of the operating system and/or applications.
The good news is that we have options.
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Speeding up an older computer
Trying to speed up an older computer?
- Reinstall Windows from scratch to remove accumulated cruft.
- Upgrade your hard disk to an SSD.
- Maximize the RAM.
- Uninstall all software you’re not using.
- Run the disk cleanup tool.
If after all that the machine hasn’t improved, it may be time to abandon ship and replace it with a faster one.
Option 1: Go nuclear
Honestly, with only the information you’ve provided, if this were my older computer, I’d probably bypass all the other options I’ll talk about below and go nuclear: I’d back up and then reinstall Windows from scratch (downloading a Windows install disc if I didn’t have one of my own).
Perhaps most importantly, I’d only re-install applications I actually use. Every installed application can slow down your machine a little bit more.
This, more than anything, will tell you about the hardware limitations of your machine for the version of Windows you’re running. If it’s still slow after a reinstall of only what you need, then pursuing further software solutions isn’t going to be particularly cost effective.
Option 2: Hardware upgrades: SSD and RAM
One of the most effective upgrades you can perform on an older computer is to replace its hard drive with a solid-state disk (SSD). SSDs are significantly faster than old spinning disk hard drives and can really perk up a pokey machine.
The process is conceptually simple.
- Take a full image backup of your machine.
- Replace the hard drive.
- Restore the image backup to your machine.
- Optionally, adjust the partition sizes if the new disk is larger than the old.
The other traditional hardware upgrade to make an older computer faster is to add RAM. If your computer has slots for more, then by all means, add more RAM. This, too, can often result in significant speedup.
Again, if this were my computer and I was planning on keeping it for some time, I’d do both of the options so far: upgrade the hardware to the extent possible and reinstall Windows from scratch.
Option 3: Purge
Let’s say you don’t want to reinstall from scratch and you’ve maximized your hardware’s capacity (or that of your wallet). The next step is to get serious about getting rid of everything you can that’s installed on your older computer.
Visit Add/Remove programs in Control Panel (or Apps and Features in Settings), and review the list of installed applications. Carefully consider whether you need every single item.
You might think that having an application installed but not running doesn’t affect performance. In theory, that’s true. However, many applications install helper apps that run from the time you boot up until you shut down. Those little helpers add up and can place a surprising burden on your system.
If you don’t really need and use an application, uninstall it.
Option 4: Clean up
It’s not quite as impactful as many people think, but simple disk maintenance can help speed up older machines. That falls into two categories: clean up and defragment.
Start with the built-in Windows disk cleanup tool. Delete temporary files and consider cleaning browser caches, files left over from Windows Update, and more. Particularly if your disk space was tight to begin with, freeing space can speed up your machine somewhat.
If your older machine has an older hard drive (not yet updated to an SSD), run the Windows disk defragmenting tool. With Windows 7 and later, you don’t need to worry much, since it happens automatically. However, particularly after a cleanup such as we just performed, running a defrag can help improve things right away.
Option 5: Abandon (the Windows) ship
Sometimes machines are too old and underpowered to run current versions of Windows. It’s sad, in a way, that what was a trusty machine might no longer make the cut, but it’s also inevitable.
One last alternative before disposing of the machine entirely is to consider installing a different operating system — specifically Linux.
There are many flavors (or “distributions” or “distros”) of Linux specifically tailored to older, less powerful computers. Linux can work wonderfully on these machines.1 An older computer can make a perfect test bed for evaluating Linux, which can be a useful way to extend the life of that older machine.
I have an older machine in my basement — a six-year-old HP — happily running Ubuntu, a Linux distribution. Although running current versions of Windows on it would be a stretch at best, it now acts as a file backup and media server for my home network, and has many good years ahead of it.
Do this
You have options! Regardless of which you choose, from a complete reset to a re-purpose, there are several ways you can lengthen the life of that older computer.
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Footnotes & References
1: Linux can run wonderfully on new machines also, of course. :-)
1. Most computers now come WITHOUT WINDOWS-DISK. How can the owner get a Windows Installation for the computer THAT IS VALIDATED, i.e. with the Windows License that makes it valid all the time.
2. This applies to your described “Nuclear option”.
Ideally you’ll have saved your original disks, something I strongly recommend.
Discs don’t need to come with a license. You can download Windows 7, 8, and 10 disks: https://askleo.com/where_can_i_download_windows/
For the nuclear option, you already have a license key for the installation of Windows you have. You would use that same key, if it’s required.
As you state in the article that you link to, those downloads of Windows likely won’t work with a OEM product key, which is what most people have if they have Windows pre-installed. I know. I tried when I wanted to set up a Windows 7 VM on my Windows 10 Home laptop.
However, if Windows is pre-installed, factory default is in a hidden partition on the hard drive. The manufacturer usually has a procedure to boot to that partition and do a fresh reinstall. That is, unless you’ve reformatted the hard drive or repartitioned and wiped it out, or if you upgraded Windows from what was pre-installed.
Of course, I think your best advice is to make a backup as soon as you get the computer out of the box. Then it doesn’t matter if there’s a partition or not, whether it’s OEM or not.
Completely agree with going nuclear. Did that on my Windows XP machine years ago. Made a noticeable difference.
Another thing you can do with programs that you use is to disable those programs from starting up with Windows. Programs like Libre Office have options to load the program into memory so it appears that they start up faster than they really do. You can go into Task Manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC), click on the Startup tab, right-click on any program you don’t want to start with Windows and click Disable from the resulting pop-up menu.
What Windows Startup Programs Do I Need
What Can I Disable in Task Manager’s Startup List?
I installed an SSD and maxed-out the RAM (8MB) on my 10-year-old Sony Vaio laptop and it runs as fast as an up-to-date machine. Total cost, under $100.
Update Oct 2024
14 years later and it still runs Windows 10.
I understand that theoretically, installing a downloaded copy of the Windows .iso wouldn’t activate on an OEM (preinstalled) version of Windows. When I tried it on the above mentioned machine, it activated without a hitch. Back up first before attempting that. In fact, backup regularly, preferably, daily.
I think it depends if you’re upgrading Windows or reinstalling from scratch. If you do an in-place upgrade from Windows 7 (or whatever) that is properly licensed, then the upgrade to Win10 will activate automatically. If you perform the nuclear option, the only time I’ve heard of an auto-activation w/o a license key is when the .ISO file is some Enterprise version that most people shouldn’t have.
Yes, I used the upgrade in-place option. I did it to preserve my installed programs and settings as I wanted to do it as painlessly as possible.
If you already have Windows 10 (or newer) installed, you have a digital product key stored in your Microsoft account, associated with the device Windows is installed on, so the nuclear option should still work, activation and all. Of course, this presumes that you are signing in to Windows using a Microsoft account, but if not, YMMV.
Ernie (Oldster)
Agree that replacing hard drive with SSD makes a major difference. I did this on my 2010 Toshiba, and it made an incredible difference. I also did this on my 2012 MAC and it runs like new.
“As one example, one of my oldest machines — my 11-year-old previous-previous desktop machine2 — lives in my basement happily running Ubuntu.3 It acts as a file backup, and media server for my home network, and has many good years ahead of it.”
That sounds a great idea, how do you go about it?
I’m not sure how to answer that question. Install Ubuntu, connect hard drives, configure sharing is the very short version.
That’s a very good answer. I understand. I though originally you were networking your whole system but as you say there’s no need to make it complicated, just share files.
Many thanks as ever.
Your out of memory, so the PC has to constantly access the drive.
Close down most of those running programs and you may get some relief.
I’ve been trying to get everyone who is on 7 on 10. Funny thing: you go to the majority of local health centers and they are still on 7. Unbelievable the exposure to patient information. I’ve complained, but just to the provider. Regarding reviving an old computer. You need 8Gig RAM. Usually, if you are on 7, your hardware is “old age.” About 10 years in, the boards, which are covered in a plastic substance, begin to crack, changing the electrical characteristics of the computer and letting in water vapor from the atmosphere. Any computer over 6 years, replace the hard drive, as suggested above. Get an enclosure for it that makes it a USB backup drive. Then transfer what you really need. And make sure you have all the license info for software you bought. Belarc is a good free tool to get the key information. Save the old drive as backup and archive.
With respect to installing a Linux distro, I am a fan of doing that. If you use Microsoft Office, you will have to be willing to go to OpenOffice or LibreOffice instead. There is very little in the way of a learning curve. I taught an OLLI course on installing a Linux distro and it was surprisingly well attended. You don’t need to go to 8 Gig. Even 2 Gig will work. The distros have matured and the best today is Elementary. (https://www.techradar.com/best/best-linux-distros) It looks and works like OS/X. The old problems of installing drivers and software have mostly gone away. On occasion, for some printers, you have to go to the manufacturers’ site in another country to find the driver.
If you are thinking of giving the computer to your younger kid or grandkid, safety on the internet is a concern. I’ve installed Edubuntu for them. There are other choices. Read https://fossbytes.com/best-linux-distributions-kids-free-operating-system/. A warning: these are in the same range of skill to install drivers as Ubuntu, so you will have a learning curve if you haven’t been exposed to Ubuntu install methods.
I bought a 32 GB SD card and inserted it in the card slot and configured it as extra memory using Windows Ready Boost. It helped my HP 620 laptop from 2011 to work a lot faster. The SD card configured as Ready Boost is not as fast as RAM, but on this old laptop RAM upgrade was limited to 8 GB and much more expensive. Please note Windows Ready Boost will not help if you have Windows installed on a SSD.
You can read more here:
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/is-readyboost-still-an-effective-tool-in-windows-10/
Because of this article, I swapped out the old hard drive with an SSD drive on my 6-year-old laptop and, wow, what a difference. Thank you!
The article says:
“Optionally, adjust the partition sizes if the new disk is larger than the old.”
In most cases, the SSD will probably be smaller than the HDD you are replacing.
How Do I Restore a Backup Image to a Smaller Drive?
An increase in RAM is often suggested as a means to “speed up” your computer. But, just adding RAM will not speed up anything unless in your typical computer usage you’re constantly operating at maximum RAM and your OS is forced into using the drive (HD or SSD). For most users, opening a browser or a Word document isn’t going to get you to use all your 4 or 8 GB of RAM. Open the Task Manager performance tab and watch the graph of RAM usage.
You may hit the max RAM usage if you never turn off your computer and you have some poorly designed application lurking in the background leaking memory (i.e. using more and more memory without releasing any).
One change that will help speed up an old computer is turning off unnecessary services and background tasks. I’ll admit that this will require a bit of research and caution, but there is no need for every blasted application to be running a process in the background and the profusion of Windows services that you don’t need. Consider this: When you run Windows in its normal mode you may have about 70 to 100 services running. If you run in Safe Mode you may have about one-third of that, yet Safe Mode is mostly perfectly functional. So what are all the extraneous stuff. Do you really need services for FAX, Xbox, Phone (Windows still hoping to be used on a cell phone), Bluetooth, maps, online gaming, virtual reality, virtual machine, etc., etc. There are also many services devoted to diagnostics, information collection (telemetry), remote connections, business use, backups and, of course, updates. Beyond Windows services, the machine manufactures (Dell, HP, Acer) love to run several background tasks, doing who-knows-what. And don’t forget, just about any application that you install will want to make a permanent home on your computer.
Having said all that, if you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t touch anything because you can break your machine.
“For most users, opening a browser or a Word document isn’t going to get you to use all your 4 or 8 GB of RAM.”
That’s true but many users might have a few browser tabs open (every tab is a process) , be working on a document, and listening to some streaming music while a background virus scan and system image backup are running, for example. Lot’s of things can be running in the background. For most people 8 GB RAM might be sufficient. My main computers have 8GB RAM and 1 TB SSD. They start up in about half a minute.
With an SSD, you might not notice that you are low on RAM as access to the Swapfile on an SSD is fast, but too many writes to an SSD will wear it out more quickly.
This is tangentially related: Where on the Leo site can I find recommendation for new DeskTop PC attributes when migration to Win 11 is not possible w/this 6+ yr old machine. It doesn’t have the right level of security capability built in. Have done all items mentioned in this article (thank you). I assume 32 gb ram (some photo and video editing). 1TB SSD? Current C: SSD is almost maxed at 256gb. Want to move over my current 4tb D: drive which stores data and has lots of room left. But I’m confused about Intel vs AMD and the iteration of the chip and its cores, etc. I do recall reading Win 11 Home is sufficient. It’s those chip specs that have my head spinning. thnx
This starts a series of articles: https://askleo.com/what_kind_of_computer_should_i_get/
The problem is it’s intentionally light on specifics. With things changing so rapidly ever year/month/day/hour it’s impossible to keep an article like that up to date.
Honestly, for most people CPU details really don’t matter as much as we might believe. Gamers and a few other will disagree (often violently and vocally), but I still look at # of cores and speed, and leave everything else to my budget.
I’d add: Get one with an SSD. That will speed the machine up a shipload. My SSD Win 11 machines start up in half a minute.