Five Small Settings That Make Your Computer Feel Suddenly Faster
Ammon Gleason
March 18, 2026 ·2 min read
Most "my computer is slow" complaints are not hardware problems. They're configuration rot. Five toggles, all free, all under ten minutes to apply.
1. Trim startup apps
On Windows: open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) → Startup tab. Disable anything you don't recognize that runs at boot. The typical small-business laptop has 8-12 apps launching automatically; most aren't needed and each one delays the moment your machine is actually usable.
On Mac: System Settings → General → Login Items.
2. Close tabs aggressively
Every open browser tab is a small computer running in the background. Tools like OneTab (Chrome/Firefox extension) or Edge's built-in "Set aside tabs" let you stash a session and recover it later without keeping 47 tabs loaded.
If your machine has 8 GB of RAM and you keep more than ~15 tabs open consistently, the tabs are why it feels slow.
3. Limit Windows Search indexing
Windows Search re-indexes your drive in the background. If your drive sounds like it's grinding for no reason, this is often why.
Settings → Search → Searching Windows → set "Find My Files" to Classic (libraries only) instead of Enhanced (whole drive). You can still find your files; the indexer just isn't crawling every byte of free space looking for them.
4. Set the right power plan
Laptops on AC power default to "Balanced" — which intentionally throttles the CPU. When you're plugged in at a desk, this is unnecessary.
Windows 11: Settings → System → Power & Battery → Power mode → Best Performance. Switch back to "Balanced" or "Best Power Efficiency" when you're on battery.
5. Audit browser extensions
Every extension is RAM you don't get back, even if you haven't clicked it in months. Open your browser's extensions page and remove anything you haven't used in 30 days. Most users have 5-10 they've forgotten about.
When these don't fix it
If you've done all five and the machine still feels slow, the diagnosis usually shifts to:
- Drive 80%+ full (Windows performs poorly when storage is nearly maxed)
- A dying SSD that's reading slower than it used to
- Overzealous antivirus scanning every file access
- Background sync (OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive) saturating the disk
At that point a full health check — or a short IT consulting engagement — is the next step. Our help desk runs one in about 30 minutes that catches all of the above and tells you whether the right next move is configuration, replacement parts, or a new machine.