Make Windows 10 Faster on Older Slower computers 1GB less RAM 1GHz CPU by Disabling Start-up Program Services Tasks Tweaking Windows Default Settings

Windows 10 is a fast running operating system on my computer. But, by doing simple tasks like turning off un-needed startup programs, Windows 10 can run even faster especially on computers, laptops, and tablets which come with 2GB or less RAM, have a Intel Celeron, Atom, Core i3, Core2Dou CPU, less drive storage space like 16-32GB, and onboard Intel graphics chips. I find disabling startup programs, and services can make Windows 10 even faster on computers with 1-2+GB of RAM like under 2GB of RAM, older hard drive, and an older dual-core CPU, or Intel mobile Atom and Celeron based CPU. It is simple to disable startup programs with Msconfig, services.msc, Task Scheduler and the Task manager’s Startup Tab.

I like using the Task manager startup tab, services.msc to disable startup services because it has a lot of features. It probably takes under an hour for most people to disable most of the less important services, and startup programs which you do not need to run during Windows startup.

After changing Windows settings on Windows 10, Windows now only uses about 500MB of RAM, and under 10% CPU when Windows is idle, and my Antivirus and Firewall software running in the background.

Login with a Windows Administrator Account

You would need to be logged into an Administrator Account in Windows to change Windows system settings, and do most of the performance enhancing tasks and tweaks listed in this article.

Windows is very restrictive when you use a Limited, and Regular user account, so you need to use an administrator account if you are not already using your admin account. All Windows PC have an Administrator account for using to install Windows programs, updates, and change settings in Windows.

Disable Startup programs with the Windows 10 Task Manager’ Startup tab.

Use your mouse to Right-Click on the Taskbar on the bottom of Windows Desktop, and click on the Task Manager button on the right click menu. Click on the More Details button on the bottom of the Task Manager to launch the more detailed Task Manager. There is a tab called Startup which you use to enable, and disable startup programs. You can disable and enable programs by right-clicking on each program, and using the right-click mouse menu to enable and disable the programs. I recommend not disabling startup programs for your Antivirus, Firewall, and Anti-malware. But, programs like chat, media player, instant messaging, games, and office suites are usually safe to disable during start-up.

You can also usually disable startup programs from your sound or video card maker in my experience since the programs are used to adjust the sound, and video settings which you can manually do in the Windows’ control panel program.

Disable Services with the Services.msc Tab in Task Manager.

While you are in Task Manager, you can launch the Services.msc program by going to the services tab, and clicking the Open Services button in Services. Services are like startup programs, but they don’t show up in your taskbar, and system tray. There are many services which the typical computer users may not need like the Windows Biometric Service which is not needed if you do not have a fingerprint reader on your computer.

To disable a service, I just need to right-click on the service I want to disable with my mouse in the Extended service tab, and click on properties in the right click menu which will launch the properties window for the service. In the service properties window, I can disable it by clicking on the Startup type drop-down menu, and clicking on the disable option. Lastly, I need to click on OK. Not all services can be disable, and you should be careful not to disable important services like DHCP which you need for connecting to the internet.

Services which I disable on my Desktop Windows 10 Pro computer which I mostly use for web browsing, gaming, watching video files, and office work.

(Be careful not to disable services which you may need like BitLocker if you use the Bitlocker Drive Encryption program built-into Windows 10 Pro)

Auto Time Zone Updater
BitLocker Drive Encryption Service
Bluetooth Handsfree Service
Bluetooth Support Service
BranchCache
Certificate Propagation
CNG Key Isolation
Connected Device Platform Service
Connected User Experiences and Telemetry
Diagnostic Policy Service
Diagnostic Service Host
Distributed Link Tracking Client
DNS Client
dmwappushservice
Downloaded Maps Manager
Encrypting File System (EFS)
Function Discovery Provider Host
Function Discovery Resource Publication
Geolocation Service
HomeGroup Listener
HomeGroup Provider
Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
IP Helper
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service
Microsoft Windows SMS Router Service
Netlogon
Network Connections
Offline Files
Portable Device Enumerator Service
Print Spooler (Needed for printer. Don’t disable if you use a printer in Windows 10.)
Program Compatibility Assistant Service
Remote Registry
Routing and Remote Access
Server
Shell Hardware Detection
Smart Card
SNMP Trap
SSDP Discovery
Storage Service
Superfetch (Readyboost would not work if Superfetch is disabled, but Superfetch is not really needed in my experience unless your computer has very little RAM like 1 GB of RAM, and you plan on using Readyboost to use as virtual RAM.)
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Themes
Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service (I recommend not disabling this service if you are using Windows on a tablet pc)
Windows Biometric Service(needed for finger print readers)
Windows Error Reporting Service
Windows Event Collector
Windows Font Cache Service
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) (sometimes used for scanners and webcams. Don’t disable if you want to use a scanner or webcam on Windows 10)
Windows Search
WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service
Workstation

There are a lot of services like Drive Optimizes which you can leave set to manual as the start-up type because they only run when needed, and don’t startup when you start your computer.

You can disable Windows Defender Service, Windows Defender Network Inspection Service and Windows Firewall if you already have a third-party antivirus and firewall program installed in Windows 10. You would need to use the Windows Control Panel to access the Windows Defender, and Firewall programs to turn off Windows Defender and Firewall. It is a good idea to turn off the Windows Defender, and Firewall if you already use a third-party antivirus and firewall to prevent slow down, and reliability problems.

Disabling Third-party software services from software and hardware drivers for faster performance

It is sometimes safe to disable services for Office Suites, video card and sound driver services, and third-party software services in my experience. But, you should not disable services which are needed for your anti-virus, anti-spyware/malware, and firewall software. Security software services are needed to keep Windows secure. I sometimes disable services for programs I rarely use, and re-enable them when I need to use the program, and service. It is sometimes safe to disable hardware driver services from companies like Realtek, Nvidia, and services from other PC hardware brands in my experience. But, tasks related to your video card and sound card brand like automatically checking for update, game streaming on your home network, 3D monitors, etc will not work after the services are disabled. But, I can still play games, listen to music, and do other regular tasks after disabling services which got installed by Nvidia and Realtek after I installed their driver software.

But, it is not a good idea to disable third-party hardware services related to a TV Tuner, Media Center software, and video recorder since the services are needed to schedule and record video.

You can also use msconfig.exe to disable services by unchecking them in the services tab. To start msconfig, you need to press down on the Windows key and R key on the Keyboard to launch the Run box. Type in msconfig, and press enter key in the run box to launch msconfig. In the services tab, you can uncheck services to stop them. There is also a “hide all Microsoft services” to hide MS services, so you can more easily see all the third-party non-MS services on Windows. There are also many other tools in Msconfig like turning off UAC pop-up Windows, etc in the tools menu.

Turning Off Scheduled Tasks from running with Task Scheduler

I sometimes stop scheduled tasks from third-party programs like web browsers. It is very easy to do in Windows 10, and can save some RAM, and CPU resources.

To disable scheduled tasks, I need to open up the control panel in Windows which you can find in the Windows Explorer Address Bar. Click on the System and Security link in Control panel. Under the Administrative task section in System and Security, click on Scheduled tasks. In the Task Scheduler, Go to Task Scheduler Library where you can disable, and enable Tasks by right-clicking on each task and clicking on the disable button in the mouse’s right-click menu.

I recommend not disabling tasks related to antivirus scans since they are needed to schedule scans for viruses on a regular basis.

Disabling Automatic Windows Store Apps Updates and Live Tile in Windows Store Settings

You can’t disable Windows Updates for Desktop programs like Microsoft Edge Web Browser, and Windows. But, you can disable Windows Store App Updates from automatically updating your apps. Disabling Automatic Windows Store Updates, and Live Tiles will make your PC not randomly use a lot of bandwidth from your Internet Provider, and not slow down your PC because Windows is checking for updates automatically, and installing them when you are still actively using Windows for other tasks like Gaming or Web Browsing.

First, You need to open the Windows Store App by clicking the shortcut icon for it in the Taskbar, or StartMenu.

Once the Store app is open. You need to click on your User Account Picture, or a picture of a man if you did not setup an account picture for your account. The user account shortcut is on the top right corner of the Windows Store App. It is also on the left of the search bar for the Windows Store App.

On the User Account menu, click settings which will bring you to the settings menu for the Windows Store.

In the settings, you can turn off Update Apps Automatically to stop automatic app updates. You need to click on the ON/OFF shortcut underneath the Update Apps Automatically title. The ON/OFF button will turn Gray once it is off.

You can still manually check for updates in the Downloads and Update Section which you can access in your User Account menu in the Windows Store. There is a Check for Updated button in Downloads and Updates section of the Windows Store User Account menu. It usually only takes a few seconds to check for updates.

You can also turn off Live Tile by which shows Product tiles on Lives Tiles on the Startmenu and StartScreen.

In the settings, you can turn off Live Tile by clicking the ON/OFF shortcut underneath the Show Product on Tile section.The ON/OFF button will turn Gray once it is off.

Turning off Prefetch and Superfetch in Regedit Registry Editor.

Disabling Prefetcher and Superfetch to make Windows not prefetch and superfetch files before you need will free up RAM while using a PC. If you run a lot of big programs like video editors and virtual machines like VMWare and Virtualbox, and games which need a lot of free RAM and CPU resources, disabling Prefetch and Superfetch in regedit can make Windows use less RAM, CPU resources and less hard drive space to store the prefetch cached files.

Note: Turning off prefetch may make your programs start a little slower, but in my experience I can’t really tell a difference when Prefetch is off or on. I turn off prefetch since I sometimes use big programs like Virtual Machine software where having prefetch ON can cause my computer to use more RAM over time. Prefetch and Superfetch also seem to make my computer drive become more active when they are turned on.

1. You need to first open regedit Registry Editor by pressing the Windows Key + R Key on your keyboard, type in regedit in the textbox, and press the OK button.

2 .In regedit go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters , and double click on EnablePrefetcher on the right of the window when you reached the registry key I posted. Set the hexadecimal number value to 0 to disable prefetcher.

3. To disable Superfetch in Regedit click on EnableSuperfetcher, and set it to 0 to turnoff superfetch as well.

4. Lastly, restart Windows to reload your registry, and load your new settings telling Windows to disable Prefetch, and Superfetch.

Note: If your computer has less RAM like 1GB of RAM, disabling Prefetch, and Superfetch may make it run slower if you use a seperate SD Card or USB Flash drive to use as Superfetch RAM which is faster than your hard drive, but slower than real RAM, and an SSD drive.

If your computer has a SSD Solid State Drive or uses Flash Memory storage, I recommend disabling prefetch, and superfetch, so your drive would not write prefetch files to your drive which can wear out your SSD over time if your computer prefetch a lot of files to your drive. Disabling prefetch can save a few MBs of space as well by not saving prefetch files to the drive.

You can delete the Prefetch files in C:\windows\prefetch folder once you disabled Prefetch. There are some disk cleanup system utility programs like Wise Care 365 free which can be set to delete prefetch files during a disk cleanup task.

Switching to the High Performance Power Plan, and turning off Fast Startup in Windows 10 Power Options in Control Panel

Switching to the high performance power plan will make your CPU use more electricity, but makes your PC runs faster. You need to open your control panel, go to System and Security, and select power options, and select the high performance power plan. Once you select the High Performance Power plan, you can close the Power Options window. In the advance section of High Performance plan, you can also turn off slideshow wallpaper.

Turn off Fast Startup to make Windows perform a regular Shutdown when shutting down

You can also turn on and off Fast startup in the Power Option’s “change what the power button does” link in the Power Options program. You need to click the link “Change settings that are currently unavailable” which will show the turn on fast startup. Click Save Changes when you are done. I have Fast Startup turned off since in Windows 8 when I used Fast Startup, my internet did not work after a shutdown when Fast Startup was turned on, and I need to do a full restart for it to work again.

I also like regular shutdown more since everything is closed, and not hibernated before my PC turns off.

Your start-up time will be longer after you turned off Fast Startup, but your PC may run faster, won’t slowdown as much over time, and be more reliable because everything is closed, and restarted when you turn on and off your PC.

Disabling Visual Effects like Shadows, and adjusting the Visual Appearance in Windows 10.

You can turn off animations, and visual effects in Windows 10 by going to Windows File Explorer, and right clicking on the left sidebar item called “This PC”, and clicking on the properties button. Click on Advance System Settings in the Left Sidebar. Under the Performance section, click settings, and click on adjust for best performance in the Visual Effects Tab, and click apply.Disabling the desktop wallpaper slideshow, and screensaver on Windows may make Windows use less RAM, and CPU resources on computers.

You can also use a solid color as the background image for your desktop, and disable background sounds for Windows in the personalize program for Windows Desktop which you can access by right-clicking the Windows Desktop, and clicking Personalize. In the Personalize settings, you can make more changes to the Windows Desktop. Turning off Recent Apps in Personalize. You can also remove apps, and fun facts in the Lockscreen in Personalize. In the Themes section of personalize there are links where you can change the theme, disable the screensaver, and Windows sound effects.

Moving your Virtual RAM SWAP/Page file to a non-System hard drive for computers with two or more hard drives.
If your desktop computer has 2 hard drives installed on it, moving your swap/page file could make your computer faster if you are using a computer with less RAM installed on it.

Moving your SWAP file to another drive will let Windows read and write data, and launch programs with Drive C: while Drive D: is used for virtual swap memory to store files for quick access like RAM. Your Windows drive would be used to launch programs while your other drive will be used as virtual RAM to temporarily store files for quicker access like RAM. Moving your Swap file to a faster drive like a 10000RPM hard drive or Hybrid hard drive will make your virtual RAM performance even faster than using a 5000-7200 RPM hard drive.

You can change your Virtual Memory settings in Windows 10 by going to Windows File Explorer, and right clicking on the left sidebar item called “This PC”, and clicking on the properties button. Click on Advance System Settings in the Left Sidebar.

Under the Performance program, click on the Advanced Tab. If the processing scheduler is not set to Programs, you should set it to Programs to make your computer optimize for running programs, and click apply.

To change the Virtual Memory for Windows, click the change button in the Virtual Memory section in the Advanced Tab.

Next, uncheck the Automatically manage paging for all drives. Click on the No Paging File button on your C: Windows drive, and click set.

Now, click on another Drive letter like D: where Windows is not installed on , and click System Managed size, or make a custom setting which should be 1.5 times your amount of RAM.

For example if you have 1GB of RAM, your virtual memory should be set to 1500MB for both the minimum and maximum size But, it is safest to pick System Managed size where Windows changes your virtual memory size. Lastly, click OK on the Virtual Memory Window, and restart your computer for your settings to be loaded the next time you restart your computer.

For more advance computer users, it is possible to make a seperate small storage drive partition like 3-10GB on 1 hard drive or SSD storage drive to use to store the SWAP/Page file used for virual memory, so your swap file does not get fragmented. There are drive partitioning programs like Partition Magic, Parted Magic, and Partition Wizard for partitioning a  storage drive, so it has 2 or more partitions on one drive. Making the smaller swap file partition at the beginning of the drive with the partitioning tool can make read and write times faster because your hard drive read and write head will not need to move as far.

Note: I recommend partitioning an empty storage drive, or backing up all your files on your storage drive to another drive before you partition, or re-partition your hard drive to avoid data loss.

Disabling Transparency for Windows desktop Taskbar, Action Center and  other windows in the Color section of Windows Personalized Program

Turning off Transparency for the taskbar, windows, etc in Windows could make Windows faster if you use an older video card. The Transparent setting is found in the Personalize program at the bottom of the Colors section in Personalize Settings Program.

Disable ClearType Text in Display Settings

ClearType Text is a setting in Display Settings which can be opened in the Windows control panel. ClearType makes text easier to read by smoothing out rough/jagged edges on text fonts. If you don’t really use your computer for reading text, disabling ClearType text may save some RAM, and CPU cycles. I also find that the text on Windows, websites, and documents are still readable after disabling Clear Type.

To turn off ClearType in Windows’ Display settings found in Control Panel’s Appearance and Personalization settings in the Display settings, click on the Adjust ClearType link on the left sidebar in Display settings. Un-check the “Turn on ClearType” checkbox, and click Next. After you click next, complete the Clear Type settings changes, and click Finish when you are done.

Adjusting the video quality of computer games to medium or low settings

Setting the video quality for games to a lower setting, and  a lower screen resolution for games to a lower screen video resolution like 800×600, and a lower color depth like 16bit, should make games run faster with faster video frame rates, but the graphics would not look as nice. Playing games in windowed mode instead of full-screen may also increase your game’s performance because the game’s video size is not as big when set to lower resolution. Video will also look clearer when you play games in Windowed mode, and lower resolutions like 800×600 instead of your native resolution on a 1080P LCD monitor.

If you see ghosting where the image is slowly moving when playing fast video on a LCD monitor, your monitor’s pixel response time maybe too slow, and you would need to upgrade to a monitor with a new monitor with a faster pixel response time of 5ms or less.

You can also use the older CRT tube type computer monitors which has no ghosting problems like LCD. You can also adjust the  resolution to a lower resolution without blurry video problems like LCD displays.

Change the Monitor’s Refresh Rate and Resolution in Windows 10

Some monitors let you change the display refresh rate to above 60Hz like 75Hz which may make your video’s motion more smooth on your monitor when there is faster video like games  when playing on your monitor.

To change your monitors refresh rate, you need to go to your Windows 10 control panel, and click on the show large icons button on the top right. Click on the Display shortcut icon, and click on the Adjust Resolution. Click on the Advanced settings link on the bottom of Adjust Resolution. Click on the Monitor tab. In the Monitor settings section on the Monitors tab, you can change the refresh rate to 75Hz, and click apply or OK.

If your computer is having slowdown problems playing video, I recommend lowering the screen resolution to a lower setting in the Adjust Resolution program in Display settings which can make videos play faster in fullscreen mode. You use the vertical slider button to change the resolution, and click OK to save the resolution settings for your monitor.

Adjusting your Privacy User Tracking Settings in Windows 10 Privacy settings.

Windows 10 now let you adjust which apps can access your private information like location. Turning off Apps from accessing your information may make your computer faster, use less data, and more secure. The Privacy settings is found in the Settings program which you can open in the Startmenu settings shortcut in Windows 10. You can turn off settings related to General, Location, Camera, Microphone, Speech, inkling, typing, Account info, Contacts, Calendar, Messaging, Radios like Bluetooth, Other Devices, Feedback and Diagnostic, and Background Apps. Turning off Apps is pretty simple by using the on/off slider on each category. Some apps like Maps will need certain privacy settings like Location to be turned on to work properly.

A lot of third-party software like media players sometimes have anonymous data collection which you can turn off in its settings. Turning off data collection could make your programs run faster while also protecting your privacy.

Turning off Automatically update maps in System settings.

In the Settings program in Windows 10, you can turn off Automatically update maps. You need to first open the settings program in your startmenu, and click on the System shortcut. In the System Settings, click on the Offline Maps section where you can turn off Map Updates by clicking on the on/off switch button on the bottom of the Offline Maps page. There are also buttons to Delete all maps to save space on your storage drive.

Turning off Windows App Notifications, Taskbar icons, System Tray Icon in Windows

Turning off Notifications for Windows, and System Tray icons would make using Windows 10 more smooth because you won’t see any any unwanted notifications pop-up, and system tray icons which uses a small amount of system resources like RAM when running in Windows.

In the Setting’s System program, there is a section called Notifications & Actions. Notifications and Actions section let you turn off Notifications for Show me Windows Tips about Windows, Show App Notifications, Show App Notifications on Lock Screen, Show Alarm, Reminders, and incoming VOIP calls on Lockscreen, and Hide Notifications while Presenting. It is usually safe to turn off most of the notifications if you do not find them useful. You can also turn off icons like volume, clock, network, action center, windows explorer, location, input indicator, power, and third-party icons in Notifications & Actions’ Quick Action sections for Select which icons appear on Taskbar and TurnSystem Tray icons on and off.

Some App and program notifications may require you to go into the app, and program settings like the settings for your antivirus, or instant messenger to turn off notifications from poping up.

Adjust your mouse, and keyboard settings in Windows 10 for faster speeds

If you notice that your mouse and keyboard are moving slowly, you can use Windows Control Panel to adjust the repeat delay, and rate for your keyboard. You can also turn off the cursor blink, or make it faster, or slower which may make your keyboard typing feel faster.

In the mouse settings in Windows Control Panel, you can adjust the speed of your mouse pointer, double click button speed, and the speed of your scroll wheel for faster, and slower speeds.

Some more advance mouse and keyboard may use third-party drivers for the keyboard, and mouse. Updating your mouse and keyboard software drivers may make it run faster, and have fewer problems.

Using MSconfig to adjust start-up settings for better boot and system performance

Msconfig is Windows’ Sytem Configuration program it is a classic Windows settings program which has been aroung since Windows 98. Users mainly used it to change startup setting in Windows to fix problems like slow loading speeds when using Windows.

You can open MSConfig in Windows by tapping on the Windows Key and R key on your keyboard at the same time, and typing in msconfig. Press the OK button on the Windows Run Windows to launch MSconfig. In the Boot tab of MSconfig, checking the No GUI boot box will disable the Windows animation, and GUI when Windows is booting, so you will reach your Windows logon screen faster. You can also adjust your timeout seconds in the timeout textbox, so you do not need to wait 30 seconds for Windows to timeout.

There is an “Advanced Options…” button which you can click on to launch the Advance Boot Options where you can set the maximum number of processors to 2 or a higher number depending on how many cores your CPU has. You can also  adjust the maximum memory to the highest amoung of memory by clicking on the up arrow which is useful if your PC is not showing all your memory when you are logged into Windows because the maximum memory is set to a lower number in Advance Boot Options.

There is a services tab in MSConfig which let you quickly disable both Windows, and Third-Party services by unchecking the checkboxes next to each service. If you just want to show non Windows services, you need to check the “Hide All Microsoft Services” Checkbox at the bottom off the Services tab in MSConfig. Most non-Windows/Microsoft services are safe to disable in my experience, but disabling services related to your antivirus, firewall, and other security software will make your computer less safe to use. You should also not disable services related to a TV Tuner if you use one to record TV shows on TV.

The Startup tab now display a link which opens the Task Managers Startup tab where you can turn off and on startup programs  by right clicking each start up program with your mouse.

In the Tools section, there are shortcuts to UAC/User Activated Controls, System Restore, Task Manager, Computer Management, Performance Monitor and more.

Disabling unused hardware devices in Windows 10 Device Manager

The device manager lets you manage your devices and device drivers in Windows 10. If you have a lot of devices you don’t use like a dial-up modem, disabling un-used hardware may free up some RAM, and CPU resources.

To launch the device manager in Windows 10, you can rightclick the startbutton on the taskbar in Windows 10 with your mouse, and click on Device Manager in the Right-Click menu. To disable a hardware device, you need to right click it with your mouse, click the disable button on the right-click menu, and agree to disable device.

It is generally safe to disable dial-up internet modems which you may not need if you use a broadband internet connection like Cable, DSL, and Fiber. It is also safe to disable webcams, microphones, and printers if you never use them because you use your computer or laptop mainly as a file or print server or media center computer. If you don’t use wireless Bluetooth, Wifi, Infrared, and other wireless devices on your computer, you can disable wireless devices as well. Some video cards come with onboard sound. But, if you use a VGA, DVI, or an HDMI video cable on monitor with no sound speakers, and you use your computers’ soundcard, or onboard sound on your motherboard,  you can usually safely disable the sound chip for your videocard with HDMI ports without affecting your sound from your soundcard on your soundcard or onboard motherboard sound. It is sometimes safe to disable your internal TV tuner card if you no longer watch TV on your PC, or if it is not connected to cable tv, or antennae tv cable.

You can easily re-enable devices in device manager by right-clicking the disable device, and pressing enabled button on the right-click menu.

Turning Off Windows 10 Cortana Search Voice Assistant Settings

Windows 10 now comes with a voice assistant which is also a search engine for Windows.  In Cortana, you can  Turn off Give suggestions, ideas, reminders, alerts and more., Device Search History, and Search Online and include web results if you don’t need these features. You can also clear all searches in Cortana. Turning off these history features in Cortana may make Cortana use less system resources when running in the background, and when you use it to search.

Turn Off Cortana in Windows 10 Settings’s Privacy Program.

You can turn off Cortana by launching the Windows 10 Settings Program, and launching the Privacy section of the Settings App. Click on the Speech , Inkling and Typing section on the left sidebar on the Privacy program. Lastly, Press the Stop getting to know me button which turns off Speech Dictation, and Cortana.

Renaming Cortana folder in C:\Windows\SystemApps\ to stop it from launching when Windows is running.

Stopping Cortana Process from running should free up 40MB or more of RAM and some CPU resources even when Cortana is idle. An extra 40MB of free RAM could make programs like web browsers, video players,  etc a little faster especially on cheaper computers with only 1-2GB of RAM.

There is a more advance user tutorials for Super/Advance users at SuperUser.com which teach users how to turn off Cortana completely by renaming the Cortana application file folder which is named Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw…  located at C:\Windows\SystemApps\ to Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw…bak .  But, you need to end Cortana Task by using the Task Manager, and right clicking Cortana, and pressing End Tasks from the Right click menu, and quickly press the Try Again button on the rename window to rename the folder to stop Cortana from launching.

If you want Cortana to run again, you need to remove the .bak file extension from the Cortana folder in SystemApps, and Cortana should start up again.

You can learn more about renaming the Cortana Process folder to stop it from launching at http://superuser.com/questions/949569/can-i-completely-disable-cortana-on-windows-10

There are some members on SuperUser.com who recommend starting your computer from a Linux Live CD/USB flash drive like Linux Mint, or Ubuntu to rename  Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw… located at C:\Windows\SystemApps\ to Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw…bak because Windows does not let you rename the Cortana folder easily.

Hide the Search button or box in Windows 10’s Taskbar

The Search Button or box can get kind of annoying if you are used to a clean looking taskbar with no icons, a few icons, and only the startbutton on the right. Hiding the search button or box could free up a little bit of system resources since Windows 10 no longer needs to keep them running in the Taskbar, and your Taskbar will look cleaner.

To disable the Search Button, or box in Windows 10, right-click an empty part of the Taskbar with your mouse,  set the Search menu button to hidden by highlighting the Search menu item in the right click menu for the taskbar, and clicking on the Hidden button in the Search Menu in the Right-click menu for the taskbar.

Hiding the Task view button, and touch keyboard button on the Taskbar

You can easily hide the Task View Button, and Touch Keyboard button if they are turned on by right-clicking your Taskbar with your mouse, and unchecking the Show Task View button, and Show Touch Keyboard button with your mouse. Hiding the two buttons will save space on your taskbar, and make Windows not have the two buttons always showing on your taskbar.

Turn-on Automatic Log in for Windows 10 to skip the lockscreen, and login screen

If you want to login to Windows 10 faster by skipping the Windows 10 lock and login screen, you can turn on Automatic login.  Automatic logon is less safe because anyone can use your computer to browse the web, play games, and sometimes install programs and change settings if it is an administrator account. But, if the computer is a public computer for anyone to use, or for less tech-savvy user like young kids, making Windows 10 login automatically can be a good idea for less tech-savvy users.

To turn on automatic logon, you need to press the Windows keyboard key + R key to launch the Windows Run Box. In the Run box text box, type netplwiz, and uncheck the checkbox labeled “User Must enter a username and password to use this computer”, and use your mouse to pick/highlight your account you want to be automatically logged into. Click the Apply button, and type in your password twice when Windows 10 shows a pop-up asking for your password.

Use a Regular Local Account in Windows 10 for Automatic logon, and non-administrative tasks like gaming, web browsing, and office work

I recommend making a new standard/regular account in User Accounts in the Control Panel’s User Account or by pressing the Add button in User Accounts/netplwiz  for using to automatically logon to Windows to prevent strangers and other programs from installing programs, browsing your files, and changing your settings. Using an Administrator account is less safe since any user which uses your computer will have full control of Windows.

If you don’t plan to use the Windows App Store, or Windows Pre-installed apps like Xbox, you can make a Local Account instead of making or using a Microsoft Outlook.com e-mail account to login to Windows. Using a local account can be more secure because people can not get into your user unique account password in Windows by hacking your Outlook account by tricking you, Outlook tech support member, or using recovery questions on Outlook to reset your password, or giving them access to your account. It also maybe more private to use a local account because no Windows Store apps, and services are connected to your Outlook account.

A local account also does not come with most of the Windows Store Apps like lifestyle, weather, News, Xbox, and other apps you don’t need, so it will use less internet bandwidth because you don’t have any apps which need to be updated in the future, and the apps won’t run in the background when they are not installed on your local account.

Making a new account can also fix problems you have with programs like Windows Update, but you will need to change your account to an Administrator Account to do tasks like install new programs, and change Windows settings.

New accounts also have fewer, or no startup programs and scheduled tasks which other windows accounts on your computer may have, so Windows could run faster on a new account.

Disable the Lockscreen Login screen in Windows 10 during Windows logon with a  new registry entry called NoLockScreen

Disabling the lockscreen will make logging into Windows 10 slightly faster during Windows startup because you won’t need to tap your mouse or keyboard buttons to unlock Windows during sign-in. Windows also won’t need to load the lockscreen program during computer start-up.

You can disable the lockscreen in Windows 10 by making a new DWORD 32bit entry called NoLockScreen  in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Personalization, and have the value set to 1. Lastly, restart Windows for the changes to see the changes.

To launch the Windows 10 registry editor, you need to press the Windows Keyboard key and R key at the same time, and type in regedit, and press enter.

Once in the Registry Editor go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Personalization

Right click on the Right Empty pane of the Registry Editor, and click on NEW>DWORD 32Bit Value.

Name the value NoLockScreen.

Double click on NoLockScreen with your mouse, and type in 1 in the value data textbox, and press ok on the window.

Lastly restart your computer to reload your registry values which will disable the lockscreen.

More Useful Tips to make ALL versions of Windows on a computer run better.

Close unused programs in Taskbar and System Tray

Close unused programs, apps, and windows on your taskbar, and system tray to free up RAM, and CPU resources. You can launch Cortana by using your Startmenu, and clicking on the Cortana button. Once you launch Cortana, click on the Gears/Settings icon, and set

Keep Windows hard drive or Solid State Storage Drive well-maintained by running Disk Defrag, Scan Disk, and Disk Cleanup programs

Regularly, do a disk cleanup with the Windows Disk Cleanup utility, or a third party disk cleanup program, scan your hard drive for errors with scan disk, defrag your mechanical hard drive.

Make sure your System hard drive has at least 20 % free space, so your hard drive can be defragged properly, and low disk space does not slow down Windows.

Windows 10 Defrag now has an optimize feature to optimize SSD for better performance, and reliability by using the SSD TRIM command which optimizes SSDs for better performance.

Once your hard drive is too full, it would slow down Windows, and make your computer less reliable. I recommend having at least 10GB of free space if you can’t have 20GB of free space because Windows, and your files are using up too much space, and you don’t own an external hard drive to move your files to your other external hard drive.

Running Windows Disk Cleanup as an Administrator by right-clicking the disk cleanup icon, and choosing to let you Run Disk Cleanup as an administrator, or clicking the “Clean System files” button with the Shield icon on Disk Cleanup,  will let you clean up drivers, old Windows update files, Previous Windows Install files, and more which can use many MBs to GBs of space. But, the disk cleanup can take many minutes to complete if you clean system files. In the More Options tab in disk cleanup, you can delete old System Restore files which can free up many GBs of space. There is also a button to launch the programs and features uninstaller for Windows 10, so you can manually uninstall programs, features, etc in Windows 10 to free up more free space.

Delete unused or rarely used shortcut icons from the taskbar, desktop, startmenu, etc to free up space on your desktop, and make your Desktop look more organize. Windows also won’t need to load as many shortcuts when you view your desktop, startmenu, and taskbar.

Scan Windows for viruses which can make Windows slow and unsafe to use

Viruses, malware, spyware, and adware slow down your computer. If your PC is infected with a virus, or malware, your computer’s performance will be very slow. You should scan your PC for viruses and malware with an Antivirus program like Total Security 360, BitDefender, Malwarebytes on a daily or weekly basis. A lot of modern anti-virus programs usually let you schedule a virus scan on a weekly, or daily basis.

Only use one Antivirus, and Antispyware program on Windows

There is no need to have more than one antivirus and antispyware program on Windows. Having more than one antivirus and antispyware program installed in Windows can make your computer less secure, crash more, and slowdown a lot. Many antivirus programs now come with antispyware built-in, so you can just use your antivirus to also protect Windows from virus and spyware infections.

Replace your Antivirus program with a Faster  Running Antivirus

If you think your antivirus is making your computer slower, switching to another antivirus software like Panda Cloud Antivirus, Immunet Cloud Antivirus, NOD32, Vipre Antivirus or Total Security 360 may make your computer run faster because your new antivirus program is not slowing down your PC. You need to uninstall your old antivirus software from Windows before installing your new antivirus software. You also should only have one antivirus running on your computer at once. Having two or more antivirus programs running on Windows may slow it down because Antivirus programs can use a lot of RAM, and CPU resources when scanning for viruses, and malware.

Uninstall or Disable un-needed software in Windows’ control panel’s Programs and Features which you never use, and don’t use.

Uninstall programs which you don’t use. A lot of computers from computer makers thesedays come with bundled programs also called bloatware which can slowdown your computer, and make your computer slower.

In the Windows Uninstaller program also called Programs and Features in Windows Control Panel  which comes built-into Windows, you can choose to disable programs like Internet Explorer, .Net, XPS Viewer etc to save some more space on Windows, and disable the programs from running.

Some Windows Store Modern/Metro Apps are also uninstallable from the Windows Startmenu or Startscreen in Windows 10 when you right-click them with your mouse and click on the uninstall button on the rightclick menu. But, some apps like Xbox, Cortana, and OneNote can’t be uninstalled by right clicking them and clicking the Uninstall button on the right-click menu for its shortcut in the startmenu.

Adjust the video quality of your games, and update the hardware driver software to the latest versions

If you play computer games, and use graphically intensive programs, make sure you are using the latest video card drivers which are sometimes optimized to run newer games better than old drivers. You should also turn off Anti-Aliasing in your video card and game settings since AA can sometimes make your computer games run slower, but look nicer. Some games let you change the color depth to 16bit instead of 32bit which will make games look not as colorful, but will improve the speed of the video framerates. Updating other hardware drivers like for your sound card, mouse, and chipset, etc could make your computer faster as well.

Update your application and game software to the latest version

Updating your web browser, office suite, and games to the latest version could make them run faster because new versions of software and games sometimes fix performance problems which are found in older versions of their software. Games usually release patches regularly to fix performance and reliability problems, so updating your games can increase your performance.

Upgrade your computer’s hardware for Faster Performance

Upgrade your computer’s system RAM

Install more RAM on your desktop or laptop computer if possible to prevent your computer from using your slower storage drive as Virtual RAM. I use 3GB of RAM on Windows 10, and my PC runs pretty well when playing GT Racing 2, and Asphalt 8 which are both mobile racing games from Gameloft. I recommend at least 2GB of RAM for running Windows 10, and 3-8 GB or more RAM if you also play games, use a lot of software programs, or multitask a lot.

Upgrade your video card

If your computer have an PCI-Express video card slot, installing a faster videocard like a $100-125 Nvidia Geforce GTX 750 would make your PC run games faster. If you want to buy a cheaper video card for playing older games on low to medium video settings, Asus Nvidia GT 620 1GB card is more affordable since it can be bought for $60 or less. Its performance is better than some Intel Onboard graphics chips.

Upgrade your Processor and Motherboard on your Desktop computer

Upgrading your Processor is not always possible on laptops and tablets. It is not easy to replace a CPU on a desktop computer. But, it is one of the best ways to speed up Windows without buying a new computer. There are a lot of vides, books, and tutorials on how to upgrade your CPU. I’m still using Windows 10 on an older Intel Core2Dou 1.86 GHz Dual-Core CPU, and Windows 10 runs pretty good for basic tasks like web browsing, and light gaming. But, if I wanted to play newer games, and use more intensive programs, I would need to upgrade to a faster Intel Core i3-i7 CPU, or similar AMD CPU or APU like the AMD A8 APU, and also upgrade my compatible Motherboard for Faster performance. When upgrading a CPU, you may need to upgrade the motherboard to a motherboard with a compatible CPU socket/port, RAM which is compatible with the motherboard and CPU, and power supply to meet the minimum power system requirements for the CPU. You may even need to upgrade the case on your computer, so the new motherboard, power supply, and other parts fit in the case.

But, if you use the same type of CPU with the same socket, but  with faster clock speed, you should be able to re-use your old motherboard, RAM, and power supply.

Upgrade to a Solid State Drive with fast file read and write times

Upgrading to a solid state storage drive or hybrid drive to re-install Windows onto your new SSD will make Windows open programs, and games load faster. But, a SSD will not have a huge performance boost on video framerates in games, and processing because the videocard and CPU is responsible for processing video, programs and games.

If your PC or laptop has less RAM, using a solid state drive may make your computer handle running large programs faster when the SSD uses its SSD space as virtual RAM.

Upgrade to a faster hard drive
If you are using an older hard drive, or a slower hard drive which has a rotational speed of 5400 RPM, upgrading to a hard drive which is 7200-10000 RPM or a Hybrid Hard drive which is a hard drive with a solid state drive in it will speed up your file read and write/save times, and program launching performance. You will also has more free space, so your drive is less likely to run out of space. Newer hard drive also have larger cache sizes like 64MB to make the hard drive run faster. Upgrading your hard drive is cheaper than upgrading to a solid state drive. Newer hard drives also run faster than most older drives because of improved performance. I recommend re-installing Windows onto the new hard drive, so you have a cleanly installed version of Windows which usually run a lot faster than Windows which has been installed on an old PC for a long time. But, there are Hard drive cloning software like CloneZila which let you easily clone the data a old hard drive to a new hard drive with a CD or USB drive with Clonezila pre-installed on a CD or USB drive.

Unplug or turn off un-needed computer accessories

Unplug USB drives, and accessories which you are not using since some USB devices like USB Printers and TV Tuners may use some system resources like RAM, and CPU resources when you are not using them.

Uninstall PCI Expansion Card Hardware Parts on a Desktop PC which you no longer need on your PC

Uninstalling old and unused PCI cards which you don’t use may free up some RAM, and CPU resources since Windows would not need to load the drivers, and keep them active every time you log into Windows. Uninstalling unused hardware may fix hardware problems which is caused by another piece of hardware which is making Windows, and other hardware have problems like random crashes, and freezes.

If you have PCI expansion cards like a PCI 56 K dial-up modem, and other cards like TV tuners which you never use because you use the Wired Networking internet port to connect to broadband internet from a Cable, DSL, and Fiber connection, and don’t watch TV on a PC, you can usually remove the PCI cards from your PCI slot on your PC’s motherboard. But, you should first uninstall the 56K modem driver software with the built-in uninstaller program called Programs and Features in the Windows’ control panel or the driver uninstaller program for your 56K modem. You can also use the Windows’ device manager to look for your 56K modem card, and other PCI hardware you plan to remove from your PC and uninstall the drivers with Windows Device manager. After you uninstall the drivers, you need to shutdown Windows, and unplug your computer from your home’s electricity, and also unplug things like your monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, etc to prevent electricuting yourself and harming your PC. After your desktop is unplugged, you can open your PC case’s door, unscrew the PCI modem from the case, and uninstall your un-needed PCI cards. Make sure to wear an anti-static wrist strap connected to a metal part inside your PC like your case to prevent static electricity from damaging your PC and PCI parts. You can buy Anti-Static bags to safely store your old PC parts.

Install a separate PCI sound card on a desktop PC

Installing a separate PCI sound card on your desktop may speed up your computer a little because the sound from Windows and software like games and media players will be processed by the processor on your sound card instead of using the processor installed on your computer’s motherboard. Soundcards also have a little bit of RAM dedicated to processing sound. Soundcards usually sound better than the sound from onboard sound chips. Using a soundcard may fix audio slowdown problems when you are heavily using your PC for work like video encoding, and gaming.

Disable un-needed built-in motherboard devices like onboard video chips, and onboard sound when you already installed a more powerful standalone videocard and sound card

If you installed a separate PCI-Express or AGP videocard, PCI-X soundcard, and other PCI card device, I recommend you go into your motherboard’s onboard device settings after you restarted/turned on your computer to disable its onboard video, and other devices you no longer use. The onboard video uses some System RAM, and CPU cycles when turned on in the motherboard.

Disabling motherboard built-in devices is a task which is best done by more advance computer users since your computer maybe unusable if you are careless, and don’t know what you are doing. If you accidentally messed up a setting, you would need to unplug your computer from your home’s power, and unplug all cables from the back of your computer, and remove the small coin-sized battery installed on your motherboard, and reinstall the battery after a few minutes has past to reset all settings to the motherboard’s factory default settings.

You may need to look up your computer’s motherboard manual on how to disable your un-needed motherboard devices like onboard video and sound which you don’t use because you use separate sound and video cards which are already installed in your PCI expansion card slots on your motherboard.

You usually just need to press a F Function key like F6 right after you turn on your computer to enter your motherboard setting, but the shortcut motherboard keyboard key is different for different motherboards.

You can also sometimes disable your motherboards’ wifi adapter, Bluetooth, parallel printer port, serial ports,  PS/2 Keyboard, and mouse ports, IDE drive ports, Floppy Drive Port, Firewire ports, and other older ports which you don’t use in your motherboard settings program also called the BIOS/CMOS.

If you upgraded to an Gigabit Ethernet Wired Networking port, I recommend you uninstall the drivers for your old built-in Ethernet port, and disable the Ethernet port on your computer’s motherboard.

Some laptops may have a switch on the case for you to turn off the Wi-Fi chip, so it won’t get detected by Windows, which makes setting up your USB Wi-Fi adapter with faster speeds like 802.11AC which has a max speed around 1 Gbps on a AC Wireless router.

Clean out dust from inside a PC case and cooling fans

Make sure your computer is not overheating. Heat can make your computer slow down when your computer slow down the speed of your CPU, and videocard when it gets too hot to prevent overheating, and thermal throttling when your CPU and videocard becomes too hot. You can use a can of compress air, or a computer vacuum to clean out dust from inside your computer case, and fans by blowing it out with canned air or a computer vacuum.

Install more fans or replace broken fans if your PC gets too hot even after cleaning inside its case

Sometimes cheaper computers don’t come with enough fans, and cleaning out the dust may not help you in making your computer run cooler, or the fan is broken which is causing poor cooling. You may need to install more fans on your desktop PC, or replace broken fans, so your computer does not slowdown because of heat problems. Replacing a fan is pretty easy to do for users who are used to upgrading and building their own computers.

Using External cooling fans on laptop and tablets for better performance

Use a laptop cooling fan pad if you notice your laptops get very hot even after you asked a computer technician to clean out dust from your laptop. Cooling pads for laptops can help cool your laptop down, so it does not throttle down the CPU and videocard because of overheating problems.

If your Windows tablet gets very hot, and slows down a lot, try removing it from your case if you use a protective case for your tablet. The case maybe trapping heat from escaping your tablet, and blocking air vents which are sometimes installed on more powerful tablets with faster CPUs and video chips. Using a tablet stand to hold up your tablet can also make air from your room passively cool it better because air can more easily flow all over your tablet, and your hands and table won’t insulate the heat from escaping through the case of the tablet.

I also seen videos online of Windows tablet users using their tablet in front of a small desk cooling fan for cooling yourself during summer months. In the video, they show their Windows tablet throttling down less because it is not overheating because of the improve airflow from their desk cooling fan. Using a desk cooling fan could make your Windows tablet throttle down less.

Use Third-Party System Utility Software to Maintain and Tweak Windows

Use Third-party Windows Maintenance software

There are many third-party free and paid system utility programs like Advance System Care , Wise Care 365 Free, and CCleaner which can make Windows faster, use less space, and perform better by automatically tweaking Windows and programs settings after system utility software scan and repair Windows. Some System Utility software also come with a Turbo Mode, Startup manager, Registry Cleaner, Registry Defrag, Scan disk, Real-time Memory/RAM Optimizers, Game Boosters, and automatically tweak settings in Windows and Web Browsers for better and more reliable performance when using Windows.

There are also Game Booster programs like Iobit Razer GameBooster which defrags your RAM, and close un-needed background tasks for faster Game video frame rates, and loading times. You can also setup Game Boosters to run application software like web browsers for faster speeds.

Memory Booster programs like Wise Memory Booster are also simple way to automatically, and manually decrease the RAM usage of Windows, and programs by having Memory Boosters run in the Background.

Tweak Windows 10 settings with Ultimate Windows Tweaker 4

Ultimate Windows Tweaker 4 for Windows 10 has a lot of great tweaks for tweaking Windows 10’s settings for better performance, usability, security, and stability. You can download it at http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-4-windows-10 . It is also under 1MB in size, so it runs very fast, and is very lightweight. Windows Tweaker 4 is pretty safe to use if you are careful, and know what you are doing. It even makes a System Restore, so you can easily undo changes if you accidentally messed up Windows. You can also uncheck or re-check settings you changed in Windows Tweaker 4, so it is a good idea to take screenshots of notes on what you changed, so you can easily undo the settings in Windows Tweaker 4 which is faster than a System Restore.

Overclock your CPU, RAM, and video card

Some desktop computers and laptops let you overclock the CPU, RAM, and video card with software or withing the BIOS/CMOS program on your motherboard which can speed up your video frame rates, loading times for programs, Windows performance, etc.

But, overclocking your hardware is risky, and can cause overheating, and computer hardware failure.

It is best to be very careful when overclocking hardware like CPU, RAM, video card, etc if you want to overclock your computer for better performance.

I overclock my video card with ASUS GPU Tweak or MSI Afterburner which both work pretty good at overclocking my videocard’s video processor, and video RAM to higher speeds. I think overclocking a video card is safer than overclocking a CPU, and your RAM on your computer because a lot of nicer videocards have good cooling, and are easier to overclock with software like MSI Afterburner.

Reinstall or Clean Install Windows

Reinstall/Upgrade install or Clean install Windows to fix Windows problems which are too hard to fix without reinstalling Windows 10

If your computer is slow, or not working properly, doing a clean install or re-install of Windows 10 can make it run better, and fix most problems. You can also use the “Reset this PC” Feature which is found in the Windows Settings App under the Update and Recovery section of the Settings program.  You need to click on the Recovery section to access Reset This PC for resetting it.  Reset your PC could be set to reinstall Windows, and keep all your files, or doing a full installation where all your files, and programs are deleted, and windows is reinstalled.

Use Windows 10 Media Creation Tool to upgrade/reinstall to the latest version of Windows 10

Another way to reinstall Windows 10 is to use the Windows 10 Media Creation program from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 to download the latest version of Windows 10, and using the installer to Upgrade Windows 10 where you keep all your files and programs, and just reinstall Windows 10. Upgrading Windows 10 with the Windows Media Creation tool helped me fixed Windows Update failing problems. There are also options to do a clean install of Windows 10 where all your files, and programs are deleted, and Windows is reinstalled on your PC, or do a Windows 10 install where your files are not deleted, but all your programs are deleted, and Windows 10 is reinstalled.

If you have a Windows 10 recovery disc, Windows 10 install disc or USB flash drive, you can use the install disc or usb drive to start your computer with by leaving them in your computer and restarting your PC which should launch the Windows 10 installer setup wizard. You may need to adjust your PC drive startup order to launch the Windows 10 setup wizard which is on your Recovery disc, Windows 10 install disc/flash drive, etc.

Backup your important files!

You should backup your important files before resetting, clean installing, and upgrading Windows on your PC to prevent losing your important files like photos, music, and documents forever.

Check your Hard drive and Drive Cables for Problems, and replace them if needed

Replace failing storage drives, or drive cables.

If you think your hard drive, or solid state storage drive is breaking, you should back up your important files to another drive, and replace it as soon as possible with a working drive to avoid losing your important files, and fix performance problems related to a breaking hard drive. Signs of a breaking hard drive is bad performance, loud whiny noises, and random crashes, and freezes. Sometimes the hard drive cables become defective which makes your computer slow, and unreliable, or not work at all.

There are hard drive and SSD drives tester programs which you can download from your drive manufacture website, or download websites to test the reliability of your drive. HD Tune is a popular third-party hard drive tester.

You can also use scan disk to scan the sectors of your drive for problems.

Check to see if your hard drive cables are tightly connected to your hard drive connectors

Sometimes the hard drive data cables which connect your hard drive to your motherboard’s hard drive connector maybe failing or loose which can cause slow down problems. Uninstalling and re-installing or Replacing the hard drive cable may fix the problem. The hard drive connector on your motherboard could also fail, so you may need to use another hard drive port on your motherboard, replace the motherboard, or use a PCI hard drive controller expansion card to fix your broken hard drive connector problem on your motherboard.

Use Lightweight Software designed for Slower Computers

A lot of the times modern web browsers, office suites, and media players can use a lot of RAM, and CPU resources because they were designed for faster desktop and laptop computers.

But, there are a lot of lightweight software like VLC media player which run very fast even on slower computers because VLC designed the software to work on computers with less RAM, slower CPUs, and slower video cards.

My Lightweight Software Guides for Windows and Linux

Lightweight Web Browsers
Lightweight Video Players
Lightweight Music Players 

If you are looking for a lightweight Word Processor, I recommend LibreOffice Writer which is free, and runs very fast in my experience, and has all the features I need to use.

Summary

It does take some time to tweak Windows 10 for better performance, and reliability. But, by doing some simple Windows tweaks and settings changes like disabling some startup programs, services, and scheduled tasks, and doing regular Windows maintenance like disk cleanup and defrag, Windows 10 will use less RAM, CPU, and other system resources, and run a lot faster, and more reliably. You would also experience faster video frame-rates when playing games, and save time doing more intensive tasks like converting video files.

But, upgrading your hardware will make Windows 10 run the fastest in most cases because newer hardware like a CPU, Video card, solid state drive usually have better performance than older computer parts.