how can i speed up my laptop

i have a old hand me down laptop originally running on windows 8.1 but i upgraded to windows 10 my laptop has always been extremely slow and it takes about ten seconds to open up the start menu if it even opens up at all ive been searching for a while and i cant seem to find a legit way to speed up my laptop ive tried overclocking,deleting programs i dont use,ive tried factory resetting it and ive tried changing the programs that launch on startup along with the services if anyone knows a way i could make my laptop run as fast as possible without using any more than 30 [i can go higher bit can ABSOLUTELY CANNOT go any higher then 66 bucks] dollars [hopefully free] i would be a very happy pug also my laptop seems to be able to run EXTREMELY high graphical games and programs with absolutely NO LAG if they are installed from the Microsoft store even though my CPU is using 92 to 100 percent capacity with NOTHING running at all thanks in advance BYEEEEEEEEEE

whats the specs?

Get an SSD. Going to cost more than $30 though.

Upgrade the HDD to an SSD, maybe upgrade the RAM too. Although both are pretty expensive as of right now thanks to all the bitcoin/crypto currency mining crap going on right now.

Uninstall programs you don't use (which you seem to have done)

Open task manager and stop anything running in the background you don't need

Type %temp% into windows search and delete everything (they're temporary files anyway)

Use CCleaner to remove temporary and cache files. You can also use it to disable programs from starting up when your computer starts up. Also, turn off CCleaner monitoring so it doesn't run in the background.

Use a browser like Opera or Firefox, not Chrome

Exit out of Steam or the Nvidia control panel thingy when not in use

hope this helps

Ccleaner definately and file clean up that is standard on windows

Don't keep any heavy files on your desktop. Other than that you can use Windows 10 Manager which will clean all extra rubbish from your system.

Hi there! Let me sum up some things I have tried so far:

1. Go into Task Manager and open Windows Services. Once in there, there are a few services you can disable that might make everything a bit faster. The first one is Superfetch, which downloads large files for (I believe) Windows Update. This one kept my HDD at 100% use all the time, making everything immensely slow. While you're at it, also disable Windows Search if you don't search your files often. At last, disable Background Intelligent Transfer Services as it does something similar to Superfetch. Please note that clicking stop will only stop them once, while making them Disabled will stop them for pretty much forever unless an update enables it again. You may have to manually update by going into Windows Update -> Update after this and disable these services again after the update.

2. Ccleaner is great though I would also recommend Gary Utilities. It basically does all the things Ccleaner can and more for absolutely free. After installing, make sure it doesn't start with the system though as that might slow it down again. Gary Utilities will also analyze your startup programs based on impact of startup time.

3. Expanding RAM and switching your hard drive out for an SSD is likely to have the most impact. Depending on how much ram you have now, you might be able to still find some DDR3 sticks on the cheap. Although I'd rather recommend new, you could look for a second hand SSD of about 120GB as a boot drive.

3.2 If your laptop has a DVD drive and you don't use it, you could swap out the DVD drive for an HDD caddy (around $10 at AliExpress) and use the SSD for Windows and your original HDD to store all your games on in the caddy

Options 3 and 3.2 may obviously be out of your budget right now, but if you're willing to wait and save up some more you'd have a blazing fast laptop for 40$-60$ with plenty of storage. Swapping out the HDD for an SSD is not difficult, while swapping out the DVD drive may be really difficult depending on the laptop model you have.

Hope this helps!

Yea,, you can get a cheap one for $50 I think. With enough space for a handful of games.

As others have said, go SSD for the biggest improvement. You may be able to find one in your price range but it will be used.

Install Linux or throw it like a discus.

Really though. Just format the hdd and reinstall. Then just install an antivirus. Even consider paying! Kapersky is reputable (or at least was) but for some reason I choose Avira maybe just because I like the colour scheme and maybe just because it's not bloated.

If it's still slow the hdd speed will only effect startup and loading times if your swop filing because of limited ram and the cpu/bus speed is the problem.

@npiet1: my processor is a intel(r) pentium (r) CPU N3540 @2.16GHz

2.16GHz

INSTALLED RAM 1.00 GB (1.89 GB USABLE)

SYSTEM TYPE 64 BIT OPERATING SYSTEM x64-BASED PROCESSOR

OS Windows 10

@rex14rifle: What about the HDD? That seems like the issue. Just open task manager and see what the disk usage is. Run CrystalDiskInfo it will tell you how healthy your HDD is.

@rex14rifle: Moved to Hardware forum

You'll need to upgrade that RAM to 4Gb at least and replace that HDD to SSD.

@npiet1: my hdd is actually surprisingly healthy

You aren't running any games on this. lol

by getting a desktop!

ha!

just joking, that said you might want to consider a desktop for play time and a chromebook for movies and everything else.

What do you do with it?

Is Linux an option? Much more light weight than Windows and can do just about anything except certain software.

@pyro1245: it is but i did a bit of research and most of my games and data arent usable with linux so although its an option i might as well factory rset my laptop.

@tryit: i do have a desktop however i prefer my laptop as my desktop is running windws xp and has a partially damaged motherboard so it cant connect to any kind of internet.

use mini xp or mini 7, it runs a lot better then the standard editions.

Intel Pentium Processor N3540 is based on Atom Bay Trail. From my old Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet example, SSD helps with the boot speed.