Picture yourself working on a critical project, when all of a sudden everything slows down to a crawl. Unfortunately, this is a familiar experience for many Windows users. However, there are several things you can do to speed up your computer. This article will show you how to make essential tweaks that can lead to a significant performance increase.

1. Make sure your computer isn't infected with viruses.

Computer viruses are extremely dangerous, causing a lot of damage to your computer. Some malware species can encrypt or delete your files without warning, for example. Viruses will also slow down your computer, reducing its speed drastically. So, use a third-party antivirus, such as Panda's Cloud Cleaner, to check for potential issues.

2. Reduce the number of applications that run at startup.

Windows has a lot of applications and services that run automatically when you start your computer. While some of them are needed, other software packages are used by software developers to collect diagnostics data, etc. and will slow down your computer.

Fortunately, Microsoft has made it easy to get rid of unwanted startup applications. Fire up Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc, select the "Startup" tab at the top of the window, choose the apps or services that need to be disabled (one at a time) and then validate your choice by clicking the button at the bottom of the screen.

3. Get rid of visual effects.

Windows' developers have implemented some nice visual effects, but they can slow down your computer - a lot! To fix things, head over to "Performance Options" -> "Visual Effects", and then choose the "Adjust for best performance" option.

4. Change Windows' Power Options.

Many computers - especially laptops - run using a balanced power mode, which is designed to give us enough power for everyday PC use, while saving some energy. Switch to "High Performance" mode by going to Control Panel -> Power Options, and then click "Show additional plans".

Once you are there, you can also "Change plan settings" individually, selecting the CPU speed, choosing the performance of your graphics card, multimedia settings, and more.

5. Add more RAM to your PC.

Random-Access Memory is one of the most important elements in a PC, being responsible for storing data and instructions that your computer needs to access quickly. However, when your RAM becomes full, the computer will start to store information on the hard drive, which is much slower than RAM.

This means that computers which have plenty of RAM can run more programs at once without slowing down. Crucial System Scanner is a free utility that will help you determine the amount and type of RAM that’s installed on your computer. It's a very valuable tool for people who want to upgrade their computers' memory and don't have access to the documentation.

6. Replace the hard drive with an SSD.

Regular hard drives store computer data on spinning platters, which can fail to read the data due to aging, mechanical shocks, and more. Solid-State Drives use non-volatile memory chips that are included in solid-state devices. This makes them much more durable and reliable in comparison with standard hard drives.

It is true that SSDs are much more expensive than hard drives. However, this is by far the most effective way to speed up an existing computer. There are many types of Solid-State Drives on the market today, each one having different levels of capacity and performance. So, do your research before deciding which one to buy.