VLog #67 – Tips for Improving Windows 10 Performance

Video – VLog #67

What should I turn off in windows 10 performance?

How do I make windows 10 super fast?

How can I speed up my windows 10 for free?

Script – VLog #67

Willie Nicol: Hello everyone and welcome again this week to a fun filled, information packed episode of The Techno Dinosaur Meets The I.T. Geek. I am the Techno Dinosaur, Willie Nicol, so called because I’m technologically challenged. However, I’m also a personal development life coach. I’m based in Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland, U.K.

Willie Nicol: And, with me today is my usual partner in crime, my compadre, my good friend David Logan, the I.T. Geek himself. So, David, how are you today and where are you?

David Logan: Hi Willie, I’m good. My name’s David Logan, the I.T. Geek, the guy who ensures technology works efficiently for you the home-based office worker. And we take the jargon out of technology, so you understand it. I’m based here today Willie in Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, south of Scotland and it’s dry today.

Willie Nicol: Well, you’re lucky because it’s raining here. However, my question for you today David .…

David Logan: Keep that rain there!

Willie Nicol: My question for you today David is …. very many people are still working from home and they’re probably on a computer. So, my question today is – how do you keep your computer running smoothly?

David Logan: Thanks for that question Willie. So, what you can do is replace it, that’s a simple one there, replace it to keep its thing like that there??

David Logan: That involves a lot of cost. What we’re doing here is with the existing kit, how do we keep it running smoothly. Is that correct?

Willie Nicol: Spot on, yes.

David Logan: So, I’ve got a list of about five, four, items here but it might go onto five.

David Logan: So, the first one is, you run a scan for malware, which could be viruses or malware, we’ve talked about that. These items we’ve talked about before but it’s just a slightly difference slant on it. So, item one is running a scan for malware. The second option, it’s not limited to this list either, this list. Number two is clean your hard drive. So, Microsoft supplies utilities called Disk Clean Up and their command line function called SFC which checks the system’s integrity. Third one on the list is uninstall programmes you no longer need and check what automatically starts in the morning when you switch on that computer, what starts up. A lot of, we can go deeper into that later. Number four is periodic backups, system backups or at least set “restore” points on your Windows system. Then the last point is to re-install your operating system, Microsoft 10, Microsoft Windows 10. Re-install it from scratch but be careful.

David Logan: I’m going to run through them giving quick detail of each one. So, the first one is run a scan for malware, your anti-virus software, McAfee, Norton Security, ESET. There’s loads of them out there, AVG, or there’s Malwarebytes which scans specifically for malware, okay?

David Logan: Number two, clean the hard drive, two utilities there, Disk Clean Up, you can get through your control panel on Windows 10 and it cleans up all the crap. When you install programs, when you work on it, there’s a lot of garbage created in the background which you, the user, is not aware of. What Disk Clean Up does is it finds it all and cleans it out for you, including your recycle bin, it’s going through the recycle bin. Do you know what the purpose of the recycle bin is?

Willie Nicol: Shortly .. no.

David Logan: Okay, so the recycle bin on Microsoft, they do have similar on Apple Macs, I can’t remember what it’s called. But you go and delete a file, it automatically by default goes into your recycle bin. So even though you don’t see it in your file system, it’s in that recycle bin. So it’s in there in case you deleted that file by accident so you can go back to your recycle bin and restore that file. So, going back to the Disk Clean Up, it cleans that out for you, so you’ve got to be careful there.

David Logan: Now, command line, S.F.C. – S for Sierra, F for Foxtrot, C for Charlie. It’s the command line programme which checks your systems integrity, makes sure everything links together and working how it should. If not, it’ll flag up errors.

David Logan: Third option, third tier, uninstall programmes you no longer need. I’m sure we’ve all got programmes which come installed and you install, and you think, “When last did I use that?” Get rid of them, bloatware, get rid of them. That’s “bloat” as in B.L.O.A.T wear. Think what bloat means by the stomach, you feel full, you feel at capacity, it slows down the computer. It’s all these like advertising programmes, uninstall them.

David Logan: Start-up programmes, quite a lot of your cloud programmes, Dropbox, OneDrive, Zoom, Microsoft 365, a lot of them start automatically at the start-up. Do you need them to load at start-up? Are you still using them? That’s the question there. Last one is periodic back-ups, back-up your data, back-up your stuff. But it’s not just a case of back-up, it restores that data as well. How can you restore it? So, you can back-up but do you know how to restore it?

Willie Nicol: All I do …

David Logan: Sorry ..

Willie Nicol: Yeah, I just put it on my external hard drive.

David Logan: And do you know how to copy it back across?

Willie Nicol: Yes.

David Logan: Perfect. So, that’s OK for the home-office worker.

David Logan: In business, where you’ve got databases, you’re good to back it up, but can you restore that database?

David Logan: Or minimal is ‘restore points’ within the system. So, what happens is Windows has got a system running, it should be set up by default that periodically it’ll do a restore point of your system. So, if your system gets inoperable or you get a virus that attacks it, you can go back to that restore point when it was free of that virus.

David Logan: So, that’s four things that you can do. I’ll do a quick one line then I think that’s us running out of time now. Run a scan for malware. Number two, clean your hard drive. Number three, uninstall programmes, get rid of bloatware, get rid of AutoStart programmes that take up system resource. Number four, system restore, get that set. If you want to know how to do any of these, give me a shout, you know how to find me.

Willie Nicol: That’s marvellous, thank you very much. Couple of things there that I didn’t know about, so if that’s been useful to the viewers, we’ve had a good day. So, all that remains for me to say is, to the viewers, get in touch with David with any I.T. problems. Get in touch with me with any coaching type problems …. stress, anxiety, whatever it is, just drop us a line. So, from me, goodbye, stay safe, stay well and remember …. have some fun!

David Logan: I always have fun Willie. To you the viewer, watch our videos. You can get us on any of the social media channels. Search for ‘The Techno Dinosaur Meets the I.T. Geek’. And that is us for this week everybody. Enjoy yourselves.