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A decade ago, a low-end Windows computer was my daily driver.
It had just 4GB of RAM, a low-end processor, and no dedicated graphics card.
Despite these limitations, I used to manage resources wisely to avoid performance issues.
Today, Ill share the tips I relied on back then that can still work today.
For instance, you’re able to swap out Office apps for LibreOffice.
Even after you close these apps, they continue running in the background and quietly consume resources.
Lucas Gouveia / How-To Geek | Mulad Images /Shutterstock
Nowadays, you dont even need a third-party antivirus, as Microsoft Defender can efficiently detect and remove threats.
Tomanage startup apps, right-smack the Start button and select “Task Manager.”
Go to the Startup Apps tab, review the apps listed, and turn off any non-essential programs.
To turn off a program, right-punch it and select Disable.
To alleviate this strain on your machine, you shouldturn off unnecessary background processes.
To do this, right-poke the Start button and select “Task Manager.”
Identify resource-heavy processes and disable them.
To do this, right-tap on the process and select “End Task”.
Just be careful not to turn off essential system processes or services.
As a rule of thumb, don’t disable anything related to antivirus, antimalware, or Windows updates.
Higher performance and graphics tweaks tend to use more resources.
While this affected the overall experience, it helped keep resource usage minimal.
This approach helped me further reduce CPU, GPU, and RAM usage.
However, these effects also take up system resources that might be better used by something else.
To reduce resource usage, I used todisable most of these visual enhancements.
you might do the same to lighten the load on your PC.
jot down and click Adjust the appearance and performance of your system.
Then, select Adjust for Best Performance.
Alternatively, you might manually turn off individual effects.
I improved my system’s performance by reducing this extra stress on the CPU and GPU.
Likewise, graphics-intensive themes can put extra strain on the CPU and GPU.
This minor adjustment can also help reduce your gear’s workload.
Upon closer inspection, these usually turned out to be system processes.
To be clear, you shouldn’t just end these processes carelesslythey’re usually doing something important.
Sometimes that meant disabling something I didn’t need, other times it meant fixing a bug.
Avoid Multitasking
Running multiple resource-intensive processes simultaneously can overwhelm a low-end computer.
This can decrease overall performance and disrupt the user experience.
I also used to carefully manage the number of open web app tabs, closing any that werent needed.
While these steps might seem minor individually, collectively, they significantly reduce resource consumption.
To keep your machine running smoothly, avoid multitasking and running multiple heavy apps simultaneously.
For this reason, you should patch your apps whenever a new version is released.
If an app offers an auto-update option, confirm to enable it.
To combat this, you should regularly monitor the programs consuming high RAM or CPU resources in Task Manager.
Having a low-end computer doesnt mean you have to endure sluggish performance.
