Well presented Leo, one of the better tutorials for the less than computer savvy folks like me... I learn a little more every time I check-in. Thanks for sharing!
Defender doesn’t need to startup? If you don’t start it up, does that mean it’s not always running in the background? Serious question because I thought it was like any antivirus that needs to run.
@@WriterBrenInteresting. I didn't disable it myself. (And I just blew over it in the video.) I enabled it, rebooted, and it came back disabled. I assume Microsoft Security is "doing the right thing" with the startup and the service it controls - running only when needed. Not finding any details on that either. Very strange.
Don't just disable those unwanted Windows apps, uninstall them. I take it a step further and never let them get installed in the first place. Whenever I get a new computer, I upgrade (free for me, your circumstance may differ) from the Home version to the Pro version. I do a clean install by downloading the ISO image (tip: install a user-agent switcher extension to your browser and set it to Linux before visiting the Microsoft site: then you'll get a direct link for downloading the ISO rather than having to use the media creation tool) and using NTLite (the freeware version suits my needs) to create a customized ISO. I remove all those apps I don't want, everything related to XBox, etc.
good content there man, and covering most if not all angles. enjoyed seeing you also stated some of the obvious which many users at time forget about or do not consider
Hey Leo (this might be another "question" for you?). I am (still) on Win 10. So I go to the Start icon, right-click, and get a list of options, including Computer Management. I left-click on that one, and ... nothing (well, the list of options disappears). Hmmm. Right-clicking has the same (non-)effect, btw. When I try the various options, I find that some of them "work" (ie: bring up another window): Apps and Features, Power Options, System, Network Connections, Settings, Search, Run, Shut Down or Sign Out; whereas others have no effect/only close the option list: Event Viewer, Device Manager, Disk Management, Computer Management, Windows Powershell, Windows Powershell (Admin), Task Manager, File Explorer, Desktop (ok, I don't know what Desktop is supposed to do). I CAN get to (eg) Powershell by left-clicking on the Start icon and scrolling down to the Windows Powershell options and choosing one. It appears that "something" is broken/mis-configured, but what? And how do I fix it?
If you would try to figure out why your computer got slow, and learn how to fix it, then you would never need a factory reset. Secondly, you must be not using that laptop for much more than browsing and email, because if I had to do a factory reset, I would lose all my installed applications, their settings, and countless Windows settings, it would take me a whole day to get everything working in the way I want it.
@MichaelDomer I don't care why it slows down. It's none of your business why I do a factory reset. I use my laptop for email, MS Office apps, printing, and, of course, the internet. I have all the apps. I back up my docs. When I need to, factory reset. I'm done. Good as new. Takes about 2 hours. No big deal. I don't lose anything. So I have to do some Windows settings. Wow!! What a chore! Get a life.
@@roncaruso931 It takes you 2 hours to do a factory reset, while I can fix your slowdowns in minutes. Learn how to fix a computer lazy noob, you look like a joke every time you do a factory reset to solve a problem.
@@roncaruso931 Michael Domer is 100% right, doing a factory reset every time your computer gets slow is a foolish thing to do. Do you put a new engine in your car, each time your car doesn't perform well?
Thanks for another great video, Leo! I use Windows 10 with Norton. Windows Defender is turned off by Norton. I opened the Defender page and there are no Scan buttons that I can see. Perhaps with Norton, I don't need to use Defender? Thanks.
@@Ubu987 I'm using Norton 360 Deluxe. Good enough? I do regular scans. Nothing has been found, however, Norton reports many outdated rivers , junk files, and other things. The want a lot of extra cash to clean that up. Are there free solutions. Thanks, Ubu.
Yeah..... Any virus checker you install (even by mistake) will automatically close Windows defender but be aware that if you delete a virus checker, Windows defender will not restart automatically! Usually shows a warning that no virus checker is in place.
Leo: Helpful advices, as always. I would add: Run Windows "Disk Cleanup", both standard and system files. Check all boxes, but be aware of Recycle Bin. This may both free up a lot of disk space, and make your machine run faster.
Very good info for the people that are not very savy.. I was an engineer for DEC in Australia..And have been involved since win 3.11 came out.. The only thing I reckon you need here that's missing is... Virtual memory, setting it to the min and max by hand.. I have 20GB dram "available" in my machine, not Literally! I have more of course. But Win11 told me how much I have.. thus you need to set virtual memory appropriately. And I also used to set the screen to 16 bits rather than 32.. Not so necessary now and not available..
Yes Leo I did replace my old spinners a long time ago and when I got my new laptop it came with one of those newer PCi Express hard drives and it is so much quicker than the original SSD types.
*_"I got my new laptop it came with one of those newer PCi Express hard drives and it is so much quicker than the original SSD types"_* Uh...no, those are not hard drives, those are NVME SSD's.
Hi Leo! I have a question about internet speed and connection. I know about stories and cases in which operators do not comply with contracted speeds (at least here in Portugal). I pay for a 100Mbs/100Mbs service and I can never get an acceptable speed - and by acceptable I mean, getting a video or a stream site (like Netflix) to not freeze (leaving the loading circle moving). I know it's not a problem with my PC because the same thing happens on my phone. The modem/router are 3 meters away from the PC and smartphone. I even connected my PC with an ethernet cable. I know some cloud storage sites limit their download speed for those who don't have paid accounts, but when you download from a Torrent service (like uTorrent and torrents sites) this shouldn't happen, right? Or when downloading a program from its official website. I heard somewhere that the router/modem ports where the ethernet cable connects may not be capable of delivering high speeds, but these devices were provided by the operator itself. Therefore, they should guarantee the contracted speeds, without the user having to buy a better router/modem. I don't know if the PC brand and model counts, but I have an Acer Aspire 3 A315-55G laptop (with Intel i5 10210U, NVIDEA GeForce MX230 with 2GB VRAM, 8 GB DDR4 Memory and 256 GB PCi NVMe SSD). How can I check exactly what speed the operator is giving me (and which, in practice, I have on my PC and smartphone) so I can go to the operator's store and ask for explanations? Thank you very much.
having built many custom spec pc's,i can deffently say the main reason why you don't achieve those advertised speeds is mostly down to you're outdated spec..while the 10th gen i5 is more modern,that MX230 gpu is more than 15 to 20 years old & is more likely the main issue with stable internet connection..nowadays mid spec laptops or tablets are cheaper than building a fast custom spec desktop pc,however be mindful some business's will try or attempt to scam you with other's you don't want.
How timely Leo. SSD! My laptop is five years old, can not be updated to Win11(per MS) and I have been thinking about replacing it. My only reservation is the hard drive in todays laptops. I am 80, like to use the KISS theory and do not use cloud storage and most laptops today come with very small hard drives. I prefer to be "self contained" so to speak. So the question is, what are the alternatives? Do I buy one with a small hard drive and then go through the expense of having someone replace it and I now have a useless small SSD and possible warranty violation? Can I just use one externally? Advice/Solutions??? As always, thanks for sharing the great information. JimE
You can buy a laptop with a (small) 256GB SSD and an external 2TB hard drive (Western Digital Elements for example) for storing data that you connect via USB. Speed here is not crucial because it's just for storing data not running the OS or apps. It's always a good idea anyway to store your important data externally, especially in case of laptops, which you take with you and has a higher chance to get damaged than a desktop (water spill, drop, theft, etc).
Great hardware discussion, Leo. I use all SSDs and have a disk drive specifically for backups, where speed is not an issue. I have 48 GB of RAM, and Intel 7 processor. My computer boots Windows 10 in about 20 seconds and is suitable for gaming and high-end audio recording, which I do....and yet the thieves at MS have declared my PC a dinosaur for running Windows 11. I hope this comes back to bite MS in the you know what!!!!!!!
@@MichaelDomer I thought that was pretty good. The computer is eight years old. The C drive is a Samsung SSD 870 EVO 500GB. No good? This is the boot time from being totally Off. I've stopped a lot of bloatware from booting. Your suggestions are welcome. Thanks for chiming in.
@@acreguy3156 > "The computer is eight years old" > "The C drive is a Samsung SSD 870 EVO 500GB" I'm not surprised after reading that, that Microsoft declared your PC a dinosaur for running Windows 11. Let's be honest, you got a quad core CPU, when nowadays 12-16 cores is becoming quite common, and that SSD is a SATA SSD, and limited to about 500MB/sec, when a modern PCIe NVME SSD can reach speeds up to 14500MB/sec.
@@Horizon-hj3yc Good to know, Horizon. Many thanks for the info. Oh boy, I'm getting a new computer soon 😀! Oops, there is the war department (wife) in the way of that decision 🙃.
There are some applications you install that like to add themselves to startup with Windows, so you should check the startup folder and what Leo showed to stop them from running at startup as many do NOT need to run when Windows starts
Dear Davidnp, I wish he could focus on Windows 10, since the majority still use this. People don't want to frig with something unless it's *to-the-letter specific and identical.*
Awhile back I swapped out my hard drive for an SSD and the difference was simply amazing without doing anything else. This requires software and an adaptor to go from the drive to a USB port on your computer, and you'll have to get inside your computer to do this. Not for the faint of heart, but WOW.
One of the most important things is to remove bloatware and Windows 11 is made of that. Certainly, installing all the best drivers is mandatory, especially Intel SATA driver which is almost always skipped via Windows update, but - Windows Store apps are galore and they all run in the background by default, most of them completely wasteful. If not needed, one can remove Xbox, Camera, Windows Phone, Photos, Cortana and other stuff, even Notepad (and replace it with Notepad2 or Notepad++). Menu becomes uncluttered and much more responsive. Other apps could be set not to run from background from Settings->Apps->Installed apps. I understand that many people use some of those, but there are always much better, faster and more secure alternatives out there.
well for once i got a ssd hard drive that help very very much have 1tb icoolax ssd here mechanical toshiba died in 3 years with ssd way way much faster and my ssd is 2.5 inch type sata another question what if you have pagefile.sys turned off have no page file and you run out of ram then what happens
When a program asks for more RAM than the system has, that program will fail. (Ran into this myself just recently. Starting an additional VM just said that it couldn't allocate enough RAM.)
You can't just stop/disable "Windows Search" service to stop files from being indexed. You have to uncheck "Allow files on drive to be indexed...." and click "Apply" to stop it fully.
As other comments point it, it's had a spotty history. I use it occasionally. If you're thinking of the registry cleaner specifically, I don't recommend those in general: askleo.com/best-registry-cleaner/
Be aware that CCleaner tries to download antivirus programs which automatically disables Windows defender. On deleting the antivirus, you have to manually restart defender. I use it myself without issue.
@@fabianmckenna8197 CCleaner doesn't do that anymore, only thing it tries to get you to install is google chrome but that is a toggle you need to watch for during the install of CCleaner.
The "do less" section is underrated. I see so many people using so many programs at once, like they don't know they can close them. And it's getting worse because the more powerful computers become, the more careless and greedy the users get.
I have an eleventh way. Sell your Windows machine and buy an Apple silicon based computer instead. After decades of developing software on Window OS, as soon as I retired several years ago I changed to MacOS and never regretted it. Especially now with Apple's M-series processors. (There is a learning curve of course).
Disagree. Replacing with same family, maybe. But people are looking for upgrades when they reach this point, and that's typically not realistic for the average user.
> "Replacing a processor is quite possible on existing motherboards, and is relatively easy to do." That's simply not true, because by the time that you need to replace your processor that is substantially faster, you would need to buy a new motherboard, there is simply no way around it, unless you like to replace your outdated CPU with another outdated one.
Most motherboards will accept higher-performance processors than originally-installed processors. For example, I just upgraded an AMD Athlon 64 2.5 GHz, 2-core processor with a Phenom II 3.3 GHz, 4-core processor in the same motherboard with the result of better performance.
It's not fair to say there's no reason to leave a desktop in Balanced performance node: it saves a considerable amount of electricity. This is reflected in savings WRT to your energy bill, and your carbon footprint. I've studied the effects of Ultimate, Performance, and Balanced modes and can say the differences in performance are hardly measurable and certainly not perceptible, but the savings in power is significant. Likewise, running a computer 24/7 solely to let the malware scans happen overnight is wasteful if not downright irresponsible.
Nowdays with edge/chrome/firefox being the main browsers (and not internet explorer), toolbars aren't as such a thing anymore so it's extensions if anything that can be seen as another type of bloat.
When Windows is slow, then I know that the goddam crap is updating (in the background), while I never ASK it to do that. What a relief Linux is (which will never do anything that I do not ask it to do).
Reboot? No! Don’t just reboot. A reboot does not restart everything from ground zero. Turn the machine off and unplug it for a while. If you pull the cover and turn the machine off, you can see several leds on the system components that never go off. That means there may still be hardware-level processes running on the motherboard. Unplugging the machine and waiting until all these lights extinguish guarantees a FULL reboot.
@@tabularasa0606 You have no idea what you're talking about. I have 7000 MB/sec NVME drives, while HDD drives can only reach speeds of up to 180MB/sec, which is a total joke. As a result, I can back up my OS in a fraction of the time it would take with a hard drive. Many people who still use HDD drives rarely make backups because it takes so long, so when their drive fails, they're completely screwed. Take a computer with the OS installed on a HDD drive and replace it with an SSD; the difference is huge. When it comes to accessing individual files, an SSD completely outperforms an HDD. HDD drives having a longer lifespan? Are you kidding me? I have two 10-year-old Intel SSDs, and the Intel monitoring software shows that the estimated life remaining is still at 90%. Lifespan is only an issue with low-quality brands. Intel has always made super-reliable SSDs, as they sold many to data centers that require reliability. Their SSD division was sold to SK Hynix and now operates under the name Solidigm, continuing to produce high-quality SSDs with many former Intel employees. Putting an HD drive in a laptop that you carry and drop everywhere is a recipe for disaster; that HDD drive won't last anywhere near as long as an SSD drive. Common SSD drives also don't get as hot as hard drives and are therefore a far better choice for laptops, which are difficult to cool internally. In desktop PCs, you also wouldn't need to cool them as aggressively as HDD drives. Plus, they use far less power than HDD drives, increasing battery life in laptops. Then there's portability; some portable SSD drives are way smaller than the smallest HDD drive you can buy, and you don't have to worry about damaging them when you toss them around. A portable HDD drive, on the other hand, needs to be treated with care. Additionally, SSDs make no sound and don't need to be defragmented, unlike hard drives, which puts extra stress on HDD drives. I agree about cost vs size, but unless you regularly illegally download movies and games, there's no reason to buy a drive bigger than 2TB. And for those who need more capacity, they can simply add an HDD drive as extra storage to their desktop PC.
You have a Ryzen 9 with 16 cores but only 4 GBs of RAM? You should be able to handle up to 128 GBs of RAM on that machine. I wouldn't recommend using an SSD for anyone due to their short life span. Sure, they are faster than a hard drive, but the trade-off of speed over reliability is a dealbreaker. Then there is the cost of having to replace the crappy SSD every time it dies and takes all your data with it.
This is a virtual machine. The actual machine does, indeed, have 128GB of RAM. SSD lifespans are no longer short -- they tend to last longer than the machine is useful. I have at least one machine that's on year 12 on its SSD.
On my two home built PC'S I automatically installed, started with 16gb of ram with room to expand if required. My HP AIO came with 8gb and I added another 8gb. I did this to make sure I had plenty of ram storage to future proof for down the road. I do have room to expand to 32gb or even 64gb if ever needed. I did this because of Microsoft's increasing demand for it. Also with the new tech such as AI and possibilities of Microsoft is planning to do with it in the next version of windows, aka 12. But for now it remains to be revealed and seen. Personally I am not a fan of AI or an AI controlled os.
Agreed...... I only have 4GB Ram on my Windows 10 desktop but when using Photoshop Elements 2024, it does slow considerably. The minimum requirement for Elements is 4GB so right on the edge there!
Clarification, Leo: *Rebooting* doesn't change anything when something is amiss. *Restarting* does. Have I got this right? I know the label in Windows is Restart. Reboot doesn't exist.
@@askleonotenboom A restart in Windows 10 (and most likely in 11 too) is not a true reboot, because "fast startup" is enabled by default by the OS which places the PC into a hibernation state, and there are good reasons to turn that off. Ironically even Microsoft is on their own web site suggesting to turn it off if you have issues with Windows update.
@@MichaelDomer Restart explicitly bypasses Fast Boot. That only kicks in when you Shut Down (so as to me the subsequent start up "faster".) Was updating an article on this very topic today. So by your definitions, a restart really is a reboot. 🙂
Newer PCs have a slot on the motherboard where you can insert an M.2 SSD. Older PCs do not, so you would have to install the other type of SSD where the hard drive is installed
"Newer PCs have a slot on the motherboard where you can insert an M.2 SSD. Older PCs do not, so you would have to install the other type of SSD where the hard drive is installed" You would not "have to install the other type of SSD". 1) That other type is SATA based, assuming you were referring to NVMe based M.2 drives. 2) M.2 is a form factor. It does not dictate whether the M.2 shape drive is SATA based or NVMe based. If it is SATA based, then it will perform no faster than a 2.5" SATA based SSD. 3) You can add in a PCIe card interface for M.2 drives. Your computer need not have to have a physical M.2 port integrated on the motherboard, as long as you have a free PCIe slot for an NVMe based M.2 card.
Use a new linux distro, and guess what it is usually free. and you know what it doesn't even start up windows, unless I installed windows in an emulator for some reason.
Of course. All my videos and articles use a virtual machine (various) for different OS versions, and machines that look more like "normal" users than my real machine does.
I used one way: I stopped using Windows and switched to Linux! I never knew just how responsive, efficient and capable my hardware really was until then! One big part of the reason I ditched Windows over a decade ago (While on Win 7) was because to get anything in windows to work well, and customize it to my needs and want's you had to spend weeks on research and hack way deep into shit, you weren't supposed to, and then with every update or service pack Microdick took it all away again! Screw that shit, and now get ready to pay even more for being spied on and have your privacy intruded! Don't you think they should be paying you?
Why are you recommending turning off the Search Indexer? Sure, Windows Search works without it, but really? Enough people complain that Windows Search doesn't work, but that is because they do not know how to use it properly. Asking them to turn off a critical service that makes it work is counterintuitive, because it makes using their computers harder than it could be, and most notably because Search Indexer has almost no impact on overall system performance whatsoever. You may find it more productive to publish a video that shows people how to properly use Windows Search to find their files, such as using DATE, KIND or TAG filters (to name but a few), in addition to the AND, OR and NOT operators. None of which will work if the Search Indexer is turned off. For the record, since subscribing to Ask Leo, this is the first Thumbs Down I've given to your content.
The issue isn't search, it's that the search indexer is often a cause of performance issues. I recommend turning it off if a) you don't use search often (which as it turns out is most people), and b) it's impacting your performance.
@@askleonotenboom I've actually found that turning off Windows Search in the long run degrades overall performance. A) Most people don't use it because they don't know how or because B) They are incorrectly led to believe that it degrades system performance. In either case, you need to let people know just exactly how great a productivity enhancing tool Window Search really is, especially when combined with other lesser-known features of Windows Explorer. Did you even run and publish benchmarks comparing the performace before Windows Search was disabled and when it was? I didn't see any....
@@dzomlija You might put me in the "don't know how" category; although I do know where it is located (bottom left). My "issue" isn't that I don't know how, but rather don't know why (I should bother with it). If I want to find something on the web, Google works well enough, and on my own PC ... I already know where all my usual stuff is located. So ... what would Search do for me?
@@ingemarolson3240 I can't argue with that, but that still does not justify just blindly turning the feature off entirely. I've encountered far too many scenarios where people have done just that, and then later could not find a particular file they needed. Had Windows Search been available to them, they could have performed a search beyond just an ordinary filename (which they often do not remember) search and would have found what they needed using its associated internal metadata and other keywords. Instead, they write off the file as lost, and end up wasting hours of their time re-creating it from hardcopy or memory. I have yet to discover any legit or even valid reason why Windows Search should be turned off. Sorry.
Sadly Leo, so many of the settings you change are next to impossible to find in Windows 10. As per the insane morons at MS, every time they release a new OS, they shuffle things around. I hate that!!!! Leave things where they were!!!!!! End of rant. Perhaps include a set of instructions for the billions of Windows 10 users who still exist 😉?
@@ZenAndPsychedelicHealingCenter Agreed but with each new release, they shuffle things around. Even an update can move things. Then, there's the different versions. You listen to the gurus help you fix something and nothing is where they say it is because they are running a different version. The smart thing to do is leave *everything where it is* and just make some features invisible for the lesser versions like Windows Home. That's the smart thing to do.
> "Best thing to do is uninstall Windows and install Linux. Windows is garbage." *Linux Torvalds* is the creator of Linux, and check what he has to say about Linux in this video: "Linus Torvalds on why desktop Linux sucks" It's fair to say that he knows Linux better than you. 😉
Windows is unreliable and crashes all the time. Wastes you time and production. Dual boot with Linux and when not if windows goes away from a virus you will still have a superior OS.
I don't understand why you keep posting, switch to Linux, if people wanted Linux, now here was a tutorial on how to increase speed in Linux, you really can't help yourself, you are boring!
Most are even free.
Thanks Leo. Your suggestions made a big difference in my W10 machine. Much faster. Thank you!
Well presented Leo, one of the better tutorials for the less than computer savvy folks like me... I learn a little more every time I check-in. Thanks for sharing!
Valuable information well explained -- great job!
Great advice presented clearly. Thanks!
Defender doesn’t need to startup? If you don’t start it up, does that mean it’s not always running in the background? Serious question because I thought it was like any antivirus that needs to run.
I don't recall mentioning not running Defender. Where do I say that?
You said disable it at startup.@@askleonotenboom
@@askleonotenboom When you disabled it from startup? Did I understand that wrong? 1:44
@@WriterBrenInteresting. I didn't disable it myself. (And I just blew over it in the video.) I enabled it, rebooted, and it came back disabled. I assume Microsoft Security is "doing the right thing" with the startup and the service it controls - running only when needed. Not finding any details on that either. Very strange.
@@askleonotenboom thank you for replying. I will just let Windows do its thing, lol. That’s not always the best choice, but it is in this situation.
Very good :). One thing you need to fix is the irritating cookies message that shows on every article or other pages on your website.
Don't just disable those unwanted Windows apps, uninstall them. I take it a step further and never let them get installed in the first place. Whenever I get a new computer, I upgrade (free for me, your circumstance may differ) from the Home version to the Pro version. I do a clean install by downloading the ISO image (tip: install a user-agent switcher extension to your browser and set it to Linux before visiting the Microsoft site: then you'll get a direct link for downloading the ISO rather than having to use the media creation tool) and using NTLite (the freeware version suits my needs) to create a customized ISO. I remove all those apps I don't want, everything related to XBox, etc.
good content there man, and covering most if not all angles. enjoyed seeing you also stated some of the obvious which many users at time forget about or do not consider
Hey Leo (this might be another "question" for you?).
I am (still) on Win 10. So I go to the Start icon, right-click, and get a list of options, including Computer Management. I left-click on that one, and ... nothing (well, the list of options disappears). Hmmm. Right-clicking has the same (non-)effect, btw. When I try the various options, I find that some of them "work" (ie: bring up another window): Apps and Features, Power Options, System, Network Connections, Settings, Search, Run, Shut Down or Sign Out; whereas others have no effect/only close the option list: Event Viewer, Device Manager, Disk Management, Computer Management, Windows Powershell, Windows Powershell (Admin), Task Manager, File Explorer, Desktop (ok, I don't know what Desktop is supposed to do).
I CAN get to (eg) Powershell by left-clicking on the Start icon and scrolling down to the Windows Powershell options and choosing one.
It appears that "something" is broken/mis-configured, but what? And how do I fix it?
I'd start you here: askleo.com/five-steps-to-repair-windows-10-without-losing-programs/
I have a 7 year old HP Laptop with 8 GB RAM WIN 10. My laptop always gets slow. I just back up my data then do a factory reset. Good as new.
If you would try to figure out why your computer got slow, and learn how to fix it, then you would never need a factory reset. Secondly, you must be not using that laptop for much more than browsing and email, because if I had to do a factory reset, I would lose all my installed applications, their settings, and countless Windows settings, it would take me a whole day to get everything working in the way I want it.
@MichaelDomer I don't care why it slows down. It's none of your business why I do a factory reset. I use my laptop for email, MS Office apps, printing, and, of course, the internet. I have all the apps. I back up my docs. When I need to, factory reset. I'm done. Good as new. Takes about 2 hours. No big deal. I don't lose anything. So I have to do some Windows settings. Wow!! What a chore! Get a life.
If your disk drive is an hdd try to upgrade to SSD it will give u a great boost
@@roncaruso931
It takes you 2 hours to do a factory reset, while I can fix your slowdowns in minutes.
Learn how to fix a computer lazy noob, you look like a joke every time you do a factory reset to solve a problem.
@@roncaruso931
Michael Domer is 100% right, doing a factory reset every time your computer gets slow is a foolish thing to do. Do you put a new engine in your car, each time your car doesn't perform well?
Thanks for another great video, Leo! I use Windows 10 with Norton. Windows Defender is turned off by Norton. I opened the Defender page and there are no Scan buttons that I can see. Perhaps with Norton, I don't need to use Defender? Thanks.
Do a full scan with Norton instead. The principle is the same - a thorough investigation for malware!
@@Ubu987 I'm using Norton 360 Deluxe. Good enough? I do regular scans. Nothing has been found, however, Norton reports many outdated rivers , junk files, and other things. The want a lot of extra cash to clean that up. Are there free solutions. Thanks, Ubu.
Yeah..... Any virus checker you install (even by mistake) will automatically close Windows defender but be aware that if you delete a virus checker, Windows defender will not restart automatically!
Usually shows a warning that no virus checker is in place.
@@fabianmckenna8197 Okay, thanks for the info, Fabian.
Stop using Norton. Windows defender is more than enough for the normal user.
Leo: Helpful advices, as always.
I would add: Run Windows "Disk Cleanup", both standard and system files.
Check all boxes, but be aware of Recycle Bin.
This may both free up a lot of disk space, and make your machine run faster.
Very good info for the people that are not very savy.. I was an engineer for DEC in Australia..And have been involved since win 3.11 came out.. The only thing I reckon you need here that's missing is... Virtual memory, setting it to the min and max by hand.. I have 20GB dram "available" in my machine, not Literally! I have more of course. But Win11 told me how much I have.. thus you need to set virtual memory appropriately. And I also used to set the screen to 16 bits rather than 32.. Not so necessary now and not available..
Yes Leo I did replace my old spinners a long time ago and when I got my new laptop it came with one of those newer PCi Express hard drives and it is so much quicker than the original SSD types.
*_"I got my new laptop it came with one of those newer PCi Express hard drives and it is so much quicker than the original SSD types"_*
Uh...no, those are not hard drives, those are NVME SSD's.
Thanks for this helpful video!
Just a question... Why do you recommend not having Windows Defender at the Windows start? Isn't that non secure?
Great video again. One slight remark: bear in mind that turning off the search indexer will disabke the timeline in Windows 10
I'd forgotten about the timeline. Does anyone actually use it?
I do not even know what it is
Does that have anything to do with system recovery?
re 3:28 You just disabled Defender. How are you now running it?
Microsoft confusion. There's defender and defender. My security software is running just fine. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That's just for the icon for defender, not the defender service itself.
This information was so helpful Leo. Thank you!
Should I disable Delayed Launcher Intel Corporation? I have seen conflicting answers when I Google it.
Hi Leo!
I have a question about internet speed and connection. I know about stories and cases in which operators do not comply with contracted speeds (at least here in Portugal). I pay for a 100Mbs/100Mbs service and I can never get an acceptable speed - and by acceptable I mean, getting a video or a stream site (like Netflix) to not freeze (leaving the loading circle moving). I know it's not a problem with my PC because the same thing happens on my phone. The modem/router are 3 meters away from the PC and smartphone. I even connected my PC with an ethernet cable.
I know some cloud storage sites limit their download speed for those who don't have paid accounts, but when you download from a Torrent service (like uTorrent and torrents sites) this shouldn't happen, right? Or when downloading a program from its official website.
I heard somewhere that the router/modem ports where the ethernet cable connects may not be capable of delivering high speeds, but these devices were provided by the operator itself. Therefore, they should guarantee the contracted speeds, without the user having to buy a better router/modem.
I don't know if the PC brand and model counts, but I have an Acer Aspire 3 A315-55G laptop (with Intel i5 10210U, NVIDEA GeForce MX230 with 2GB VRAM, 8 GB DDR4 Memory and 256 GB PCi NVMe SSD).
How can I check exactly what speed the operator is giving me (and which, in practice, I have on my PC and smartphone) so I can go to the operator's store and ask for explanations?
Thank you very much.
having built many custom spec pc's,i can deffently say the main reason why you don't achieve those advertised speeds is mostly down to you're outdated spec..while the 10th gen i5 is more modern,that MX230 gpu is more than 15 to 20 years old & is more likely the main issue with stable internet connection..nowadays mid spec laptops or tablets are cheaper than building a fast custom spec desktop pc,however be mindful some business's will try or attempt to scam you with other's you don't want.
How timely Leo. SSD!
My laptop is five years old, can not be updated to Win11(per MS) and I have been thinking about replacing it. My only reservation is the hard drive in todays laptops.
I am 80, like to use the KISS theory and do not use cloud storage and most laptops today come with very small hard drives. I prefer to be "self contained" so to speak.
So the question is, what are the alternatives? Do I buy one with a small hard drive and then go through the expense of having someone replace it and I now have a useless small SSD and possible warranty violation? Can I just use one externally? Advice/Solutions???
As always, thanks for sharing the great information. JimE
Take a look at Laptops these days ... most come with pretty sizable SSDs by default. (Though I don't know what your definition of "small" is.)
I live in Australia, and the options available in upgrading internet speed involve deciding in which part of Singapore you want to move to.
@@gslim7337Sir/Madam, please elaborate. Is this a joke?
@@gslim7337😄😄
You can buy a laptop with a (small) 256GB SSD and an external 2TB hard drive (Western Digital Elements for example) for storing data that you connect via USB. Speed here is not crucial because it's just for storing data not running the OS or apps. It's always a good idea anyway to store your important data externally, especially in case of laptops, which you take with you and has a higher chance to get damaged than a desktop (water spill, drop, theft, etc).
Great hardware discussion, Leo. I use all SSDs and have a disk drive specifically for backups, where speed is not an issue. I have 48 GB of RAM, and Intel 7 processor. My computer boots Windows 10 in about 20 seconds and is suitable for gaming and high-end audio recording, which I do....and yet the thieves at MS have declared my PC a dinosaur for running Windows 11. I hope this comes back to bite MS in the you know what!!!!!!!
20 seconds to boot? That's some slow SSD.
@@MichaelDomer I thought that was pretty good. The computer is eight years old. The C drive is a Samsung SSD 870 EVO 500GB. No good? This is the boot time from being totally Off. I've stopped a lot of bloatware from booting. Your suggestions are welcome. Thanks for chiming in.
@@acreguy3156
> "The computer is eight years old"
> "The C drive is a Samsung SSD 870 EVO 500GB"
I'm not surprised after reading that, that Microsoft declared your PC a dinosaur for running Windows 11.
Let's be honest, you got a quad core CPU, when nowadays 12-16 cores is becoming quite common, and that SSD is a SATA SSD, and limited to about 500MB/sec, when a modern PCIe NVME SSD can reach speeds up to 14500MB/sec.
@@Horizon-hj3yc Good to know, Horizon. Many thanks for the info. Oh boy, I'm getting a new computer soon 😀! Oops, there is the war department (wife) in the way of that decision 🙃.
@@acreguy3156 ha made me smile with that lol the w department
There are some applications you install that like to add themselves to startup with Windows, so you should check the startup folder and what Leo showed to stop them from running at startup as many do NOT need to run when Windows starts
Dear Davidnp, I wish he could focus on Windows 10, since the majority still use this. People don't want to frig with something unless it's *to-the-letter specific and identical.*
Great, thanks! :) Just gonna add turning off apps running in the background...
Thank you!
thank you, well explained
Awhile back I swapped out my hard drive for an SSD and the difference was simply amazing without doing anything else. This requires software and an adaptor to go from the drive to a USB port on your computer, and you'll have to get inside your computer to do this. Not for the faint of heart, but WOW.
Thanks, Leo. Great help
Great as always
One of the most important things is to remove bloatware and Windows 11 is made of that. Certainly, installing all the best drivers is mandatory, especially Intel SATA driver which is almost always skipped via Windows update, but - Windows Store apps are galore and they all run in the background by default, most of them completely wasteful. If not needed, one can remove Xbox, Camera, Windows Phone, Photos, Cortana and other stuff, even Notepad (and replace it with Notepad2 or Notepad++). Menu becomes uncluttered and much more responsive. Other apps could be set not to run from background from Settings->Apps->Installed apps. I understand that many people use some of those, but there are always much better, faster and more secure alternatives out there.
nicely done, and thank you for sharing this information.
well for once i got a ssd hard drive that help very very much have 1tb icoolax ssd here mechanical toshiba died in 3 years
with ssd way way much faster and my ssd is 2.5 inch type sata another question what if you have pagefile.sys turned off have no page file and you run out of ram then what happens
When a program asks for more RAM than the system has, that program will fail. (Ran into this myself just recently. Starting an additional VM just said that it couldn't allocate enough RAM.)
You should never turn your pagefile off!
@@Horizon-hj3yc Why? Care to back up that position?
Excellent information Leo , Good on you mate
You can't just stop/disable "Windows Search" service to stop files from being indexed. You have to uncheck "Allow files on drive to be indexed...." and click "Apply" to stop it fully.
Hi Leo, any thoughts on CCleaner ?
Do a search......you will find "Do Not Go Anywhere Near It". Use at your peril.
As other comments point it, it's had a spotty history. I use it occasionally. If you're thinking of the registry cleaner specifically, I don't recommend those in general: askleo.com/best-registry-cleaner/
Be aware that CCleaner tries to download antivirus programs which automatically disables Windows defender. On deleting the antivirus, you have to manually restart defender.
I use it myself without issue.
@@fabianmckenna8197 CCleaner doesn't do that anymore, only thing it tries to get you to install is google chrome but that is a toggle you need to watch for during the install of CCleaner.
The "do less" section is underrated. I see so many people using so many programs at once, like they don't know they can close them. And it's getting worse because the more powerful computers become, the more careless and greedy the users get.
Very informative video. Thanks
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Amazing!
I have an eleventh way. Sell your Windows machine and buy an Apple silicon based computer instead. After decades of developing software on Window OS, as soon as I retired several years ago I changed to MacOS and never regretted it. Especially now with Apple's M-series processors. (There is a learning curve of course).
Dear Andre, You profess to be a computer expert but sound sarcastic. Regular people have no time to frig with silliness.
Replacing a processor is quite possible on existing motherboards, and is relatively easy to do.
Disagree. Replacing with same family, maybe. But people are looking for upgrades when they reach this point, and that's typically not realistic for the average user.
> "Replacing a processor is quite possible on existing motherboards, and is relatively easy to do."
That's simply not true, because by the time that you need to replace your processor that is substantially faster, you would need to buy a new motherboard, there is simply no way around it, unless you like to replace your outdated CPU with another outdated one.
Most motherboards will accept higher-performance processors than originally-installed processors. For example, I just upgraded an AMD Athlon 64 2.5 GHz, 2-core processor with a Phenom II 3.3 GHz, 4-core processor in the same motherboard with the result of better performance.
That's true Leo .
windows search... if you have outlook, it uses the service for it's own search... so may not want to disable
It's not fair to say there's no reason to leave a desktop in Balanced performance node: it saves a considerable amount of electricity. This is reflected in savings WRT to your energy bill, and your carbon footprint. I've studied the effects of Ultimate, Performance, and Balanced modes and can say the differences in performance are hardly measurable and certainly not perceptible, but the savings in power is significant. Likewise, running a computer 24/7 solely to let the malware scans happen overnight is wasteful if not downright irresponsible.
For me it was removing thumbails. Explorer got really slow after the thumnail DB reached few GBs.
Switch to Linux?
toolbar?
Nowdays with edge/chrome/firefox being the main browsers (and not internet explorer), toolbars aren't as such a thing anymore so it's extensions if anything that can be seen as another type of bloat.
You should also remove unnecessary tasks (most of them are unnecessary) from the Task Scheduler and Windows runs much better with 8GB of memory.
The catch: knowing what's "unnecessary". I sure don't know, and I suspect most don't. On top of that it'll vary dramatically from user to user.
When Windows is slow, then I know that the goddam crap is updating (in the background), while I never ASK it to do that.
What a relief Linux is (which will never do anything that I do not ask it to do).
Reboot? No! Don’t just reboot. A reboot does not restart everything from ground zero. Turn the machine off and unplug it for a while. If you pull the cover and turn the machine off, you can see several leds on the system components that never go off. That means there may still be hardware-level processes running on the motherboard. Unplugging the machine and waiting until all these lights extinguish guarantees a FULL reboot.
For those who still work with HDD in their machine try to upgrade to an SSD it'will be a huge difference
SSD's already exist for over 30 years...
@@Horizon-hj3yc
And it still sucks. HDD drives are much larger and have a longer lifespan.
@@tabularasa0606
You have no idea what you're talking about. I have 7000 MB/sec NVME drives, while HDD drives can only reach speeds of up to 180MB/sec, which is a total joke. As a result, I can back up my OS in a fraction of the time it would take with a hard drive. Many people who still use HDD drives rarely make backups because it takes so long, so when their drive fails, they're completely screwed.
Take a computer with the OS installed on a HDD drive and replace it with an SSD; the difference is huge. When it comes to accessing individual files, an SSD completely outperforms an HDD.
HDD drives having a longer lifespan? Are you kidding me? I have two 10-year-old Intel SSDs, and the Intel monitoring software shows that the estimated life remaining is still at 90%. Lifespan is only an issue with low-quality brands. Intel has always made super-reliable SSDs, as they sold many to data centers that require reliability. Their SSD division was sold to SK Hynix and now operates under the name Solidigm, continuing to produce high-quality SSDs with many former Intel employees.
Putting an HD drive in a laptop that you carry and drop everywhere is a recipe for disaster; that HDD drive won't last anywhere near as long as an SSD drive. Common SSD drives also don't get as hot as hard drives and are therefore a far better choice for laptops, which are difficult to cool internally. In desktop PCs, you also wouldn't need to cool them as aggressively as HDD drives. Plus, they use far less power than HDD drives, increasing battery life in laptops.
Then there's portability; some portable SSD drives are way smaller than the smallest HDD drive you can buy, and you don't have to worry about damaging them when you toss them around. A portable HDD drive, on the other hand, needs to be treated with care. Additionally, SSDs make no sound and don't need to be defragmented, unlike hard drives, which puts extra stress on HDD drives.
I agree about cost vs size, but unless you regularly illegally download movies and games, there's no reason to buy a drive bigger than 2TB. And for those who need more capacity, they can simply add an HDD drive as extra storage to their desktop PC.
You have a Ryzen 9 with 16 cores but only 4 GBs of RAM? You should be able to handle up to 128 GBs of RAM on that machine. I wouldn't recommend using an SSD for anyone due to their short life span. Sure, they are faster than a hard drive, but the trade-off of speed over reliability is a dealbreaker. Then there is the cost of having to replace the crappy SSD every time it dies and takes all your data with it.
This is a virtual machine. The actual machine does, indeed, have 128GB of RAM. SSD lifespans are no longer short -- they tend to last longer than the machine is useful. I have at least one machine that's on year 12 on its SSD.
I only reboot 8 or so times a month...
I recommend a minimum of 8GB ram. Your machine may run slow with just 4GB
Agreed. And if you get a new machine you can start with that but make sure you can add [much] more RAM later.
On my two home built PC'S I automatically installed, started with 16gb of ram with room to expand if required. My HP AIO came with 8gb and I added another 8gb.
I did this to make sure I had plenty of ram storage to future proof for down the road. I do have room to expand to 32gb or even 64gb if ever needed. I did this because of Microsoft's increasing demand for it. Also with the new tech such as AI and possibilities of Microsoft is planning to do with it in the next version of windows, aka 12.
But for now it remains to be revealed and seen. Personally I am not a fan of AI or an AI controlled os.
Agreed...... I only have 4GB Ram on my Windows 10 desktop but when using Photoshop Elements 2024, it does slow considerably. The minimum requirement for Elements is 4GB so right on the edge there!
"May"?
16GB is the sweetspot from a performance standpoint
I think most people DO want Defender to run at startup...???
Oops, sorry, wrote that before watching the later part of the video.
Clarification, Leo: *Rebooting* doesn't change anything when something is amiss. *Restarting* does. Have I got this right? I know the label in Windows is Restart. Reboot doesn't exist.
Most people intermix the terms. One person's reboot is another's restart.
@@askleonotenboom Agreed. Thanks for that 👍.
@@askleonotenboom
A restart in Windows 10 (and most likely in 11 too) is not a true reboot, because "fast startup" is enabled by default by the OS which places the PC into a hibernation state, and there are good reasons to turn that off. Ironically even Microsoft is on their own web site suggesting to turn it off if you have issues with Windows update.
@@MichaelDomer Restart explicitly bypasses Fast Boot. That only kicks in when you Shut Down (so as to me the subsequent start up "faster".) Was updating an article on this very topic today. So by your definitions, a restart really is a reboot. 🙂
Newer PCs have a slot on the motherboard where you can insert an M.2 SSD. Older PCs do not, so you would have to install the other type of SSD where the hard drive is installed
I was pleasantly surprised to find my desktop had TWO slots for M.2's.
@@Nick41622I'm uncommon.
"Newer PCs have a slot on the motherboard where you can insert an M.2 SSD. Older PCs do not, so you would have to install the other type of SSD where the hard drive is installed"
You would not "have to install the other type of SSD".
1) That other type is SATA based, assuming you were referring to NVMe based M.2 drives.
2) M.2 is a form factor. It does not dictate whether the M.2 shape drive is SATA based or NVMe based.
If it is SATA based, then it will perform no faster than a 2.5" SATA based SSD.
3) You can add in a PCIe card interface for M.2 drives.
Your computer need not have to have a physical M.2 port integrated on the motherboard, as long as you have a free PCIe slot for an NVMe based M.2 card.
@@Nick41622 Mine has 4, because that's what a pro like me requires.
I pay for 500MB/ps for just $49 a month. And I have all new Routers, (3 of them) throughout my house. And I strictly run Linux!
I have converted to M2 SSD and a difference it is
Tip #7: "Don't use your computer the way it was designed and intended to be used. By not using your computer, you won't experience any slow downs!"
I pay for Bitdefender so I should be able ot disable most Windows Security services.
Use a new linux distro, and guess what it is usually free. and you know what it doesn't even start up windows, unless I installed windows in an emulator for some reason.
A Ryzen 9 with only 4 GB of RAM? I smell a virtual machine!
Of course. All my videos and articles use a virtual machine (various) for different OS versions, and machines that look more like "normal" users than my real machine does.
Too bad you didn't say Windows PC. I would have a suggestion for that.
The App Quik CPU To Make Windows 10 Faster
Switch to Linux Mint! ❤
I used one way: I stopped using Windows and switched to Linux! I never knew just how responsive, efficient and capable my hardware really was until then!
One big part of the reason I ditched Windows over a decade ago (While on Win 7) was because to get anything in windows to work well, and customize it to my needs and want's you had to spend weeks on research and hack way deep into shit, you weren't supposed to, and then with every update or service pack Microdick took it all away again! Screw that shit, and now get ready to pay even more for being spied on and have your privacy intruded! Don't you think they should be paying you?
Why are you recommending turning off the Search Indexer? Sure, Windows Search works without it, but really? Enough people complain that Windows Search doesn't work, but that is because they do not know how to use it properly.
Asking them to turn off a critical service that makes it work is counterintuitive, because it makes using their computers harder than it could be, and most notably because Search Indexer has almost no impact on overall system performance whatsoever.
You may find it more productive to publish a video that shows people how to properly use Windows Search to find their files, such as using DATE, KIND or TAG filters (to name but a few), in addition to the AND, OR and NOT operators. None of which will work if the Search Indexer is turned off.
For the record, since subscribing to Ask Leo, this is the first Thumbs Down I've given to your content.
The issue isn't search, it's that the search indexer is often a cause of performance issues. I recommend turning it off if a) you don't use search often (which as it turns out is most people), and b) it's impacting your performance.
@@askleonotenboom I've actually found that turning off Windows Search in the long run degrades overall performance.
A) Most people don't use it because they don't know how or because B) They are incorrectly led to believe that it degrades system performance.
In either case, you need to let people know just exactly how great a productivity enhancing tool Window Search really is, especially when combined with other lesser-known features of Windows Explorer.
Did you even run and publish benchmarks comparing the performace before Windows Search was disabled and when it was? I didn't see any....
@@dzomlija You might put me in the "don't know how" category; although I do know where it is located (bottom left). My "issue" isn't that I don't know how, but rather don't know why (I should bother with it). If I want to find something on the web, Google works well enough, and on my own PC ... I already know where all my usual stuff is located. So ... what would Search do for me?
@@ingemarolson3240 I can't argue with that, but that still does not justify just blindly turning the feature off entirely.
I've encountered far too many scenarios where people have done just that, and then later could not find a particular file they needed. Had Windows Search been available to them, they could have performed a search beyond just an ordinary filename (which they often do not remember) search and would have found what they needed using its associated internal metadata and other keywords. Instead, they write off the file as lost, and end up wasting hours of their time re-creating it from hardcopy or memory.
I have yet to discover any legit or even valid reason why Windows Search should be turned off. Sorry.
Your internet CONNECTION and your internet SPEED are two different things.
Your number one piece of crapware removal should always be the garbage Windows forces down your throat - edge, remove that first !!
Please don't talk about Windows 11, better tell me how to avoid it
There is one app that will solve both win10 & 11 speed issues....It's called Linux.
Sadly Leo, so many of the settings you change are next to impossible to find in Windows 10. As per the insane morons at MS, every time they release a new OS, they shuffle things around. I hate that!!!! Leave things where they were!!!!!! End of rant.
Perhaps include a set of instructions for the billions of Windows 10 users who still exist 😉?
Windows 10 is NOT a new OS. It's been out for nearly a decade.
@@ZenAndPsychedelicHealingCenter Agreed but with each new release, they shuffle things around. Even an update can move things. Then, there's the different versions. You listen to the gurus help you fix something and nothing is where they say it is because they are running a different version. The smart thing to do is leave *everything where it is* and just make some features invisible for the lesser versions like Windows Home. That's the smart thing to do.
To improve speed, and reduce administrative burden: Get a Mac
Ten ways to make a windows pc faster
Install Linux ten times.
Best thing to do is uninstall Windows and install Linux. Windows is garbage.
And Trump for President, right?
> "Best thing to do is uninstall Windows and install Linux. Windows is garbage."
*Linux Torvalds* is the creator of Linux, and check what he has to say about Linux in this video: "Linus Torvalds on why desktop Linux sucks"
It's fair to say that he knows Linux better than you. 😉
Linux fans do aggressive marketing but tbh linux is garbage
Windows is unreliable and crashes all the time. Wastes you time and production. Dual boot with Linux and when not if windows goes away from a virus you will still have a superior OS.
Want to make your pc faster? simple! Switch to Linux
I don't understand why you keep posting, switch to Linux, if people wanted Linux, now here was a tutorial on how to increase speed in Linux, you really can't help yourself, you are boring!
switch to Linux ....