As with the other versions of Windows, also for Windows 10 there are some simple tricks to make it go better and faster, to optimize the PC and customize it according to your needs. Windows 10 is fast and has no performance problems, but the more you use it, the more the number of programs installed and the more system resources will be occupied.
Windows 10 picks up many things from Windows 8.1 and, as seen, it changes a lot compared to Windows 7, with much more powerful tools such as, for example, the Windows 10 task manager.
Below, we see some options and settings that are worth changing almost for everyone (unless specific needs), to improve PC performance, make Windows 10 start better and make it faster than it is after a new installation or update.
1) Change default folder for opening File Explorer
When you press the folder icon on the taskbar, by default, the so-called Quick Access view opens.
Many people prefer to view This PC (once known as My Computer ) instead and see the status of the disks.
To change this option, open any folder, click on " View " in the ribbon at the top and, on the right side, open the Folder Options .
In the " General " tab you can change it to " Open File Explorer for: " from Quick Access to This PC .
I had already talked about this change, because it is one of the first options to change in Windows 10.
2) Remove the Activity View button from the taskbar
The taskbar is the place to keep the icons of the most used programs and where open programs appear.
Since it can be easily filled with icons, it is better to eliminate the useless ones or almost like the Task View key, which really does not add much to Windows 10.
Then press the right mouse button in an empty area of the taskbar and, in the contextual menu that opens, deselect "Show Activity View button".
The key can always be put back in its place at any time, but in any case the activity view can always be had by pressing together the Windows + Tab keys.
3) Remove the search box or turn it into an icon
Another way to make room on the taskbar is to eliminate the spacious search box.
Press the right mouse button in an empty point of the taskbar and, in the contextual menu, position the mouse pointer on the " Search " item and then choose whether to make it disappear or to see only its icon.
4) Disable Cortana
If the voice assistant makes sense on a smartphone, it is not as useful on a PC.
Windows 10's Cortana voice assistant is a nice feature to try, but it takes up memory and is, for almost everyone, not essential.
By default, Cortana is already present on the taskbar and just waits for a click on the search box to activate.
To disable Cortana, press the search box on the taskbar and, in the box that opens, click the settings icon (the gear) located on the left side and turn off the Cortana switch.
5) Disable indexing of files in the search or limit searches only to the computer excluding the results from the internet
Windows 10 search has been improved, but it doesn't work the same way on every PC.
One of the most classic tricks to speed up the PC is to disable the indexing of files that continuously occupies the disk, slowing down every operation.
If you never use file search or if you have an alternative program, you can disable indexing in this way: Open the task manager by pressing the CTRL-Shift-Esc keys together, go to the services tab, press on any service and then on Open Services .
In the list of services, look for the one called Windows Search or WSearch, press on it twice and stop it also changing the option of the startup type by putting it disabled .
If you want to leave indexing turned on, at least disable the web search that is based on Bing and is not that efficient.
To do this, press on the search box or on the lens icon in the taskbar, go to the settings by pressing the gear button in the box that opens and then deactivate the web search results.
6) Turn off animations
Windows 10 uses many animations to make computer use and window management more beautiful and smoother.
These animations, active by default, can be optimized by disabling them all or leaving only the most comfortable ones.
On which to keep and how to proceed, read the guide on how to disable animations on Windows.
7) Disable the automatic start items
In Windows 10, as well as in Windows 8, the task manager allows you to manage programs that start automatically when you turn on the computer.
As you can imagine, the more programs there are in this list, the slower the initial Windows loading will be and the more memory will be permanently occupied.
From the Windows 10 Task Manager (press the CTRL-Shift-Esc keys together), go to the Startup tab, press on the programs you do not want to always have active and then on the disable key.
8) Disable the notification center
The notification center in Windows 10 is quite useless unless you are using a tablet or if you are using applications such as Mail and Calendar.
In another article we saw the guide to the Windows 10 notification center and how to remove it if you prefer to do without it.
9) Manage apps in the background
Whether you want it or not, in Windows 10 there are apps, which are not like normal programs, but which work like those of a smartphone and are only downloaded from the official store.
Many of these apps remain in the background and can take up some of the computer's memory making it slower.
You can still disable the background apps by going to the Start menu -> Settings -> Privacy -> Background apps .
Obviously, unused apps would be better to remove them (see how to uninstall apps on Windows 10).
10) Deactivate the diagnostic monitoring service
In Windows 10 this service occupies at least 6 or 7 MB and can be deactivated without affecting the functioning of the computer.
This is the infamous telemetry service, the one that sends anonymous statistics to Microsoft regarding the functioning of the computer.
Then open the list of services as seen in point 5 and disable the one called Diagnostic Monitoring or Diagtrack Service .
Finally, do the maintenance of Windows 10 which, as seen in the guide, changes slightly compared to other versions of Windows.
READ ALSO (since many of the guides for Windows 8 are also valid for Windows 10): How to make Windows 8 as fast as possible
