What Laptop logo

How to: Speed your laptop up

Philip Barker - 16 March 2009 - 4:10pm

Autoruns screen grabMost laptops that are brand new come with loads of software pre-installed – a lot of it trial-only, and many applications that you may not even use. The more software you install, the longer it’ll take your laptop to start up, but with a free third-party app it’s a simple process to speed things up.

Using Autoruns, which can be downloaded here for free, you’ll be able to choose which programs your laptop runs on start-up, deselecting the ones you don’t use very often to speed things up considerably. 

You’ll find lots of applications start automatically – from Microsoft Office to DVD creation software – and it really is just a case of un-ticking the ones you don’t want to run. This should see a huge difference in your laptop’s Notification Area – the corner of the display that shows all the active programs. If you need to run any of the software you’ve disabled from starting automatically, simply select it from the start menu.

Only un-tick the programs you recognise in Autoruns, however, and be sure to leave any Windows system files and applications as they are.

Autoruns screen grab

Hot Review

  • Top netbooks - 14 of the world's greatest netbooks reviewed

    14 of the best netbooksWhen netbooks first arrived on the scene, no one – manufacturers or consumers alike – expected them to take the world by storm. We’d seen tiny laptops at What Laptop before, so were quite surprised at the whirlwind success and the online flurry caused by the first Asus Eee PC netbook.

    Since then, we’ve seen netbooks from nearly every major manufacturer – several in some cases – which is great for the consumer. It also presents a conundrum, however, as with similar sizes and specifications throughout the market, it makes choosing the right netbook for you even more difficult. Here we take a look at the best, making it easy for you to pick your perfect portable.

Hot Review

Latest Issue

Latest Issue