I've started to notice that my school laptop is running really slowly after several recent updates. For instance, opening the volume control or brightness settings causes the computer to freeze for almost 30 seconds, and launching the start or search menu takes over a minute. While using applications is still manageable, everything is definitely slower. Unfortunately, I can't replace the laptop, and since it's not fully mine, I don't have admin privileges to make significant changes. Is there anything I can do to improve its performance?
5 Answers
You could try cloning the existing hard drive to an SSD with software like Clonezilla. If the new SSD size matches or exceeds the old one, just swap them out and see if that improves performance.
Over time, hardware can degrade, and operating systems like Windows tend to demand more resources with each update. Without more details, it’s hard to pinpoint the issue, but it might be a mix of software bloat and hardware age.
It sounds like you're stuck with that laptop if it's not yours and you're not an admin. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do other than deal with the slowdown or hope the school admins can help out.
First, is that laptop using a mechanical hard drive? You might want to find out how much RAM it has too and what tasks are running in the background. Check with the admin if you can to get that info.
Windows can get pretty bloated as it updates. If things become too slow, you might consider trying a Linux distro instead. It runs smoother on older devices than Windows. If you have a spare hard drive, you can install Linux on it and try booting from there without losing your Windows setup.
I’ll have to look into Linux. Do I just need to change the boot order to switch back to Windows?
I don’t know what a mechanical HDD is, but I know it’s a laptop with no external drives. Task manager is locked by admin too. Any tips on how to check that?