Open Task Manager (press Ctrl, Shift and Esc together) while the laptop is crawling, and click the CPU, Memory and Disk column headings in turn. Whatever sits at the top of the list is what’s slowing it down, and the fixes below go after each one, cheapest first. If the processor runs flat out on ordinary work, a browser and email, no clean-up will cure it, because the chip itself is the limit, and the last part of this guide covers that case.
Read Task Manager first
The Processes tab shows each column as a percentage. A Disk column sitting at or near 100% for minutes at a time points at the drive. A Memory column in the 90s means Windows is short of RAM and is swapping to the drive to cope. CPU near 100% with one program at the top means that program; CPU near 100% spread across everything means the processor is struggling with ordinary work.
Then open the Performance tab and click Disk 0. Windows prints the drive type beside it: SSD or HDD. Keep that in mind for the upgrades section.
Six fixes, in the order worth trying them
- Restart it, don’t shut it down. Windows 10 and 11 ship with Fast Startup switched on, so Shut down saves part of the running system to the drive and loads it back next time. A stuck driver can survive that. Restart, from the Start menu’s power button, clears it.
- Stop programs starting with Windows. In Task Manager, open Startup apps (it’s the Startup tab on Windows 10). The Startup impact column marks the heavy ones. Right-click anything you don’t need the moment you log in, such as a game launcher, a cloud backup you rarely use or a printer’s helper app, and choose Disable, but leave your antivirus switched on. Nothing is uninstalled, and you can switch any of them back on later.
- Free up space on the drive. Go to Settings, System, Storage. Windows 11 has a Cleanup recommendations page there that lists large files, unused apps and old downloads, and both versions have Storage Sense, which empties temporary files and the Recycle Bin on a schedule once you turn it on. A drive with almost nothing free slows every update and every program that writes a file.
- Install the waiting updates. Settings, then Windows Update, then Check for updates. Under Advanced options, Optional updates is where Windows keeps driver updates from the laptop’s maker, and an old graphics or storage driver is a common cause of stutter, so install those as well and restart when Windows asks.
- Scan for malware. Open Windows Security, then Virus & threat protection, and run a Quick scan. If that finds nothing and the laptop is still slow for no reason you can see, go to Scan options and run a Microsoft Defender Offline scan. It restarts the laptop and checks the drive before Windows loads, which catches things a normal scan can’t reach, and it takes about 15 minutes.
- Check the power mode, and the heat. On battery, Windows holds the processor back to save charge. On Windows 11, go to Settings, System, Power & battery and set Power mode to Best performance while it’s plugged in; on Windows 10, click the battery icon and drag the slider to the right. A processor that’s too hot slows itself down to protect itself, so if the underside is hot and the laptop is quick for ten minutes and then drags, its fan can’t keep up. Work on a desk, not a duvet, and with the laptop switched off, clear the vents with short bursts of compressed air.
Upgrades that make a real difference
If the Performance tab said HDD, that’s the one to change. A hard drive is a spinning disc with a moving arm, and Windows 10 and 11 read from the drive constantly, so a laptop with a hard drive and a busy Disk column will feel slow whatever else you do. Swapping it for an SSD and copying Windows across is the single biggest improvement an older laptop can get, and we’d do it before anything else.
RAM comes second, and only if the Memory column was in the 90s. Click Memory on the Performance tab: it shows how much is fitted and “Slots used”, such as 1 of 2. A free slot means you can add a stick. Many thin laptops have their memory soldered to the board, and then there’s nothing to add.
Whether either is worth paying a shop for depends on the quote and on the processor. On an 8th-generation Core i5 or newer, an SSD can buy you years. On a laptop that can’t run Windows 11, read the next section first.
Reset Windows as a last step
If the fixes above haven’t helped, Settings, System, Recovery has Reset this PC. Choose Keep my files and Windows reinstalls itself while leaving your documents in place, although your programs go and you’ll need to reinstall them, so back up first anyway. The full wipe, the one to use before a laptop leaves your hands, is in our guide to wiping a laptop before you sell it.
When the processor is the problem
Some laptops are slow because of what’s inside them. Windows 11 officially needs an Intel Core 8th generation or newer, or an AMD Ryzen 2000 series or newer, and Windows 10 stopped getting security updates on 14 October 2025. A Celeron or Pentium, or a Core from the first five generations, was built for a lighter version of Windows than the one it’s running now, and no clean-up or upgrade turns it into a quick machine. A 6th or 7th-generation Core sits in between: it still runs Windows 10 well enough, but Windows 11 doesn’t officially support it, so it’s left on a version with no security updates. If you’re not sure which processor you have, our spec guide shows where Windows lists it.
The Celerons, Pentiums and first five generations fetch a few pounds at most from us, slow or not, so for those, wipe it and recycle your laptop. Our guide to how long laptops last goes into why the processor ends a laptop’s life sooner than the battery or the hinges.
What a slow laptop is worth to us
Slow isn’t a fault on our quote form. A laptop that works, however long it takes to open a browser, is graded on how it looks, so a slow laptop in good order can still be Excellent. We price on the processor and its generation, the brand, the screen size and the condition. RAM and storage don’t come into it, which means a new SSD makes the laptop faster for you but doesn’t change what we pay.
A 15.6-inch HP with an 8th-generation Core i5 in Excellent condition is worth £70 to us at the moment. Move up to an 11th-generation Core i5 and it’s £115. To sell your laptop for cash, the form gives you the figure for yours in a minute, and our page on what your laptop is worth sets out everything that moves it.
