Make Tech Easier - Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at 1:25 AM
How to Free Up RAM on a Windows Computer
Slow computers are the bane of everyone’s existence. It seems that whenever you
are in the biggest hurry to do something on your computer, that’s when it runs
the slowest. One reason computers run slowly is that there is not enough RAM
(Random Access Memory)available to efficiently run all the processes the
computer is trying to run. You can solve the problems with your computer by
adding more RAM to your machine. But before you jump ahead and install new RAM
to your machine, make use of the following methods to free up RAM on your
Windows computer first.
Restart
It may seem too simple, or even cliche, but the first thing to try is
restarting your machine. If in doubt, reboot. If there are a large number of
applications running, restarting will close down all the apps, and when your
device restarts, it will only run the startup programs.
Remove unwanted programs
There may be background processes running that are associated with programs you
never use. Getting rid of apps you don’t use frees up more memory for the ones
you do use.
1. Go to settings.
2. Click on Apps.
3. Select the app you want to uninstall.
4. Click the Uninstall button.
Monitor RAM usage
If you have eliminated the programs you don’t use, but you still have something
causing your computer to slow down, check to see if other processes are using a
large amount of memory. To find out which program it may be, try checking your
RAM usage.
1. Right-click on the Windows taskbar and click on Task Manager.
2. Click the Processes tab.
3. Click on the Memory column heading to sort the processes by the amount of
memory they are using.
4. Look for programs at the top of the list that you don’t recognize.
5. Right-click on the program and click “End task” to stop the program from
running.
Scan for malicious programs
Even if you have an antivirus program on your computer, malware and other
malicious programs can still find their way onto your system. Run a scan on
your computer using your antivirus to see if this could be causing your slow
computer.
Check if antivirus is running in the background
Antivirus software is notorious for taking up a lot of resources, particularly
when it is running a scan. If your computer suddenly becomes slow, check your
antivirus to see if it is running. If it is, stop it and schedule the scan to
run when your computer is idle.
Reduce the number of startup programs
Go to the task manager and click on the startup tab. Disable any programs you
do not want to run when you boot your machine by clicking on them and then on
the Disable button at the bottom.
Clear Page file at shutdown
The page file is an area of the hard drive that Windows uses as extra RAM when
the physical RAM fills up. When you shut down your computer, the system RAM is
cleared, but the page file is not. Clearing the page file when you shut down
will make your computer run more efficiently when you reboot.
1. Click in the search bar and type regedit to locate the Registry editor.
2. Click on the icon to open it.
3. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory
Management
4. Double-click the “ClearPageFileAtShutdown” key on the right.
5. Set the Value data field to 1.
6. Click OK.
If none of these seem to affect the speed of your computer, it may be time to
add more RAM. If you are not sure what RAM would be best for your computer, you
can use this scan at Crucial Advisor. Their tool will scan your machine and
list memory upgrades that will work for you.
Freeing up more RAM on your Windows computer allows it to run faster and rely
less on the hard drive memory.
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