If your Windows 11 machine used to feel snappy and now drags through every click, it’s probably not dying, it’s clogged. These five fixes tackle the most common culprits we see on the bench at Twomey PC Repair in Highland Square.
1. Trim startup apps
Right-click the Start button → Task Manager → Startup apps tab. Disable anything you don’t use daily. OneDrive, Teams, Spotify, and printer helpers are the usual offenders, each one eats boot time and background RAM.
2. Empty your temporary files
Press Windows + Rtype %temp%hit Enter, and delete everything that will let you. Then do the same for temp (no percent signs). Then run Settings → System → Storage → Cleanup recommendations and clear anything older than 30 days.
3. Update your GPU and chipset drivers
Windows Update misses these more often than you’d expect. Grab the latest driver straight from NVIDIAAMDor Intel. Stale GPU drivers are the #1 cause of stuttering that users blame on “the hard drive.”
4. Check your disk health
Open PowerShell and run wmic diskdrive get status,model. Anything other than OK means that drive is on borrowed time, back up immediately. If you’re still on a spinning hard drive, swapping to an SSD is the single biggest speed upgrade you’ll ever feel. We do SSD upgrades same-day for most laptops.
5. Pause Windows search indexing during work hours
Settings → Privacy & security → Searching Windows → Classic indexing mode. Uncheck the drives you don’t search often. On older machines this one change alone can reclaim 10–15% CPU during the day.
Still slow after all five?
It’s probably not software. We see a lot of Highland laptops come in with dust-packed fans causing thermal throttling, fans spin, CPU throttles to 40%, and the whole machine crawls. Bring it by the shop in Highland Square or text a photo to (870) 860-8822 and we’ll take a look.