I have received some unhappy reports lately of slow Windows 10 computers or even “fried” computers after the recent upgrade of Windows 10. To jog your memory a bit, version 1703 is the fourth major release of Windows 10. There will be another upgrade in the fall as well. Why can’t Microsoft just limit the new versions of Windows 10 to once a year like Apple does with mac OS? I digress. While the recent upgrade was finalized in March, it began rolling out slowly to the Windows universe in April. Some of you just got upgraded recently. I have had to deal with computers that were toast after this upgrade. They required a complete erase and re-installation of Windows. Fortunately, data was backed up. However, other clients are complaining about slow systems as well.

This isn’t good and the upgrade train is not stopping over at Microsoft. Let me tell you about two strategies that I will employ with you should you have a slow Windows 10 computer.

1. I like to use the free version of a program called CCleaner. I use it to perform two cleaning operations that are essentially an oil change for your PC. I have found that this program will improve performance. CCleaner can be obtained here. https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download. Should they ever not provide a free version, I think it is must buy software.  

2. If CCleaner does not make things better and we can rule out hardware failure, I am going to recommend that we clean install the latest version of Windows 10. Of course, your data needs to be backed up first. This will occur through a combination of external hard drives and online backup / sync services. A clean install means that your hard drive will be completely erased before Windows gets installed. From a software perspective, you are going to be in pristine condition. This takes time, but it will absolutely give you that fresh PC feel (provided, again, that there are no hardware failures lurking). A clean install of Windows 10 could take anywhere from 1 to 5+ hours depending on whether you have a highly customized setup.  

Is your Windows PC feeling slow? Let me know.