Speed up and upgrade an old PC
Most slow old PCs are held back by a spinning hard drive, too little memory, or both. Find out which one yours is before you buy anything, and do the free fixes first.
Task Manager tells you in about 10 minutes whether the drive, the memory, or the processor is the problem.
Speed and upgrade guides
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Speed Up an Old PC
Free fixes first, then the SSD and memory upgrades that help most, at what they actually cost in 2026.
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Why Is My Computer So Slow?
Use Task Manager to find what's holding your PC back in about 10 minutes, then fix it, often for free.
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Clone a Hard Drive to an SSD
Move Windows, programs, and files to a new SSD with free tools, even when the SSD is smaller.
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How Much RAM Do You Need?
How much memory Windows 11 really needs, how to check yours, and when adding more helps.
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Check Laptop Battery Health
Run the Windows battery report, read the numbers that matter, and decide whether a new battery is worth it.
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The order I'd do it in
- Find the cause. Diagnose a slow computer with Task Manager.
- Try the free fixes. Startup apps, cleanup, and power settings. Free ways to speed up an old laptop.
- Swap the hard drive for an SSD if it still has one. Clone the old drive so nothing needs reinstalling.
- Add memory if Task Manager shows you running short. How much RAM you need.