SLIDESHOW In case a older workhorse of a PC is starting to slow down into its old age, these non (or no-) price tricks can help put some pep in its own processing step., Senior Editor, PCWorld | Teach an old dog new tricks There's a reason that unboxing videos and also the term"new car smell" are firmly ensconced in people groupmind. New stuff is exciting! New stuff is (technically ) better! New stuff is just plain cool. But new things also costs an arm and a legat least if you're talking about a new PC. And you might not even truly require a brand new PC to achieve everything you're looking to do, since most everyday jobs do not require much processing power, particularly now that all these services have moved onto the net. Luckily, you can find a ton of approaches to breathe fresh life into an older PC that's beginning to feel a small pokey. Even better: Most are outright free, a couple of (still cheap ) hardware updates aside. Sure, those tweaks and suggestions aren't as exciting as booting up a brand new PC for the first time--but they'll let you continue to find the task done using the equipment you currently have. Try them before you invest in a new laptop. Brad Chacos/IDG Streamline your startup Let's begin with the simpler things . If your personal computer is chugging, 4 Cheap Ways to Make an Old PC Run Faster an excessive amount of software booting at system start only be to blame. Before you require more drastic steps, clean up your startup by opening the Startup tab of Windows 10's Task Manager, or typing"msconfig"--minus the quote marks--in Windows 7 and launching its own Startup tab. As you do not wish to disable Windows processes, or procedures related to your hardware, then ruthlessly eliminate anything else which you may identify if at all possible. You wouldn't want to block your antivirus from launch at startup, however there is no reason behind Steam or Adobe Reader to hog your system resources except for when you explicitly need them. Windows 10 helpfully tells you how much of an impact each app has on your startup period. Take out any High-impact, non-essential programs first, then proceed down the list from there. Spring cleanup, pt. 1 If cutting back your boot programs does not do the trick, it's time to try some cleaning. Eradicate any programs you don't really use--PC manufacturers stuff computers full of bloatware. Search for"Add or remove programs" in the Windows search box and also operate through the list of installed apps. Run a security sweep while you're at it, in case malware is slowing down your system. PCWorld's manual to the best antivirus suites might help, however, the Windows Security tool built right into Windows 10 does a very good job at eradicating threats