Easy Tips To Improve Your Laptop’s Performance

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man typing on a laptop with scattered symbols flying from the screen to imply a speedy connection - Improve your laptop's performance.
BetMGM Oct 20, 2023, 6:40 AM

Advancements in technology mean that you now have plenty of choices when it comes to the platform on which you play your favorite online slots and live dealer casino games. While mobile gaming is definitely on the rise, there are still many gamblers who opt to log into their preferred online casino using their laptop or PC.

If you’re someone who spends most of your time playing online casino games using your laptop, at some point, you’re likely to notice that your device is starting to perform at slower speeds. This happens when a computer reacts to the increased demands of advanced software (or when you’ve simply overloaded your system.) 

But don’t worry! There are many adjustments that you can make to improve your PC’s performance and enjoy the best online casino games without concerns about freezing or buffering. Here are a few things that you can do to boost your PC’s performance, as well as a list of practices to avoid.

Steps To Take To Optimize Your Gameplay Experience When Using a Laptop

 

Uninstall software that you don’t need

When you buy your laptop, it’ll come with a number of preloaded applications – the vast majority of which you probably won’t even use. Unfortunately, even if you don’t use them, some of these applications can tap into your system resources and potentially slow your laptop down. 

Luckily, there’s an easy way to delete unnecessary software to increase PC performance. Simply click on your Start menu, then on Programs and Features. Next, look for a list of the applications that you’ve used and note how much space each one takes up. Decide which ones to uninstall based on the amount of space used and how often you use them. You may find some are impossible to delete because they’re necessary for the day-to-day running of the machine – but you’ll be amazed how many you can get rid of.

Clean up and speed up with a tune-up utility

You can improve your laptop’s performance with a third-party system for Windows that allows you to clean up your system. Keep in mind that all the tweaks you make, even if they only boost performance slightly, can have a significant impact in combination. 

But a word of warning: Do your homework and ensure that your antivirus program is up to date because there’s no shortage of malicious downloads masquerading as fixes for your laptop. Make sure that you trust the site you’re using to locate the tune-up utility you’ve decided to download.

Simplify programs that run on startup

Don’t get bogged down by multiple applications that run immediately as your PC starts up. The Windows Task Manager will help you decide which apps you want to run on startup and which you can prompt to start when it suits you. 

Simply click on Task Manager, which will give you a list of all the apps that you have installed on your computer. Then right-click on the ones that you want to configure and choose the option to run only when commanded. You can change these settings at any time if you find that your laptop is being negatively impacted.

Increase your laptop’s memory

Here’s another tip on how to maximize PC performance. The technical term for your laptop’s memory is RAM (Random Access Memory). A surefire way to speed up a PC and improve PC speed is to increase its RAM. It isn’t possible to add RAM to all laptops, so check with your local computer store or a trusted source online before spending any money. If your device can indeed take on additional memory, it’s best to have it installed by a professional to avoid compromising your system.

Check for bugs in the system

A common reason for poor performance is that your device may be infected with spyware or a virus. You can prevent this from happening by using the latest antivirus software, such as Windows Defender, which will detect malware and alert you to its presence. 

While it’s essential to have protection for your PC, keep in mind that some of these antimalware applications can take up a fair bit of space, which may slow down the speed of your laptop. 

Meanwhile, if you love playing all types of casino games online, make sure that the betting or gaming site that you’re using is reputable and poses no risks to your online security so that you can enjoy gambling with complete peace of mind.

Change your power settings

Skip this tip if you want to save electricity. If this isn’t an issue for you and it’s important to get the best out of your online casino games, particularly when playing in a group online or when it’s time to enjoy playing blackjack at a casino online in live dealer rooms, boost your speed by going to Settings and System. Then click on Power and the Sleep option. Click on the link for additional power settings – a dropdown arrow will appear. Click on Show Additional Plans and then choose High Performance.

Switch off search indexing

Search indexing can drain your system resources, but if you do a lot of searches, skip this tip because your searches will slow down after implementing our advice. Open the Indexing Options Control Panel window. Another option is to search “index” using the Start button search box, which will give you the Indexing Options at the top of the list. 

You can then hit Modify and uncheck the locations that you don’t want indexed. Select Advanced if you want to choose the file types that you do (and don’t) want to be indexed. Another easy option is to simply click on More Options on the right-hand panel, then Stop, but remember to turn it back on if you intend to search your system.

Boost performance with a startup SSD

A startup SSD (solid-state drive) can boost your laptop’s performance by relieving the pressure on your device as it boots up. This will help to load programs (and that includes games) faster. This is a particularly helpful tip if you often run multiple apps at any given time or use image and video editing software. SSDs are often installed on desktop computers, but you can also install them on certain laptop models. 

If you can’t install an SSD on your PC, you can use an external drive connected to your laptop with a USB 3.0 instead, which will boost your system at startup and get the best out of applications that require temporary memory for optimal performance.

Adjust your web browser

Excited couple playing online casino games on a laptop computer.

The web browser that you use can have an impact on how quickly web pages and videos load. A sluggish laptop can be irritating when playing online casino games, so research the browsers that offer the best loading speeds. 

Also, have you checked your cache lately? Each time you visit a website, the site will typically use cookies to gather information about your browsing habits. Your cache holds these files as information and will continue to accumulate until you clear it. A jam-packed cache that hasn’t been cleared for some time will slow you down. 

The exact way to clear a cache will differ depending on the browser that you’re using. We’ll use Google Chrome as an example. Click on the icon with three vertical dots at the top right of your Chrome window and select More Tools, then Clear Browsing Data. Now, you’ll see a dialog box where you can delete your download history, cookies, cached files, and more. Choose to delete information from the last hour to “all time,” and click on Clear Data.

Practices That Could Be Negatively Impacting Your Laptop’s Performance

As you can see, there are heaps of things to do to give your laptop’s performance a boost – but there are also things that you shouldn’t be doing. Here are a few to watch out for.

Forgetting to clean out your folders

When was the last time you took a look through your laptop’s folders and deleted the documents, images, and videos that you no longer need? These folders can take up a lot of space on your hard drive and eventually have a significant effect on performance. Did you know that when a hard drive reaches 95% capacity, it immediately slows your laptop down by up to 50%? 

Adding too many browser extensions

You’ve probably installed various browser extensions over the years, such as pop-up blockers, meeting schedulers, and tab managers. Unfortunately, some of the extensions tend to suck up more processing power than others. Get rid of those that you can do without for an instant performance boost.

Running too many programs

The beauty of technology is that it allows us to multitask. Why not play online slots on auto-spin while answering an email and populating an Excel spreadsheet for your home business? Well, as convenient as it may be, there’s a good chance that running multiple programs (and/or having too many browser tabs open) at the same time could be slowing your device down. If you want optimal performance while gaming, try to keep it simple (it’ll be a lot more fun and immersive that way, too!)

Rarely shutting down your laptop

Are you in the habit of always putting your laptop into sleep mode instead of fully shutting it down? While this is best practice throughout the day when you take a break away from your desk or head out to run errands, it’s not ideal when you plan to spend a longer chunk of time away from your device, such as over the weekend. By neglecting to shut your laptop down for extended periods, more apps and programs will be running in the background, dramatically reducing performance. A complete shutdown resets your device and allows it to function optimally. 

Enjoy Unforgettable Casino Games Online at BetMGM

At BetMGM, we’re passionate about creating the most enjoyable online experience for you – whether you’re playing online slots, casino table games, casino dice games, or our live dealer casino games in our live gaming rooms. 

It’s also easy to register with your (now optimally running) PC! Of course, if you prefer gaming on a mobile platform, you can also download our casino games app for your choice of fun and exciting games on the go.

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Our BetMGM editors and authors are sports experts with a wealth of knowledge of the sports industry at all levels. Their coverage includes sports news, previews and predictions, fun facts, and betting.

Our BetMGM editors and authors are sports experts with a wealth of knowledge of the sports industry at all levels. Their coverage includes sports news, previews and predictions, fun facts, and betting.