Tips to Speed Up Your Child's Computer Straight From The Geeks Mouth

The Ultimate Guide to Speed Up Yours And Your Child’s Computer!

Nothing is more frustrating than a slow computer. Since the dawn of the pandemic, schools have been migrating lessons online. Breathe new life into an old and tired computer. Here’s an easy and simple to follow guide to help you speed up a snail computer as well as how to choose a good configuration for long lasting learning. So simple you can even help your friends speed up their computers and rise up as the smarty-pants of the day! No need to give any credit to us. None of the links are affiliates.

Switch to Best Performance Mode & Create a New Power Plan
Uninstall the FREE Software & Bloatware
Disable the Cortana Button, News updates, Weather, Sport
Install Licensed Software
Disable MS Teams auto start
Do a “Disk Cleanup”
Increase Virtual Memory
Themes & Performance
Disable System Restore
Disable Remote Connections
Avoid Gaming on School Computers
Install a “LITE” Anti-virus
Phishing – Be Alert
Choose the right CPU
Buy Enough RAM
Buy a Hard-Drive with over 500GB space
The Ideal computer for your child

We’ve been receiving a lot of requests to help speed up computers, questions like:

How can I speed up my Childs pc?

Can I make an old pc go faster?

Please consider sharing this post with someone who you think might benefit.

“To the world, you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” ― Dr. Seuss –

Create a New Power Plan

On the taskbar, near the clock, locate the battery icon, and drag the pin to “Best performance”. If you can’t see the Power mode, right click on the icon and select “create power plan” and choose “High performance”.

Uninstall the FREE Software

Remove all unwanted software that came bundled with your computer. The Free Antivirus. Look at your desktop, if its cluttered with icons, may be you have too much software on your computer.

Disable the Cortana Button, News updates, Weather, Sport

Again, on the taskbar near the clock, right click on the upward arrow and disable the Cortana Button, News updates, Weather, Sport

Install Licensed Software

Ensure you have licensed software on your computer. This is vital for yours and your child’s safety online. Make sure you don’t see the red warning. Buy Microsoft 365 Home. You will get 5 licenses to share across all your devices. It’s only R119pm or R1199 pa. Definitely worth it in the long run. Don’t be afraid of Bill Gates, he’s only going to grow his horns in a few years, not even your great grandkid’s great grandkids will experience Bill Gates in his full glory.

Disable MS Teams auto start

In the taskbar, right click on the Teams icon and untick the “Auto Start” option, do this for all other programs that start with your computer.

Do a “Disk Cleanup”

Do a Disk Cleanup

Go to “My computer” right click on your “C-Drive” then properties and select “Disk Cleanup”, and once its done select “clean up system files”,

Increase Virtual Memory

Virtual Memory

Under “System Properties” tab, in the “Advanced” tab, select Performance, then “Advanced”, Clear the Automatically manage paging files size for all drives option. Select the Custom size option. Specify the initial and maximum size for the paging file in megabytes. Quick tip: The size of the virtual memory is unique to each device, and it can’t be generalized. However, usually, it’s recommended to use a number that’s one and a half times the total available memory for the “Initial size” and three times of available memory for the “Maximum size” when possible. Then “Set”, Then “OK”. If unsure use “4000” and “8000”.

Themes & Performance

Under “System Properties” tab, in the “Advanced” tab, select Performance, then Visual Effects and then “Adjust for Best Performance”.

Disable System Restore

Under “System Properties” tab, select “System Protection”, turn off protection on all drives, then delete any restore points on the disk.

Disable Remote Connections

Remote Connections

Under “System Properties” tab, Disable remote connections to this computer. Untick the checkbox “Allow Remote Connections to this computer”.

Avoid Gaming on School Computers.

Keep your school computer exclusively for school work and homework. Most standard laptops are not designed for gaming. You put strain on the machine.

Change the Automatic Updates to after hours and the weekends

You can set the computer to only download updates during the weekends or after hours, that way it doesn’t hog the internet connection.

Install a “LITE” Anti-virus

Install “WEBROOT” Internet Security. It comes with a 5 user license to share among family members. It’s lightweight and fast and will also improve computer speed by removing unnecessary files. Again I advise you to buy it. If its too expensive cancel Netflix.

Phishing – Be Alert

Phishing is a type of scam were they pretend to be someone who they are not. Be aware of banking scams and phishing attempts. Activate 2 factor authentication on your accounts. Do not share any passwords or links on any emails or SMSs or even on WhatsApp. KFC is not giving rounders, Toyota is not giving cars, Takealot is not giving vouchers, nothing is for free in this world, not even iPhone 13’s. Wake up!

Choose the right CPU

Choose either i3, i5 or i7 processor (CPU). Avoid Atom, Celeron and AMD, AMD has a tendency to reboot at whim.

Your CPU is like your car engine, the bigger the engine the more power the car will have.

Buy Enough RAM

Select a computer with minimum 4GB Ram, 2GB is too low.

Ram is how many programs your computer can handle at any given time. more is always better.

What computer should I get for my child? The Ideal computer for your child.

The best case scenario is an i5 with 8GB Ram, 500GB HDD.

If finances are limited then get an I3 with 4GB Ram, 500GB.

The brand is irrelevant, Dell, Lenovo, HP all have the same components so don’t be too fixated on a certain brand.

When it comes to your kids, it’s all about making the right decisions. You might have to drop the 2 ply TP and opt for 1 ply to save costs. Might be a little rough but its definitely an investment into your Childs future.

Should I get a desktop or laptop?

I suggest laptops as they are mobile.

Hope you enjoyed my tips to speed up your computer, feel free to share with your mates. Happy computing.

Sunil is a natural born & certified geek, he has been building, upgrading and repairing computers for over 20 years. From basic work stations to advanced gaming rigs. From the time of Pentium One’s & Two’s to MAC’s. So he knows what he is talking about…

Tips to Speed Up Your Child’s Computer Straight From The Geeks Mouth

Tips to Speed Up Your Child’s Computer Straight From The Geeks Mouth