Do you clean your Windows registry often? If you do, you'll likely notice that, despite some claims that it speeds up your computer...it doesn't. In fact, there's a good chance that you didn't notice much of a performance boost at all.

That's not to say that Windows registry cleaners are snake oil. There are some situations where one might be useful; for example, if an app didn't uninstall itself properly and still has its claims on specific file types, then scrubbing away its associated registry entries can fix stuff. But if you have a slow PC, you can do a lot better than run a registry cleaner; instead, you can try doing these things.

5 Try cleaning your PC of unwanted files

Scrub in the right places

If you're looking to free your computer of unwanted, unnecessary files, then why not clean up your files? They can accumulate over the years and occupy a significant amount of storage space, which reduces your PC's available storage space. For me, my Downloads folder can easily reach gigabytes if I don't keep an eye on it for too long.

So here's the cool thing about cleaning up your Windows PC. Windows 11 actually comes with a ton of built-in apps that can do the job for you. You can even set them up to automatically give your PC a quick dust-down if you really want. Pop over to our article on the ways to free up storage on Windows 11 without losing important data and check out how you can clean up your files without doing damage.

4 Try upgrading your RAM

8GB isn't as mighty as it once was

I remember back when a gaming PC with 4GB of RAM was top of the line. Unfortunately, these days, 4GB doesn't cut it. Even 8GB is quite limited; in our piece on whether 8GB is ever enough, we claimed that it's sufficient for web browsing and...that's about it. Even using Windows on 8GB can be painful.

So, check how much RAM you have in your device. If you're using a desktop with 8GB RAM or less, consider upgrading it. On laptops, things get a little complex, so you'll need to check if you can upgrade your laptop's RAM before you get stuck in.

3 Try installing your operating system on an SSD

I can never go back to HDDs after using SSDs

If things are loading slowly on your device and you're using an HDD, try moving your stuff onto an SSD. For my setup, I have my operating system and all the apps I open on a regular basis on the SSD, with the HDD working as a data storage workhorse. SSD read speeds are really quick, so just moving your software onto it can instantly give you a speed boost. I've even reached the point where I install games on my SSD to speed up load times.

2 Double-check what's booting up on startup

Make sure nothing is sneaking in

Whenever you turn on your Windows 11 PC, there are a few apps and services that boot up alongside it. These are known as startup apps, and sometimes they boot up without any visible effect. However, they still run in the background and soak up some processing power and memory.

Fortunately, Microsoft has added systems that allow you to check what's booting up alongside Windows 11. It even ranks them by the impact they make on your startup speed, so you can easily identify the biggest hogs. Check out our piece on disabling Windows startup apps for instructions on how you can do this without any third-party software.

1 When in doubt, try a fresh reinstall

Maybe it's time for a deep scrub

If all else fails, it may be worth giving Windows a fresh reinstall. This clears up all the system files and reinstalls them so you can have a shiny new OS once again. In the past, this would also erase all of your personal files, which meant you had to back everything up to do a fresh install. However, these days, Microsoft has figured out a way to refresh all the system files without touching your precious files, which makes it a lot more appealing.

If you'd like to know more, be sure to read how to reinstall Windows 10 and 11 without losing your files and perform the steps there.

Cleaning your registry isn't as effective for speeding up your PC as these tricks

There are times where cleaning your registry can prevent errors with file association or error messages, but if you want to speed your PC up, there are a ton of other things you can do instead. Clean up your files, upgrade your hardware, and if all else fails, give Windows a refresh.