How To Fix Freezing in Windows 10
Windows 10 freezing
Windows 10 should run smoothly for most people, but there are times when Windows 10 can freeze or lock up your system. Sitting there while your computer hangs is frustrating and you shouldn’t have to deal with
either your computer is freezing after installing Windows 10 or one of its updates, or if it’s just suddenly starting locking up, we’re going to provide various steps to stop Windows 10 freezes.
1. Free Up Storage Space
Your computer can slow down if your drive is nearly at full capacity. This is because Windows 10 doesn’t have enough space to effectively manage itself.
To check your situation, navigate to This PC in File Explorer to take a look at the volume of your drives.
2. Clean the Inside of Your Computer
Dust will build up inside your computer over time. This is likely to happen quicker if you have your computer close to the floor or have pets. Not only is it gross to have your computer full of dust, but it can also slow your system down too.
Your computer generates heat, which is why your case has fans to try to regulate airflow and keep temperatures stable. However, if your computer is full of dust then it can be hard for those fans to be effective. If your computer gets too hot, it then throttles performance to prevent the components from burning out and failing.
3. Check the Health of Your Components
If you’ve had your computer a while, the components inside might be failing. Faulty RAM is often the source of Windows 10 freezing. A failing hard drive could also be the culprit, especially if you notice the freezing when trying to access files.
Generally, you should only update drivers when there’s a problem with your computer. Now, it might be that a driver updated and that’s what has caused Windows 10 to freeze. Alternatively, you might need to update a driver to solve the problem.
4. Uninstall Antivirus and Cleaner Tools
You don’t need to bog your computer down with multiple antivirus programs or pointless cleaner tools. If you have lots of these programs running, they’re likely going to clash and hog your system resources. For most people, the inbuilt Windows 10 Security package is more than enough.
Press Windows key + I to open Settings and click Apps. Then, select each unnecessary program on the list in turn, and click Uninstall.
Next, it’s time to do a virus scan to ensure your system isn’t infected. A virus could be draining your system resources and causing it to freeze. Do a system search for Windows Security and open the app.
Go to Virus & threat protection > Scan options > Full scan > Scan now. The tool will automatically clean up any viruses or malware.
5. Assess the Event Viewer
A good way to check what problems are occurring on your system is with Event Viewer. Do a system search for Event Viewer and open it.
On the left pane, double click Windows Logs. This is broken down into different sections. The relevant ones are Application and System. Look in these two logs and check for entries with a date and time that coincide with Windows 10 freezing. Alternatively, look for those with a level of Error or Critical, since these detail the worst problems.
Once you have found something, copy and paste the event information into Google. There are far too many possibilities to cover here, so hopefully someone else has asked about the error online.
6. Create a New User Account
Creating a new local account can stop Windows 10 freezing. To do this, press Windows key + I to open Settings. Then navigate to Accounts > Family & other users. Beneath Other users, click Add someone else to this PC.
On the new window, click I don’t have this person’s sign-in information. Then click Add a user without a Microsoft account. Fill out the fields and click Next. Then log out of your account and into the new one.
