Windows 10 Mobile is usually considered to be a responsive and optimized OS that can run well on even low-end hardware too. But there are times when users may face issues with the performance and here we are sharing some essential tips that can help you in making your Windows 10 Mobile smartphone run faster and with marked improvement in performance.
Click below to read essential tips to improve & prolong Battery Life on your Windows 10 Mobile devices.
Windows 10 Mobile Battery Life Guide. Essential tips to get more juice out of BatteryStay updated (Apps & OS):
Many tend to ignore or don’t really under stand its importance but updating your OS and Apps keeps your smartphone Bug-free as the updates usually brings lots of fixes and under the hood improvements with them. Windows 10 Mobile keeps getting incremental updates nearly every month and you just need to go to Settings–>Update & Security—>Phone Update to check for updates.
Apps updates are even much frequent and you need to keep them updated by checking in Windows Store app or set them to update automatically. App updates again bring performance improvements and fixes making them run optimally. Go to Store–>Menu–>Downloads & Updates.
Controlling Background Apps / Tasks:
Many apps running in background can certainly consume system resources. Even when you allow many apps to send notifications they keep running in background. You can however set which apps can run in background. Here are all that you need to know about controlling Background Apps / Tasks.
- The Battery Saver settings has got the options to control background apps’ processes. Go to Settings–>System–>Battery Saver.
- Tap on Battery use and you will be able to see all the apps that run in background. Tapping on any app takes you to detailed settings, where you can chose whether the app runs in background or even when Battery Saver is on. Background tasks enhancement in Windows 10 Mobile has made more tasks running in Background possible and it impacts performance. So, you can manage which tasks to be run in background by following the above steps.
- The last screenshot above can be accessed from privacy settings. Settings—>Privacy–>Background apps. So one more place to control which apps run in background.
- Close all the apps actively running in the background, if you don’t plan to use your phone for sometime, otherwise apps like Map, Drive keep on running in background and kill the Battery. You can long press on back button to go to the Multitasking UI and either tap on X to the close the apps or simply swipe down.
- For checking the Battery usage settings on Windows 10 Mobile Anniversary update refer to the middle screenshot in below image.
Clearing Browser Cache & Temporary Files:
It is not only important to do so for managing storage and getting some more free storage but clearing browser cache and temporary files is also a good practice to keep your device’s memory free from clutter. This certainly helps in performance improvement not only on smartphone but we even see dedicated tools in case of Windows 10 PC versions.
Go to Microsoft Edge–>Settings–>Clear Browsing Data for clearing Browser cache, cookies and other related data. Go to Settings–>System–>Storage–>Device / SD Card–>Temporary Files and delete the temporary files.
Disabling Apps Notifications:
By going to Settings–>System–>Notifications & Actions you can choose which Apps / Games can keep sending notifications and thereby have some processes running in background even when they are closed. We recommend disabling notifications of apps / games which are not that much required. You can also go to individual apps can disable kind of notifications you want. Less the merrier!!
Keep you Home-Screen light by limiting number of Tiles:
If possible avoid overwhelming number of tiles on your HomeScreen. Live Tiles trigger background tasks to show you updates and as you can rightly imagine consume system resources. Only use Tiles which provide you essential information on the go. Keeping number of Tiles on HomeScreen under control will improve your phone’s general performance and navigation.
Don’t just install unnecessary heavy apps / games and allow them to run in background as they will consume lots of required resources and will make your device run slow. It is better to decide for yourself how many apps / games your require for getting the experience you desire and you will be surprised to know that most of the surveyed smartphone users don’t require more than 10 apps.
Uninstall & Disable unused apps:
Apps installed in your phone take storage space and consume RAM by running background processes. The more the apps you install more the storage space occupied or the more background processes running on your phone, the slower your phone’s performance. So, you can uninstall unused apps by either going to App List–>Long Press–>uninstall. Or in case it is not possible to uninstall some apps (Vendor Bloatware) form App list you can go to Settings–>System–>Storage–>Device / SD Card—>Apps / Games—>Uninstall them.
Move Games / Apps to Device memory if required:
Some of the games may not run really well if installed on MicroSD card and especially if the SD Card is slow. It will really impact your phone’s performance. So you can move such games to Phone memory or better opt for a high-speed SD card. Go to Settings–>System–>Storage–>Device / SD Card—>Apps / Games and move .
Use a High-Speed MicroSD card:
If you use a Windows 10 Mobile smartphone that supports expandable memory via MicroSD card, you must read this. In case you are planning to install apps on SD Card you must use a high-speed memory card for better performance. It can badly impact your phone’s overall performance and mar it with crashes and freezes, if your MicroSD card is not fast enough. We recommend using minimum Class 6 or ideally Class 10 / UHS-1(U3) SD cards for better results.
If you are in India you can check this MicroSD card. More MicroSD Card buy links,
Reduce or Stop Auto-Sync:
We usually have many mail accounts on our devices like for Mails and others that keep on syncing content to servers. This takes lots of resources and very frequent syncing can lead to very bad system performance because of being a memory-hog. You can go to Settings–>Accounts–>Email & app accounts and either turn off the Auto-sync completely, which can be a impractical solution or reduce the Auto-Sync frequency by going to individual accounts. The latter work better and you can keep frequency of sync for the accounts under control which you require to access less.
Perform a Factory Reset:
In case you are facing too many issues and nothing else works you should try to perform a factory reset. Some people even recommend doing it periodically or before a system update to get a feel of new and untouched OS. You can refer to our Backup and reset tutorials to learn how to backup and do a hard reset and restore / or start fresh to sort out big issues.
Turn location services / NFC / Bluetooth off:
Turn location services / NFC / Bluetooth off when you don’t need them. Swipe down from the top of the screen, and tap All settings > Privacy > Location, and turn Location off . Other two can be handled form Action Center.
