What to Do If Your Windows 8.1 Freezes

Windows 8.1 freezes due to several reasons. This article is a step-by-step guide to avoid system lags and improve performance of your Windows 8.1.

Check for Windows Updates

Search for Windows updates and install all of them. You can do so with Windows Update utility. Carefully follow the steps highlighted below:

1. Press Windows Key + C simultaneously.
2. Charms bar will open on the right side of your screen. Click "Settings" icon.
3. Click "Change PC Settings".
4. Scroll down the left panel, click "Windows Update".
5. Click "Check for Updates" button.
6. Download and install all updates available.

Stop Irrelevant Services

If there are too many computer services running you may have noticed that your Windows 8.1 freezes a bit. So in this case, you need to turn off those services which are not important for everyday functioning of your operating system. This will improve gaming performance as well.

1. Press Windows Key + X.
2. Click "Computer Management".
3. Expand "Services and applications" from the left hand side panel.
4. Expand "Services".
5. A list of all services will appear on the right hand side. Look for unnecessary services and stop them. To stop a service, right click it and select Properties.
6. Under General tab click "Stop" button and select Startup type= Disabled.
7. Click Apply | OK.

Note: If you are not an advanced computer user use a system utility software to carry out this task.

Enable Hyper-V

This trick is mostly beneficial to dual boot users. If you have one or more operating systems installed on the same machine, enable Hyper-V technology from Windows Features dialog box.

1. Press Windows Key + X.
2. Click "Programs and Features".
3. Click the link named "Turn Windows features on or off" on the left panel.
4. A new dialog box will appear. Check-up a box labelled "Hyper-V" and then click OK to install it.

Turn Off Drive Indexing

Windows 8.1 freezes due to continuous drive indexing service. It eats up system resources and memory which results in slow performance and system lagging.

1. Press the Windows Key.
2. Type "Indexing Options" in the Search Box.
3. Click the Settings icon.
4. Click Modify button, uncheck all drives from "Change selected locations" list box.
5. Click OK | Close.

Defrag the Registry

Windows Registry is something more important. Since the Registry contains lot of application data and user settings, it must be defragmented on regular basis.

1. Download a System Utilities software.
2. Install and run the program.
3. Start scanning Windows Registry.

Optimize Drives

Like Registry defragmentation optimize the drives of your operating system. Analyse total fragmentation of your hard disk and defragment all drives as follows:

1. Press the Windows Key.
2. Type "Defragment and optimize your drives" in the Search Box.
3. Click the Settings icon.
4. Open it from the search results page.
5. Optimize Drives program will open. Select all the drives displayed in the list box.
6. Click "Optimize" button.

Adjust Windows Settings for Best Performance

Adjust Windows for best performance; not for best appearance. This setting can be changed through System Properties dialog box.

1. Right click My Computer desktop icon.
2. Select Properties.
3. Click "Advanced system settings" link.
4. Click Advanced tab and then Settings button under Performance.
5. In Visual Effects tab select "Adjust for best performance" option and then click OK | OK.

Conduct the Error Scanning, defragment Windows Registry, turn off services automatically and clean Windows junk files through the No#1 PC Cleaner to speed up your Windows 8.1 here: Fix Windows-8 Freezing.