14 Quick Fixes For A Windows Computer That Hangs Freezes

If the screen went black when your computer froze, try pressing Windows key + Ctrl + Shift + B to reset your video card drivers. [1] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source

If you can’t open Task Manager this way, try pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del and then clicking Task Manager. You can also right-click the Start menu and select Task Manager. Once Task Manager opens, look for the app using the most CPU, Memory, Disk, or GPU resources. To stop the problem app, click its name and select End Task. It may take a few moments for the app to close.

If your PC’s screen turned blue before it froze (an error known as the Blue Screen of Death), you can analyze the crash dump files to see which software, hardware, or drivers lead to the crash.

Press Windows key + S and type security. Click Windows Security.

Full scan: This does a deep scan of all files on your PC and can take up to an hour. Microsoft Defender Antivirus (offline scan): This scan reboots your PC into safe mode without internet support to remove more difficult malware. The scan shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.

Click the Windows Start menu and select Settings. For Windows 10, click Update & Security > Windows Update. On Windows 11, just click Windows Update.

Sometimes BIOS/UEFI updates, third-party hardware, and other manufacturer updates won’t be available through Windows Update. You can check your manufacturer’s support website to find out if any updates are available directly through them. If a BIOS update is available, make sure your PC is plugged in to a reliable power source before flashing the BIOS. Otherwise, if your PC loses power during the update, you could render your computer unbootable.

Press Windows key + S. Type msconfig and press Enter.

Press Windows key + S and type startup apps. Click Startup Apps in the search results. [3] X Research source

You can always launch these apps from the Start menu as needed even if they don’t start automatically.

If you’re using Windows 11, you may see Windows Terminal (Admin). This will work, too.

This command connects to Windows Update to get the necessary files required to fix corruption. It can take up to 30 minutes to complete, but typically won’t take that long. After a few moments, you’ll see “The operation completed successfully. " At that point, you can continue to the next step.

If corrupted files are detected, they’ll be replaced with repaired versions. If the scan does not find corruption, you’ll see the message “Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations. " If you see a message that says, “Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation,” try running the scan again in Safe Mode.

If you have multiple hard drives, remember to check them all.

Repeat for all drives connected to your PC.

First, save any work you have open, as your PC will reboot to use the tool. Press Windows key + S. Type mdsched. exe and press Enter.

The scan may take a while, so feel free to get up and come back later. Because this tool won’t always show the test results, we’ll show you how to find them once Windows boots back up.

If no errors are found, the issue is not likely related to RAM.

Press Windows key + S. Type disk cleanup. Click Disk Cleanup. [8] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source

If you’re still low on hard drive space, your PC may continue to freeze and crash. Check out these tricks for freeing up hard drive space.

If you’re unable to use Windows at all because it keeps freezing, try booting into Safe Mode before you perform these steps.

Most updates will attempt to reinstall automatically, so you might want to pause updates to see if uninstalling this latest update fixes your problem. To pause updates, return to Windows Updates and select a time period on “Pause Updates. "

If you don’t have any restore points, you’ll need to try another method.

System Restore will not affect your personal files.

If the freezing does not continue, reinstall your apps one by one to narrow down the problem. If a particular app brings back the symptoms, the issue is related to that app or a device driver it uses to run. If the freezing continues after resetting your PC and doesn’t correlate with an app or device you’ve installed, the issue is likely hardware related.