I bought a MacBook largely for the longevity, and while my laptop is still running five years later, the word running may be a bit of a stretch — walking or crawling would be a more accurate description.

Torn between salvaging my current MacBook and replacing it entirely, I didn’t want to spend any money on any clean-up software or the even pricier RAM and hard drive upgrades.

That’s when I started doing some digging on how to speed up a MacBook Pro — and got my computer running (almost) like new for free.

Here’s how.

1. Clean Up The Desktop.
2. Clear Unnecessary Widgets In The Dock.
3. Declutter The Hard Drive.
4. Swap Web Browsers.
5. Update MacOS.
6. Disable Animations.
7. Shut Down Regularly.

learn more: 7 Quick (And Free) Ways To Speed Up A MacBook Pro