Drive your PC to peak performance in 2023

It’s a brand new year, and as exciting as that is, it also means that your PC is now a year older. While hopefully it still has enough power to do what you need it to do, if a whole new laptop or desktop upgrade isn’t in the budget this year, there are still ways you can optimise your PC performance without breaking the bank.

If you’ve owned a PC for a few years, you realise it’s much like your car. It needs specialised protection, new parts, and the occasional tune-up to keep it running optimally. A key component in the fine-tuned performance of a PC, laptop or mobile device is security software that doesn’t hog resources and slow you down.

It’s a stretch of an analogy, but one cybersecurity giant that clearly sees things that way is Bitdefender, having late last year announced a multi-year partnership with Scuderia Ferrari. Bitdefender’s cybersecurity products in particular have a focus on optimisation, providing a massive suite of security tools while maintaining a light touch on your hardware.

A holistic approach to your internet security is the best way to not only protect your PC, but keep it running fast (and in some cases, even improve its base performance). If you’re running a variety of applications from different developers to make up your security stack, there are inevitably going to be overlaps of what those various programs are scanning or tracking. This is letting precious processing power go to waste, and slowing down your system as a whole.

While it’s certainly a focus of Bitdefender's, this benefit isn’t wholly exclusive to them. Most security suites on the market today can provide a performance boost when used correctly. The core idea is that you don’t want to mix and match too much. To take it back to the car analogy, you wouldn’t want to risk installing a mix of parts that don’t play well together.

There’s an insidious reputation that internet security has: That it slows down your computer too much, and that common sense is enough to protect yourself while online and keep your PC running fast. Cybersecurity companies are working hard to combat this misguided and frankly dangerous idea.

If you’re just using stock-standard Windows Defender on your home PC for example, you’re really only doing the bare minimum to protect your computer from malware. That default software won’t do anything against a sophisticated ransomware attack, which will encrypt and lock down all of your personal files on threat of deletion unless you pay up. These sorts of attacks have become increasingly common over the past few years, and in order to combat them, you need dedicated security software.

All-in-one security suites also help you rest assured that you’re passively keeping up-to-date with trends in the cybersecurity world, and the never-ending arms race against malware and ransomware.

If you’re trying to keep your PC tuned to its best possible performance, a dedicated security suite such as PCMag Editors’ Choice Bitdefender Total Security is a must. Bitdefender offers not only the best protection against malware available, but also a range of tools to mitigate ransomware and keep your information safe. It’s cross OS and device access, so you can protect all of your devices, and comes inclusive with VPN access of 200MB per day, per device. You can also upgrade your plan to Bitdefender Premium Security Plus, which features unlimited VPN access, Digital identity protection to protect your personal data in the instance of a data breach, and an encrypted password manager to help keep track of all of your passwords in one secure location.

For more information on Bitdefender Total Security, read the complete PCMag review here, or visit their website.