On Windows 10, you can use many tools to check the health of your device, but if you want a quick way to make sure that everything is working smoothly, you should use the Windows Security (formerly known as the Windows Defender Security Center) experience.
Windows Security includes the “Device Performance & health” section, which can give you a general idea of the condition of your device, including for storage, drivers, time syncronization, battery life, and apps.
In this guide, you’ll learn the easy steps to quickly check your device health on Windows 10.
How to see PC health using Windows Security
To check your device performance and health, use these steps:
-
Open Start.
-
Search for Windows Security (or Windows Defender Security Center) and click the top result to open the experience.
-
Click on Device performance & health.
In this page, you’ll find a summary of the current state of your device, including any issues that may required your attention.
Windows Security performs automatic scans in the background periodically to check your device performance and health, as you can see in the “Last scan” date, which means that you don’t have to run a checkup manually.
The report highlights several pillars, including:
- Storage capacity: Checks your device available storage, and it alerts you when the drive is running out of space or there’s no enough space to install updates.
- Device driver: Checks the drivers installed on your device, and if they’re not working as expected you’ll get an alert with possible solutions.
- App and software: Reports issues with apps and other pieces of software. If an application requires your attention, for example, if it didn’t install correctly, you’ll see an alert with possible solutions.
- Battery life: If you’re using a laptop, Windows Security can also check the impact of the brightness and sleep configurations on the battery, and it’ll alert you of any recommendation to optimize the battery life.
- Windows Time Service: If your computer is showing the wrong time and the time-syncing service is disabled, you’ll get an option to re-enable the service and re-sync the correct time.
In addition, if your device is having performance issues, you can also use the Fresh start option that allows you to quickly perform a clean install of Windows 10 while preserving your files and most settings. Using this option can help to improve performance, battery life, and fix most problems with Windows 10.
If you’re looking for more advanced information, you can use the Performance Monitor tool to create a health report of your system.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].