Bluestacks is one of the most popular emulators that allows you to run Android apps in your Windows 10 computer. This makes it possible for anyone to play their favorite mobile Android games on their PC . Although this is a solid performing software there are instances when certain issues can occur such as when it runs slow. In this latest installment of our troubleshooting series we will show you how to make Bluestacks run faster in windows 10.
Before performing any of the recommended troubleshooting steps listed below it’s best to restart your computer first. This action refreshes the operating system and remove any corrupt temporary data that could be causing the problem.
There are several factors that can cause Bluestacks to perform sluggishly ranging from an outdated app version to lack of RAM. Listed below are the recommended troubleshooting steps you need to do to fix this problem.
How to Make Bluestacks Run Faster In Windows 10
Update Bluestacks
The first thing you will need to do is to make sure that you are running the latest version of Bluestacks. New software versions usually come with several performance related improvements which make it better than the older version.
- Click on the Gear icon on the top right corner of the BlueStacks screen and click on Settings
- Go to “About” tab and click on “Check for updates” button.
- BlueStacks will check for update, click on “Download update” if the button becomes available.
- The BlueStacks updater will start downloading the latest available version.
- Once the downloading is completed, you will get another window, click on “Install now” button to install the downloaded version of BlueStacks. You may also choose “Install on next boot” if you plan to install it on the next boot.
- Click on “Launch” button to begin playing the updated version of BlueStacks.
Try checking if Bluestacks now runs fast.
Allocate more RAM to Bluestacks
The more RAM that you allow Bluestacks to use the better it will perform. The minimum amount of RAM that this software needs is 2GB so if you can further increase this then you will see a performance gain while playing your favorite Android games.
- Open the BlueStacks emulator.
- Click the Settings button at the top right of BlueStacks to open a menu.
- Select Settings to open a window that includes further options for the software.
- Click the Engine tab on the left of the Settings window.
- You can drag the Memory bar to the right to increase the amount of RAM allocated to BlueStacks. Drag the bar to the far right to increase RAM to 4096 MB (approximately four GB) if your laptop or desktop has eight GB RAM or more.
- Users can also select more CPU cores for BlueStacks. Select the highest number from the CPU Cores drop-down menu.
Try checking if you see any speed improvements.
Turn off the antivirus
One common reasons why Bluestacks runs slow is because of the antivirus software that you are using. To check if this is what’s causing the problem you should try to disable this.
If you are using Windows Security
- Select Start – Settings > Update & Security – Windows Security – Virus & threat protection > Manage settings
- Switch Real-time protection to OFF.
If you are using Avast
- Search for the Avast icon in your computer’s system tray and right-click on it.
- Click on Avast shields control.
- Locate the options to disable the program – the options are to disable it for 10 minutes, an hour, until the computer is restarted or permanently (until you yourself turn it back on). Select whatever option suits you best and use it to disable the program.
If you are using AVG
- Search for the AVG icon in your computer’s system tray and right-click on it.
- Click on Temporarily disable AVG protection.
- Choose how long you want AVG to be turned off and whether you want AVG to disable its Firewall too.
- Click on OK to disable the antivirus program.
If you are using McAfee
- Search for the McAfee Antivirus icon in your computer’s system tray and right-click on it.
- Click on Exit.
- You should see a dialog box warning you that McAfee‘s protection will be turned off. Click on Yes in this dialog box to disable the antivirus program
If the issue does not occur after turning off the antivirus then I suggest that you turn on the antivirus then add Bluestacks in its exception list.
Windows Defender
- Click the Windows button and in the search bar type “Windows defender”.
- Open the application named “Windows Defender Security Center”.
- Select the option “Virus and threat protection”.
- Go to Virus and Threat Protection Settings. Windows may prompt you to allow an administrator access to use this feature. If so, press Yes.
- Search the window which says “Add or remove exclusions”. Click it and you will be navigated to a menu where you can add exclusions.
- Click on the option which says “Exclude a folder” and navigate to your Bluestacks directory. Once you reach the location select the folder and save changes.
Bitdefender
- Open Bitdefender and go to the Protection Window by clicking the shield icon shown below in the picture.
- Click on the link which says View Modules.
- Click on the Settings icon which you can see on the upper right corner of the antivirus.
- Go to the Exclusions tab present in the window.
- Click on “List of files and folders excluded from scanning”.
- Click on the ADD button. Navigate to your Bluestacks directory and select the folder to exclude it from the scanning process. You should also select the Both option before you add an exception
- Click Add and save changes.
Avast Antivirus
- Open the Avast interface.
- Click on Settings found at the bottom left corner of the screen.
- From Settings, browse to General and scroll down the options until you find Exclusions.
- Expand the section and you will see a dialogue where you can add global exceptions. Navigate to your Chrome directory using the option of Browse.
- Once you have selected the Bluestacks folder, click on ADD found at the bottom left side of the screen. Press OK and it is now added to global exceptions of Avast antivirus.
McAfee Antivirus
- Open McAfee Antivirus by clicking on its icon present on the toolbar on the bottom right side of your Windows.
- Click on Manage Security.
- Select the option of Schedule and run scans option present in the box of Virus and Spyware Protection.
- Select the option of Schedules scans from the list of options that follow. A new window will open and from there you will see the Add button present under the tab of Excluded Files and Folders. Select the Bluestacks directory after clicking Add through the file explorer.
- Once you reach the location select the folder and save changes.
Kaspersky AV
- Open Kaspersky AV from the icon present in your taskbar at the bottom right of the screen.
- Navigate to the Settings menu.
- Select the tab of Additional and select the tab of Threats and Exclusions from the list of options given.
- Click on the Configure Exclusions present in the middle of the screen.
- Select the option of Add present in the bottom right of the screen.
- Now navigate to the Bluestacks directory using the Browse button. Once you reach the location select the folder and save changes.
Malwarebytes
- Open your Malwarebytes window by either clicking on the icon in the taskbar located at the bottom right side of the screen, or by clicking the program’s launch file.
- Once the program is opened, click on the Malware Exclusions tab located on the left side of the window.
- In this tab, you find an option which says “Add folder”. Click it and you will be navigated to File Explorer from where you can select your Bluestacks directory.
Adjust the Bluestacks display setting
You can try to lower the display resolution to increase the game performance.
- Click the Settings button in BlueStacks to open a menu.
- Select Settings on the menu to open a Settings window.
- Then click the Display tab if it’s not already selected.
- Select a lower resolution setting. For example, users could select to reduce the software’s resolution from 1,920 x 1,080 to 1,600 x 900.
- In addition, select the Low (1600DPI) option on the Display tab.
Check if Bluestacks now runs faster.
Update your graphics card driver
If you have an NVIDIA graphics card then follow the steps listed below.
- Press Win+R (Windows logo key and R key) at the same time to invoke the Run box.
- Type msconfig and click OK. Then the System Configurations will open.
- When System Configuration opens, click the Boot tab. Under Boot options, check Safe boot then click OK.
- When you’re prompted to restart your computer to apply these changes, click Restart then you will boot into Safe Mode.
- Go to your local hard disk by clicking on This PC then Local Disk C. You should be able to see the NVIDIA folder right there. Right-click on it and choose Delete.
- Click Start and type Run. Select Run, the Run dialog box will appear.
- Type “devmgmt.msc” in the run box and click the OK button which should open the Device Manager Window.
- Expand the “Display Adapters” field. This will list all network adapters that the machine has installed. Right click on the Nvidia adapter you want to uninstall and select “Uninstall”.
- Click “OK” when prompted to uninstall the device. This will remove the adapter from the list and uninstall the driver.
- Press Win+R (Windows logo key and R key) at the same time to invoke the Run box.
- Type msconfig and click OK. Then the System Configurations will open.
- When System Configuration opens, click the Boot tab. Under Boot options, uncheck Safe boot then click OK.
- When you’re prompted to restart your computer to apply these changes, click Restart.
- Download the latest NVIDIA driver for your computer from here https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx.
- Run the setup file and follow the instructions which appear on screen. Choose the Custom installation option and check all the boxes in the custom install options windows. Also check the box which states “perform clean install”.
- Restart your computer
If you have an AMD graphics card then follow the steps listed below.
- Download the AMD Cleanup Utility from here https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-601.
- Locate the file where it was saved and double-click on the “AMDCleanupUtility.exe’ file.
- A dialogue box should appear stating AMD Cleanup Utility has detected the system is not in safe mode and provide an option to reboot the system to run the Utility in safe mode:
- Click “Yes” the system will be rebooted and AMD Cleanup Utility will run in safe mode.
- The next dialogue box provides a warning message stating that the AMD Cleanup Utility will remove all AMD driver and application components.
- Click “OK” to continue
- After clicking “OK” the Utility will be minimized to the notification area (system tray) and the progress will be displayed as a tool tip.
- The cleanup process will continue to run in the background. To check the progress, hover the mouse over the AMD icon in the notification area.
- Once the cleanup process is finished, a message is displayed stating it has successfully completed. Click “View Report” to see the list of components that were uninstalled, otherwise click “Finish” to exit the Utility.
- Reboot your computer.
Once the drivers have been uninstalled it’s time to install the latest driver update. You can do this with the help of the AMD Driver Auto-detect tool which you can download from https://www.amd.com/en/support.
- Visit the AMD Driver and Support page and see section Auto-Detect and Install Radeon Graphics Drivers for Windows.
- Click the DOWNLOAD NOW button to begin downloading the executable file for the tool.
- Once download is complete, run the file to launch the Installer.
- Click Install to extract the needed files.
- After file extraction is complete the tool should automatically launch.
- Review the End User License Agreement and information about the User Experience Improvement Program.
- Click Accept and Install to continue or close the window to exit the AMD Driver Auto-detect tool.
- After clicking Accept and Install, the tool will attempt to detect the installed AMD graphics product and operating system.
- Upon successful detection of your system configuration, the tool will display the latest Recommended and Optional driver packages that are compatible with your graphics product, as well as the currently installed driver version
- Select the desired version and choose Express installation.
- After the driver package has been downloaded, installation should begin automatically.
- Restart your computer
If you have an integrated graphics (Intel)
- Press the Windows Logo key + R to launch a Run
- Type devmgmt.msc into the Run dialog and press Enter to launch the Device Manager.
- In the Device Manager, expand the Display adapters
- Right-click on your graphics drivers, click on Uninstall and then go through the uninstallation wizard to uninstall the drivers.
- Restart your computer. Once your computer boots up, it should automatically reinstall the same version of the graphics drivers.