17 ways to speed up Windows 11
Windows 11 is generally faster than Windows 10, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be better. Try these tips to speed up and stabilize your Windows 11 PC
It’s simple to make your
Windows PC run faster. Just follow these tips.
Top ways to speed up
Windows 11
1. Disable programs that run on startup
Your Windows 11 PC could be a laggard if
programs you rarely or never use are running in the background. Your PC will
run faster if you stop them from running.
To do it, first launch
the Task Manager in one of these ways: Press Ctrl-Shift-Esc,
right-click the lower-right corner of your screen and select Task
Manager, or type task manager into the Windows 11 search box and
press Enter. There’s a lot you can use Task Manager for, but here
we’re focusing only on killing unnecessary programs that run at startup.
Click the Startup
apps icon on the left side of the screen. (It’s the fifth icon from
the top.) It displays a list of the programs and services that launch when you
start Windows. The list includes each program’s name as well as its publisher,
whether it’s enabled to run on startup, and its “Startup impact,” which is how
much it slows down Windows 11 when the system starts up. Note, though, that the
screen doesn’t show how much each program will impact your performance after
startup, during normal PC operations.
To stop a program or
service from launching at startup, right-click it and select Disable.
This doesn’t disable the program entirely; it only prevents it from launching
at startup — you can run the application after launch. Also, if you later
decide you want it to launch at startup, you can return to this area of the
Task Manager, right-click the application and select Enable.
Many of the programs and
services that run on startup may be familiar to you, like Microsoft OneDrive or
Spotify. But you may not recognize many of them. (Anyone who immediately knows
what “bzbui.exe” is, please raise your hand. No fair Googling it first.)
The Task Manager can find
information about unfamiliar programs. Right-click an item and select Properties for
more information about it, including its location on your hard disk, whether it
has a digital signature, and other information such as the version number, the
file size, and the last time it was modified. (Note that not all programs
provide this information when you right-click them — the Properties button may
be grayed out.)
You can also right-click
the item and select Open file location. That opens File Explorer
and takes it to the folder where the file is located, which may give you
another clue about the program’s purpose.
Finally, and most
helpfully, you can select Search online after you right-click.
Bing will then launch with links to sites with information about the program or
service. With Task Manager’s help, I easily discovered that bzbui.exe is
Backblaze backup software, something I want to run automatically during
startup.
If you’re worried about
one of the listed applications, you can go to a site run by Reason Software
called “Should I Block It?” and search for the file
name. You’ll usually find very solid information about the program or service.
Now that you’ve selected
all the programs that you want to disable at startup, the next time you restart
your computer, the system won’t launch those unnecessary programs
automatically, and your PC may run faster.
2. Use Efficiency Mode
Task
Manager has another trick up its sleeve for juicing Windows 11 performance.
Efficiency Mode can speed up your PC and improve laptop battery life. It lowers
the process priority of background applications, among other efficiency tricks.
The term is a bit of a
misnomer, because you can’t put your entire PC into Efficiency Mode. Instead,
you use Task Manager to put individual apps and processes into it. There’s one
caveat: You’ll only be able to use it on some apps and processes.
First launch Task Manager
using one of the methods covered in the previous tip. If you’re already in Task
Manager, click the Processes icon (three squares in a grid) on
the left side of the screen to get to the Processes screen. A list of currently
running apps and processes appears.
Click the app or process
you want to put into Efficiency Mode, click the Efficiency mode icon
at the top right of the screen, then confirm that you want to turn on
Efficiency Mode for the app. Note that if the Efficiency mode icon is grayed
out when you click an app or process, you won’t be able to use it. Also, some
apps, including Microsoft Edge, automatically work in Efficiency Mode by
default, and the mode can’t be turned off.
Turning on Efficiency Mode
for an app.
3. Use automatic Windows maintenance
In the background,
Windows 11 constantly performs maintenance on your PC, doing things like
security scanning and performing system diagnostics to make sure everything is
up to snuff. It automatically fixes problems it finds, which helps your PC run
at peak performance. The automatic maintenance runs every day at 2:00 a.m. if
your device is plugged into a power source and is asleep.
However, that feature may
have been accidentally turned off, or it may not have run recently if you shut
down your PC at night (rather than putting it in Sleep mode) or you haven’t had
your laptop plugged in for a while. You should make sure it’s turned on and
runs every day. You can also run it manually if you’d like.
Type control in
the search box on the taskbar and select Control Panel from
the results to run the Control Panel app. In the app, select System and
Security > Security and Maintenance. In the Maintenance section, under
Automatic Maintenance, click Start maintenance if you want it
to run now. To make sure that it runs every day, click Change
maintenance settings, and on the screen that appears, select the time you’d
like maintenance to run and check the box next to Allow scheduled
maintenance to wake up my computer at the scheduled time. Then click OK.
4. Kill adware and
bloatware
It may be that what’s
slowing your PC down isn’t Windows 11, but bloatware or adware that takes up
CPU and system resources. Adware and bloatware are particularly insidious
because they may have been installed by your computer’s manufacturer. They
typically run automatically at startup without you even knowing it. You’ll be
amazed at how much better your PC will run if you get rid of it.
Start by running a system
scan to find adware and malware. If you’ve already installed a security suite
such as Norton Security or McAfee LiveSafe, you can use that. Windows 11’s
built-in anti-malware app, Windows Defender, also does a great job. Just
type windows defender in the search box, press Enter, and
click Scan Now. Windows Defender will look for malware and remove
any it finds.
You should get a second opinion, though, so consider a free tool like Malwarebytes. The free version scans for malware and adware and removes what it finds; the paid version offers always-on protection to stop infections in the first place.
Malwarebytes scans for and
removes malware.
Preston Gralla / Foundry
Now that you’ve done all
that, check for bloatware and uninstall it. A good free anti-bloatware tool
is Bulk Crap Uninstaller. You can also go to the
website Should I Remove It? — it offers
recommendations on what software is useful, and what you can uninstall. There’s
a section of the website devoted to advice on how to remove bloatware on PCs from specific
manufacturers. I highly recommend going there, because it lists all
the bloatware different manufacturers install on their PCs. That section of the
site also compares how much bloatware major manufacturers ship on their PCs. It
rates Toshiba as having the most and Acer as having the least.
Finally, when you buy a
new PC online, check whether there’s an option to leave off trial software and
software you don’t need to run your PC. That will stop bloatware from getting
on your system in the first place.
5. Turn off search
indexing
Windows
11 search performs indexing in your hard disk in the background, allowing you
to search your PC more quickly than if no indexing were being done. That’s good
for fast searches, but not so good for slower PCs, because indexing can cause a
performance hit. You can give a slower machine a speed boost by turning off
indexing. Even if you have an SSD disk, turning off indexing can improve your
speed, because the constant writing to disk that indexing does can eventually
slow down SSDs.
To turn it off, type services.msc into
the search box on the taskbar and press Enter. The Services app
appears. Scroll down to either Indexing Service or Windows Search in the list
of services. Double-click it, and on the screen that appears, click Stop.
Then reboot your machine. Your searches may be slightly slower, but you also
may not notice the difference. You should, though, get an overall speed boost.
Here’s how to turn off Windows 11 indexing.
Preston Gralla / Foundry
Alternatively, you can
turn off indexing only for files in certain locations. In this way, you can
still index files and folders you often search for but turn off indexing for
the rest of your hard disk. So you’d still get fast searches for files you use
often, while increasing your PC’s performance.
To do it,
type index in the Windows 11 search box and click the Indexing
Options result that appears. The Indexing Options page of the Control
Panel appears. Click the Modify button, and you’ll see a list
of locations that are being indexed, such as Microsoft Outlook, your personal
files, and so on. Uncheck the box next to any location, and it will no longer
be indexed.
6. Clean out your hard
disk
A bloated hard disk
filled with files you don’t need can slow down your PC. Taking a few minutes to
clean it can give an immediate speed boost. A built-in Windows 11 tool called
Storage Sense will do the job for you.
Launch the Settings app,
select Storage, scroll down to the “Storage management” section,
and next to Storage Sense, move the toggle from Off to On. From now on, Windows
will constantly monitor your PC and delete old junk files you no longer need —
temporary files, files in the Downloads folder that haven’t been changed in a
month, and old Recycle Bin files.
Here’s where to customize the way Storage Sense works.
Preston Gralla / Foundry
You can also customize
when Storage Sense runs and what should be deleted automatically — for example,
whether to delete files from the Downloads folder after they’ve been there for
more than 30 days. To do it, click the right-facing arrow next to the Storage
Sense On/Off slider.
7. Disable shadows,
animations, and visual effects
Those who like eye candy
are probably big fans of Windows 11’s shadows, animations, and visual effects.
They typically don’t affect performance on fast, newer PCs. But they can exact
a performance hit on older, slower machines.
If you’ve got a slower
PC, turn them off. To do it, in the Windows 11 search box, type sysdm.cpl,
press Enter, and then click the sysdm.cpl icon.
That launches the Control Panel’s System Properties dialog box. Click the Advanced tab
and click Settings in the Performance section. That brings you
to the Performance Options dialog box. (Make sure you’re on the Visual Effects
tab of the dialog box.) You’ll see a varied list of animations and special
effects.
The Performance Options
dialog box lets you turn off visual effects that might be slowing down Windows
11.
Preston Gralla / Foundry
If you love to tweak, you
can turn individual options on and off. These are the animations and special
effects you’ll probably want to turn off, because they have the greatest effect
on system performance:
However, it’s a lot
easier to just select the Adjust for best performance option
at the top of the screen and click OK. Windows 11 will then turn
off the effects that slow down your system.
8. Disable transparency
To get an even bigger
speed boost, go beyond turning off shadows, animations, and visual effects.
Also disable the transparency effects in the taskbar and other Windows 11
locations. Windows does a surprising amount of heavy lifting to create
transparency effects, and turning them off can make a difference in system
performance.
To do it, run the
Settings app and select Personalization > Colors, then move
the Transparency effects slider to Off.
Turning off Windows 11’s
transparency effects can help speed up performance.
Preston Gralla / Foundry
9. Change your power
settings
Your
Windows 11 PC’s power settings let you balance its energy use with its
performance. If you’re using the most power-efficient setting, you’re slowing
down your PC, because the setting reduces your PC’s performance to save energy.
(Even desktop PCs typically have a power-saving setting.) Changing your power
setting to one of the less power-efficient options will give you an instant
performance boost.
To do it, run the
Settings app, then choose System and click the right-facing
arrow next to Power. Depending on whether you’re using a laptop or
a desktop PC (and if you’re using a laptop, whether it’s plugged in), you’ll
see either a “Plugged in” or “On battery” setting that lists the power mode
you’re using. Click the drop-down arrow next to it and choose the setting you
want.
Change your power settings
to give your PC a performance boost.
Preston Gralla / Foundry
Best Performance gives you the most
oomph but uses the most power. Balanced finds a happy medium
between power use and better performance, and Best Power Efficiency does
everything it can to give you as much battery life as possible. Desktop users
have no reason to choose Best Power Efficiency, and even laptop users should
consider the Balanced option when unplugged.
10. Turn off Windows
tips and tricks
Windows 11 constantly
watches what you’re doing on your PC and gives you tips about things you might
want to do with the operating system. I’ve never found these tips helpful. And
I don’t like the privacy implications of Windows constantly taking a virtual
look over my shoulder.
Beyond that, this
monitoring can also make your PC run more sluggishly. So to speed things up,
tell Windows to stop being so nosy and giving you advice. To do it, run the
Settings app and select System > Notifications. Scroll down
to Additional settings and click the down arrow. From the
options that appear, uncheck the box marked Get tips and suggestions
when using Windows.
Turn off Windows’
suggestions to help things run more smoothly (and regain a measure of privacy).
Preston Gralla / Foundry
11. Disable Game Mode
Windows 11’s Game Mode
optimizes your PC for playing games. When it detects that you’re playing a
game, it prioritizes system resources for gaming, taking them away from other
apps and background processes. That’s great for serious gamers, but when you’re
not playing games, it can slow down your system because it keeps some system
resources in reserve in case you start playing a game. It occasionally causes
stability issues as well. So turning off Game Mode may be able to give your PC
a quick boost. (You can always turn it back on again when you want to play a
game.)
Game Mode is turned on by
default, so even if you’ve never played a game on your PC, it’s probably
enabled. To turn it off, go to Settings > Gaming > Game Mode and
move the Game Mode slider to Off.
Game Mode can sometimes cause stability and performance issues, so turning it off may give your PC a boost.
Preston Gralla / Foundry
12. Update device
drivers
Your Windows 11 PC can
become a slowpoke if its drivers are old and in the way. Outdated drivers can
exact a big performance hit. Graphics drivers are often the biggest culprit in
driver-related slowdowns. To check whether yours is outdated, and to update to
the latest one:
You’ll be asked whether
to have Windows search for an updated driver, or whether you want to find one
and install it manually. Your best bet is to let Windows do the work. Follow
the on-screen instructions to get the driver installed.
You can use the Device Manager to update all your drivers this way. That’s time-consuming, so consider asking Windows to do the work for you. To do it, launch the Settings app (pressing the Windows key + I is a good shortcut for doing it) and select Windows Update from the left pane. Select Advanced Options > Optional Updates. You’ll see a list of all the updates Windows has found but hasn’t installed. Select any of the drivers you want to install, then click Download & install.
Tell Windows Update to
update your drivers.
Preston Gralla / Foundry
13. Get a burst of RAM
with ReadyBoost
If you’ve got a sluggish
PC, the issue may be that you haven’t got enough RAM. One solution is to add
more RAM to it, but that can be a daunting task if you’re not comfortable
opening up your computer and fussing around with its innards, or if you’ve got
a laptop whose RAM can’t be added to.
For a simple, easy-to-use
low-cost solution, turn to the Windows 11 feature ReadyBoost, which uses a USB
flash drive to essentially boost your RAM by caching data on it. Make sure the
flash drive you buy has at least 500MB free and has a minimum data transfer
rate of 3.5 MB/s for 4KB random reads and 2.5 MB/s for 512KB random writes. The
flash drive needs to be USB 2.0 or above, as does the slot into which you’ll
insert it.
To do it:
Note that if Windows is
installed on a solid state drive (SSD), you won’t be able to use ReadyBoost,
because SSDs are fast, and Windows will already be using it as a cache to boost
performance.
14. Roll back your PC to
a previous state
Sometimes your PC will
slow down for no apparent reason, and stay slow. It could be a new driver
slowing your system down. Perhaps accidentally you changed a system setting
that caused the problem. It can be difficult, and often impossible, to get to
the root of these kinds of problems and fix them.
If you’ve noticed that
your computer has become sluggish recently, there’s something that might solve
the issue: Restore your PC to the state it was in before the problem began. You
can easily do this via System Restore.
To do it:
If System Restore hasn’t
already been turned on for your system, you won’t be able to revert to a
previous restore point. It’s easy to turn on if you want to use it in the
future, though.
Go to the System
Protection screen as outlined above, and click Configure.
Select Turn on system protection and click OK.
From then on, your PC will regularly create restore points. If you want to
create one right away, back on the System Protection screen, click Create.
Here’s how to turn on
System Restore.
Preston Gralla / Foundry
15. Restart Windows
Here’s one of IT’s
not-quite-secret weapons for troubleshooting and speeding up a PC: shut it down
and restart it. Doing that clears out any excess use of RAM that otherwise
can’t be cleared. It also kills processes that you might have set in motion and
are no longer needed, but that continue running and slow your system.
If your Windows 11 PC has
turned sluggish over time for no apparent reason, you may be surprised at how
much more quickly it will run when you do this. I can vouch for it, and I
restart my Windows 11 PCs regularly even if they’re not sluggish, just as a
precautionary measure.
This article was
originally published in February 2023 and most recently updated in April 2025.
The Focus Assist feature is there to keep users productive by blocking notifications.
Open Settings > System > Focus Assist.
Select Priority only or Alarms only.
Set this to work during office hours.
When one has to find files and apps in no time, Windows 11 has a powerful Search feature.
Press Win + S to open the search.
Just type the app or file name and find the app or file quickly.
Filter users' search results with Filters.
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