How to make Windows 11 run faster on a laptop or desktop computer

How to Make Windows 11 Faster: 7 Settings That Actually Work

ByTechPymes Editor

Disclosure: This article contains no affiliate links. It is purely informational.

If your Windows 11 PC feels slower than it used to, the most likely cause isn’t a broken computer. It’s settings that have quietly accumulated in the background over time. Programs loading at startup you never asked for. Visual animations eating up processing power. A hard drive that’s nearly full.

Here are 7 settings changes that show you how to make Windows 11 faster. Each one takes under two minutes. No technical experience needed. Every step uses menus already built into Windows.

How to make Windows 11 faster: 7 settings that actually work

Fix #1: Biggest impact

Disable startup programs

Every time you turn on your PC, a list of programs starts running automatically in the background, even if you never open them: Spotify, Teams, Discord, OneDrive, Zoom, Adobe updaters. They all add to the time it takes Windows to become usable after you log in, and they keep using memory while they sit in the background.

How to do it
  • 1 Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
  • 2 Click Startup apps in the left sidebar.
  • 3 You’ll see a list of programs with a Status column showing “Enabled” or “Disabled.” Look at the Startup impact column. Anything marked “High” is slowing your boot time.
  • 4 Right-click any program you don’t need running at startup and select Disable. Safe to disable: Spotify, Teams, Zoom, Discord, Steam, Adobe Updater, OneDrive (if you don’t use it). Do not disable anything you don’t recognize. Leave those alone.

What you’ll notice: Windows starts up and becomes usable significantly faster. A PC with 10 or more high-impact startup programs can go from a 3-minute boot to under a minute. Same hardware, same Windows, just fewer programs fighting for resources at startup.

Fix #2

Switch to High Performance power mode

Windows 11 defaults to a “Balanced” power plan, which intentionally slows down your processor when it decides you don’t need full speed. This saves electricity but makes everything feel slightly sluggish: slower app launches, slower file operations, slower response to clicks.

Switching to High Performance tells Windows to keep the processor running at full speed all the time. On a desktop PC plugged into the wall, there’s no downside. On a laptop, it will use more battery. Only make this change if you’re usually plugged in.

How to do it
  • 1 Click the Start menu and type Power plan. Click Choose a power plan.
  • 2 Select High performance. If you don’t see it, click Show additional plans.
  • 3 Click the radio button next to High performance to select it. Done.

What you’ll notice: Apps open faster, browser tabs load more responsively, and the overall feel of using the PC becomes snappier. More noticeable on older machines than new ones.

Fix #3

Turn off visual effects

Windows 11 includes a lot of visual polish: animations when windows open and close, transparency effects on the taskbar, shadows under every window. These look nice but require processing power to run. On older or lower-end PCs, they’re one of the main reasons everything feels slow.

How to do it
  • 1 Press Windows + R, type sysdm.cpl (exactly as written), press Enter.
  • 2 Click the Advanced tab. Under Performance, click Settings.
  • 3 Select Adjust for best performance. This turns off all animations at once. Click Apply, then OK.

What you’ll notice: Windows will look more basic: flat menus, no animations. The trade-off is a noticeably faster, more responsive interface. This makes the biggest difference on PCs with less than 8GB of RAM (RAM is the short-term memory your computer uses to run programs , more RAM means more programs can run smoothly at once).

If the appearance bothers you: Go back to the same Performance Options window and select Custom instead. Check the boxes for “Smooth edges of screen fonts” and “Show thumbnails instead of icons.” These two keep most of the visual usefulness without the performance cost.

Fix #4

Enable Storage Sense

Windows quietly accumulates temporary files, old update downloads, and Recycle Bin contents that sit on your hard drive doing nothing. When your drive gets above 80% full, Windows slows down. It runs out of room to store the temporary files it needs to operate normally.

Storage Sense is a built-in Windows tool that automatically cleans these up on a schedule so you never have to think about it.

How to do it
  • 1 Click Start, open Settings (the gear icon), go to System, then Storage.
  • 2 Toggle Storage Sense on.
  • 3 Click Storage Sense to open its settings. Set it to run Every week.
  • 4 Scroll down and click Run Storage Sense now to clean up immediately.

What you’ll notice: If your drive was significantly full, you may reclaim several gigabytes immediately and notice improved overall performance. Going forward, Windows handles the cleanup automatically.

Fix #5

Stop background apps

Many apps in Windows 11 are set to run in the background even when you’re not using them: checking for notifications, syncing data, downloading updates. Add ten of them together and they create a noticeable drag on performance.

How to do it
  • 1 Go to Settings, then Apps, then Installed apps.
  • 2 Click the three dots next to any app you want to restrict, then click Advanced options.
  • 3 Under Background apps permissions, change the setting from Always to Never. Good candidates: Mail, Calendar, Maps, News, and any social media apps. Do not restrict apps your business depends on for real-time notifications. Teams, Slack, your POS software, or any security monitoring tool. Background access is how they deliver alerts.

What you’ll notice: More available memory for the apps you’re actually using, which makes multitasking feel more responsive: switching between programs and running multiple browser tabs will feel smoother.

Fix #6

Restart regularly and install updates

Many people leave their PC in sleep mode for days or weeks without a full restart. Over time, Windows accumulates temporary data in memory that it never clears. Small amounts that pile up until everything feels sluggish. A full restart clears all of that and starts fresh.

Pending Windows updates also hold performance improvements and bug fixes that never get applied until you restart. An un-updated PC isn’t just slower. It’s also more exposed to security risks.

How to do it
  • 1 Click Start, go to Settings, then Windows Update.
  • 2 Click Check for updates and install anything available.
  • 3 After updates install, do a full Restart, not Sleep or Shut down. Restart specifically clears the memory and applies all pending changes. Going forward, restart your PC at least once a week. To make it automatic: go to Settings → Windows Update → Advanced options → Active hours and set your work hours so Windows restarts overnight instead of during the day.

What you’ll notice: If your PC has been in sleep mode for more than three days, the difference after a restart is usually immediate.

Fix #7

Check your storage space

Windows needs free space on your hard drive to function properly. It uses that space as a working area while it runs. When your drive gets above 80–90% full, Windows performance degrades noticeably. If it’s above 95% full, the PC can become nearly unusable.

How to check
  • 1 Press Windows + E to open File Explorer. Click This PC in the left sidebar.
  • 2 Look at the bar under your Local Disk (C:) (that’s the main storage drive where Windows and all your programs live). If it’s red or nearly full, that’s a direct cause of slow performance. Run Storage Sense (Fix #4 above) first, then find your largest files fast: in File Explorer, click This PC, type size:gigantic in the search bar top right. Windows filters for files over 1GB. Delete anything you no longer need.

Target to aim for: Keep your C: drive at least 15–20% free at all times. Storage Sense (Fix #4) handles the cleanup automatically going forward. Fix #7 is for checking your current state. If you keep running out of space, you have two options: delete programs you don’t use, or move files to an external drive or cloud storage like OneDrive or Google Drive. Not sure which cloud storage fits your business? Here’s how OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and iCloud compare.

Where to start

Where to start making Windows 11 faster

Start with Fix #1 (disabling startup programs) and Fix #6 (restarting and installing updates). Those two alone produce the most noticeable improvements for most people, and both take under five minutes combined. These are the most effective ways to make Windows 11 faster without reinstalling Windows or buying new hardware. Work through the remaining fixes in order if the PC still feels slow after that.

If you manage Windows PCs at your business and want more control over what’s running on them, our guide to PowerShell for beginners covers the commands that let you check running processes and services directly, no menus required.

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