The new Windows 11 comes with loads of features, cool visual effects, and animations. But since upgrading to it, many users have been experiencing lag in many programs, especially games as well as an overall dip in performance. This performance dip is not surprising since the new visual effects and features take up quite a bit of system resources.

Fortunately, Windows 11 gives users a lot of control over their system settings and appearances. Changing some of these settings in Windows 11 will help free system resources and speed up the PC. In this blog post, we share the steps necessary to make the settings changes that will improve the speed and performance of Windows 11 PCs.

If you are still using Windows 10, we also got you covered. In a previous blog post, we shared tips and tricks to improve the speed and performance of your Windows 10 PC.

12 SIMPLE STEPS TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE AND SPEED UP WINDOWS 11

1. Disable Unnecessary Programs That Run On Startup

When your PC starts up, a number of programs also start and keep running in the background. These programs that run on startup use up system resources and can make your computer sluggish, especially at startup. Most of these programs do not need to run all the time and you can free up system resources by preventing them from running when your computer starts.

To do this, go right-click on any empty space on your desktop to bring up a menu and click on “Personalize” to reach the “Settings” menu. On the left-hand side menu, click on “Apps” and then “Startup”. This will bring you to a screen where you can see all of the programs that launch when your PC starts.

To prevent a program from launching at startup, simply click on the toggle button next to the program name to turn it off. Don’t worry, this will not uninstall the program but simply prevent the program from launching at startup. The program can be used normally by launching it after the system startup. Preventing unnecessary programs from launching at startup will help your computer to start and run faster.

This way Windows will start up faster since it won’t have to load up a bunch of unnecessary programs when it’s booting up.

2. Disable Unnecessary Background Programs

Similar to the programs that launch at startup, there are a number of programs that run in the background. Many of these programs are unnecessary and drain system resources.

To prevent these programs from running in the background, you once again need to go to “Settings”. Right-click anywhere on your desktop, click on “Personalize” then click “Apps” and then click “Apps & Features” to bring up a screen where you can see a list of applications.

To prevent a program from running in the background, click on the 3 dot menu next to the name of the program and click “Advanced options”. Under “Background apps permissions” there is a drop-down menu, click on it and select “Never”. Repeat these steps for all the programs that you do not want to be running in the background.

This will prevent the app from running in the background when you are not actively using the app. It also prevents notifications and updates for the app. This not only improves the system performance but also the battery life.

3. Remove Temporary Files

Temporary files are those files that are created by Windows or a program to temporarily store data. These temporary files help the program run smoothly and fast. However, over time, they can accumulate and use up a lot of storage. Removing these unnecessary files will free up memory and give your computer a speed boost.

To delete temporary files, as in the previous steps, go to “Settings” by right-clicking anywhere on the screen and then clicking “Personalize”. In the settings window that opens up, click “System” from the left-hand menu. Then click “Storage” to open the storage window where you will see the local disk usage. Click on “Temporary files” then check the boxes next to the files you want to delete. Then scroll back up and click “Remove files”.

Windows will display a pop-up saying that “the selected files and their data will be permanently deleted”. Click “Continue” to delete the files. All the temporary files that you selected for deletion are now purged.

4. Enable Storage Sense

It is easy to forget to clear those temporary files but thankfully Windows allows you to automate this process. To set this up, head back to the “Storage” window just as you did in the previous step. In the Storage window under storage management, click the toggle button next to “Storage Sense” to turn it on. Then click on “Storage Sense” to open up options.

Under “Configure cleanup schedules” you can choose how often you want to run storage sense, and how often you want to delete files in the recycle bin and in the Downloads folder. With Storage Sense enabled, Windows will automatically delete temporary files to keep your computer running smoothly.

5. Remove Unnecessary Software

With the temporary files removed, you should also consider removing software that you had installed but no longer use. To remove unnecessary software, go to the “Apps & Features” window just as you had done in step 2 above. Then click the 3 dot menu next to the program you want to remove and click on “Uninstall” then click uninstall again and wait for the process to finish. Go through the list of programs and uninstall all the programs you want to remove.

6. Tweak Visual Effects Settings

As we mentioned earlier, Windows 11 has visual effects such as shadows and animations that are pleasing to the eye but performance-wise drain a lot of computing resources. Turning these visual effects off can help improve your computer performance.

To do this, click the start button on your taskbar or press the Windows key on your keyboard and type “Advanced system settings”. Click on “View advanced system settings” to open the “System Properties” pop-up window. You should already be on the “Advanced”, if not click on it. Under the “Performance” section click on “Settings” to open a new pop-up window. Click on the radio button next to “Custom” and then check the boxes next to “Show thumbnails instead of icons” and “Smooth edges of screen fonts”.

7. Disable Transparency Effects

In addition to the shadows and animations, Windows 11 also adds transparency effects to the Start menu, Taskbar, etc. Turning these off will make a fair amount of improvement in your computer performance.

To do this, we once again right-click anywhere on the desktop and click “Personalize”. Click on “Colors” and then scroll down to find “Transparency effects” and click the toggle button to turn them off.

8. Defrag and Optimize Drives

Sustained use of your computer over a period of time causes the hard disk to become slow due to file system fragmentation, which means that files are stored in fragments. So your hard disk has to do a bit of extra work when retrieving those files. Fortunately, Windows 11 has an inbuilt tool that can help you defragment and optimize your hard disk.

To access this tool, type “defrag” in the Windows 11 search box and click on “Defragment and Optimize Drives”. This will bring up the Optimize Drives pop-up window. Select the drive you want to defragment and click the “Optimize” button.

This tool also allows you to schedule the defragmentation to run automatically. To set it up, click the “Change settings” button and choose the desired frequency from the dropdown menu.

Note that if you are using Solid-State Drive (SSD) fragmentation isn’t a problem and they need not be defragmented. But Hard Disk Drives (HDD) benefit a lot from defragmentation and it will speed up the PC performance.

9. Turn Off Restartable Apps

When you restart your PC, Windows 11 restarts the applications that were running prior to the restart. Disabling this feature can help improve performance, especially for older computers. To do this, we head back to the settings page. Another way of launching it is to right-click on the Windows icon/ startup button on the taskbar and click “Settings”.

From the left-hand side menu, click “Accounts” then click on “Sign-in options”. Scroll down to find “Automatically save my restartable apps and restart them when I sign back in” and toggle off the button next to it.

10. Turn Off Tips And Notifications

Windows 11 shares tips and suggestions aimed at helping you use your PC better. To do this, Windows needs to keep an eye on how your use your computer and uses system resources in the process. To turn this feature off, go to “Settings” and from the left-hand-side menu, click on “Notifications”. Scroll down to and uncheck the boxes next to “Offer suggestions on how I can set up my device” and “Get tips and suggestions when I use Windows”.

11. Disable Game Mode

If you do not use your PC for playing computer games, you can turn off the gaming mode to speed up your computer. To do this, open “Settings” and click “Gaming” from the left-hand-side menu. Then click “Game Mode” and then toggle off the button to disable game mode.

12. Shutdown And Restart

Last but not least, the go-to tool for troubleshooting that we cannot recommend any higher- “shutdown and restart”. Shutting down your PC clears out RAM and frees up memory that couldn’t otherwise be cleared. This is a simple remedy that solves performance issues quite often.

Conclusion

The next time your Windows 11 PC begins to feel sluggish or if you wish to perform routine maintenance, follow the above tips and it will surely help improve the performance of your computer in a few minutes and for free.

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About The Author

Hari Subedi

Marketing Manager at Jones IT

Hari is an online marketing professional with a focus on content marketing. He writes on topics related to IT, Security, Small Business, and Mindfulness. He is also the founder and managing director of Girivar Kft., a business services company located in Budapest, Hungary.

How To Improve Windows 11 Speed And Performance