Speeding up your Windows 11 PC

Windows can get really slow when you are running it on a budget computer. There are certain things & tweaks than can slightly boost the speed on your PC.

Disable unwanted startup programs

Programs like Adobe Creative Cloud, Spotify, etc.. start in along with Windows and run in the background. Even some built-in apps like OneDrive. Cortana, Skype do this. They all occupy your precious RAM and consume data. To disable the startup programs,

• Open Task Manager
• Go to the Start-up tab
• Right click on the program you want to disable and click disable

Turning off background apps

This only works for apps that are installed via Microsoft Store. You can turn off background activities of an app to conserve power and improve performance.

• Open Settings.
• Go to Privacy -> Background Apps
• You can turn off background activity for apps on a case by case basis or in total. We recommend for doing it on a case by case basis.

Note: This page is no longer available in Windows 11 and it is under app details. You’ll now have to select each individual app and go to their advanced settings to view this.

Sacrificing UI for performance

Certain elements and fancy animations in UI can be turned off in favour of performance.

1. Disabling Transparency

The Acrylic effect of transparency and blur can be disabled in Windows 11 using simple steps.

• Open Settings.
• Go to Personalization -> Colours.
• Turn off the Transparency effects toggle.

2. Disabling Animations and Shadows

Things like Shadows under windows, mouse pointers, etc… can be turned off.

• Search for “Advanced System Settings” in the start menu.
• Click on Settings within the performance section
• You will now be presented with a windows that lists various Visual Effects that you can turn off.

Reduce telemetry data

In Settings

This will no have a visible impact. But why spend your data and computer resources for telemetry when they are limited. Windows 11 collects a lot of telemetry data about you and your computer. Here is how to reduce all the telemetry data in Windows 11.

1. Open Settings app.
2. Go to Privacy > Diagnostics & Feedback.
3. Turn off “Send optional diagnostic data”, “Improve Inking & typing” & “Tailored Experiences”.

In Group Policy

If you are running a PRO or Enterprise version of Windows, you can use the Group Policy Editor to further disable telemetry.

1. Under Computer Configurations -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Data Collection & Preview Builds

• Allow Desktop Analytics Processing
• Allow Diagnostic data
• Limit Diagnostic Log collection
• Limit Dump collection
• Allow device name to be sent in Windows diagnostic data

2. Under Computer Configurations -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Internet Communication Management -> Internet Communication Settings

• Turn off handwriting recognition error reporting
• Turn off Windows Error reporting
• Turn off Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program

Look into the policy details before enabling or disabling them. Sometimes disabling will automatically send data and sometimes enabling will do that. Read the policy description carefully before setting the value.

Disabling Unwanted Services & Programs

Programs

With Windows 11 you can uninstall a lot of built-in apps like Calculator, Mail & Calendar, Xbox, etc… If you are using a different media player like VLC you can remove the built-in Media & Music Players(Films & TV, Groove).

You can remove some apps like Your Phone & Cortana with PowerShell. They still show up in task manager from time to time, so it is best to remove them if you don’t use them. You can always install them from store when needed. The PowerShell command is as follows,

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.YourPhone -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage

You can disable certain features like Widgets via Group Policy if you won’t use them. Widgets in particular consume significant amount of RAM & CPU even if you don’t use them.

Services

Certain Windows services & OEM services can be turned off to improve the performance, but you will need to be careful on what you turn off.

• Turn off services from OEM software - These services often run in background and consume battery and RAM. Some of them are useful, some of them are for features you never use and some of them are just telemetry.
• Tweaking Windows Services for performance - Delaying non-essential Windows services could result in essential services booting faster and prevent the sluggishness during system startup.
• Turn off Indexing - Indexing services often cause increased disk usage particularly on hard drives. The main purpose of indexing is making Windows search faster. If your disk usage or you don’t use Windows search then turning off indexing is good.
• Turn off app updates - While this is not much, store update does consume data and resources in background, particularly when installing large apps. You can choose to update them manually, which also gives you an option to skip updates for apps that you don’t use.
• Disable thumbnail cache - This will be useful when you have a Hard disk and often see high disk usage activity.