How to Speed Up Windows 11 — 12 Proven Tips for 2026

Windows 11 can slow down over time due to startup programs, visual effects, background services and accumulated temporary files. These 12 proven tips will make a noticeable difference to performance in 2026 — whether you have a new PC or an older machine struggling with recent updates.

1. Disable Startup Programs

Too many programs launching at startup is the most common cause of a slow PC. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager, click the Startup apps tab and right-click any High impact item you do not need immediately and select Disable. Common safe-to-disable items include OneDrive, Teams, Spotify, Discord and Adobe updaters.

2. Adjust Visual Effects for Performance

1. Press Windows + R and type sysdm.cpl
2. Go to Advanced → Performance → Settings
3. Select Adjust for best performance or choose Custom and keep only Smooth edges of screen fonts
4. Click Apply → OK

3. Enable High Performance Power Plan

# Enable High Performance power plan
powercfg /setactive 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

# Or Ultimate Performance (best for desktops)
powercfg /duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61
powercfg /setactive e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

4. Free Up Disk Space with Storage Sense

Go to Settings → System → Storage → Storage Sense, turn it on and click Run Storage Sense now to immediately clean temporary files. Enable automatic monthly cleanup to keep disk space free going forward.

5. Disable Transparency Effects

Go to Settings → Personalisation → Colours and toggle Transparency effects to Off. This is a quick win that reduces GPU usage noticeably on older hardware.

6. Disable Background Apps

Go to Settings → Apps → Installed Apps, click the three dots next to each app, select Advanced options and set Background apps permissions to Never for apps you do not need running in the background.

7. Run Disk Cleanup

# Run Disk Cleanup including system files
cleanmgr /sagerun:1

# Clean up Windows component store
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

8. Disable Windows Search Indexing (HDD Only)

# Disable Windows Search indexing - helps on HDD, minimal benefit on SSD
Stop-Service -Name WSearch
Set-Service -Name WSearch -StartupType Disabled

9. Update Drivers

Outdated GPU drivers in particular cause significant performance issues. Check Device Manager for any devices with yellow exclamation marks and update drivers directly from your hardware manufacturer — NVIDIA, AMD, Intel or your laptop manufacturer.

10. Check for Malware

# Run a full Windows Defender scan
Start-MpScan -ScanType FullScan

11. Increase Virtual Memory

Press Windows + R → sysdm.cpl → Advanced → Performance → Settings → Advanced → Virtual Memory → Change. Uncheck automatic management, set a custom size of 1.5x your RAM as initial and 3x as maximum, click Set → OK and restart.

12. Upgrade to an SSD

If your PC still uses a traditional hard drive, upgrading to an SSD is the single biggest performance improvement you can make. Boot times drop from minutes to seconds and everything from opening applications to loading Windows feels dramatically faster. NVMe SSDs are the fastest option for modern PCs.

Frequently Asked Questions

About The Author

Andrew Armstrong

Andrew Armstrong is a UK-based IT professional with 26+ years of hands-on experience in Windows, Windows Server, SCCM/ConfigMgr, Active Directory, PowerShell, and enterprise infrastructure. He founded TechyGeeksHome in 2010 and has published over 1,500 practical guides covering real-world IT problems and solutions. When not solving IT problems, Andrew develops free Windows utilities including Ultimate Settings Panel, which has been downloaded over 850,000 times.

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