How-To

How to Fix a Slow Windows 11 PC

By Brian Burgess

Published June 20, 2023

Is Windows 11 slow on your PC? Here are some fixes you can try to improve the speed, performance, and responsiveness of your PC.

Is Windows 11 slow on your PC? Perhaps things started great, but it seems to have lost its step over time. If your PC lags while gaming or the experience is slow, there are steps you can take to make it faster.

Some of the fixes include changing built-in features included in Windows 11 Settings. You can also make it boot up faster and improve Windows 11’s responsiveness.

As with previous versions, Windows 11 is prone to slowdowns after extended periods of use. In this guide, we’ll show you some fixes you can try if Windows 11 is running slowly.

1. Enable Storage Sense

Over time, files on your PC start piling up on the computer’s drive. Some temporary files become corrupt and can be safely removed to improve the performance of the OS.

Enable the Storage Sense feature to prevent temp and other app and system files from negatively impacting drive performance. The built-in utility automatically removes temp and junk files to improve drive performance.

In addition to setting it to run automatically, you can manually run Storage Sense and free up drive space with Cleanup Recommendations.

2. Disable Startup Apps

The fewer apps you have set to launch during startup will improve boot time and overall performance. If you have several apps set to launch during startup, some take significant time to get going.

Disabling most (or all) startup apps can improve your experience significantly. As you continue adding apps, many will set themselves to run during startup, so monitoring and disabling startup apps on Windows 11 if your system is slow is important.

3. Adjust the Power Plan for Better Performance

Another way to increase the performance of your Windows 11 laptop is by adjusting the power plan. For example, your laptop may feel sluggish while on battery power.

To help negate this, set Power Mode to Best Performance in your battery settings. Note that this setting will drain your battery faster, so you might want to create a custom power plan to balance performance and battery use.

While you’re adjusting the power settings, ensure you enable Fast Startup to make your Windows 11 PC boot faster.

4. Disable Third-Party Services

When you install apps, they include their own services that start when you boot your machine. These are helpful when getting responsive performance while using them. However, they can hurt overall system performance.

You can turn off third-party services that you don’t often use to help fix a slow Windows 11 PC.

To disable third-party services:

1. Press the Windows key to launch the Start menu.
2. Type system configuration and choose the top result.
3. Once the System Configuration window appears, click the Services tab at the top.
4. Select the Hide all Microsoft services box.
5. Select from the remaining services you don’t use much. For example, if you have more than one browser, you can disable Chrome services if you don’t use it.
6. Click Apply and OK.
7. You will be prompted to restart Windows 11 to apply the changes.

5. Turn Off Animation and Visual Effects

A quick way to fix a slow Windows 11 system is to disable unneeded default visual effects and animations. The look of Windows 11 is elegant, but eye candy isn’t necessary.

Disabling these visual effects takes the pressure off your graphics card or chipset and can help to make Windows 11 more responsive.

To turn off visual animations and effects:

1. Press the Windows key to launch the Start menu.
2. Type appearance and select the Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows option.
3. Uncheck the visual effects that you don’t need. Alternatively, select the Adjust for best performance option to turn off all effects and animations.

Once you make your selections, Windows 11 won’t be as visually appealing, but it will be much more responsive. For example, just turning off the Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing and Show windows contents while dragging options will have a remarkable improvement.

6. Keep Windows Updated

Keeping your Windows system up to date is vital to get new features. And it’s also crucial for security, stability, and system performance. Like your other tech devices, Microsoft releases updates for Windows 11 that improve performance.

For example, a new update might make Windows 11 run faster on older hardware.

Windows does a good job of keeping things updated in the background, but if you know there’s a system performance update, you can check for Windows 11 updates manually. Once you install the update, see if the OS is more responsive.

7. Update PC Hardware

If you can upgrade your system’s hardware, it will fix a slow Windows 11 PC. Consider upgrading to a solid state drive (SSD) so Windows can read and write data faster. And upgrading to an NVMe SSD will be ev en faster.

Before upgrading your drive, ensure to create a full system backup so you can recover Windows 11 using a system image backup. In addition, create a Windows 11 USB recovery drive to use if Windows cannot boot.

If your drive seems quick enough, but too many apps bog it down, you can add more RAM to your system to improve speeds. Not sure what type to get? Use Windows 11 to check RAM information.

If you run programs that use a lot of graphics and video, it may be stressing your graphics card (GPU). You can monitor and fix high GPU usage. And if your graphics card is outdated, installing a new one will help quicken a slow Windows 11 system. You can check the graphics card info if you are unsure which GPU to get.

Fixing a Slow Windows 11 System

If Windows 11 is acting sluggishly on your PC, using one or all of the above options will help speed it up and become more responsive. If that isn’t enough, upgrading the hardware is an option.

There are more options to fix a slow Windows 11 PC. For example, check out how to limit app CPU usage or learn how and why you should reset your graphics card. Also, check out how to make Windows 11 boot faster to improve your PC’s startup time.

Not on Windows 11 yet? No worries. Make sure to read our tips for making Windows 10 faster.