How to optimize the internet in Windows 11 and Windows 10 by changing some configurations to improve the network speed.
Since working with a slow internet connection wastes time and impairs work productivity, it’s important to make sure this doesn’t happen.There are several reasons why the internet is slow and in most cases, the fault lies with the telephone company providing reduced speed due to problems beyond our control.
As far as we are concerned, however, we must ensure that the connection on our computer is not slowed down by incorrect system configurations, programs that are always active in memory (which continuously download without our being aware of it), or conservative network settings (which do not allow you to download at maximum speed).
In this guide, we will show you how to improve internet speed on windows by changing some configurations that could adversely affect network performance, mainly related to bandwidth usage by many background services.
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1) Disable background apps
In Windows 11 and Windows 10, there are many applications running in the background that use the internet connection, slowing it down for foreground programs. Your best bet is to turn off those background apps and save your bandwidth to get a faster internet connection.
To disable background apps on Windows 11, press WIN + I on the keyboard to quickly open the Settings we open the menu App, select the Start menu and disable the switches next to the background apps that we do not use and that are unnecessarily occupying bandwidth; This category includes Torrent clients but also apps such as Steam, EA Origin, Adobe Reader Updates or other similar programs.
On Windows 10 the procedure is very similar to that seen on Windows 11, but alternatively, we can also open Activity management (by right-clicking on the taskbar at the bottom) and take us to the tab Start so as to disable the automatic start of all programs that can download from the internet in the background.
2) Use fast DNS
A good trick to improve Internet speed in Windows 10 and Windows 11 provides the adoption of a fast DNS server so as to be able to load the new pages quickly and also benefit from unrestricted access (restrictions present in the DNS provided by Italian Internet providers).
To apply this type of change we recommend that you download it to your PC DNS Jumper a free software available for any version of Windows.
To use DNS Jumper correctly, open the program, select the network card used for the connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet) at the top, and press the button on the side Fastest DNS to automatically select the fastest DNS servers for our line. Once we have found the right DNS servers for us, we press the button Apply DNS for the changes to take effect and on the button Flush DNS to clear the DNS cache generated so far.
To learn more we can read our guides to faster and safer DNS servers to protect your internet connection and how to change DNS servers in Windows 10 and 11 settings.
3) Disable Windows Peer-to-Peer Update
Windows Update must always be kept active to keep Windows updated and safe from hacker attacks, but we can prevent it from slowing down the internet connection by disabling the peer-to-peer update which allows you to download new updates from a global computer network using a protocol similar to BitTorrent’s P2P networks.
To disable this function on Windows 11, press WIN+I on the keyboard, click on the menu Windows Update press on Delivery optimization and we check the item Devices in the local network.
To disable this feature on Windows 10 let’s take the path Settings > Update and security > Windows Update click on Advanced options open the menu Delivery optimization and we activate the voice PC in the local network.
4) Disable Large Send Offload or LSO
LSO is supposed to improve overall network performance in Windows, but it allows background applications to consume a considerable amount of network bandwidth.
To deactivate it, open the menu device management press the right mouse button on the Start menu, scroll through all the devices listed, expand the “Network cards “and press the right mouse button on the network card used to connect the computer to the internet and go up Property.
In the new window, go to the “Advanced” tab, locate the item select “Large Send Offload (IPv4)” and set the value to Disabled then we press OK and restart the PC for the changes to take effect.
5) Limit bandwidth updates
Basic Windows Update updates will take up all available bandwidth on the line: we will end up with a slow connection due to the updates brought by Windows (however necessary for security).
Fortunately, it is possible to limit the bandwidth occupied by updates by taking us back to the menu Delivery optimization (as seen a few chapters ago, but we can quickly find it from the Start menu), by pressing on the menu Advanced options and setting a download limit of 50% of the maximum available connection speed.
After this change, Windows updates will download more slowly, avoiding saturating all available bandwidth.
To learn more, we can read our guide on how to limit internet bandwidth on Windows.
6) Disable QoS service
Other configurations to change in Windows 11 and Windows 10 to improve internet speed plans to disable QoS service throttling. In fact, Windows reserves 20% of its bandwidth for some internal services such as Windows Update.
This modification can be done from the editor Local Group Policy (not available in the Home version of the operating system): to proceed, open the start menu, launch the command gpedit.msc and let’s take the path Computer configuration > Administrative models > Net > QoS Packet Scheduler.
In the new screen we double click on the row Limit reservable bandwidth and in the window that opens, click on Activated. Before pressing OK, write in the box Bandwidth Limit% the number 0.
To learn more, we can read our guide on how to install Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) on Windows Home.
7) Reset the network
If the internet seems to be running slow despite the advice given, the problem could be with your network settings, which could be compromised.
To quickly restore network settings in Windows 11 let’s take the path Settings -> System -> Troubleshooting -> Other Troubleshooting Tools and click on the button Run present next to the items Internet connections e Network card. To quickly restore network settings in Windows 10 let’s take the path Settings> Network and Internet we open the menu State and press down on the item Network Restoration.
Conclusions
The Internet can slow down for various reasons, but by applying the tips and advice seen in this guide we will certainly speed up the connection, solve the most frequent problems, and finally return to surf at the maximum speed available with our Internet line.
To learn more we can also read our articles on how to optimize internet connection and TCP / IP network for faster surfing and how to solve the problem of fast connection but slow internet.