Options to change to make Windows 11 run better and keep your PC fast
On Windows 11 we can use some simple tricks to make it run better and faster, to optimize the PC and customize it according to your needs and requirements, avoiding leaving all the basic settings (often not suitable for a work or study environment).Below, let’s see some options and settings to change for improve PC performance, make Windows 11 start better and run faster than it is after a fresh install or update.
READ ALSO -> Best free apps to customize Windows 11
1) Change default folder File Explorer
When you press the folder icon on the taskbar, by default, the so-called Quick Access view opens. Many people prefer to visualize instead This PC (once known as Computer resources) and see the status of the disks.
To change this option, open any folder, click on the three dots at the top, press on the item Options and, in the tab Generalwe change the item in the drop-down menu next to Open File Explorer to:choosing This PC a voice Personal.
I had already talked about this modification, because it is one of the first options to change in Windows 10.
2) Remove Task View from the system tray
The system tray is the place to keep the icons of your most used programs and where your open programs appear. Since it can easily be filled with icons, it is advisable to eliminate the useless ones such as Task View, which only makes sense if we have more virtual desktops active.
To remove Task View, press the right mouse button on an empty spot on the taskbar, press on Taskbar settings and turn off the switch next to Activity View.
The activity view does not disappear completely, since we can always use it by pressing the keys together Windows + Tabas seen in our how-to guide Use or turn off Windows Activity History.
3) Edit the search box
Another way to make room on the taskbar is to eliminate the spacious search box, especially if we use the Start menu directly to search the PC or search the Internet (just press the WINDOWS key on the keyboard).
The deactivation procedure is identical to that seen for Task view: press the right mouse button on the application bar, open Taskbar settings and, in the context menu of the item Fencewe choose Hide o Search icon only to hide or turn the search bar into an icon.
4) Turn off Cortana
A voice assistant isn’t very useful on a PC, so it’s worth turning it off altogether. On Windows 11 Cortana has a very marginal role and it is possible to deactivate it completely by opening the Start menu, looking for the app Cortanaby clicking on the side of the item App Settings and set to May permission to run it in the background; in addition to this we can deactivate it by disabling the execution at Windows access, removing access to the microphone of the PC.
They are how to disable Cortana we have written a guide with all the options.
5) Turn off file indexing
Windows 11 search has been improved, but it doesn’t work the same on every PC.
One of the most classic tricks to speed up pcis to disable the file indexing that continuously occupies the disk slowing down every operation.
If you never use file search and use an alternative program (like for example Everything), you can disable file indexing on Windows by pressing the keys CTRL+Shift+Esctaking us to the tab Servicesright-click on any service and click on Open services.
In the list of services we look for services Windows Search o WSearchpress it twice, stop it and change the option Startup type and setting to Disabled.
If we don’t want to touch the Windows services we can disable indexing by launching the Start menu, looking for Indexing optionsby pressing on Edit and removing the check from all the items present (in particular we remove the main disk and any other disk present).
6) Turn off web search
If we want to leave indexing active on the PC we can at least delete web search results that Windows shows both in the Start menu and in the dedicated search bar.
To do this we press WIN+I on the keyboard, let’s go to the menu Privacy and securitywe open the menu Windows searchlet’s expand the word Find my files and we select Classico.
To make the change even more effective, let’s also go along the path Privacy and Security -> General and deactivate all the voices present.
7) Turn off animations
Windows 11 uses many animations to make using the computer and managing windows more beautiful and smoother. These animations, active by default, can be optimized by disabling them all or leaving only the most comfortable ones.
On which ones to keep and how to proceed, read the guide on how to disable animations on windows.
8) Disable autostart entries
In Windows 11 the task manager allows you to manage the programs that start automatically when you turn on the computer; as it is easy to imagine, the more programs there are in this list, the slower the initial loading of Windows will be and the more memory will be permanently occupied.
To open Task Manager, press the keys CTRL+Shift+Esclet’s go to the tab Startwe right click on the programs that do not interest us and select the item Disable.
9) Manage UWP apps
Like it or not, in Windows there are system apps and apps from the Microsoft Store (also called App UWP) but which work like those of a smartphone and can only be downloaded from the official store.
Many of these apps remain in the background and they can take up some of your computer’s memory making it slower.
In any case, you can disable background apps by pressing WIN+I on the keyboard, taking us to the path Apps -> Startup and disabling the switch next to the apps we don’t want active on our PC when the system boots.
Unused apps would be best removed, as seen in the how-to guide uninstall apps on windows).
10) Disable diagnostic monitoring service
In Windows 11 there is a diagnostic monitoring service that occupies at least 6 or 7 MB and can be disabled without affecting the functioning of the computer. This is the infamous telemetry service, the one that sends anonymous statistics to Microsoft about the functioning of the computer.
To proceed we open the Start menu, look for the app Servicesscroll through the list of services as seen a few chapters ago and disable the Diagnostic Monitoring Service o diagtrack by the services active on the system.
Conclusions
Windows 11 maintains most of the optimizations seen on Windows 10 and, with a few simple mouse clicks, we can make it faster and more suitable for any scenario where a no-nonsense operating system is requiredwithout useless frills and without superfluous functions or which use up PC resources unnecessarily.
To learn more we can read our guides on which Windows Services you can disable to speed up your PC and about how speed up Windows PC startup for faster computer boot.