I sped up Windows 11 with these 4 easy tricks, and you can too

And before you ask, no, you don't need to download extra software to speed up Windows 11, modify registry files, or do anything complicated. Windows provides free, built-in tools to improve its speed that are accessible to everyone -- you just need to know where to find them. Here are the four tricks I've used to enhance the performance of both my laptop and desktop using settings within Windows 11 itself, which you can also easily use to boost your PC's speed.

Disable visual effects

Windows will feel snappier

Windows 11 features impressive effects like animations when minimizing windows and transparency applied to elements like the Start Menu, taskbar, and notification center. Although these effects enhance the visual appeal of Windows 11, they can also affect performance, especially on older hardware. To improve speed, turning off effects can make the OS feel more responsive and streamlined.

Fortunately, Microsoft has made disabling effects in Windows 11 very easy. Simply go to Settings > Accessibility > Visual Effects. There, you'll see two options to disable: Transparency Effects and Animation Effects. Turn both off, and you'll likely notice minimizing and opening apps is faster and more responsive.

For even better performance, you can open System Properties by searching for "sysdm.cpl" in the search bar. Once open, navigate to the Advanced tab and click Settings under Performance. By default, it's set to "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer." Change this to "Adjust for best performance," then click Apply and OK to save your changes. This will disable nearly all other visual effects on Windows, such as shadows, further improving speed.

To quickly open the Settings menu on Windows, press the Windows Key + I simultaneously.

Set your PC to Best Performance

Changing your PC's Power Mode from Balanced to Best Performance can have an impact

Another simple way to improve your PC's performance is by adjusting its Power Mode. Windows 11 offers three different Power Modes, each balancing power and energy efficiency in a different way. By default, especially on a laptop, your PC's Power Mode is probably set to Balanced, providing a mix of performance and efficiency.

However, to make your PC run as fast as possible, I recommend setting the Power Mode to Best Performance. While this may drain your battery faster, I believe the benefit of increased speed makes the tradeoff worthwhile. If you're on a desktop, setting it to High Performance is essential at all times, especially if you do a lot of gaming or use resource-heavy apps like Adobe Premiere Pro or Blender.

To change your PC's Power Mode in Windows 11, go to Settings > System > Power. From there, click on Power Mode, and adjust the setting for when your PC is plugged in and on battery to Best Performance. If you need to conserve the battery, you can always switch it back to Balanced when necessary; otherwise, I recommend leaving it on Best Performance for the smoothest experience.

Clean up your storage

Full storage can slow down your PC

I tend to have a bad habit of accidentally filling up my PC's SSD so full that there's hardly any space left. Since most new games are now around 100GB, 2TB can quickly disappear. However, filling your PC's storage to the brim can cause negative effects, such as slower read and write speeds, which can affect your PC's performance, especially when loading apps, games, and large files.

There are two ways to fix this: one is to review all the apps on your PC and uninstall any you don't need to free up storage space. You can do this by navigating to Settings > Apps > Installed Apps.

The second method is to run a Disk Cleanup, which scans your drive for unnecessary temporary files and allows you to delete them. To do this, open the Start Menu and type "Disk Cleanup" into the search bar. The program should appear, and once you open it, you'll be prompted to select a drive to clean. Choose the C: drive, and it will scan the drive and show you the unnecessary files on your PC that you can delete. These files include items such as your Recycle Bin, temporary system files, thumbnails, and more.

If you have a hard disk drive (HDD), consider using the "Defragment and Optimize Drives" tool, which helps reorganize your disk to enhance performance. However, do not use this on SSDs, as they do not use disks, and running a defrag can actually harm them.

Change an app's priority in Task Manager

Setting an app to "High" priority will allocate more resources to it

Whenever my PC slows down, one of the first things I do is open Task Manager to investigate the issue. Sometimes, high RAM usage is the root cause, often because I have too many Chrome tabs open, which quickly consume RAM and system resources. However, if RAM usage is normal and my PC still feels sluggish when using a particular application, luckily, Task Manager offers a tool that can help fix it.

By default, Windows sets all processes and apps to "Normal" priority in Task Manager. If you want to speed things up and give a specific program more resources, you can do so in Task Manager by selecting the program and changing its priority to "High," so Windows knows to allocate more resources to that app than to others.

To do this, open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc. Then, go to the Details tab on the left. You'll see a list of all the processes running on your PC. Select the process for the app you want to prioritize, such as Google Chrome or a game you're playing, right-click it, and choose Set Priority. A list of options will appear, including Low, Below Normal, Normal, Above Normal, High, and Realtime. I recommend setting it to High to help ensure more of your PC's resources are allocated to it.

Avoid assigning more than one program to High priority, as that defeats the purpose, so keep it to just one. Also, I would never use the "Realtime" priority option because it can cause system instability by giving an app the highest CPU priority, which could unintentionally starve other processes of resources and slow down your PC rather than speed it up.

Other things you can do to help speed up your PC

If you're still experiencing slow performance on your PC, there are a few other things you can try that have helped me speed up my PC in the past.

First, if your PC is slow to open apps, check whether it needs an update. To do this, go to Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates. I once had a really weird issue where Windows took about 30 to 40 seconds to open any app on my PC, whether it was Photoshop, Chrome, Steam, or Spotify. This was driving me nuts, as it was usually instant, but when I performed a Windows Update, it magically went away. Windows can sometimes act strangely, and if a restart doesn't fix it, an update is the next best thing.

Finally, I recently disabled Fast Startup to improve my PC's performance. Fast Startup reduces boot time but doesn't fully restart your system, so your PC isn't fully refreshed at startup. If you experience apps freezing, slow booting, or stuttering in Windows 11, Fast Startup may be the cause, as it's a semi-hibernation state. To fix this, go to Control Panel > System Security > Power Options > Change what the power buttons do. Click "Change settings that are currently unavailable," toggle off "Turn on fast startup," then Save changes.