10 Windows 11 Settings to Change Right Now | Vivid Repairs

Apps that launch at boot consume memory and CPU before you've opened a single tab. Turning off the ones you don't need can cut start-up time noticeably, and on older machines the difference feels dramatic. Takes about ninety seconds to sort.

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, then click the Startup apps tab. Alternatively, press Windows + I, go to Apps, then Startup.
2. Click the Startup impact column header to sort by impact. Look for anything marked Medium or High.
3. Right-click any non-essential app (media tools, duplicate cloud clients, manufacturer bloatware you never use) and select Disable.
4. Restart your PC and enjoy the difference.

By default Windows 11 throttles your processor to save energy. Switching to Best Performance lets the CPU and GPU run at full speed, which makes the whole machine feel noticeably more responsive, especially during demanding tasks. Do this whenever you're plugged in.

1. Press Windows + I to open Settings.
2. Go to System, then Power & battery.
3. Under Power mode, open the drop-down and select Best performance.
4. Switch back to Best power efficiency when running on battery to preserve charge.

Windows 11's animations and transparency look nice. They also eat GPU and CPU cycles constantly. Reducing them makes the interface respond faster, especially on older or mid-range hardware where the difference is genuinely noticeable rather than just theoretical.

1. Search Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows in the Start menu and open it.
2. Select Adjust for best performance to disable everything at once, or manually uncheck individual animations and fading effects.
3. To disable transparency specifically: press Windows + I, go to Personalisation, then Colours, and toggle off Transparency effects.
4. Click Apply and OK.

HAGS lets your GPU manage its own memory directly instead of routing everything through the CPU. The result is lower latency and less CPU overhead, which benefits gaming, video editing and anything else that pushes the graphics card. It's off by default. Shouldn't be.

1. Press Windows + I, go to System, then Display.
2. Scroll down and click Graphics.
3. Toggle on Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling.
4. Restart your PC for the change to take effect.

A full system drive slows Windows down considerably. Storage Sense handles the boring maintenance for you: it clears temp files, empties the Recycle Bin on a schedule and removes old Windows update files without you touching a thing.

1. Press Windows + I, go to System, then Storage.
2. Toggle on Storage Sense at the top of the page.
3. Click the Storage Sense label to open configuration options.
4. Set it to run every week or month, configure automatic Recycle Bin emptying, and enable Downloads folder cleanup only if you don't store important files there long-term.

Windows 11 collects diagnostic data, tracks your location and serves personalised ads by default. None of that is switched on with your knowledge. A five-minute tour of the Privacy and Security settings page puts you back in control of what leaves your machine.

1. Press Windows + I, then click Privacy & security on the left.
2. Under Windows permissions, open Diagnostics & feedback and set it to Send required diagnostic data only (or off, if the option appears).
3. Go back and open General. Turn off the Advertising ID to stop personalised ads.
4. Under App permissions, review Location, Camera and Microphone access and revoke it for any app that has no obvious reason to need it.

Windows 11 pushes tips, app promotions and suggestion banners constantly. They're distracting, they burn minor background resources to generate, and most people switch them off the moment they discover they can. The toggles are buried across three separate Settings pages, which is presumably deliberate.

1. Press Windows + I, go to System, then Notifications. Scroll down and turn off Get tips and suggestions when using Windows.
2. Go to Personalisation, then Start. Disable Show recommendations for tips, app promotions and more.
3. Go to Privacy & security, then General. Turn off Show me suggested content in the Settings app.
4. That's all three locations done. Check back after major Windows updates as some toggles reset.

Windows Update does more than deliver security patches. Configured properly, it also keeps drivers fresh and stops restarts interrupting your work at the worst possible moment. The default settings leave both of those things half-done.

1. Press Windows + I, go to Windows Update and click Check for updates.
2. Open Advanced options and turn on Receive updates for other Microsoft products.
3. Under Advanced options > Optional updates, install any driver updates listed there.
4. Set Active hours under Windows Update so automatic restarts happen outside your working day.

Most people have no backup until the moment they need one. File History quietly saves versions of your personal files to an external drive, while System Restore snapshots your system state so a bad driver install or update can be undone in minutes rather than hours.

1. Connect an external drive, search File History in Start and click Turn on to start automatic backups.
2. Search Create a restore point in Start and open System Properties.
3. Select your main drive (usually C:), click Configure, turn on system protection and allocate 5 to 10% of disk space.
4. Click Create to make an immediate restore point before you change anything else significant.

Moving to a new PC used to mean hours of manual copying and re-setup. Windows Backup combined with OneDrive transfers your files, remembered passwords and Wi-Fi networks automatically, so the new machine feels like yours from the first sign-in rather than a blank slate.

1. On your old PC, press Windows + I, go to Accounts, then Windows Backup. Sign in with your Microsoft account.
2. Turn on OneDrive folder backup, and enable backup for remembered passwords and Wi-Fi networks.
3. On your new PC, sign in with the same Microsoft account during initial setup and choose to restore from your Windows Backup.
4. Let OneDrive sync files in the background after setup completes. Large libraries take time, but everything arrives.