How to fix a slow computer on Windows 11, ranked

Microsoft publishes a support page listing twelve things to try when a Windows PC is slow. Near the top it says: "We recommend trying all the listed solutions as multiple factors can contribute to slow performance."

That is honest and it is also useless. Nobody whose machine takes four minutes to reach the desktop is going to work through twelve numbered procedures in sequence. They will try the first two, notice nothing, and give up.

Searches for this land on two phrasings, how to make my computer run faster and how to make my computer faster, and both want the same thing that Microsoft's page does not give: an order. Most advice on how to speed up a computer is a list without one.

So here are Microsoft's own twelve, reordered by how much difference each can make on a Windows 11 machine, with the two that will not help you at the end instead of buried in the middle. Every step is free, so if you came looking for how to clean my computer to run faster for free, all twelve qualify.

Start here: three steps, about ten minutes#

1. Close what is open, then restart#

This is Microsoft's step 12, and it belongs first because it costs two minutes and it is the single most common fix. Microsoft's own framing: "Having many apps or browser tabs open can slow performance." Close them, then Start > Power > Restart.

Restart rather than shut down and start again. It is also the step that clears whatever went wrong three days ago and never went away.

2. Open Task Manager and actually look at it#

Microsoft lists this tenth. It should be second, because it is the only step that tells you which of the other eleven are worth your time.

Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc, and read the Processes tab sorted by CPU, then by Memory, then by Disk. If one process sits at the top of the disk column at 100%, you have found your problem and you can skip most of this page. If nothing is above a few percent and the machine is still slow, the cause is not software contention and steps 4 through 10 will disappoint you.

Ten minutes here saves an hour of changing settings at random.

3. Turn off what starts with the machine#

Microsoft's step 5. Ctrl + Shift + Esc, then Startup apps in the left-hand menu, then right-click and Disable.

This is the step that changes boot time, and it is the answer to how to speed up Windows 11 startup. Microsoft's own reason: "Apps that run at startup can slow boot time and increase background usage."

The rule for using it: disable anything you do not recognise or do not want running before you have asked for it. Nothing here is permanent, and nothing you disable stops working. It just stops launching itself. That is also the whole of the best ways to manage Windows startup programs, despite how much has been written about it.

Then: the three that fix real causes#

4. Free up disk space#

Microsoft's step 3, and the highest-value one that is not diagnosis. "Low disk space can reduce system performance."

Settings > System > Storage, then Storage Sense, then Run Storage Sense now. You can also let Windows do this on a schedule rather than remembering to.

If you want to see what is actually taking the space before deleting anything, the Temporary files entry on the same Storage screen itemises it.

5. Run a malware scan#

Microsoft's step 2. "Malware can consume CPU and disk resources, which can reduce system performance."

Settings > Privacy & security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection, then Quick scan. It is worth doing early rather than late, because if this is the cause then every other step on this page is wasted effort.

6. Install Windows updates, including the optional ones#

Microsoft's step 1. The part most people miss is the second half: Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options > Optional updates. That is where driver updates live, and a graphics or storage driver is a much more plausible cause of a slow machine than a missing cumulative update.

Worth doing, but narrower than they sound#

7. Uninstall apps you do not use#

Microsoft's step 4. Settings > Apps > Installed apps. This helps by way of steps 3 and 5 rather than on its own: an uninstalled app frees space and stops starting itself.

8. Stop apps running in the background#

Step 6. Settings > Apps > Installed apps, then More options, Advanced options, and set Background app permissions to Never. Real, but per-app, so it is a grind unless Task Manager pointed you at a specific offender.

9. Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows#

Step 7. Start, then type "Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows", then Visual Effects, then Adjust for best performance.

Microsoft's reason is accurate: "Windows 11 visual effects can use system resources." How much depends entirely on your graphics hardware. On a machine with integrated graphics from the 2010s this is noticeable. On anything with a modern GPU it is close to nothing, and you have traded every animation in the interface for it.

10. Set Power mode to Best performance#

Step 8. Settings > System > Power & battery, then Power mode.

Read Microsoft's own warning before you do: "Selecting Best performance increases power consumption. On laptops, this setting will drain the battery more quickly and may cause the device to run warmer."

Warmer is the word to notice. On a thin laptop, more heat can mean the chip throttles itself and you end up slower, which is the opposite of what you came for. On a desktop that is plugged in, take it.

The two that will not fix a slow PC#

These are not bad advice. They are advice whose work is already done.

11. Optimize your drives#

Microsoft's step 9 tells you to open Defragment and Optimize Drives and click Optimize. Microsoft's own page on that tool explains why you do not need to: "For the most part, Windows automatically optimizes your data drives to maintain performance", and "By default, Windows automatically optimizes your drives once a week."

There is a second reason. On the SSD in any recent machine, this is not defragmentation at all. In Microsoft's words, "Hard drives are defragmented, which is reorganizing the files so that they are all lined up and easier for the drive to read. Solid-state drives (SSDs) are what's known as 'trimmed'". Trimming is housekeeping that tells the drive where it can clean up. It is useful, it is already scheduled, and clicking it by hand on a Tuesday will not make your machine faster.

If you are on a mechanical hard drive, this moves up the list considerably. Almost nobody is.

12. Turn off notifications#

Step 11, and Microsoft is candid about it: turning them off can "reduce interruptions and provide small performance improvements". Small is doing the work in that sentence. Turn them off because they interrupt you, which is a good reason. Do not turn them off expecting a faster computer.

If you did all twelve and it is still slow#

Then the answer is probably not a setting, and Microsoft says so on the same page: "Older PCs with outdated hardware may not see significant improvements from these steps. In those cases, upgrading the device may be the best long-term solution."

Before you take that as a verdict, two things are worth checking. Whether the machine is still getting updates at all, because an unsupported machine is a different problem with a different answer. And whether a new one would actually be faster at what you do, because most future-proofing is a myth and a drive or memory upgrade on a five-year-old machine is a fraction of the price.

If you would rather answer this against your own symptoms than read a list, the slow computer checker ranks the causes by what you are actually seeing, and the repair or replace tool puts a number on the last question.

What this ranking is, and is not#

It is Microsoft's list, reordered. Every step, every menu path and every quoted reason is Microsoft's own, from the three support pages linked below. Nothing has been added and nothing has been left out.

What is mine is the order, and it is reasoned rather than measured. There are no benchmarks here and no claim that step 3 is worth some number of seconds. The ordering rests on two things: which steps tell you something, and which steps Microsoft's own documentation says are already happening without you. Where Microsoft's text argues against its own placement, as it does for drive optimization and notifications, that is quoted rather than asserted.

Your machine may be the exception. Step 2 exists so you find that out in ten minutes rather than at the end.