5 Essential Tips and Tricks to Make Your Windows 11 Computer Faster

Windows 11 is a large operating system that takes up system memory and CPU usage right out of the box, even when idle. Xbox Mode kills some background processes, but it doesn’t fix the underlying issues with Copilot, telemetry, and other processes running when users just want to play. Some users even decided to revert back to Windows 10 entirely. Windows 11’s market share actually declined through the end of 2025, while Windows 10 continued to grow despite ending support. Rather than downgrading, the best solution is to remove Windows 11 to improve performance.

In order to bring interesting optimizations to Windows 11 and get the most out of your hardware, you will disable certain Microsoft features like Copilot. For some of the tasks to do this, we’ll grab the free version of the Windows utility from Chris Titus Tech on GitHub. From my personal experience, it does everything I needed during a fresh install of Windows 11.

It’s an open source application that packs the most useful optimizations into an easy-to-understand interface instead of the standard digging through settings menus and finding the right command lines to get the job done. It opens with an elevated PowerShell command line, which can be found on the Windows CTT utility GitHub page. Simply copy the command line from the stable branch, open a PowerShell instance with administrator privileges, paste the command line and press Enter.

As a general solution, go to the Tweaks tab and click on the Standard button. These are the recommended optimizations to make. This may take a while depending on the user’s PC, and there are additional optimizations that I would personally choose, such as OneDrive under Advanced Settings. Just make sure the software in use doesn’t need these features before checking additional boxes; it is very easy to break programs and functions by removing their dependencies. The removal of Microsoft Edge is a good example, as Windows uses it for WebView instances and more.

At the bottom right of the Tweaks tab is the “Performance Plans – NOT FOR LAPTOP COMPUTERS”. This is where you enable the Ultimate Performance Profile, which unlocks maximum component performance in Windows 11. This is a hidden power plan that Microsoft originally designed for high-end servers that removes power-saving limits so the CPU and GPU can run at full throttle, which is why it’s off by default.

Since I’m a complete anarchist, I enabled the Ultimate Performance Profile on my Maingear Ultima 18 laptop, and haven’t had any issues so far after a few months, but it has solid cooling unlike many laptops. So don’t enable it on your laptop unless you know its cooling system can handle it.

Copilot is the origin of the reasonably accurate nickname “Microslop” that exasperated Windows users gave Microsoft. AI is included in everything, including Notepad, Snipping Tool, Photos and Widgets, and much more. It uses up to 500MB of RAM in background processes thanks to running on an instance of Microsoft Edge via WebView 2. It can end up using more than 1GB of RAM when actively using AI, forcing an exodus of users to higher-performance Linux versions and the aforementioned older Windows systems.

To get rid of Copilot completely, not just prevent it from searching for usage data:

1. Open the CTT Win utility.
2. Go to the Adjustments tab.
3. Check the Windows AI box under advanced settings.
4. Tap Run adjustments.

Some Windows updates may reinstall Copilot, so just start this process again if it comes back. This will remove Copilot in the software, on the taskbar, and free up a significant amount of RAM in the process, even if Windows keeps its word. The only thing this tweak won’t do is remove the Copilot key from a new laptop keyboard.

It’s nice to have a fancy operating system, but every transparent window and smooth visual effect uses system resources. High-end gaming rigs will take care of this, but why spend the CPU, GPU, and RAM on something that doesn’t improve performance? Additionally, these changes will make the overall Windows 11 experience feel and act much faster. The stratification tax is real with transparency effects. When enabled, the GPU must allocate more resources in real time, which has a knock-on effect on the CPU.

When disabled, the GPU only has to draw the window, which frees up VRAM. Animations are a similar situation but also tax CPU performance. Reducing, enlarging, and fading animations causes the GPU and CPU to calculate the movement frame by frame, causing stuttering due to resource spikes. Disabling it instantly changes states and is much less demanding. The widget panel, like Copilot, is another instance of Microsoft Edge through the Windows Web Experience Pack, which means its background processes pull data even when idle. Long story short, disabling them is an easy way to free up RAM.

Widgets and visual effects can be disabled and set to performance settings in the Chris Titus Tech Win utility in the Tweaks tab. Alternatively, users can simply go to the Windows 11 Accessibility menu, click on Visual Effects, and turn them off from there. I noticed a slight increase in frame rates just from doing this alone.

Telemetry in Windows 11 automatically collects and transmits diagnostic and usage data to Microsoft. This information is collected by background services that monitor system health, reliability, and functionality. Users can access the app’s diagnostic menu to turn off certain telemetry and lock their privacy settings, but associated background processes still remain active. This step only reduces the amount of data sent; This does not stop telemetry at the system level.

There is another way to block telemetry in Windows 11, but again, the Windows CTT utility is the easiest way. Go to the settings menu again, check the Disable telemetry (service level) box and run the setting. This block goes deeper than the Settings menu, stopping system-level telemetry and freeing up CPU bandwidth.

This step is handy for low-end CPUs and laptops where every processing power counts. Control of telemetry should be entirely in the hands of the user; It’s their data, not Microsoft’s. This can cause random disk accesses and wakeups, compatibility scans, and unnecessary power consumption. Before setting up the telemetry block, be aware that Windows Update may behave differently afterward, so be sure to double-check the update settings in case they have changed.

Windows 11 will likely reduce a gaming monitor’s refresh rate to a lower setting by default. Refresh rate is the number of times per second that a screen redraws an image. For example, a 240Hz gaming monitor left at 60Hz will only display 60 frames per second, which is wasteful. The higher the refresh rate, the smoother the animation, which, combined with low response times, reduces motion blur.

Competitive gamers playing titles like “Valorant” and “Fortnite” want the highest refresh rates possible because they can enjoy faster response times thanks to the greater number of frames produced on a gaming monitor. Not to mention the fact that faster response to inputs is a huge competitive advantage.

Higher refresh rates above 60Hz/60fps reduce fatigue during long gaming sessions by being above the flicker fusion threshold for human eyes. More frames per second means more visual updates sent back to a user’s retina, leading to less eye strain. Low frame rates are often perceived as flickering, which can fatigue users. Simply right-click on the desktop and go to display settings, then advanced display settings, and make sure the resolution and refresh rate match the monitor you are using.