10 things you should turn off in Windows 11 right now

Microsoft has officially axed support for Windows 10, which has caused millions of users to make the transition to Windows 11. If you are one of these users, these are the top 10 things you should disable immediately to improve boot times, reduce spying, remove baked-in advertisements, and free up RAM.

There is quite a big difference between Windows 10 and Windows 11, especially in the number of baked-in advertisements for Microsoft products and services, along with Microsoft software and telemetry. However, there are ways you can turn off most of these "features," and if you are planning on making the jump over to Windows 11, it's worth turning these off immediately.

YouTuber "The Grumpy Sysadmin" has outlined the top 10 things he disables when installing a fresh version of Windows 11, and after checking out the above video, I certainly agree with him. We recently built a new Windows 11 benchmarking PC for testing all the latest games, and everything that the Sysadmin recommends disabling, we already did using a special tool. However, you can do it manually.

Top 10 Windows 11 things you should turn off right now

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1. Start up Apps - Press CTRL + Shift + ESC > Locate Start up Apps (left-hand side) > Disable anything that you don't need immediately upon startup. By doing this, you are freeing up RAM, and your system will boot faster.

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2. Notification & Tips - Start button > Settings > System > Notifications > Turn off anything you don't want to receive notifications from, or turn off all notifications at the top of the window.

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3. Shutdown Background Apps - Start button > Settings > Apps > Installed Apps > Click the three dots to the right of a program and locate "Advanced Options"> Background App Permissions > Disable any program you don't want/need running in the background. Unfortunately, you will have to go program by program, as there isn't a way to bulk disable background programs. It's worth checking Processes within Task Manager to locate what programs are consuming a lot of resources by running in the background before going program by program.

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Web browsers can be a big culprit for consuming system resources by running in the background. Here's how to disable Google Chrome. Open Chrome > Click on three vertical dots in the upper right-hand corner > Settings > Select System > Disable "Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed".

Further Guides Reading – Our Latest Content

• The Right Way to Remove a Virus From Windows
• Microphone Not Working in Windows 11? Here's the Solution
• Debloat Windows 11 the Right Way: Speed Up and Clean Your PC

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4. Stop Online Search in the Start Menu - Hit Windows button on your keyboard and the letter "R"> Type "regedit"> HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Policies > Microsoft > Windows > Explorer. If the Explorer folder doesn't exist, right-click on the Windows folder, hit "New"> Key. Name the Key "Explorer". Select the "Explorer" folder in the left-hand window and then right-click in the right-hand window and hit "New"> DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new entry "DisableSearchBoxSuggestions" with no spaces. Hit enter. Double-click on the "DisableSearchBoxSuggestions" entry and type "1" in the "Value Data" box. Lastly, reboot the PC.

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5. Terminate Widgets, News, and Interests - Start button > Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Turn off Widget setting

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6. Reduce Telemetry and Diagnostics - Start button > Settings > Privacy & Security > Diagnostics & Feedback > Disable "Send optional diagnostic data" is turned off > and "Diagnostic data is also set to "Sending required".

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7. Disable Ads in Explorer and the Lock Screen - Hit File Explorer > Three dots near the address bar > hit View > Scroll down until you find "Show sync provider notifications"> Uncheck the box. Next, Windows button your keyboard and the letter "R"> type in "regedit" and hit enter > HKEY_CURRENT_ USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > Current Version > Content Delivery Manager > Create two new entries > right click on the right-hand side > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value > Name the entry "RotatingLockScreenEnable" with no spaces > double click on it and set the value to zero.

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Create a second DWORD (32-bit) Value entry and name it "RotatingLockScreenOverlayEnable"> double click on this entry and set its value to zero.

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8. Uninstall Cortana / Copilot - Start button > Settings > Apps > Installed Apps > Uninstall Cortana and Copilot.

9. Kill Activity History and Timeline - Start button > Settings > Privacy & Security > Diagnostics & feedback > Delete Diagnostic data > hit Delete. Go back to Privacy & Security > Search > turn off Microsoft account and Work or School account. Back to Privacy & Security > Inking & typing personalization > turn it off. Back to Privacy & Security > Speech > disable "Online speech recognition".

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10. Stop auto-reboots after Updates - Start button > Settings > Advanced Options > turn on "Notify me when a restart is required to finish updating".