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6 lesser-known Windows 11 settings made my PC feel faster
Even with 32GB of RAM and a high-end CPU, your Start menu might still have a half-second delay, and overall your PC could feel quite sluggish. The culprit is Windows 11 using a surprising amount of resources just to stand by for AI prompts and background indexing. By flipping these six lesser-known switches, we can strip away the 2026 chafe and return Windows to its most responsive state.
Windows 11 has become a significantly heavier operating system, particularly with the deep integration of AI features like Copilot and the expansion of background telemetry. While Microsoft has promised a performance reset throughout this year, users can already reclaim a snappier feeling by digging into a few menus that most people ignore.
Disabling Efficiency Mode
Stop your CPU from throttling your apps
Windows often applies Efficiency Mode to background apps (e.g., browser) to lower their CPU priority/speed for foreground perf and battery. Disabling it prevents throttling, letting them run at full priority—but monitor for excess resource use spiking foreground lag.
If you do make this switch and notice that your background apps are eating away at your CPU or RAM in the background even when you're not using them, then switching back to efficiency mode might be fundamental, particularly for apps like Google Chrome.
Unlocking Ultimate Performance
You might not be using your CPU's full potential
When looking for different performance settings in your power settings, you will likely see options for balanced or best performance. There is also an eco-friendly mode too, if you are on a laptop. However, there is a hidden ultimate performance plan designed for workstations that eliminates even the slightest millisecond of CPU ramp up time. For you to be able to enable this, you need to do it via your terminal, as it's not a setting that appears within your regular settings.
: Optimize your PC with these settings! (Ben Rowlands)
Ben Rowlands
To do this, run PowerShell as an administrator, then enter powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61
This won't automatically swap you over to ultimate performance mode, but it will then provide it as an option in your control panel power options. Open those back up and select it. As a result, it keeps your CPU at its base clock speed or higher at all times, removing that wake-up lag of modern chips that you sometimes might feel.
Killing the VBS Anchor
Shut down the "mini-Windows" which is running in the background
VBS, otherwise known as virtualization-based security, is a security layer that can impact gaming performance by 5–15%. VBS leverages hardware virtualization for an isolated kernel memory pool, protecting credentials/code from kernel exploits even if the main OS is compromised. It means even if your Windows kernel is compromised by malware, the "mini Windows" remains protected, safeguarding critical security assets.
To switch this off, you can search for Core Isolation in your settings and then toggle off Memory Integrity. This will stop VBS from running and could dramatically improve gaming and other intense performance; however, you have to acknowledge the trade-off here. You are trading a layer of security for raw speed, and this is a choice that many power users are happy to make, but be sure you are comfortable with your decision.
The transparency tax
We don't want the glass aesthetic if it means we lose performance
That glass aesthetic that Windows provides isn't free. While modern GPUs handle these effects easily in isolation, they can still contribute a micro-latency that makes the operating system feel less responsive than it is.
Windows 11 uses two distinct materials: Mica and Acrylic to create this modern look. They can require the GPU to constantly re-render and blur whatever is moving behind the menus you're seeing in real time, which can create a very power-hungry process. By disabling them, you can reduce your UI latency.
To fix this, go to your Settings -> Personalization -> Colors, and thentoggle off Transparency effects. As a result, your UI stops trying to be pretty and starts being fast instead, which is especially noticeable on multi-monitor setups or during heavy file transfers. Disabling transparency removes the compositing step where Windows blends the UI with the background. This can make Windows much snappier, and menu opening feel nearly instantaneous. If you're running a laptop, you also find that you probably might earn some battery too.
Network throttling index
Gaming is just as important as streaming
A problem you may have noticed is that Windows intentionally throttles non-multimedia network traffic to ensure your music or video doesn't skip, but this can cause micro lag in online games or large file syncs. Since gaming is a low-latency task, Network Throttling Index can limit the traffic to roughly 10 packets per millisecond, creating frustrating lag.
To change your Network Throttling Index settings, you can navigate to your registry editor and then to the following location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile
Change NetworkThrottlingIndex to ffffffff (hexadecimal).
As a result, you're telling Windows to stop prioritizing media over raw data. This will lead to more consistent 1% loads in gaming and faster network responsiveness overall. If you have fast enough internet speeds, then it shouldn't affect your multimedia network traffic whatsoever, and your music and videos should continue to not skip or lag at all.
Advanced GPU scheduling
Borderless windowed might be the culprit
The majority of gamers will probably be playing in borderless windowed mode now. Windows 11 has a specific setting to apply the same low-latency features to windowed gaming as it does to full-screen ones. However, these features don't come switched on as a default, so if you're yet to turn them on, then this is something to do ASAP, particularly if you play in windowed mode or borderless windowed mode.
To do this, go to your Settings -> System display graphics -> Change default graphics settings and then enable Optimizations for windowed games.
As a result, you'll drastically reduce input lag, especially if you multitask while you play. Historically, games running in a window used a legacy bit block transfer model, which forced the desktop windows manager to act as a intermediary, adding at least one frame of input lag. By enabling optimizations for windowed games, this setting forces DirectX 10 and 11 games to use the modern flip model presentation. This allows the game to bypass the direct window manager buffer and flip its frame directly to the screen. This effectively gives you the low-latency performance of full screen mode while staying in a window.
Beyond your speed, this toggle is also a gatekeeper for high-end display features that were previously restricted to full-screen mode, like auto HDR and variable refresh rate too. Make sure you restart your game for the changes to take effect if you have enabled this setting while you had one running. You don't need to worry about this so much for modern DirectX 12 titles, as DX12 was built with the flip model as a native requirement, so those games will already be optimized by default.
A couple of minutes in your settings could make all the difference
By digging into these menus that so many people typically ignore, you can change your sluggish and significantly heavy-feeling operating system to a much more refreshed and snappier one. While it won't be able to completely overhaul major performance issues, it can really help with making those 1% lows in-game more consistent and get rid of any micro-stuttering that you feel like you're experiencing but cannot pinpoint exactly why.
