I got Windows 11 running buttery smooth

I was given an old HP 250 G7 laptop with a few specific requests. One was to improve its performance with some hardware upgrades. The other, despite not being supported, was to install Windows 11 and make it “run well.”

This laptop originally shipped with 4 GB of RAM and a 5,400 RPM mechanical hard drive. I certainly wouldn’t call it generous, but at least it wasn’t a Celeron.

The Core i3-7020U laptop was given 12 GB of RAM, an SSD to replace the slow hard drive, and had its correct Intel graphics drivers installed. Despite the upgrades, minimizing windows and basic desktop use still produced distracting lag and shuttering in the Windows GUI.

Windows was putting far too much effort into looking prettier than I wanted. I wasn’t expecting miracles, but a few built-in settings made using Windows 11 on this aging laptop much more tolerable.

Animations, transparency, and visual effects

I stopped making the desktop animate every little movement

After installing a fresh copy of Windows 11, there were several things the laptop was obviously struggling with. Minimizing a window was the first thing that annoyed me. Instead of smoothly shrinking toward the taskbar, it stumbled, lagged, and stuttered through the animation.

It was such a small thing, and if it only happened once or twice, I would ignore it. Unfortunately, it was consistent.

I opened Settings → Accessibility → Visual effects and turned off Animation effects. Instead of serving an animation, minimized windows simply disappeared from view. There wasn’t any transition left to stutter through, and the desktop was immediately far more responsive. The applications hadn’t gotten any faster, but they were much less irritating to interact with.

Next, I switched off Transparency effects on the same page. After that change, hovering over taskbar icons and bringing up their previews was noticeably smoother. Between just those two toggles, I’d already removed a lot of the more annoying graphics slowing the desktop down.

Windows 11 also has an older panel with more granular controls. I ran SystemPropertiesPerformance.exe through the Windows key + RWindows shortcut, and opened the Visual Effects tab in Performance Options. I then selected Custom, and unchecked and applied the following options:

Turning these off was the finishing touch. The clearest improvements had definitely come from the first two toggles, but every little unnecessary animation turned off helps.

Taskbar and Start menu clutter

I kept the useful shortcuts and cleared the distractions

The laptop owner had specifically asked for “all the ads and stuff” to be removed from the taskbar and Start Menu. Since this laptop already had enough to deal with, and I had already recently decluttered a taskbar, I gladly obliged.

I right-clicked the taskbar and opened Taskbar settings. Under Taskbar items, I set Search to Hide and switched off Task View and Widgets. Under Taskbar behaviors, I also disabled badges and flashing taskbar buttons.

Unwanted pinned taskbar shortcuts were all removed by right-clicking → Unpin from taskbar, leaving only genuinely useful apps within reach.

Next, I opened Settings → Privacy & security permissions and disabled Show search highlights under More settings. Under Settings → Personalization → Start, I turned off recommendations for tips, shortcuts, and new apps, along with optional account-related notifications. After this, only recent files and frequently used apps could stay.

For the finishing touches, I chose Left under Taskbar behaviors → Taskbar alignment and removed the Windows Spotlight wallpaper by selecting a static Windows picture under Settings → Personalization → Background.

The desktop was much snappier and considerably quieter afterward. The earlier visual-effects changes had stopped the stuttering I’d noticed. This cleanup had stopped Windows waving something else in my face when I just wanted to find something specific.

Startup apps

I checked what needed to launch every time Windows did

Before restarting, I opened up Task Manager → Startup apps to check what Windows had decided needed to open on startup. I reached these settings by right-clicking the Start button and selecting Task Manager.

Since this was a fresh installation, the list was pretty lean. Teams, Xbox, Terminal, and Intel Graphics Command Center all had their startup entries disabled, so there wasn’t really much else to tackle here.

Nonetheless, I noticed Microsoft Edge was enabled and marked as having a high startup impact. I right-clicked its entry and selected Disable. That left a browser that likely wasn’t going to get used anyway to only get opened when requested.

I left HP utilities, Realtek audio component, and Windows Security notification icon enabled because these are all essential for the Windows desktop to run.

This actually made a noticeable difference to the Windows boot time, though I can’t put a number on the improvement since I didn’t time it. It was also just a good opportunity to stop unnecessary apps joining every Windows session.

I don’t miss the pretty stuff

All that polish really is unnecessary in the end

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good-looking desktop. It’s why I tend to install beautiful Linux distros like CachyOS with KDE, and MX Linux. That’s why it came as such a surprise to find that turning off these effects didn’t really feel like a compromise.

Text still looks smooth, thumbnails still work, and the static Windows wallpaper keeps everything looking sophisticated.

After restarting, the laptop was properly snappy. All the choppy transitions that kept reminding me of the age of the laptop were long gone. Task Manager also showed a memory usage drop from 4.7 GB to 3.4 GB afterward.

It’s still an old Core i3 at heart, and those settings don’t magically give it more processing power. I’m just hoping the laptop owner will feel the same way I do: That a desktop that behaves nicely is so much nicer than one that tries to look fancy.