Windows 11 is built to handle modern gaming well, but even the best systems benefit from a little fine-tuning. If your demanding games are experiencing lag or if you simply want to extract every bit of power for a smoother experience, here are ten straightforward ways to optimize your PC.
Optimize Background and Startup Programs
First, tackle the programs running when you don’t need them. Many applications launch automatically at startup and silently consume resources, even heavy ones, which can subtly impact performance. You can speed up your system by opening Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), navigating to the Startup apps tab, and right-clicking to disable any unnecessary programs. Similarly, before starting a heavy gaming session, open the Processes tab in Task Manager, sort the list by CPU or Memory usage, and end any background apps that are currently consuming a lot of power.
Adjust Windows Appearance and Power
Next, you can reclaim resources Windows uses for visual flair. By default, Windows is configured for its best aesthetic appearance, but special animations and effects consume resources. Search for “performance” and open Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows. Choosing Adjust for best performance will sacrifice visual complexity for pure speed. If the resulting interface looks too stark, you can re-enable simple effects like smooth edges for screen fonts, as they have a minimal performance impact.
For raw power delivery, you should switch to the Ultimate Performance power plan. This plan ensures your PC runs at maximum power at all times, preventing minor power-saving delays that might cause stutters. To enable it, you first need to run a simple command in Command Prompt: powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61. After that, search for “power plan,” open Choose a power plan, and select Ultimate Performance. Remember to only use this when gaming, as it uses more power and can increase heat.
Graphics and System Control
Keeping your system current is critical. The single most crucial element for graphics stability and performance is your graphics driver. Windows often doesn’t install the absolute latest versions, so you should manually check your GPU manufacturer’s official software or website (Nvidia or AMD) for the newest update.
Another quick performance win is activating Game Mode. This Windows feature optimizes your system specifically for games and can help improve framerates. Simply go to Windows Settings, select Gaming, choose Game Mode, and toggle the option on.
For systems, particularly laptops, with dual graphics (integrated and dedicated GPU), you should manually force your games to use the dedicated, more powerful GPU. In Settings, navigate to System → Display → Graphics, add your game’s executable file to the list, and set its GPU preference to High Performance.
You can also offload some of the CPU’s work by enabling Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling. This feature transfers scheduling tasks to a dedicated processor on your GPU. While gains are hardware dependent, it can potentially lead to better performance and lower input latency. You can enable it in Settings by going to System → Display → Graphics, and toggling on Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling under Advanced Graphics settings.
Advanced Tweaks for Fluid Gameplay
To improve loading times and reduce micro-stutters, you can prevent your antivirus from constantly monitoring game files. By default, Microsoft Defender scans files when they are accessed, which adds overhead. If you trust your games, exclude their folders from scans. Search for “security,” open the Windows Security app, go to Virus & threat protection → Manage settings → Exclusions, and add your game folders.
Finally, you can achieve slightly better performance in full-screen games by disabling Windows’ optimizations. For games running in full-screen, Windows optimizes them to work better with overlays and quick switching, but this still impacts performance compared to a game running in actual exclusive full-screen mode. Right-click your game’s executable file, select Properties, go to the Compatibility tab, and enable the Disable fullscreen optimizations option.
