Windows 11: What You Might Not Know

Ramona
Dec 4, 2023
3 min read

Updated: Feb 7

(and How to Get the Best Performance)

Windows 11 has been around long enough that most people feel familiar with it, but that doesn’t mean they’re getting the best experience out of it.

Behind the cleaner design and updated menus, Windows 11 includes performance features and settings that often go unnoticed. A few small adjustments can make a big difference in speed, stability, and overall day-to-day usability.

Windows 11: What You Might Not Know

Let’s take a look at what Windows 11 is quietly doing for you, and how to help it do its job even better.

Windows 11 Is Built for Modern Hardware

One of the biggest (and least talked about) changes in Windows 11 is how it expects hardware to behave.

Windows 11 is optimized for:

Solid State Drives (SSDs)
Modern CPUs with efficiency cores
TPM 2.0 and newer security features
Updated graphics handling

If you’re running Windows 11 on older hardware, it may technically work, but it won’t feel as smooth. On the flip side, if you do have modern hardware and things still feel slow, there’s usually room for optimization.

Startup Apps Matter More Than You Think

Windows 11 does a better job managing background processes, but startup apps can still quietly slow things down.

Many programs add themselves to startup by default:

Chat tools
Cloud storage apps
Updaters you rarely use

A quick review of startup apps can noticeably improve boot time and responsiveness. If your computer feels sluggish right after logging in, this is often the reason.

Power Settings Affect Performance

Windows 11 is designed to balance performance and energy efficiency, sometimes a little too aggressively.

On laptops especially, power mode settings can limit performance to conserve battery.

Switching to a balanced or performance-focused power plan (when appropriate) can make the system feel noticeably snappier during work hours.

It’s a small setting with a big impact.

Updates Are About More Than Security

Windows updates aren’t just about patches, many include performance improvements and driver optimizations.

Delaying updates for too long can mean:

Slower performance
Hardware not running at full capability
Missed fixes for known issues

Windows 11 tends to run best when it’s allowed to stay current, especially with drivers for graphics, networking, and storage.

Visual Effects Can Be Tuned

Windows 11’s visual polish looks great, but animations and transparency can add overhead on some systems.

You don’t have to turn everything off, but selectively reducing visual effects can help older or heavily used machines feel faster without sacrificing usability.

Think “clean and efficient,” not “boring.”

Storage Health Is Performance Health

Windows 11 assumes your storage is healthy and fast. If your drive is nearly full, cluttered with temporary files, or still using older storage technology, performance will suffer.

Regular cleanup, proper storage configuration, and enough free space help Windows do what it’s designed to do, move quickly.

Security Features Can Help (Not Hurt) Performance

It might sound counterintuitive, but Windows 11’s built-in security features often improve stability.

Features like:

Core isolation
Secure boot
Modern credential protection

…reduce the likelihood of background malware, system instability, and unexpected slowdowns.

A secure system is usually a smoother system.

Optimizing Windows 11 Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated

Most performance issues we see with Windows 11 aren’t caused by a single big problem, they’re caused by lots of small, fixable things stacking up over time.

The good news? You don’t need to be a power user to benefit from optimization.

A little attention goes a long way: