How to speed up boot time on Windows 11

On Windows 11, if you notice that your computer is booting up slowly, there are several tips you can follow to speed up the startup time before planning on hardware upgrades.

When your laptop or desktop computer is not startup fast, you can speed up the boot times in several ways. For example, you can enable the Fast Startup feature, disable apps at startup, choose another power mode designed for performance, and free up space to increase drive efficiency. You can also perform a virus scan to check and remove any malware that may be affecting the boot performance. On older systems, you can defragment the drive to improve system and startup performance. And if nothing seems to work, then you should consider upgrading the memory and hard drive.

This guide will teach you eight ways to speed up boot time on your computer running Windows 11.

Speed up boot time on Windows 11

On Windows 11, you have many ways to improve the speed when starting your computer.

1. Enable Fast Startup

Fast Startup is a feature that combines hibernation and regular shutdown to speed up the process of starting and shutting down the system. The feature should be enabled by default, but if it’s not, you should turn it on to speed up the boot time of Windows 11. 

To enable Fast Startup on Windows 11, use these steps:

1. Open Start on Windows 11.

2. Search for Control Panel and click the top result to open the app.

3. Click on Hardware and Sound (in the “Category” view).

4. Click on Power Options.

   

5. Click the “Choose what the power button does” option from the left pane.

   

6. Click the “Change settings that are currently unavailable” option.

7. Check the “Turn on fast startup” option to enable the feature on Windows 11.

   

Once you complete the steps, the operating system will boot a lot faster than before.

2. Disable apps from at startup

Some apps can start automatically after the computer boots up, adding time to the startup process. If you notice that your computer is taking a long time to start, the system becomes sluggish quickly, or certain apps keep popping up as you sign in to your account, you should disable them from launching automatically.

To disable startup apps to start Windows 11 faster, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.

2. Click on Apps.

3. Click the Startup tab.

4. (Optional) Use the “Sort by” setting and select the Startup impact option.

5. Turn off the toggle switch to disable programs at startup.

   

After you complete the steps, the apps will no longer run automatically on startup, speeding up the startup process and overall performance on Windows 11.

3. Disable restartable apps

Windows 11 also has a feature that can restart apps that you had opened in your last session to help you pick up where you left off quickly. However, this feature can also slow down the startup process. If you want to speed up boot time, disabling restartable apps on Windows 11 can help.

To prevent apps from relaunching automatically upon sign-in on Windows 11, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.

2. Click on Accounts.

3. Click the Sign-in options tab.

4. Under the “Additional settings” section, turn off the “Automatically save my restartable apps and restart them when I sign back in” toggle switch.

   

Once you complete the steps, the next time you reboot the system, the computer should boot a little faster.

4. Change power mode

Windows 11 has different groups of settings to control the energy consumed by the computer. If you’re trying to make your computer boot quickly, you should consider changing the power mode to “Best performance.” Also, it’s important to note that powering on a laptop plugged into a power source will always boot faster than from battery power.

To change the power mode to high performance to speed up boot times, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.

2. Click on System.

3. Click the Power (or Power & battery) page on the right side.

   

4. Select the “Best performance” option in the “Power mode” setting.

   

After you complete the steps, the system will switch to the best-performance power mode that should increase the overall timing when starting your computer.

5. Free up space

Usually, you should never operate a computer that has more than 70 percent of the hard drive space filled up because it’ll affect performance and cause the boot process to take longer. If the system’s drive is running out of available storage, it’s a good idea to free up space to speed up the boot time and overall performance. On Windows 11, you have different ways to free up space, but the quickest method is to delete the temporary files.

To delete temporary files to free up space on Windows 11, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.

2. Click on System.

3. Click the Storage page on the right side.

4. Under the “Local Disk” section, click the Temporary files setting.

   

5. Select the temporary files to remove from Windows 11.

6. Click the Remove files button.

   

Once you complete the steps, the hard drive should have more available space that will allow the system to operate more efficiently. Usually, you will notice an increase in speed during boot if the device was previously running out of space, which makes the system sluggish.

6. Virus scan

If a virus gets inside the system, it can cause a lot of damage, including making the system sluggish and preventing the device from starting up correctly. If you suspect that the computer has been infected with malware, you should perform a full virus scan to detect and remove the threat to secure the device and speed up the boot time on Windows 11.

To perform a full virus scan on Windows 11, use these steps:

1. Open Start on Windows 11.

2. Search for Windows Security and click the top result to open the app.

3. Click on Virus & threat protection.

4. Under the “Current threats” section, click on Scan options.

   

5. Select the Full scan option to check the entire system for viruses and any other type of malware.

   

6. Click the Scan now button.

After you complete the steps, Microsoft Defender Antivirus will scan the device for viruses and other types of malware that could impact the system’s performance and boot time. Alternatively, you can also perform an offline scan to remove viruses that the antivirus may not be able to remove while Windows 11 is loaded.

7. Defragment drive

If you have a computer featuring a traditional hard drive, you can use the defragmentation tool available on Windows 11 to organize the contents of the drive to speed up boot time and the overall performance of the computer. This only applies to rotating platters’ hard drives. If the computer has an SSD, it’s not necessary to run the defragmentation tool.

To defragment the system hard drive, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.

2. Click on System.

3. Click the Storage tab.

4. Under the “Storage management” section, click on Advanced storage settings.

5. Click the Drive optimization setting.

   

6. Select the primary drive and click the Optimize button.

   

Once you complete the steps, the system will organize the contents of the drive to make them easier to find, which translates into better performance, including boot times.

8. Upgrade memory and storage

If you have a computer with a traditional rotating platter hard drive, you should consider upgrading to a Solid-State Drive (SSD). The single upgrade will significantly speed up the system boot times and overall performance.

The reason is that a traditional hard drive typically rotates the platters at 5400 or 72000 RPMs and uses mechanical arms to read and write data on the storage, a process that limits the speed to up to 120 MB/s. On the other hand, an SSD doesn’t have moving parts and offers typical speeds of 200 MB/s to 500 MB/s and beyond.

If the devices don’t have enough memory can also affect performance. In the case that you have a system with 4GB or 8GB for memory, you should consider upgrading to 16GB or 32GB, depending on your needs.

If you notice that the memory and hard drive needs upgrading, it might indicate that it’s time to purchase a new design.