Boost Windows 11 performance simply by disabling visual effects

Windows 11 incorporates many visual effects to make the experience a little more user-friendly with animations, shadows, translucent effects, and smoother fonts. The only caveat is that they require the use of more resources, affecting performance, and they can make the system feel slower. However, you can disable the system effects to boost performance and make the experience feel snappier.

If your computer isn’t powerful enough, or you want to squeeze every drop of performance, you can disable the system visual effects on Windows 11 in two ways. You can disable only the animations (such as minimizing and maximizing windows) to make the experience feel more responsive. Or you can disable all the visual effects to improve performance further and speed up the navigation experience.

In this Windows 11 guide, we will walk you through the steps to disable the system’s visual effects to speed up the system and boost performance.

How to disable animation effects on Windows 11

You don’t have to disable all the effects to make the system feel faster and more responsive. You can simply disable the animation effects.

To disable the Windows 11 animation effects, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on Accessibility.
3. Click the Visual effects page on the right side.

   

   Source: Windows Central

4. Turn off the Animation effects toggle switch.

   

   Source: Windows Central

5. (Optional) Turn off the Transparency effects toggle switch.

Once you complete the steps, opening, closing, minimizing, maximizing, and other animations will disable, making the desktop experience feel snappier.

Enable animation effects

To enable the animation effects, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on Accessibility.
3. Click the Visual effects page on the right side.

   

   Source: Windows Central

4. Turn on the Animation effects toggle switch.

   

   Source: Windows Central

After you complete the steps, the animation effects will once again enable on Windows 11.

How to disable visual effects on Windows 11

If you want to boost system performance, improve battery life, and make the experience feel faster, you can disable all the visual effects on Windows 11.

To disable all the visual effects through Control Panel, use these steps:

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Click on System and Security.
3. Under the “System” section, click the Allow remote access option to open the legacy System Properties.

   

   Source: Windows Central

4. Click the Advanced tab.
5. Under the “Performance” section, click the Settings button.

   

   Source: Windows Central

6. Click the Visual Effects tab.
7. Select the Adjust for best performance option.

   

   Source: Windows Central
   Quick note: When selecting this option, the system will turn off the fancy rendering feature for fonts. If you want to see the smoother text, select the Custom option, clear all the options, and check the Smooth edges of screen fonts option.

8. Click the Apply button.
9. Click the OK button.

Once you complete the steps, animations for the controls and elements, minimizing and maximizing windows, and animations in the Taskbar will disable. This option will also disable the fade and slide effects for menus and tooltips, shadow effects, translucent effects, clear type for fonts, and more.

Enable visual effects

To enable visual effects on Windows 11, use these steps:

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Click on System and Security.
3. Under the “System” section, click the Allow remote access option to open the legacy System Properties.

   

   Source: Windows Central

4. Click the Advanced tab.
5. Under the “Performance” section, click the Settings button.

   

   Source: Windows Central

6. Click the Visual Effects tab.
7. Select the Let Windows choose what’s best for my computer option.

   

   Source: Windows Central

8. Click the Apply button.
9. Click the OK button.

After you complete the steps, the visual effects will enable again on Windows 11.

More Windows resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10 and Windows 11, visit the following resources: