How to Debloat Windows 11
Debloat Windows 11 for lower RAM and CPU use. Real before-and-after numbers, what actually helps, and which popular tweaks to skip.
A debloated Windows 11 PC runs fewer background apps and commits less memory. The steps below lower both while keeping Windows Update, the Microsoft Store, and Edge in place.
The biggest gains rarely come from removing Microsoft's preinstalled apps. On our laptop, one chat app at startup held at least 649 MB, while Phone Link and Teams together held 235 MB in our second reading. A cleaning utility used more memory than Microsoft Defender in two of our three readings. Published tests of the popular debloat scripts measured savings of 0 to 0.6 GB. So measure first, then go after the processes that are actually running.
We measured steps 1, 3, and 4 on an ASUS TUF Dash F15 with a Core i7-12650H and 32 GB of RAM, running Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (build 26200.9711), in November 2026. We did not run a debloat script on it. The script results in step 7 come from XDA's and PCMag's tests, and every other number is credited to the source that measured it.
A Windows 11 PC and an administrator account A 15-minute wait after each restart, to measure fairly
Measure your PC before you change anything
Restart the PC, sign in, open nothing, and wait 15 minutes. On our laptop, two Microsoft Defender maintenance processes were still running 11 minutes after startup and had finished by 15 minutes. A reading taken that early measures their work instead of your PC at rest. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager. On the Performance tab, select Memory and write down Committed and In use. Select CPU and note the utilization after it settles. Then open the Processes tab and click the Memory column header, so the biggest users sit at the top. Write down the top ten. Our baseline on the laptop named below, with only a terminal window open, was 8.67 GB committed, 4.1% average CPU over a minute at idle, and 2,877 threads. Keep your numbers. After each later step, restart, wait the same 15 minutes, and compare. Compare Committed and the Processes list first, because the totals move between restarts on their own. Between two of our restarts, the normal-priority standby cache grew from 1.3 GB to 4.5 GB. That cache holds recently used data that Windows hands back the moment an app asks for it, so a bigger cache is not a slower PC.
Install the latest Windows update first
Open Settings > Windows Update and select Check for updates. Install everything it offers, including a feature update to Windows 11 26H2 if it is listed, and restart. This was the biggest memory cut in any test we found, and none of the debloat guides we read mentions it. Windows Central tested an 8 GB Acer Swift Air 14 on a year-old 25H2 build and then on 26H2. After a fresh boot it used 5.3 GB on the old build and 4.1 GB on 26H2. Under a common workload the figures were 7.0 GB and 6.6 GB. Part of that gain is a year of updates, so a PC that is already current gains less. Microsoft released 26H2 on September 29, 2026, as build 26300. When we searched for updates on our 25H2 laptop on November 6, 2026, Windows Update found two driver updates and no 26H2 yet, so check again every week or two if yours is not listed.
Turn off the startup apps you do not need at sign-in
Open Settings > Apps > Startup and switch off every app you do not need the moment you sign in. For a better picture, use the Startup apps tab in Task Manager instead, which adds a Startup impact column. Microsoft's startup apps help page rates an app High when it uses more than 1 second of CPU time or more than 3 MB of disk at startup. Decide by how you use the PC, not by a list. Our laptop already had seven startup entries switched off before we started, including Steam and Docker. We switched off four more and left Microsoft Teams on, because we use it. Leave security software on, and leave anti-cheat on if you play the games that need it. After a restart, the six Discord processes were gone, and they had held at least 649 MB of private memory. Committed memory fell from 8.67 GB to 8.24 GB, and threads fell by 167. Idle CPU stayed at 4.1% to 4.2%. None of Discord's processes had made our list of the 12 busiest, so it was costing memory, not processor time. The physical memory in use did not fall with it. Available memory was 524 MB lower after that restart, because other processes held more than they had the time before. CCleaner's service alone grew by 125 MB. One reading per change is noisy, so measure twice before you credit or blame a change. Three of our four entries did nothing measurable. The Adobe updater and the two Logitech download assistant entries were not running in either test, so switching them off saved nothing. Go by what the Processes tab shows running, not by how long the Startup list is.
Find the background apps the Startup list misses
Go back to the Processes tab, sorted by memory, and look for anything you do not recognize near the top. Right-click it and choose Open file location to see which program it belongs to. On our laptop the biggest surprise was a cleaner. CCleaner's background service held between 318 MB and 478 MB of private memory across our three readings, more than Microsoft Defender in two of them. It never appears in the Startup list because Windows starts it as a service. The Logitech Options+ agent kept running with 161 MB after we switched off both Logitech download assistant entries. For a program like these, open its own settings and turn off its background or start with Windows option. If you do not use the program, uninstall it in Settings > Apps > Installed apps, then restart and confirm its process is gone from the list. For apps from the Microsoft Store, Windows has a switch. In Settings > Apps > Installed apps, select the ... button next to the app, choose Advanced options, and set Background app permissions to Never. Microsoft notes that desktop apps do not show this option, so they need their own settings.
Uninstall the preinstalled apps you do not use
In Settings > Apps > Installed apps, select the ... button next to an app and choose Uninstall. Remove what you never open, such as Clipchamp, Solitaire, News, Weather, or the Copilot app. Set your expectations first. An app that never runs uses no memory, so removing it frees disk space and declutters the Start menu without lowering your RAM figure. The apps worth removing for speed are the ones you see running in step 4. On ours that meant Phone Link, whose background process held 85 MB to 87 MB at idle. Teams held 150 MB across its two processes and stayed, because we use it. If you never connect a phone, Phone Link is the easy win. To hide Widgets, right-click the taskbar, choose Taskbar settings, and switch Widgets off. That removes the button only. Microsoft's Widgets page says Windows + W still opens the board. Keep Microsoft Edge, the Microsoft Store, and WebView2, even if a tool offers to remove them. Win11Debloat itself marks removing Edge or the Store as unsafe. Its project wiki says the Store is one of the apps that cannot easily be reinstalled. On its issue tracker, one user reports Start menu search breaking on two PCs where Edge had been removed, and another reports Microsoft account sign-in failing after Edge and WebView2 were removed with a different tool.
Good to know: On a PC that has been set up for a while, check before you remove anything. Win11Debloat removes 82 apps by default, and on our laptop only one of them, Teams, was still installed.
Switch off tips, ads, and suggestions
These switches clean up what Windows shows you. We found no test that measured a RAM or CPU change from them, so treat this step as decluttering. In Settings > Privacy & security, open Recommendations & offers and switch off the personalized ads, tips, and suggested content options. Older builds show the same switches on a page called General. In Settings > System > Notifications, open Additional settings and clear Get tips and suggestions when using Windows and the welcome experience option. In Settings > Personalization > Start, switch off the recommendation options you do not want. In Settings > Privacy & security > Diagnostics & feedback, switch off optional diagnostic data. That is as far as Home and Pro go. Microsoft's diagnostic data documentation says turning diagnostic data off completely "is only available on Windows Server, Windows Enterprise, and Windows Education editions." A tool that promises to stop all telemetry on Home or Pro cannot deliver that.
Make a restore point, then run Win11Debloat without app removal
To get a way back, make a restore point before you change Windows with any script. Microsoft says system protection is not enabled by default. Search the Start menu for Create a restore point and open it. Select your C: drive, choose Configure, select Turn on system protection, and choose OK. Then choose Create, type a name such as "before debloat", and wait for the confirmation. We recommend Win11Debloat, the open-source script by Raphire on GitHub, run without app removal. You already removed apps by hand in step 5, where you could see each one. Open PowerShell and run: & ([scriptblock]::Create((irm "https://debloat.raphi.re/"))) -RunDefaultsLite Accept the UAC prompt. The launcher reopens the script in Windows PowerShell 5.1 with administrator rights, which it needs to change system settings. Its default settings cut telemetry to the minimum your edition allows, turn off tips, ads, Bing and Copilot in search, Copilot, Recall, Click to Do, and Widgets, and switch off network access while a laptop sleeps in Modern Standby. The script skips its own restore point when one exists from the last 24 hours, so the one you just made is your way back. Expect a small gain. XDA tested the popular tools on an 8 GB virtual machine running 25H2 that started at 3.2 GB of RAM. Win11Debloat brought it to 2.7 GB, and Chris Titus's WinUtil, run together with O&O ShutUp10, to 2.6 GB. PCMag ran a similar test, and in its virtual machine Win11Debloat's defaults left memory at 2.1 GB, "no change from the baseline." Across all the tools it tried, PCMag found they saved "100MB or 200MB" at most. In our one before-and-after test, switching off Discord alone cut committed memory by 0.43 GB, about what the scripts saved in XDA's virtual machine. On a PC with heavy startup apps, steps 3 and 4 are where to start.
Heads up: Debloat scripts are third-party tools, and you run them at your own risk. Win11Debloat's own README says so in those words. Make the restore point first, change one thing at a time, and restart and check the PC before you run anything else. If Windows misbehaves afterward, use the tool's own undo option or the restore point. Reset this PC is the last resort, and its Keep my files option still removes your installed apps.
Leave SysMain, the page file, and Defender alone
Three popular speed-up tweaks cost more than they give. SysMain preloads the apps you use often. Windows Latest benchmarked turning it off on two PCs. On a 16 GB PC it saw "little to no change." On a 4 GB virtual machine, a restart went from 42.83 seconds to 35.18 seconds, but opening Clipchamp went from 3.14 seconds to 8.48 seconds. Across its tests, cached memory dropped by only 100 MB. The page file does not raise RAM use, so turning it off frees nothing. Leave it set to System managed, because Windows also uses it to save crash dumps. Microsoft Defender used 308 MB to 424 MB in our readings, and it is what keeps the PC protected. If you install another antivirus, Defender's real-time protection turns off by itself. Do not use a tool or a modified Windows image that disables it.
If your numbers barely moved, look at what you use, not at Windows. On our laptop, before we closed it for the test, Firefox's largest single process held 747 MB. Close the browser, chat apps, and game launchers you are not using, then measure again before you go further. If the PC got worse after a script, undo its changes with the tool's own options or go back to your restore point. Then make one change at a time and restart after each one, so you find the change that caused it. If the PC is slow under load rather than at idle, check whether it runs hot, and our guide on fixing an overheating laptop is the next place to look. The FAQs below cover Edge, Tiny11, and power settings.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
Steps 1 to 6 use Settings and Task Manager. Startup and background switches turn back on the same way, and an app you uninstall reinstalls from the Microsoft Store or its maker's website. Scripts carry more risk, which is why step 7 starts with a restore point. On Win11Debloat's issue tracker, single users report Start menu search breaking after Bing search or Edge was removed, and the maintainer could not reproduce either report. The project's wiki says the Microsoft Store and the Xbox Speech To Text Overlay cannot easily be reinstalled, so keep both. If Start menu search stops working after a run, open the Regfiles > Undo folder in the Win11Debloat download and run Enable_Bing_Cortana_In_Search.reg, which the wiki lists for reverting that change.
Cached memory is data Windows keeps from files and apps you used recently, so they open faster next time. Microsoft's Ask the Performance Team blog explains that standby memory counts toward Available memory, so Windows gives it to any app that needs it. A high Cached figure is normal. Judge your PC by Committed and by the apps at the top of the Processes tab instead.
Only in the European Economic Area, where the changes Microsoft made for the EU's Digital Markets Act let users uninstall Edge with the standard uninstall option. Everywhere else, Windows treats Edge as part of the system. Keep it either way. Win11Debloat marks Edge removal as unsafe, and one Microsoft account sign-in failure reported on its issue tracker followed removing Edge and WebView2.
Yes, every step above works on Home and Pro. Two extras are limited to the Enterprise and Education editions. One is the policy that removes a set of preinstalled Microsoft Store apps for every account. The other is turning diagnostic data off completely. On Home and Pro, the lowest diagnostic data setting is Required.
Not for memory. Tiny11 is a modified Windows 11 installer made by an independent developer, not by Microsoft, and you install it from scratch. In XDA's test it used 2.7 GB of RAM, the same as Win11Debloat on a normal install, and 15.3 GB of disk instead of 29 GB. If disk space is not your problem, keep your current installation and follow the steps above.
Power mode changes how hard the processor runs, so it affects speed under load, not idle memory. Set it in Settings > System > Power & battery > Power mode. Microsoft's tips page says Best performance uses more battery on a laptop, so use it when plugged in. Visual effects are found by searching the Start menu for Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows, then choosing Adjust for best performance. That option also turns off animations and font smoothing, so text looks rougher.
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How to Debloat Windows 11
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