Disabling Fast Startup to Speed Up Boot Times
Man, this one caught me off guard. When Windows 11 feels insanely slow during startup, the first thing I tried was turning off Fast Startup. Yeah, it’s supposed to help your PC start faster, but in my case, it was actually making things worse—probably due to hardware quirks or driver conflicts. Disabling it actually gave me a more predictable, ‘normal’ boot process, which I didn’t expect. Took a couple of reboots to see the full effect, honestly.
The tricky part is finding that option because it’s tucked away inside the Control Panel. You’d think it’s straightforward, but nope—it’s kinda hidden. So, what finally worked for me was clicking the Start menu, typing “Control Panel,” and pressing Enter. From there, navigate to Power Options. Sometimes, it’s under “System and Security,” other times it’s right there if you set the view to “Large icons” or “Small icons.” If you’re lazy like me, just search “Power Options” directly from the Start menu — that’s faster.
In the Power Options window, click on Choose what the power buttons do on the left sidebar. That’s where everything happens. But heads up, your user account needs admin rights to change these settings. If some options are grayed out or unavailable, look for a link labeled Change settings that are currently unavailable at the top—click that. Sometimes I had to click around a bit or reopen that window after changing it. Also, I got prompted with User Account Control dialogs, so just accept them.
Here’s the weird part. The checkbox that says Turn on fast startup (recommended) is sometimes grayed out or missing altogether. That’s because on some setups, hibernation is disabled, which is required for Fast Startup. To fix that, I had to run an Administrator Command Prompt or PowerShell window and type in powercfg /h on. That turned hibernation back on, and voila—now I could see and uncheck the Fast Startup option. Honestly, I didn’t realize that was a prerequisite at first, and I kept wondering why it was grayed out. So don’t skip that step if it’s missing.
Once I unchecked Turn on fast startup, I clicked Save Changes and rebooted. The next startup felt noticeably more stable and, surprisingly, sometimes even a little faster. But, fair warning—it might take a couple of tries, especially if you have a custom BIOS or certain OEM restrictions. Also, be aware that disabling Fast Startup means you’ll be doing full shutdowns instead of hybrid ones, so your cold boot might be a little slower initially, but it seemed overall more reliable in my experience.
Managing Startup Programs for Quicker Boot Times
Another thing that can drag down your boot speed—programs launching automatically and just sitting there in the background. I’ve seen this a lot, especially with apps that I don’t even use every day. They just add bloat and slow down everything. It’s one of those ‘no-brainer’ fixes, but you’d be surprised how many overlook it.
I usually hit Control + Shift + Escape to open Task Manager. Classic shortcut—feels good. Once it’s open, go to the Startup tab. If it’s not visible, just click on More details at the bottom. Here, I found a list of everything set to run at startup, with impact levels shown. For the programs I don’t need right away—like updater tools, background chat apps, or media players—I just selected them and hit Disable. It’s reversible, so if I suddenly need it, I can re-enable with a click later.
Disabling a few stubborn apps really helped with boot times. Sometimes this seems small, but the difference is real. Keep in mind, some programs are tricky—corporate setups or certain OEM-installed bloatware might have policies preventing you from disabling them, but if it’s your personal machine, it’s usually straightforward. A quick web search of the program’s name helps confirm if it’s safe to disable. Still, always be cautious — I’ve accidentally disabled something critical once, but mostly, it’s harmless.
After making the changes, restart to see the effects. Usually, the startup feels snappier after trimming this list down. For me, the combo of turning off Fast Startup and pruning startup apps made a noticeable difference. I’ve also played around with msconfig in the past, but honestly—Task Manager’s Startup tab does the job much faster these days.
This isn’t a magic fix, and honestly, it took a bit of trial and error to dial it in. Some devices have deeper BIOS or UEFI settings that can influence boot speed, but for most day-to-day users, these Windows tweaks make a surprisingly big difference. Keep in mind, Fast Startup was supposed to help, but in some cases—like mine—it just causes more problems, especially with driver updates or certain hardware configurations. Turning it off might result in a longer initial boot, but overall, stability and consistency improved for me.
Finally, if the slowdown persists even after these tweaks, consider other options like disk cleanup, scanning for malware, or hardware upgrades (SSD instead of HDD, more RAM). But honestly, for most folks, these tweaks are the low-hanging fruit that can make your system feel more responsive on cold boots. It’s a little fiddly to get right, but patience pays off. Took me way longer than I’d like to admit—so hopefully, this saves someone else a weekend or frustrated hours.
Just double-check that your BIOS is set properly, especially if you’re using an SSD. Enable AHCI mode, disable any legacy boot options if possible, and look for anything labeled “Fast Boot” there; sometimes those BIOS settings can also help or hinder your boot times.
Anyway, hope this helps — it took me forever to figure it out, but it’s worth the effort. Good luck and happy booting!