Most people never bother checking what’s actually running on their Windows PC right after boot. They just assume the slowness is normal – that their machine is aging out, or that Windows just works this way. It doesn’t have to.
Windows 11 alone can eat somewhere between 2 and 4 GB of RAM on an 8 GB system at idle, largely because services like SysMain preload apps into memory whether you asked for them or not. Stack a handful of background apps on top, and a budget system hits its ceiling fast. The good news is that most of this is fixable, without buying new hardware.
The Startup App Problem Is Worse Than You Think
Some apps configure themselves to launch automatically when the operating system starts, consuming memory before you even open a single app. Disabling unnecessary startup programs reduces baseline RAM usage and speeds up boot time. The tricky part is that most users have never looked at this list – and on a factory-fresh Windows 11 machine, it can be surprisingly long.
Many programs add themselves to startup, which means they run in the background all the time and consume RAM even when you never open them. Over time, too many startup apps can slow down your system, increase boot time, and reduce the amount of free RAM available for tasks you actually care about. To fix this, open Task Manager with Ctrl+Shift+Esc, head to the Startup tab, and disable anything you don’t need running at login. Focus on disabling startup items with “High” impact ratings first, as these significantly slow down boot times.
Background Apps Running Silently Are Eating Your RAM
Common culprits like Copilot, Widgets, telemetry services, OneDrive, and bloatware like Candy Crush can together eat between 100 and 300 MB of RAM and 5 to 15 percent of your CPU. That’s just a handful of apps. Most machines have many more running quietly in the background without any visible window.
When your RAM fills up, Windows starts using your hard drive as overflow – that’s called paging, and it’s about 100 times slower. You feel it as stuttering, frozen windows, and slow app switching. To stop background apps from running, go to Settings, then Apps, then Installed Apps. Click the three-dot menu next to any app, select Advanced Options, and under “Background apps permissions,” set it to “Never.” It takes a few minutes to go through the list, but the difference is noticeable.
OEM Bloatware: The Hidden RAM Hog Nobody Talks About
Manufacturers often load up factory Windows installations on laptops with bloatware from their partners for some extra cash. This includes antivirus programs, system control utilities, browsers, and all sorts of different programs you don’t need. Some of these apps run persistent background services that kick in at boot and never fully stop.
Before making any changes, one test showed the system sitting at around 15 to 20 percent CPU usage and 50 to 60 percent RAM usage at idle. After removing bloatware, it came down to less than five percent CPU usage and 20 to 30 percent RAM usage on idle. That’s a dramatic improvement that no RAM upgrade could replicate. Removing bloatware is one of the first things you should do when setting up a new PC or finishing up a clean Windows install.
Third-Party Antivirus Trials Are a Silent Performance Drain
Probably the most commonly pre-installed apps that come with new PCs and that most people definitely consider to be bloatware are antivirus software. Unfortunately, antivirus apps have become pushy, nagging, and alarmist in trying to get you to sign up for a subscription. Their aim is often to scare inexperienced users into forking over money for a product they may not need, since Windows Defender, the antivirus built into Windows 11, is often sufficient for most use cases.
Most third-party antivirus programs slow your system down with needless features, and are a greater strain on resources compared to built-in Windows protection. Some independent studies have compared different antivirus suites in terms of system slowdowns, and programs like McAfee Total Protection, Bitdefender Total Security, and Avast Free Antivirus led the way in terms of consuming system resources during quick and full system scans. Uninstall any trial antivirus that came pre-loaded, and rely on Windows Defender instead.
Telemetry and Diagnostic Services Keep Running in the Background
Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry, known as CompatTelRunner.exe, is a Windows service that collects and sends diagnostic data to Microsoft. It scans your system files to identify compatibility issues for future Windows updates. The process helps Microsoft improve Windows but can cause high CPU usage during scans. On older or lower-spec hardware, this can make the PC feel sluggish for no obvious reason.
By preventing Windows from sending optional diagnostic data to Microsoft, you may reduce the burden of the Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry process. You can also opt out of Microsoft’s other personalized recommendations to minimize resource consumption. To do this, go to Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Diagnostics and Feedback. Turn off the toggle next to “Send optional diagnostic data,” and expand the Tailored experiences menu and turn off that toggle as well.
Turning Off Visual Effects Is a Real Performance Lever
Windows visual effects, including animations, transparency, and shadows, consume between 50 and 100 MB of RAM and 2 to 5 percent of GPU resources. Disabling them in System, then Advanced system settings, then Performance Settings, then Adjust for best performance gives a noticeable speed boost on budget PCs and older hardware. On machines with 4 to 8 GB of RAM, this matters.
The Desktop Window Manager, known as dwm.exe, is the Windows process that handles all visual effects. It keeps a copy of every open window stored in your computer’s RAM so it can quickly add shadows, transparency, and smooth animations. On a typical system, dwm.exe uses between 50 MB and 200 MB of RAM depending on how many windows are open and which effects are enabled. To disable these, press Windows and I to open Settings, click Accessibility in the left sidebar, select Visual effects, and toggle off Animation effects and Transparency effects.
Motherboard and Peripheral Vendor Software Deserves Scrutiny Too
Whether you’re using a Gigabyte, Asus, or MSI board, first-party software is an unfortunate reality in today’s PC hardware space. It’s not limited to motherboards either – Corsair’s iCUE and Razer’s Synapse software come bundled with your peripherals. While some of these programs might mean well, they’re still bloated. These apps typically run persistent background services that start at boot and claim a slice of RAM from the moment Windows loads.
Asus’s Armoury Crate, MSI Center, and Gigabyte Control Center might seem useful at first glance, but almost everything they claim to do can be done by better alternatives. If you need fan curve control, a lightweight dedicated tool handles it with far less overhead. The “Killer” network management suite is one recurring example of this problem: users have reported slowdowns, VPN incompatibility, and other network stability issues traced to the prioritization engine or buggy driver integration. Third-party OEM or driver tools intended to optimize can introduce instability instead.
Putting It All Together: A Simple Audit Routine
You can check RAM usage using Task Manager. Open Task Manager, select the Processes tab, and click the Memory column to sort apps by usage. This quickly identifies which programs or background services are consuming the most memory so you can take action. Do this before and after making changes to get a concrete picture of what you’ve gained.
Systems with 8 GB of RAM or less, older mobile CPUs, or slow SSDs see the most dramatic improvements. Cutting resident background processes often turns a sluggish machine into something genuinely usable again. This is where debloating crosses from optimization into practical life extension. For many users, it delays hardware replacement by years. That’s not a small thing. A few hours of settings cleanup can give a machine a second life that no amount of impatient clicking ever would.