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How to Turn Off Windows Visual Effects to Gain Speed
Especially useful on machines with limited resources.
Windows' animations and shadows have a real performance cost, more noticeable on machines with limited resources.
- Search for "Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows".
- Choose "Adjust for best performance" (turns everything off), or "Custom" to pick what to keep yourself.
Tip: if you don't want to lose the whole visual look, keep "Show thumbnails instead of icons" and "Smooth edges of screen fonts" checked — these have the least impact on performance and are the most noticeable if you remove them.
Frequently asked questions
How much performance do you actually gain by turning off effects?
The improvement is more noticeable on machines with limited resources (little RAM, an old integrated graphics chip) — on modern machines, the impact is minimal and barely noticeable.
Can I choose to turn off just some effects?
Yes, the 'Custom' option lets you check and uncheck each effect individually, instead of turning them all off at once.