14 features you should disable on Windows 11

Here’s the list of features you should disable on every installation of Windows 11.

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Windows 11comes with a plethora of features and functionalities, catering to a wide range of users. However, not all of these features are universally essential or desirable.

For example, while notifications can be helpful, they can also break the workflow with the sounds and banners, making you less productive. The Taskbar comes with various features, such as Search and Weather, but you can always search from the Start menu and the weather through the Widgets dashboard, so you can safely remove these icons. You can also remove and disable Copilot if you’re not interested in using AI.

If you don’t find the web highlights on the home page from Search, that’s something you can turn off. You can also remove the date and time from the Taskbar, turn off the Start menu recommendations (sort of), disable Memory Integrity if it causes issues, start apps to boost performance, and many more.

Whether you’re looking to reclaim system resources or eliminate distractions, I’ve got you covered with over a dozen features that you can safely turn off on your computer.

In thishow-to guide, I’ll equip you with the expertise needed to navigate Windows 11’s settings confidently and selectively turn off those features that don’t align with your computing goals.

Features everyone should turn off on Windows 11

These are some of the features you should disable on every installation of Windows 11.

1. Start menu notifications

The Start menu now shows notifications related to your account in the user profile menu if you’re not using OneDrive to back up your files or your Microsoft account is missing information. These notifications are enabled by default, but you can always turn them off.

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To disable Start menu notifications on Windows 11, use these steps:

2. Search on Taskbar

The search box offers quicker access to the Windows Search interface, but you can always access the experience from the Start menu. You can disable this feature if you want to declutter the Taskbar even further or make room for other apps.

To remove the search box in the Taskbar, use these steps:

3. Center alignment for Taskbar items

The new Taskbar included on Windows 11 aligns the items and Start button at the center of the screen by default, but there’s an option to revert back to the left alignment.

To disable the center alignment for items in the Taskbar, use these steps:

4. News feed from Widgets

The Widgets board can be useful to give you quick access to information from your favorite apps. However, by default, Microsoft also shows its news feed from the MSN network, which usually doesn’t add value. In a recent update, Windows 11 received an update to turn off this feature.

It’s important to note that this feature may not be available for everyone immediately.

To remove the news feed from the Widgets board, use these steps:

5. Startup apps

Some applications can launch automatically during startup, but even though this can speed up the process of accessing some applications, it can alsoimpact performance. You should always review and turn off those apps that you don’t use to reclaim system resources.

To disable apps at startup on Windows 11, use these steps:

6. Annoying notifications

Windows 11 offers system, apps, and website notifications through banners in the bottom-right corner of the screen and the Notification Center with important information, such as system alerts, unread messages, newly published articles from your favorite sites, and much more.

Although they can be helpful in keeping you informed of things happening around you, the number of notifications and sounds can be overwhelming. As a result, you can alwaysturn off notifications to minimize distractions.

To disable system and app notifications on Windows 11, use these steps:

7. Microsoft ads targeting

Windows 11 usually generates a unique identifier to track your activities that advertisers can use to target you with advertisements when using apps. Although you cannot turn off ads on Windows 11, you can disable the personalization aspect.

To prevent apps from showing targeted ads, use these steps:

8. Diagnostic data

Microsoft collects vast amounts of data about your computer and activities to understand how you use the operating system and apps to then improve the experience over time. However, you can limit the amount of information your device sends to the company.

To restrict data collection from Microsoft, use these steps:

9. Start menu recommendations

The Start menu includes the “recommendations” section that surface recently installed apps, files, and websites. Although it’s not possible to fully remove the experience, you can turn off the feature and reduce the footprint of the interface.

To stop showing recommendations in the Start menu, use these steps:

10. Date and time from the Taskbar

Although showing the time and date in the System Tray can be useful, it can also be a distraction. If you use your computer for school or work, removing this distraction can help you stay a little more focused.

To disable the date and time from the Windows 11 Taskbar, use these steps:

11. Game Bar and Game Mode

If you use your computer for gaming, you may want to keep these features on to optimize the system for gameplay and access the different features, such as recording, screen capture, etc. However, if you’re not, there’s no point in enabling the Game Bar and Game Mode on your computer.

To disable the Game Bar and Mode on Windows 11, use these steps:

12. Search highlights

When you open the Windows Search interface, in addition to the list of recent searches, you will also find the search highlights from Bing. If you don’t find this useful, you can turn off this feature.

To disable the search highlight feature on Windows 11, use these steps:

13. Badges for apps

Windows 11 apps can show badges with the number of unseen messages in the Taskbar, but you can permanently disable this feature to remove unnecessary distractions.

To turn off badges on Windows 11, use these steps:

14. Disable Copilot

Copilotis the new digital assistant AI from Microsoft that can answer virtually any question in natural language and complete different tasks, such as summarizing content, creating images from a simple text description, and changing system settings with a simple prompt.

Although the company aims its chatbot AI as a feature to make you more productive, you can completely disable the feature if you don’t want to use it.

To disable Copilot through Group Policy on Windows 11 Pro or Enterprise, use these steps:

If you are on Windows 11 Home, or you want to remove only the button from the Taskbar, fromSettings>Personalization>Taskbar, turn off the"Copilot"toggle switch. You can find more details onhow to get rid of Copiloton Windows 11 in this guide.

Once you complete the steps, the feature should now be disabled on Windows 11.

This round-up is not in a specific order or targets a particular set of users. These are features that are generally a good idea to turn off to improve the overall experience while minimizing distractions and clutter.

More resources

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

Mauro Huculak has been a Windows How-To Expert contributor for WindowsCentral.com for nearly a decade and has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides. He also has an IT background and has achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and CompTIA. He has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years.