Windows 11 offers a great overall computing experience, but it also has a few quirks that can really test your patience. Thankfully, all it takes is a few minutes to smooth out the rough edges and make Windows 11 work your way.
9 Tame the Notification Overload
You know the feeling: you’re trying to get something done, and ding—another pop-up in the corner. Maybe it’s the weather app telling you it might rain. Or, it’s some random app you totally forgot you installed that now wants your attention again. It’s distracting, unnecessary, and happens way too often.
Thankfully, getting things under control is easier than you might expect. All you have to do is open the Settings app and head to System > Notifications. Here, you’ll find a list of apps with toggles. You can simply toggle off notifications for apps you never want to hear from again. If you don’t want to disable them entirely, it’s best to mute them.
You can also use Windows 11’s Focus Assist if you only need to silence alerts for a specific time. You can turn it on manually or schedule it to kick in during specific times so you’re not constantly being poked when you’re trying to concentrate.
8 Turn Off Microsoft’s Tips and Pop-Ups
It’s not just apps that can mess with your focus. If you’ve spent more than five minutes on a clean Windows 11 install, chances are you’ve already been hit with a wave of «helpful tips,» setup suggestions, and pop-ups urging you to use Edge. While some of these can be useful for new users, for the rest, it’s just plain annoying.
To fix this, open Settings > System > Notifications and scroll down to expand Additional settings. Then, simply uncheck the three boxes for tips and suggestions related to optimizing your Windows experience.
7 Set Your Default Apps
Remember when changing your default browser or photo viewer in Windows 10 was as easy as a single click? In Windows 11, Microsoft turned it into a process that feels more like doing your taxes.
Rather than simply letting you pick a default app, Windows 11 makes you set it for each individual file type. If you want to change your default image viewer, for example, you need to adjust the settings separately for file types like JPG, PNG, TIFF, and others. To make these changes, you need to go to Settings > Apps > Default Apps.
Changing default apps in Windows 11 can take a little extra time, but it’s worth doing, especially for the ones you use most often. That way, you won’t have to deal with Edge opening every link or Photos launching whenever you double-click an image.
6 Speed Things Up by Disabling Startup Apps
Even your brand-new Windows 11 PC can feel oddly sluggish after a few days. The main reason for this is usually too many startup apps.
By default, Windows tends to let a bunch of apps launch automatically when you sign in—some of which you probably don’t need running right away (or ever). Things like Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, Spotify, or other random apps sneak into your startup list and quietly hog system resources in the background.
All of this can add up and slow down your PC’s startup time significantly. To avoid this, go to Settings > Apps > Startup and use the toggles to manage startup apps. You’ll be surprised how much faster your system boots and feels after a little startup spring cleaning. Just make sure you leave antivirus software and essential system utilities alone.
5 Clean Up the Start Menu and Taskbar
Windows 11’s Start Menu and Taskbar look sleek, but once you actually start using them, you realize just how cluttered and distracting they can be. Thankfully, you can tame the chaos in just a few minutes.
Start with the Start Menu. Head to Settings > Personalization > Start. From here, you can stop it from showing recently added apps or suggested content (yes, those are basically ads). You can also go into the Folders section to pin useful shortcuts, like File Explorer or Downloads, right below the power button.
Now for the Taskbar. Go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar and start flipping those switches off. You can hide things like the search box, the Chat icon, and even Copilot. For an even more practical setup, scroll down to Taskbar behaviors and choose to ungroup taskbar buttons. This makes each window show up separately on the Taskbar like older versions of Windows.
4 Get Rid of Lock Screen Ads for Good
There’s nothing quite like firing up your PC, only to be greeted by an ad for a Microsoft product you didn’t ask for. Windows 11 has this lovely habit of sneaking “suggestions” and promotions onto your lock screen, dressing them up as helpful tips or pretty pictures. But let’s be real—they’re just ads.
Getting rid of these lock screen ads is quite easy. Simply go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen, click the Personalize your lock screen menu, and choose Picture or Slideshow. Then, uncheck the Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen checkbox.
3 Disable the Widgets Panel You’ll Never Use
Windows 11 comes with a built-in Widgets panel that slides out from the left side of the screen. It shows things like the weather, news, traffic updates, stocks, and sports scores. If you’re tired of accidentally triggering the Widgets panel or seeing news headlines you didn’t ask for, it’s possible to hide it. Right-click on the taskbar and select Taskbar settings. Then, look for the Widgets toggle and turn it off.
Windows 11 also puts some of these widgets right on your lock screen, so even before you log in, you’re greeted with weather updates, sports scores, or random news blurbs. If you’d rather keep your lock screen clean, head to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen, and in the “Lock screen status” menu, select None.
2 Remove Web Results and Highlights from Search
Windows 11’s search bar is something you’ll probably use every day to launch your apps, locate files, or dig through settings. But here’s the catch: instead of just showing what’s on your PC, it loves tossing in web results too. So when you mistype “Word” as “wrd” or «paint» as «painet,» it won’t just shrug and try to help—it’ll open a Bing search in Edge.
To make things worse, Microsoft doesn’t offer a simple toggle to turn this off. If you’re comfortable editing the Windows Registry, though, you can turn off Bing searches in Windows 11. If not, you can also use a third-party tool like Winaero Tweaker to do this.
1 Restore the Classic Right-Click Menu
With Windows 11, Microsoft tried to clean up the right-click menu by hiding a bunch of options behind a “Show more options” button. But it also adds an extra, unnecessary click every single time you want to access familiar options or third-party app integrations.
If this drives you nuts, you can bring back the classic right-click menu. Again, this requires you to modify the registry file. Before you do that, make sure to create a restore point, just in case. It only takes a minute and can save you a world of hassle if something goes sideways.
At the end of the day, Windows 11 has plenty to love, but it’s the little annoyances that can pile up fast. So, it’s best to take some time to fix them so you can enjoy the best of what Microsoft has to offer.
