Turn off these visual effects to make Windows run smoother!

Windows 11 and 10 have many effects and animations to look better. However, if you find the effects jerky and imperfect, you can turn them off to make Windows run smoother.

Turn off animation effects

The Settings app is the easiest way to manage animations on Windows 11 PCs. Turning this feature off will remove all icons, elements, action centers, and window-related animations. This eliminates delays in launching and opening windows, making your PC faster.

To turn off animation effects, open the Settings app and navigate to settings Accessibility. Open section Visual Effects and transfer Animation effects to off mode.

Another way to turn it off is to use Control Panel. Navigate to Control Panel > Ease of Access > Ease of Access Center > Make the computer easier to see.

Uncheck the checkbox Turn off all unnecessary animations (when possible) and click Apply.

Turn off visual effects using Advanced System Properties

Animations are just one aspect of the visual effects settings in Windows 11 and 10. Turning off animations gives you a faster experience but doesn't address other factors like thumbnails, Peek, slide effect, etc..

You must use the Advanced System Settings utility to control all visual effects. Here's how:

1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box. Enter sysdm.cpl and press Enter.
2. Switch tabs Advanced and click the button Settings in section Performance.
3. Select options Adjust for best performance.
4. Click Apply > OK.

You'll notice that all the animations are gone, there's no sliding effect, and even the font looks thin and unclear. Since this is a performance-focused setting, you will lose all visual effects.

Fine-tune visual effects

Although you must be willing to sacrifice everything for better performance, the “Adjust for best performance” setting is a bit too harsh. You may not need the animation effects and other things, but making Windows fonts blurry and broken makes the operating system difficult to use.

You can also choose to stop a certain type of animation or visual effect instead of turning them all off.

So, use a custom plan and only turn off visual effects that don't make much sense or get in the way. Here's how:

1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box. Enter sysdm.cpl and press Enter.
2. Switch tabs Advanced and click the button Settings in section Performance.
3. Select options Custom.

Now you can experiment with all the visual effect settings. Here are some of the settings that reduce performance the most:

• Animate controls and elements inside windows: This setting controls the animation of buttons, dialog boxes, etc.
• Animate Windows when Minimizing and Maximizing in Windows: The operating system displays a sliding and fading effect for each open application during zooming in and out. Turning this feature off will cause the app to zoom out or zoom in on the action immediately.
• Animations in the taskbar: Jumplist on Taskbar and icon moving action effect can be controlled through this option.
• Enable Peek: This feature creates a live preview of open applications on the Taskbar and is responsible for the desktop preview. Windows 11 removed this feature from the Show desktop button, but the keyboard shortcut Win+ still works.
• Fade or slide menus into view: Slow sliding and fading effects appear for windows and other elements such as menus and jump lists.
• Show thumbnails instead of icons: Loading thumbnails of each folder and file inside File Explorer is a difficult task. Turning off this feature will prevent Windows from creating and storing thumbnails for each file and will speed up the File Explorer folder viewing experience.

There are a few other settings, but they have virtually no impact on improving the visual experience on Windows. Many people often turn off animation effects that cause any application window to launch or minimize faster.

However, you'll be disappointed if you're expecting significant performance improvements after stopping visual effects in Windows 11. Modern Windows 11 and 10 PCs can handle animations without difficulty. You should only turn off visual effects if you find them slow and annoying.

If you want a performance boost, there are several ways to improve Windows PC performance instead of living without visual effects.