To reduce CPU usage on Windows 11 and 10

 

Is our computer's processor constantly under strain? Let's find out together how to reduce high CPU usage on Windows.

As soon as we notice that the computer opens programs too slowly, the first check we can do is to open Task Manager and check which process is saturating system resources, in particular the processor. After opening Task Manager we can in fact press directly on theCPU column to sort the processes based on the processor load: the process that exceeds 50% of the CPU's capacity is capable of significantly slowing down any other activity on the computer.

If our computer is really too slow and we don't know how to recover the old performance, in the following guide we will show you how to reduce high CPU usage on Windows 11 and Windows 10 , recovering the lost performance by following some simple advice .

Close unused apps

The first piece of advice we can follow involves closing unwanted apps from Task Manager, so as to leave more resources for other programs and processes in use.

To proceed, we right-click on the Start menu, press on Task Management , click on More details (if present), press on the Processes tab, press on the CPU column to sort the processes by percentage of processor use and close any applications that consumes too much CPU but which we are not using at that precise moment.

We try to avoid closing processes or applications that we don't know or know anything about: we risk doing damage or closing processes that are essential for the correct functioning of Windows.

Restrict background apps

Most high CPU problems are caused by background programs, which are applications that start alongside Windows that the user knows nothing about.

To control applications in the background, we right-click on the Start menu, press on Settings , click on the Apps menu, select the Start menu, remove the check mark from the applications that we do not want to start together with Windows and restart the PC to make the changes take effect. changes. This strategy is substantial for the two Windows 10 and Windows 11, since the menus are indistinguishable.

Alternatively we can remove the background processes by opening Task Manager again, pressing on the Startup tab, right clicking on the process we want to deactivate and finally pressing on Disable .

Restore energy savings

Some energy saving profiles (such as Maximum Performance ) increase the CPU frequency, thus causing overheating, slowdown of processes and reduced battery life (on laptops).

To reduce high CPU usage we can reset the default power saving profile by opening the Start menu, opening the Control Panel and taking us to the path Hardware and Sound -> Power Options .

After opening this screen, make sure to select the Balanced profile, so as to reduce the processor frequency. If we had customized this profile in the past, click on the Change hardware settings item next to the name of the Balanced profile and click on the Restore default settings for this combination item .

Disable the Superfetch service

Superfetch is a service that allows applications to load content even before opening it. This function considerably increases CPU usage and, on less powerful computers, it is always best to disable it.

To proceed, press the WIN+R combination on the keyboard , type services.msc and, once the services window is open, identify the SysMain service . Presently we should simply double tap on the thing, press Stop and, in the drop-down menu close to the Startup type thing, select the Impaired thing; For the changes to take effect, restart the computer.

Disable Cortana

Cortana is the voice assistant in Windows 10 and Windows 11 that can speed up searches and opening functions and programs , but can also take up a fair amount of processor when processing requests.

To permanently turn off Cortana on Windows 11, go to the path Settings -> Apps -> Apps and features , look forCortana in the search field , press on the three dots next to the name, select Advanced options and proceed with its deactivation by turning off the switch under the Runs when you log in section and selecting the Never item from the drop-down menu in the Let the app run in the background section.

On Windows 10, first of all, we remove the Cortana button from the address bar: to proceed, we right-click on the taskbar and remove the check mark under Cortana . To completely turn off the voice assistant, go to Settings -> Apps -> Apps and features , look for the Cortana app, click on its name, select the Advanced options item and turn off the switches next to the Microphone , App in items background and Run on login .

Wait for the updates to finish

One of the reasons why Windows noticeably slows down is installing updates . During this phase the system uses a considerable part of the computer's resources and, on PCs that are a few years old, the computer is totally unusable during updates.

To prevent the updates from using all the computer's resources, we can rely on the active time, so as to install the updates only outside of active or working hours (however, you must remember to leave the PC turned on for at least an hour after the hours of activity, so as to complete the updates).

On Windows 11 we can postpone updates outside of business hours by going to Settings -> Windows Update -> Advanced Options, opening theBusiness hours menu and choosing whether to set the business hours manually or automatically.

On Windows 10 the activity time can be set by going to the path Settings -> Update and security -> Windows Update , pressing the Change activity time menu and finally pressing the Edit button. Even on Windows 10 there is a switch to activate automatic adjustment of activity hours, so as to let the computer choose the best time to proceed with the updates.

Scan your PC for viruses

If all the previous advice has had no effect and your computer's CPU is still under strain, a particularly insidious and powerful malware is probably to blame.

In this case we can proceed with an antivirus scan by opening the Start menu, typing Windows Security, pressing theVirus and threat protection menu , clicking on Analysis options , activating the Complete analysis item and finally clicking on Start analysis .

If the analysis does not lead to any improvement we recommend repeating the scan with other security scanners such as Malwarebytes .

Conclusions

High CPU usage will significantly reduce your computer's performance, making it nearly impossible to launch new applications. Fortunately, with modern multi-core processors we will hardly fill all the cores but, in some scenarios, the slowdown is so evident that it affects our productivity.

With the advice above we should be able to reduce high CPU usage in almost all scenarios, thus restoring the performance we were used to.

If your computer still has high CPU consumption after following all the suggestions, there is nothing left to do but try to restore the operating system, as seen in our guides on how to reset Windows 10 (Reset PC) and how to use system restore in Windows 10 and 11 .