Improve Internet speed in Windows 11 and 10

 

How to optimize the internet in Windows 11 and Windows 10 by changing some configurations to improve network speed

Since working with a slow internet connection wastes time and compromises work productivity, it is important to make sure this doesn't happen.

There are several reasons why the internet is slow and in most cases the fault lies with the telephone company which provides reduced speed due to problems beyond our control.

As far as we are concerned, however, we must make sure that the connection on our computer is not slowed down by incorrect system configurations, programs that are always active in memory (which are constantly downloading without us being aware of it) or conservative network settings (which do not allow downloading at maximum speed).

In this guide we will show you this how to improve internet speed on Windows , changing some configurations that could negatively affect network performance, mainly related to the use of bandwidth by many background services.

1) Turn off background apps

In Windows 11 and Windows 10 there are many applications running in the background that use your internet connection, slowing it down for foreground programs. The best solution is to turn off those background applications and save your bandwidth to get a faster internet connection.

To deactivate background apps on Windows 11, press WIN+I on the keyboard to quickly open the Settings, open theApps menu , select the Start menu and deactivate the switches next to the background apps that we don't use and which take up bandwidth unnecessarily; This category includes Torrent clients but also apps such as Steam, EA Origin, Adobe Reader Updates or other similar programs.

On Windows 10 the procedure is completely similar to that seen on Windows 11, but alternatively we can also open Task Manager (by right clicking on the bottom taskbar) and go to the Startup tab , so as to disable automatic startup for all programs that can download from the internet in the background.

2) Use fast DNS

A good trick to improve Internet speed in Windows 10 and Windows 11 involves adopting a fast DNS server , so that you can load new pages quickly and also benefit from unrestricted access (restrictions present instead in the DNS provided by Internet providers Italians).

To apply this type of change we recommend downloading DNS Jumper onto your PC, a free software available for any version of Windows.

Open the program, select the network card used for the connection (Wi-Fi or Ethernet) at the top, and press the Fastest DNS button on the side to select the fastest DNS servers for our line automatically. This is how to use DNS Jumper correctly. Once we have found the right DNS servers for us, we press the Apply DNS button to make the changes effective and theFlush DNS button to delete the DNS cache generated up to that moment.

To learn more we can read our guides to the fastest and most secure DNS servers to protect your internet connection and how to change DNS servers in Windows 10 and 11 settings .

3) Disable Windows Peer-to-Peer Update

Windows Update must always be kept active to keep Windows updated and safe from hacker attacks, but we can prevent it from slowing down the internet connection by deactivating peer-to-peer updating , which allows you to download new updates from a worldwide computer network using a protocol similar to BitTorrent P2P networks.

To deactivate this function on Windows 11, press WIN+I on the keyboard, click on theWindows Update menu , press on Delivery Optimization and tick the Devices in the local network item .

To deactivate this function on Windows 10, go to the Settings > path Update and Security > Windows Update , click on Advanced Options, open theDelivery Optimization menu and activate the PC in local network option.

4) Disable Large Send Offload or LSO

LSO is supposed to improve overall network performance in Windows, but it allows background applications to consume a considerable amount of network bandwidth. To deactivate it, open the device management

menu by pressing the right mouse button on the Start menu, scroll through all the devices listed, expand the " Network adapters" section, press the right mouse button on the network card used to connect the computer to the internet and go to Properties . In the new window let's go to the "Advanced" tab, locate the item select " Large Send Offload (IPv4) " and set the value to Disabled , then press

OK and let's restart the PC for the changes to take effect.

5) Limit update bandwidth

Basically, Windows Update updates will take up all the bandwidth available on the line : we will thus find ourselves with a slow connection due to the updates brought by Windows (nevertheless necessary for security).

Fortunately, it is possible to limit the bandwidth occupied by updates by taking us back to the Delivery Optimization menu (as seen a few chapters ago, but we can quickly search for it from the Start menu), pressing theAdvanced Options menu and setting a download limit equal to 50% of the maximum speed connection available.

After this change, Windows updates will be downloaded more slowly, avoiding saturating all the available bandwidth.

7) Reset the network

If the internet seems to become slow despite the above advice, the problem could be with your network settings, which could be compromised.

To quickly restore the network settings in Windows 11, go to the path Settings -> System -> Troubleshooting -> Other troubleshooting tools and click on the Run button next to the Internet Connections and Network Card items. To quickly restore network settings in Windows 10, go to Settings > Network and Internet , open the Status menu and click on Network Reset at the bottom.

Conclusions

The Internet can slow down for various reasons, but by applying the suggestions and advice seen in this guide we will certainly speed up the connection, solving the most frequent problems and finally returning to surfing at the maximum speed available with our Internet line.