A Guide to Turning Background Apps On or Off in Windows 11

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This post guides students and new users on how to improve performance on Windows 11 by disabling unneeded background apps. Windows 11 loads some apps in the background for various functions, but this can lead to poor performance. Users can improve system performance by disabling less important apps, done one at a time, from the…

This post shows students and new users how to turn off running background apps to improve performance when using Windows 11.

Windows loads some apps in the background so they can find info, send notifications, receive updates, and do other things, even if you’re not using them. If you have a lot of apps running in the background, they can lead to poor performance at times.

There may be some apps that you will always want to run in the background. But other apps you don’t use should not always be allowed to start up and run when you have no use for them. Windows 11 allows you to turn off running background apps, but one at a time.

The new Windows 11 can also turn off running background apps; the steps below will show you how to do that. You can review your apps list, see which are important, and stay running. You can disable less important apps to improve your system performance.

To get started with turning off running background apps in Windows 11, follow the steps below:

How to turn off running background apps in Windows 11

You can disable apps from running from the System settings pane in the background.

Windows 11 has a centralized location for the majority of its settings. Everything can be done, from system configurations to creating new users and updating Windows from its System Settings pane.

To get to System Settings, you can use the Windows key + I shortcut or click on Start ==> Settings, as shown in the image below:

Alternatively, you can use the search box on the taskbar and search for Settings. Then select to open it.

Windows Settings pane should look similar to the image below. In Windows Settings, click Apps, and select Apps & features on the right pane of your screen, as shown in the image below.

On the Apps & features settings pane, under the App list, you’ll see available apps running in the background. Some of these are needed, like the weather app – to get timely weather info, Alarms and clock – to receive important event reminders, and others.

So apps, not so much, can be stopped from running in the background.

To stop an app from running in the background, locate the apps you want to stop, click on the ellipsis (three vertical dots) next to them, and select ‘Advanced options from the menu.

In the Advanced option, under Background apps permissions, choose Never to run this app in the background.

This will prevent the apps from running again in the background. You must do that one at a time for apps you deem unimportant. Keep the apps that are important so that you keep getting accurate and timely information from Windows.

That should do it!

Conclusion:

This post showed you how to disable or turn off background running apps in Windows 11. If you find any error above, please use the comment form below to report.


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14 responses to “A Guide to Turning Background Apps On or Off in Windows 11”

  1. Adarshnaik Avatar
    Adarshnaik

    It’s not there I was not able to find it..

    1. Abhinand S Nair Avatar
      Abhinand S Nair

      Same issue i dont have that option

  2. Duckside Avatar
    Duckside

    I don’t have this option in my windows 11

  3. Drew9140 Avatar
    Drew9140

    I don’t have the option either, is it only in the dev releases?

  4. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    How lame, there should be an option, as there is in Windows 10, to disable ALL “apps” from running in the background, and then allow you to enable the VERY FEW you might want to allow.

    1. ZProd Avatar
      ZProd

      I agree with this statement

  5. Tony C Avatar
    Tony C

    The advanced setting option is not there.
    This is a gross misrepresentation.

  6. flo Avatar
    flo

    I do not have access to “modify app”

  7. Charles Rogers Avatar
    Charles Rogers

    Microsoft you really need to run the actual instructions that they are telling us, before they advise anyone, because none of what they are saying is on the screen at all. No settings, and the 3 dots only say modify which you can’t access, and delete,

  8. Mochi Avatar
    Mochi

    It is not letting me remove certain apps permissions from running in the background. How do I fix it?

  9. Rohan Avatar
    Rohan

    There is no option for background apps in the Advanced option settings…..I have also tried the gpedit or the gpedit.msc but it shows that it couldn’t find any file naming that…….It will be very helpful if you can solve my problem

  10. D Davis Avatar
    D Davis

    I see the information in Windows 11 setting. When I click in the 3 dots,Advanced option is displayed, and below that ‘Move’ is graded out, a mind there is ‘uninstall’. I don’t want to uninstall,just want it to stop running in the background. How is that accomplished!

  11. mike Avatar
    mike

    In Windows 10 the function work 100% the best…

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