Windows is slow. Yes, we know. But if someone hasn’t moved off Windows already, it’s usually for a reason. That means there’s only one real way forward: learn to live with Windows.
Some tweaks require third-party apps — essentially adding more code on top of Windows to make it behave the way you want. Others involve disabling features outright. But this time, I stumbled on something much simpler: a single registry edit that makes Windows feel noticeably faster.
I finally disabled these Windows services and my PC is happier for it
Your PC might be secretly working harder than you are, and not always in ways that benefit you.
Windows 11 is too slow
Even on decent hardware
File Explorer doesn’t load as fast as it should. Right-clicking on anything in Explorer takes at least a second before the menu shows up. By this point, we all know games can run better on Linux than Windows — but that’s not what I’m talking about here. Windows feels slow on Windows. I already fixed the right-click context menu clutter using NileSoft Shell. But even then, the menus just didn’t feel as snappy as they used to on my dad’s Windows XP machine nearly 20 years ago — despite the superior modern hardware.
As it turns out, that feeling isn’t imaginary. Windows 11 deliberately delays the appearance of certain menus. Fortunately, that delay is easy to change.
Yes, the pause is intentional
Changing this setting is straightforward. Open the Start menu, search for Registry Editor, and launch it. From there, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.
In the right pane, you’ll see an entry called MenuShowDelay. By default, it’s set to 400 milliseconds. Double-click it and change the value to whatever you prefer. I’ve set mine to 0 ms. That’s it. Reboot your computer, log back in, and enjoy the results. But, speaking of the results…
This registry entry only affects legacy menus — the ones that still look and behave like Windows 7 menus. That includes the extended context menu you see when you click Show more options (or if you’ve reverted to the classic context menu like I have), as well as menus in Control Panel and similar parts of the system (like selecting the file type when you’re saving a file). Windows 11 may look modern on the surface, but underneath, it’s still very much Windows 10 — and there’s no shortage of legacy UI hiding around.
What this tweak doesn’t affect is the Start menu. The Start menu isn’t Win32-based and uses Microsoft’s newer Acrylic design, so it ignores this setting entirely.
Still, there are ways to make the Start menu feel faster too. I got most of my perceived performance boost from the registry tweak because I’d already switched back to the legacy context menu. But after noticing that the Start menu hadn’t changed, I decided to dig a bit deeper.
Head to Settings > Accessibility > Visual effects and turn off animations. It may take a moment to apply, but once it does, the difference is immediate.
Remember how in Windows XP, when you clicked a toggle, menu, or button, it just… happened? That’s what this feels like.
A small solace
Don’t get me wrong — I appreciate smooth, well-designed animations as much as anyone. But if those animations come at the cost of responsiveness, I’m far less interested. There’s a reason disabling animations is almost always included in Windows “optimizer” scripts. Ironically, many of the animations and effects meant to make Windows feel smoother end up doing the opposite. Strip them away, and what you’re left with is something far closer to instant.
None of these tweaks improve performance in the literal sense. They won’t make your hardware faster or increase benchmark scores. But they do make your computer feel faster.