Windows 11 allows many applications to run quietly in the background even after you have closed their main windows. While this behaviour is helpful for apps that need to receive real-time notifications or keep files synchronised, unchecked background activity can drain your laptop’s battery, consume significant mobile data, and slow down your computer’s overall performance — all without you realising it. Here is how to take back control.
How Background Apps Affect Your PC
Background applications consume resources in ways that are not immediately visible:
- Battery drain: On a laptop running unplugged, background apps like social media clients, weather apps, and store front-ends can collectively reduce your battery life by a meaningful amount.
- Mobile data usage: Apps set to “Always” background permission will continue downloading updates, syncing content, and pulling notifications even when you are connected to a mobile hotspot instead of home Wi-Fi.
- CPU and RAM usage: Multiple background processes competing for processor time and memory can cause your active foreground apps to feel sluggish and slow to respond.
- Startup slowdown: Apps that are configured to launch automatically with Windows add to your boot time and consume resources from the very first second the system starts.
How to Stop Individual Apps from Running in the Background
Unlike older Windows 10 versions that featured a single master toggle for all background apps, Windows 11 requires you to manage background permissions app by app. This actually gives you more precise control over exactly which apps are allowed to run.
- Click the Start button on your taskbar and select Settings, or press Windows Key + I.
- Click on Apps in the left-hand sidebar.
- Click on Installed apps.
- Scroll through the list of installed applications until you find the one you want to restrict (common culprits include Cortana, Xbox, the Microsoft Store, Spotify, and Skype).
- Click the three-dot menu (…) on the far right side of the app’s listing and select Advanced options. Note: Not all apps will have an Advanced options entry. Only apps that have declared background capabilities will show this option.
- On the Advanced options page, scroll down until you find the Background apps permissions section.
- Click the dropdown menu under “Let this app run in the background” and change it to Never. The other options are “Always” (always allowed) and “Power optimised” (Windows decides based on battery state).
Repeat this process for every app you want to prevent from operating in the background.
How to Stop Apps from Auto-Launching at Startup
Some applications do not just run in the background passively — they actively launch themselves the instant Windows 11 boots up, adding to your startup time and consuming resources from the very beginning of each session. You can review and disable these startup applications separately.
- Go to Settings > Apps.
- Click on Startup.
- You will see a complete list of all apps configured to launch at startup, along with each app’s measured performance “Impact” on boot time (Low, Medium, or High).
- Toggle the switch to Off next to any application you do not need running immediately when your computer starts (common candidates: Spotify, Steam, Discord, Skype, OneDrive, Teams).
Using Task Manager to See What Is Currently Running
If you want to see exactly which processes are actively consuming CPU, memory, disk, and network resources at any given moment, the Task Manager provides a real-time view.
- Right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager, or press Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
- Click the Processes tab if it is not already displayed.
- Click the CPU, Memory, or Network column headers to sort processes by their resource consumption, making it easy to spot the heaviest offenders.
- If you see a background process consuming significant resources and you are certain you do not need it currently, right-click it and select End task. Important: Only end tasks for applications you recognise. Ending critical Windows system processes can cause instability.