The Silent Battery Drain Vector
Windows 11 is designed to keep your applications updated and ready. By default, many applications (such as Cortana, the Microsoft Store, and various news widgets) are granted permission to run constantly in the background. They silently download updates, fetch live tile data, and send notifications even when their windows are completely closed. If you are operating a laptop on battery power, or if you simply want to dedicate 100% of your RAM to a demanding video game, these background processes must be terminated.
How to Disable Background Apps
You can selectively revoke background execution privileges for individual applications directly through the modern Settings interface.
1. Open the Start Menu and click the Settings gear icon (or press the Windows Key + I).
2. In the left-hand sidebar, click on Apps.
3. In the main pane, click on Installed apps (or “Apps & features” depending on your exact build version).
4. Locate the specific application you want to restrict (e.g., Spotify or Cortana).
5. Click the three horizontal dots located on the far right side of that application’s entry.
6. Select Advanced options from the dropdown menu.
7. Scroll down to the section titled Background apps permissions.
8. Click the dropdown menu underneath “Let this app run in background” and change the setting from “Power optimized” to Never.
The application is now entirely restricted. It will only consume processor cycles and memory when you explicitly launch it and keep its window open on your desktop.