The Network Bottleneck
Windows 11 includes a legacy network optimization feature called Remote Differential Compression (RDC). Originally designed during an era of extremely slow network connections, RDC calculates the differences (deltas) between two files over a network and transmits only the changed data, rather than the entire file. While this sounds efficient in theory, the computational overhead required for the operating system to constantly hash, compress, and compare files often consumes more time and processing power than simply transferring the entire file over modern high-speed Gigabit or Wi-Fi 6 networks.
Removing the Legacy Feature
If you frequently transfer large files across your local network or experience unexpected stuttering during network file sharing, disabling this feature can often improve raw throughput speeds. You must remove the feature via the classic Windows Features interface, as it is not accessible through the modern Settings app.
Press the Windows Key, type optionalfeatures, and press Enter to open the “Windows Features” dialogue box. Scroll down the list of legacy system components until you find the entry labelled Remote Differential Compression API Support. Uncheck the box next to this feature, click OK, and allow Windows a few moments to uninstall the underlying system files. You will likely be prompted to restart your computer. Once rebooted, Windows will rely on raw network bandwidth for file transfers rather than the CPU-intensive differential compression algorithm.