The Silent Resource Drain
Modern versions of Windows 10 introduced a smartphone-like application lifecycle for Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps downloaded from the Microsoft Store. By default, even when you click the “X” to close a Store application, Windows may keep a portion of it suspended in the background. This allows the app to silently receive push notifications, download updates, and maintain live tiles on your Start Menu. This overarching behavior is controlled by a master privacy setting called “Let apps run in the background.”
While background execution is essential for an email client to sync your inbox or an alarm app to wake you up, it is completely unnecessary for the vast majority of software. A calculator, a casual puzzle game, or a simple text editor has no legitimate reason to consume CPU cycles or reserve system memory when you aren’t actively looking at it. Allowing dozens of these apps to silently idle in the background degrades your battery life, consumes RAM, and increases overall system latency. If you want a leaner, faster operating system where closing an app actually means closing it, you should disable this global default.
How to Stop All Background Apps
You can instantly prevent all Microsoft Store applications from running silently in the background via the Privacy settings.
- Click the Start button and select the Settings gear icon (or press
Win + I). - Click on the Privacy category.
- Look at the left-hand sidebar, scroll all the way down to the “App permissions” section, and click on Background apps.
- In the right-hand pane, locate the master toggle switch situated immediately underneath the text Let apps run in the background.
- Click the toggle switch to turn it Off.
Once disabled, Windows will aggressively terminate Store applications as soon as you close their windows, freeing up system resources. (Note: You can alternatively leave the master toggle ‘On’ and scroll down to manually disable background execution for specific, individual apps on a case-by-case basis).