How to Turn Off Fast Startup in Windows 11

If you have ever clicked “Shut down” on your Windows 11 PC, only to turn it back on the next morning and find that your RAM is still full and your system uptime says 14 days, you have experienced Fast Startup.

Enabled by default, Fast Startup is a hybrid power state. When you tell Windows 11 to shut down, it does not actually close everything and cut the power. Instead, it logs you out, saves the current state of the operating system kernel and drivers to a hibernation file on your hard drive, and then turns off. When you press the power button again, Windows reads that file and instantly loads the kernel back into memory, dramatically reducing boot times.

Why You Might Want to Turn It Off

While booting faster sounds great in theory, Fast Startup can cause several frustrating issues on modern computers:

• System Instability: Because the kernel never actually shuts down, memory leaks, driver crashes, and general software glitches carry over from one day to the next. The only way to force a true hardware reset with Fast Startup enabled is to click “Restart” instead of “Shut down”.
• Dual-Booting Issues: If you dual-boot Windows 11 alongside Linux, Fast Startup locks the hard drive to prevent data corruption. This makes it impossible for Linux to access or modify your Windows files.
• BIOS Access: Fast Startup boots the computer so quickly that it often skips the window of time required to press F2 or Delete to enter your BIOS/UEFI settings.
• SSD Wear: Modern SSDs are already incredibly fast. Writing gigabytes of hibernation data to the SSD every single day unnecessarily wears down the flash memory for an unnoticeable speed gain.

How to Turn Off Fast Startup

Microsoft intentionally hides the Fast Startup toggle deep within the legacy Control Panel, as they prefer users keep it enabled.

1. Click the Start button on your taskbar, type control panel, and press Enter to open it.
2. If your Control Panel is grouped by category, click on Hardware and Sound, then click on Power Options. (If you are viewing by icons, just click Power Options directly).
3. In the left-hand sidebar of the Power Options window, click the link that says Choose what the power buttons do.
4. Look at the “Shutdown settings” section at the bottom of the window. You will see the “Turn on fast startup (recommended)” checkbox, but it will be greyed out and unclickable.
5. To unlock it, look near the top of the window and click the shield icon next to the text Change settings that are currently unavailable.
6. The UAC prompt may appear. Click Yes to grant administrator privileges.
7. The checkbox is now unlocked. Uncheck the box next to Turn on fast startup.
8. Click the Save changes button at the bottom of the window.

From now on, whenever you select “Shut down” from the Start menu, Windows 11 will completely terminate all processes, clear the system memory, and perform a clean, true shutdown. Your next boot might take three seconds longer, but your computer will run significantly smoother.