The Ultimate Windows 11 24H2 Optimization Guide: Reclaim Speed, Slash Latency, and Transform Your PC

Windows 11 24H2 sits on your hardware like a sleek new operating system, promising AI wonders and fortified security. Yet, beneath its polished surface, something is quietly consuming your PC’s vitality. It’s not that your machine is getting old—it’s that Windows 11 is doing too much, too often, in the background.

This isn’t just about “speeding things up.” It’s about restoring the direct connection between your click and the action on screen, freeing up gigabytes of trapped memory, and unlocking the raw performance you paid for. Whether you’re navigating spreadsheets or navigating battlefields, these optimizations will give you back a Windows that feels responsive, lean, and truly yours.

The Hidden Cost of “Progress”: Why 24H2 Feels Heavy

Microsoft’s 24H2 update is a technological marvel, embedding AI into the fabric of the OS. Copilot now hums constantly in the background, ready to assist. Virtualization-based Security (VBS) creates an impenetrable fortress around your data. AI Explorer meticulously indexes your every digital move on supported hardware.

Individually, these features are impressive. Together, they form a silent tax on your system resources. The result? A PC that feels hesitant.

RAM Usage Creep: An extra 600-1200 MB of your memory is now perpetually occupied by services you may never directly call upon.
The Latency Intruder: Gamers and creatives may notice a subtle, frustrating delay—between 5 to 20 milliseconds—between input and action.
Background Chatter: An idle system can now show 8-15% CPU usage, not from your work, but from the OS’s internal dialogue.

The Golden Rule: Measure First. Before changing anything, capture a baseline. Use the built-in Windows Performance Recorder (WPR). A simple recording can show you the truth about CPU and DPC latency. It’s your “before” picture, and the proof that these changes work.

Also: 10 Windows 11 Features You May Have Missed

Step 1: The Startup Purge – Your Fastest Performance Win

When you hit the power button, Windows 11 isn’t just loading itself. It’s rallying a small army of programs that have invited themselves to the party. This is the single easiest place to reclaim speed.

The Audit:
Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc, click “More details,” and navigate to the Startup tab. Sort by “Startup impact.” Here lies the truth.

The Casualties (Common Safe Disables):

Microsoft Teams (Consumer): Automatically installed and set to run. Do you launch it daily?
OneDrive Auto-Launch: You can still sync files manually. No need for it to boot with the OS.
Third-Party Updaters: Adobe, Zoom, or Spotify updaters can wait until you launch their main app.
OEM Bloatware: Dell, HP, or Lenovo “helper” utilities that often duplicate Windows functionality.

The Reward: Disabling just a handful of these can slash boot times by 20-40% and free 300-800 MB of RAM from the moment you log in. It’s instant gratification.

⚠️ Critical Warning: Never disable Windows Security notifications, touchpad drivers, or audio services. When in doubt, search the service name online before disabling.

Also: Windows: How To Fix A Stuck Windows Update

Step 2: Taming the Guardian – Virtualization-Based Security (VBS)

VBS is Windows 11’s most advanced security feature, creating a hardware-isolated vault within your PC. For banks and enterprises, it’s a godsend. For a gaming rig or personal desktop, it can be an overzealous bodyguard that gets in your way.

The Performance Toll: VBS adds a layer of abstraction. Every security check requires a tiny “context switch” for the CPU. In CPU-bound games and latency-sensitive tasks, this can translate to a noticeable 5-10% FPS drop and increased input lag.

How to Reconcile Security & Speed (Disable Memory Integrity):

Open Windows Security.
Go to Device Security > Core isolation details.
Toggle Memory Integrity to Off.
Restart your computer.

The effect is often immediate—a snappier system and restored gaming performance. For the vast majority of home users, the standard Windows Defender firewall and smart browsing habits provide ample protection.

⚖️ The Verdict: If your PC faces the public internet in an office, keep VBS on. If it’s your personal machine for work, play, and creation, turning off Memory Integrity is a widely accepted performance trade-off.

Step 3: Unleash the Power Plan – From Efficient to Ultimate

By default, Windows 11 is tuned for the quiet whirr of a laptop, prioritizing battery life and low heat. Even on a plugged-in desktop tower, it holds back, downclocking the CPU during micro-pauses. We need to change its mindset.

Summoning the Ultimate Performance Plan:

Press Win + R, type powercfg.cpl, and hit Enter.
If you see “Ultimate Performance,” select it. If not, we need to conjure it.
Open Command Prompt as Administrator.
Paste this magic incantation:
powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61
Return to your power options. The hidden Ultimate Performance plan will now be there.

Why This Matters: This plan tells your CPU to stop hesitating. It maintains higher clock speeds for responsiveness, leading to smoother frame times, faster application launches, and a consistently snappier feel. In CPU-heavy tasks like rendering or compilation, gains of up to 12% are common.

Step 4: The GPU Pipeline – Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling

This modern feature allows your GPU to take direct control of its memory management queue, reducing latency and potentially improving performance. It’s a more efficient traffic system for your graphics data.

Enabling HAGS:
Navigate to Settings > System > Display > Graphics > Change default graphics settings. Toggle Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling to On. A restart is required.

Who Wins Big: Owners of modern GPUs (NVIDIA RTX 30/40 series, AMD RDNA 2/3) often see the most benefit, with slightly higher and more stable frame rates.
Who Should Test Carefully: If you have an older GPU (NVIDIA GTX 10 series, AMD Polaris), the gains may be minimal or even negative. The key is to test. Use a tool like CapFrameX to capture a 60-second gameplay benchmark with HAGS On, then Off, and compare the results.

Also: How RAM Timing And Speed Affect The Performance Of Your Computer

Step 5: The Service Layer – Silencing Background Whispers

Beyond startup apps, Windows runs hundreds of background services. Many are vital. Some are relics from a different era of computing.

A Shortlist of Commonly Safe Services to Set to Manual:

Fax: Yes, really. It’s still there.
Remote Registry: A potential security risk if left open; no home user needs it.
Windows Insider Service: If you’re not testing beta builds, this does nothing.
Retail Demo Service: The software that runs looped demos on store display PCs.

The Safe Method:

Press Win + R, type services.msc, and hit Enter.
Find a service from the list above.
Double-click it, and from the “Startup type” dropdown, select Manual.
Click Apply.

Setting to Manual means the service will only start if something explicitly needs it, instead of launching automatically at boot. Never set a service to Disabled unless you are absolutely certain of its purpose.

Step 6: Dialing Down the “Phone Home” – Telemetry & Background Tasks

Windows 11 is a chatty OS, constantly sending diagnostic data to Microsoft. While this data aims to improve the product, the constant collection and uploading consume CPU cycles, network bandwidth, and contribute to SSD wear.

For Windows 11 Pro Users: The Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) is your best tool. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Data Collection and Preview Builds. Here you can Limit Diagnostic Data and disable the Enhanced level.
For All Users: Tools like O&O ShutUp10++ provide a user-friendly, toggle-based interface to manage these settings safely, reducing background activity and preserving privacy.

Step 7: Storage Sanity – Keeping Your Drives Lean and Fast

Let Storage Sense Do the Cleaning: Enable this built-in custodian (Settings > System > Storage > Storage Sense) to automatically delete temporary files and cleanup downloads folders. It’s set-it-and-forget-it maintenance that reduces clutter and unnecessary SSD writes.

Disable Indexing on Gaming/Media Drives: The Windows Search indexer constantly reads files to speed up searches. On your C: drive, it’s useful. On a dedicated drive holding only games and Steam files, it’s pure overhead.

Open File Explorer, right-click your game drive (like D:), and select Properties.
At the bottom of the General tab, uncheck “Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed.”
Click Apply and select “Apply changes to drive D:, subfolders and files.”

The result is lower background disk activity, slightly faster load times, and less competition for disk access while gaming.

Step 8: The Toolbox – Trusted Utilities, Not Magic Beans

Avoid “PC booster” apps that promise miracles. They often break things. Instead, use precise, professional-grade tools from Microsoft itself and respected developers.

Autoruns (Microsoft Sysinternals): The definitive deep dive into everything that starts with Windows. Reveals items Task Manager hides.
Process Explorer (Microsoft Sysinternals): Task Manager on steroids. See exactly what files, DLLs, and processes are active.
LatencyMon: Isolate the specific driver causing audio glitches or input lag by analyzing DPC and ISR latencies.

The Transformed Machine: What Awaits You

After applying these targeted, informed optimizations, Windows 11 24H2 sheds its cumbersome cloak. You are left with a modern, secure, but astonishingly responsive operating system.

The Tangible Results:

Boot Time: Cuts through the boot sequence 30-50% faster.
Idle RAM: 800 MB to 1.2 GB of memory given back to your applications and games.
Gaming Performance: A consistent 5-15% FPS boost and the elimination of frustrating micro-stutters.
Responsiveness: The feeling of direct control, with input latency reduced by 5-20 ms.

Windows 11 24H2 isn’t inherently slow. It’s simply configured for the broadest possible use case, from cutting-edge AI to legacy enterprise security. By tailoring it to your use case, you create a PC experience that feels not just fast, but thoughtfully crafted and powerfully efficient. Your machine has the power. Now you have the knowledge to set it free.