10 Windows 11 Settings to Turn Off (and Where to Find Them)

If you’re running Windows 11, there’s a very good chance Microsoft has turned things on that you never asked for. Tracking. AI features. Background apps. Ads, in an operating system you already paid for.

And the worst part? Some of them come back after updates. You turn something off in March, a feature update lands in June, and there it is again, acting like you’ve never met.

Here are the 10 things I’d turn off first, where to find each one, and what to keep an eye on afterwards. None of this needs special tools.

Prefer to watch instead of read? Here’s the full video — or skip it and keep reading below.

1. Copilot (If You Don’t Use It)

Copilot is built into Windows now, and it shows up in search and suggestions. Helpful? Sometimes. But if you never use it, there’s no reason to keep it around.

Go to Settings → Apps → Installed apps, find Copilot, click the three dots and choose Uninstall if it’s offered. On some versions of Windows it can’t be removed that way, and it has to be turned off through settings or policy instead.

I don’t need an AI assistant watching everything I do on my computer. I’m already married.

2. Apps Running in the Background

Closing an app doesn’t always mean it stopped running. Windows will happily let apps sit in the background using CPU and memory, occasionally waking up like they’ve got something important to do. They don’t.

1. Go to Settings → Apps → Installed apps.
2. Pick an app you don’t use every day, click the three dots and choose Advanced options.
3. Under Background app permissions, choose Never.

This setting only appears for some apps (mostly ones from the Microsoft Store), so don’t panic if it’s missing. That game you opened once in 2022 does not need to be running 24/7, planning its comeback.

Your browser does this too. In Chrome, go to Settings → System and turn off Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed. In Edge, go to Settings → System and turn off the matching option for background extensions and apps. Modern browsers don’t close anymore. They just pretend to.

3. Startup Apps

Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager, then click Startup apps (the little speedometer icon on the left). That list is everything that launches the second you sign in: Teams, OneDrive, Xbox, and a pile of things you don’t remember installing.

Every one of them fights for CPU and memory while your PC is starting up. If you don’t need it at startup, click it and choose Disable. It doesn’t uninstall anything; the app still opens when you start it yourself. (For the full picture, see Why Is My PC So Slow?)

4. Activity Tracking (and Recall)

Windows keeps a history of what you do, and on some newer PCs it can go much further with AI features that remember what was on your screen. Even when that data stays on your PC, it’s a lot of data.

Go to Settings → Privacy & security and work through it:

• Activity history: turn off storing your activity history on this device.
• Search permissions: turn off search history if you don’t want it kept or synced.
• Recall & snapshots: if your PC has this section, turn snapshots off unless you’ve decided you actually want it.

I don’t need Windows remembering everything I did last Tuesday at 2 PM.

5. Updates That Quietly Change Your Settings

This is one of the biggest problems right now. You fix your settings, you lock everything down, an update lands, and suddenly privacy settings, notifications and “helpful suggestions” are back.

Two things help. First, go to Settings → Windows Update → Advanced options and turn on Notify me when a restart is required to finish updating, so you know when a big update has landed. Second, after every major update, take two minutes and go back through this list. Some of these will have changed. (I covered more of the usual suspects in 5 Windows Settings to Check After Every Update.)

And if you’ve ever disabled Windows Update itself and watched it turn itself back on anyway, that’s not your imagination. That’s a built-in service doing exactly what it was designed to do. I’ll cover that one tomorrow.

6. OneDrive Backing Up Your Desktop and Documents

Windows really wants you using OneDrive. “Let’s back up your Desktop!” “You’re not backed up!” Over and over. Click Yes without thinking, and your Desktop and Documents start syncing to the cloud. That sounds great until something moves, disappears, or fills up your storage.

Right-click the OneDrive icon, open Settings → Sync and backup → Manage back up, and turn off the folders you don’t want synced. Before you do, read how to turn folder backup off safely, because where your files end up afterwards matters. If you don’t use OneDrive at all, you can stop it starting with Windows, or remove it without losing your files.

Not everything belongs in the cloud. Especially my Desktop, which currently looks like a digital junk drawer.

7. Ads in File Explorer and on the Lock Screen

Yes, ads. In your operating system. Because apparently buying Windows wasn’t enough.

File Explorer: open File Explorer, click the three dots, choose Options, go to the View tab and uncheck Show sync provider notifications. I opened File Explorer to see my files, not a OneDrive sales pitch.

Lock screen: go to Settings → Personalization → Lock screen. Set Personalize your lock screen to Picture or Slideshow instead of Windows Spotlight, uncheck the option for fun facts, tips and tricks, and set the lock screen status to None. Your operating system shouldn’t feel like a billboard.

8. Web Results in Windows Search

You type a file name into search, and Windows hands you web results, Bing suggestions and links that open in Edge. Apparently finding a file now requires the internet.

The fix is a small Registry change. Create a restore point first, and only do this if you’re comfortable in the Registry Editor:

1. Press Windows + R, type regedit and press Enter.
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows.
3. Right-click Windows, choose New → Key, and name it Explorer.
4. Click Explorer, right-click in the right pane, choose New → DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it DisableSearchBoxSuggestions.
5. Double-click it, set the value to 1, and restart your PC.

To undo it, delete that value and restart. When I search for a file, I don’t need Bing trying to sell me something.

9. Optional Diagnostic Data

Windows likes sending data back to Microsoft: usage, diagnostics, how you use apps. Go to Settings → Privacy & security → Diagnostics & feedback and turn off Send optional diagnostic data.

To be fair, some required data still gets sent. That’s how Windows works, and you can’t switch it all off from Settings. But this stops it collecting a lot more than it needs. Microsoft doesn’t need a full report every time I open Calculator.

10. Surprise Restarts

The one that’s ruined more mornings than bad coffee. You leave the computer on with work open and tabs everywhere, and you come back to find it’s restarted itself.

In Settings → Windows Update → Advanced options, turn on Notify me when a restart is required, and set your Active hours to cover when you actually use the PC. That gives you some control back, instead of Windows deciding 2 AM was the perfect time to restart your life.

Before You Change Anything

Every setting here is reversible, but do it calmly: create a restore point first, change a few things at a time, and make sure you still have a working backup of the files you care about. If something you rely on stops working, you’ll know what you changed.

The Short Version

1. Remove or turn off Copilot if you don’t use it.
2. Set background permissions to Never for apps you rarely use, and stop your browser running after you close it.
3. Disable startup apps you don’t need in Task Manager.
4. Turn off activity history, search history and Recall snapshots you don’t want.
5. Turn on Notify me when a restart is required, and recheck your settings after big updates.
6. Turn off OneDrive folder backup if you don’t want it, carefully.
7. Turn off sync provider notifications and lock screen tips.
8. Stop web results in Windows search (Registry, restore point first).
9. Turn off optional diagnostic data.
10. Set active hours so Windows stops restarting on you.

Stay grumpy.