My Windows 11 laptop became incredibly slow after the latest update. Everything takes forever to load. How do I fix this?
Windows updates often cause temporary slowness while background tasks finish indexing and configuring. Give it 24 to 48 hours first. If it is still slow after that, open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and check the Startup tab. Disable anything you do not need running at boot — common offenders include Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, Spotify, Skype, and hardware utilities from your laptop manufacturer. Next, check the Processes tab sorted by CPU usage. If Windows Update or Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry is using high CPU, it is still processing the update in the background. Also run Disk Cleanup: search for it in the Start menu, select your C drive, check all boxes including System files, and delete. This can free up several gigabytes of old update files. If your laptop has a traditional hard drive (HDD) rather than an SSD, upgrading to an SSD is the single biggest speed improvement you can make. A 500GB SSD costs about $40 and will make an old laptop feel brand new. Finally, check that your power plan is set to Balanced or High Performance, not Power Saver.
