5 Windows 11 settings you should change now

Windows 11 is one of the most popular operating systems in the world, used by millions of people. This means that some of the programs and settings active by default on Windows 11 may not be useful for everyone. Fortunately, with a few visits to the Settings menu, you can change and customize Windows 11 so that your desktop has less clutter and bloatware, and you have more useful features to take advantage of.



5 Attitudes towards quality of life

Dark mode, taskbar and hidden files

Enabling Dark Mode in Windows 10

To get the bonus settings out of the way, let's start with a combination. If you want a quick quality of life upgrade to the standard Windows 11 experience, these are the three settings you should change.

Windows 11 ships with Light Mode enabled by default, but I'm guessing you probably don't want to stare at the sun every time you open a program on your PC, so the first thing you should change is your default theme from Light Mode to the best-looking Windows 11 theme. Dark mode.


The next thing you'll be staring at a lot is your taskbar. If you don't like the taskbar floating in the middle of your screen, you can move the icons to the left side of the taskbar like you do in Windows 10. While you're at it, you can also change the position of your taskbar to the left, right, or even to the top of your screen if you want to spice things up even further.

The last setting here is not in the Settings menu, but in File Explorer. When you open File Explorerclick on View and activate the Show hidden files option. You can now see files that are normally hidden. This can help you access more of your PC and remove unwanted files. This also means that you can now create hidden folders and disable the setting to ensure that your personal files cannot be seen or opened by anyone using the laptop.

No more news and weather

Screenshot of Windows 11 widgets and messages with the option to downvote a story or block a specific media


While some people use the News & Weather panel on their PC, most people don't want the extra clutter on the taskbar and would rather remove it altogether. Fortunately, you can remove it with a simple settings change. For this setting, you'll want to go back to personalization and click on Taskbar. From here you can easily disable the widgets.

This has the negative effect of making it impossible to easily access your widgets. However, you can still search for and pin your favorite widget shortcuts to your desktop, taskbar, or Start menu. If you're not an AI fan, you can also disable Copilot in the taskbar area. While you're at it, you can also customize which programs you want to have on your taskbar if you want to add your most frequently used programs.

3 Power plan settings

Depends on the type of your PC

Screenshot of Windows 11 advanced power plan settings


To change your power plan in Windows 11, simply search for “Power plan” in the search bar and select the option that says Choose a power plan. When you open the Power Plan window, the default mode should be set to Power Plan. From here, the power plan you choose will depend on what type of PC you have and what you plan to use it for.

If you're using a laptop, you should set your power plan to energy saving so that your battery lasts as long as possible without needing to be charged. You can always switch this power plan to a more powerful mode if your laptop is constantly plugged in, but this can be incredibly useful when using more resource-intensive programs on laptops.

If you're using a desktop PC, especially a high-end one, you'll want to change your power plan option from the default setting to High Performance to give your components as much power as possible. However, if you're only using your desktop for general work programs, you're better off leaving it in Standard mode.


2 Notifications and ad settings

No more annoying notifications or advertising suggestions

Screenshot of Windows 11 notifications settings page

There's nothing worse than being spammed with notifications and promotional suggestions for an operating system you've purchased when you boot up your PC. Whether it's promoted Microsoft Store apps, suggested content, or related web searches, it seems Microsoft values ​​your advertising data more than your peace of mind.

However, getting rid of many of these annoying pop-ups and ads is much easier than you might think. Go to the “Privacy and Security” tab in the Settings menu and open the “General” section. From here, you need to disable these 4 settings:


  • Allow apps to show me personalized ads using my advertising ID
  • Websites can show me locally relevant content by accessing my language list.
  • Improve Windows startup and search results by tracking app launches
  • Show me suggested content in the Settings app

There is one more setting you need to disable before you finish. Open the Settings click on the Notifications scroll down and deactivate the box that says “Get tips and suggestions for using Windows.”

Time to clear up all the mess

The Windows 11 start menu options

If you're tired of looking at all the clutter that Microsoft puts in its Start menu, then you'll be happy to know that you can remove many of the recommended apps and instead fill the space with programs that are actually useful to you. All you have to do is go to personalization Menu and click Start.


In this window, you have to choose a layout and there are some settings that you will want to disable. You can leave the layout as default unless you want more pins in the Start menu. If you want to get rid of all the clutter in the Start menu, you should disable these 5 settings:

  • Show recently added apps
  • Show most used apps (optional)
  • Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer
  • See recommendations for tips, shortcuts, new apps, and more
  • Occasionally show account-related notifications in Start

To make the Start menu usable again, open the Folder and add which folders you want to add to the Start menu. You can also add certain programs that you use frequently so you have easy access to everything. And voilà, your Start menu now looks much cleaner and requires fewer resources to load in the background.

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