Ever since Windows 11 was released back in 2021, Microsoft has promised great things with it, including in the case of performance, like how the OS is totally built to extract the best out of the given hardware, and when users weren"t quite satisfied, the company promised that it was going to do so in 2022.
One and a half years later in 2023, Microsoft went at length to describe all the ways Windows 11 was better than before, and later in 2024, even going on to cite paid study to prove that 11 was better than 10, so as to coax users into upgrading. Later on in 2025, it elaborated on that commissioned publication further.
Despite what others may feel, Microsoft has had generally maintained that it puts a lot of focus on improving even the tiniest useful aspects of the OS, like the clipboard, and in July last year, the company made another serious "commitment" to fix the OS performance.
To be fair to Microsoft, Neowin itself noticed some healthy improvements on several occasions when we tested Windows 11 performance vs 10 around the same time, though it is mentionworthy that Windows 10 also had its fair share of wins (full details in this dedicated article).
Regardless, the tech giant made another promise earlier this year to fix Windows 11, and today, the company shared details on how it plans to do so. Microsoft has said that it is sharpening its focus on the performance aspect of Windows 11 by promising smoother, more reliable experiences across the OS which will roll out throughout the year 2026.
The company says the effort targets system responsiveness, app launch times, File Explorer fundamentals, and the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). The goal is to ensure that Windows feels fast and consistent as users switch between various tasks and workflows.
To do so, Microsoft says that it is reducing baseline hardware resource usage by improving RAM management efficiency and freeing up more capacity for the various apps by lowering the memory footprint of the OS itself. The company suggests that early improvements are already visible with File Explorer showing quicker launch times.
A key part of the initiative involves migrating core experiences to the WinUI 3 framework. The company promises that this move to modernized native UI framework will reduce user-interaction latency and overhead at the platform level. As a result, everyday tasks such as opening the Start menu or navigating the File Explorer should feel more fluid.
Speaking of which, the File Explorer itself is receiving substantial upgrades as Microsoft notes lower latency in search, navigation, and context menus, alongside faster and more reliable file operations. As such, copying and moving large files will soon be quicker, says Microsoft, while other common operations like opening folders or searching documents will also benefit.
Moving on, developers using WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) are also set to gain as Microsoft is promising improved file performance between Linux and Windows, better network compatibility and throughput, and a streamlined first-time setup.
As mentioned above, Microsoft promises that the rollout of these upgrades will continue across 2026, with incremental updates expected in upcoming Windows 11 releases. Of course, hardware and architecture-specific optimizations are also expected alongside these.