For those who care about Windows performance, particularly on Windows 11, we shared our findings regarding the subject in August when we compared Windows 10 22H2 and Windows 11 24H2 (the latest feature update at that time); overall Windows 11 looked much better than 10 and it seemed like Microsoft"s earlier promises were finally materializing.
While that is well and good, there are several quirks in the OS that are known to hurt performance. Microsoft also acknowledges that many of the visual effects on Windows 11 and 10 in their default ON state hurt performance. The company also explained how users will be able to disable them to get a boost.
Aside from that, there are other default Windows 11 features that can affect system performance, and those with lower spec or older devices are the ones impacted most by it as they take up precious CPU cycles and memory.
Security researcher and X user Enderman recently highlighted how the auto discovery feature on Windows 11, which is enabled by default, can massively slow down File Explorer performance in cases when a folder may have a huge number of files. That is because Windows has to crunch through a lot of data during that time while it goes through hundreds of files.
The stupid «Auto-Discovery» feature is still turned on by default in Windows 11. Thanks to it, Windows Explorer is disgustingly slow in folders with many files. You can only fix this problem via a registry hack.
— Enderman (@endermanch) October 21, 2025
The fix is in on the screenshot and in the reply. pic.twitter.com/juin34Gm8D
The researcher also shared how users who may not require this feature can disable it via a Registry tweak (regedit) by creating a new Registry entry (.reg file). It essentially requires making a new "FolderType" string value inside the Shell subkey.
Create a .reg file and insert the following:
— Enderman (@endermanch) October 21, 2025
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell]
"FolderType"="NotSpecified"
Run the file, merge the changes and that will turn off auto-discovery for folders in Explorer.
On the same X thread, another user brought attention towards the Windows Start menu search feature which often tries to serve users online content from Bing as it barely even seems to try looking up the user query on the local device first.
Similar to auto-discovery, this annoying feature can also be turned off using a Registry mod.
You can also disable the Start menu searchbox sending what you type to Bing, making it slow: https://t.co/UUPdwIhOzn
— Henk Poley (@HenkPoley) October 21, 2025
If you wish to proceed with these tweaks, as always, be very careful when making Registry modifications as they can damage your Windows installation beyond repair if you are not careful or unsure of what you are doing. A good practice is to make sure to back up the Registry before making any changes.