Is Windows 11 Driving You Nuts? Us, Too. Here’s Our Expert's Advice to Make It Less Annoying.

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A person using a pink cloth to wipe photos of Windows 11 features from a Windows desktop screen.

Kimber Streams is a writer who has been covering laptops and other tech at Wirecutter for more than a decade. They once built a fort out of keyboards.

Windows is driving me bonkers. And I’m not alone.

As Wirecutter’s laptop expert, I test a whole lot of Windows laptops; last year, I tested 73 of them. Setting up a brand-new Windows 11 laptop requires clicking through more than 25 screens. Once I’ve traversed that gauntlet, I’m inundated with ads on the lock screen and desktop, notifications about Game Pass, reminders to enroll in Windows Backup, and a full-screen “Finish setting up your PC” pop-up. I haven’t been this annoyed since Clippy. Please, just let me use the computer!

Following the end of Windows 10 support in October 2025, many people have updated or upgraded to Windows 11. But some Windows users have told me that they refuse to upgrade because they don’t like the feeling of being constantly upsold, and still others have (heaven forbid) switched to Linux. Microsoft knows that this is a problem, and the company recently told The Verge that it’s working to fix “system performance, reliability, and the overall experience of Windows” this year.

But until those improvements actually roll out, we still have to use our PCs. Here are a few quick and easy steps you can take to minimize those annoyances and reclaim your computer.

Turn off the ads

By default, the Windows 11 lock screen is a cluttered mess. Microsoft

To remove the ads from your lock screen, desktop, and Settings app, follow these three steps:

Go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen. Under “Personalize your lock screen,” select Picture to access the option to uncheck Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen. Then you can use the toggles under Widgets to turn them all off or disable individual widgets. Also uncheck Suggest widgets for your lock screen.
To remove the “Learn more about this picture” link on your desktop that launches Edge, right-click your desktop, select Personalize > Background > Personalize your background, and select a picture, color, or slideshow of your choice.
Go to Settings > Privacy & security > General to disable personalized ads, turn off suggested content in the Settings app, and more. (I personally toggle them all off.)

Stop the pop-ups

A Windows 11 desktop screen with a list of notifications on the right side.

Tweak these settings to minimize the number of times Windows nags you with notifications and pop-ups:

Go to Settings > System > Notifications, scroll down, and click Additional settings. Uncheck all the boxes there to reduce the number of times your computer bloops at you with “suggestions” and to disable future full-screen “Finish setting up your PC” prompts.
You can turn off feedback notifications by going to Settings > Privacy & security > Diagnostics & feedback and setting “Feedback frequency” to Never.
If you don’t use OneDrive, you can uninstall it by going to Settings > Apps > Installed Apps, scrolling down to Microsoft OneDrive, selecting the three dots to the right, and clicking Remove. This should stop the OneDrive and Windows Backup notifications. (You should still back up your computer some other way, though.)

Declutter your taskbar and Start menu

The Search menu, Start menu, and taskbar are filled with cruft. Microsoft

With a few small changes, you can reclaim your taskbar, search menu, and Start menu:

Right-click the taskbar at the bottom and select Taskbar settings to turn off widgets and customize how much space search takes up. You can also right-click icons in the taskbar and select Unpin from taskbar to remove them; I usually remove everything except File Explorer and my browser.
To remove a bunch of clutter from the search menu, click Settings > Privacy & security > Search, and then toggle Show search highlights off.
To clean up your Start menu, go to Settings > Personalization > Start and disable Show recommendations for tips, shortcuts, new apps, and more and Show account-related notifications. You can also disable Show mobile device in Start if you don’t connect your phone to your PC, and you can toggle Recommended files and Show websites from your browsing history according to your preference. Finally, inside the Start menu, you can right-click apps and select Unpin from Start for any apps you don’t want pinned there.

Following these steps will get you most of the way toward having a computer that does what you say, instead of one that says what you do. And if you’re ready for a deeper dive, we have more tips on how to tidy up your files, apps, and browser extensions.

This article was edited by Signe Brewster and Caitlin McGarry.

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What I Cover

I’ve been Wirecutter’s resident laptop expert for more than a decade. In that time, I’ve tested hundreds of laptops—including ultrabooks, gaming laptops, Chromebooks, and budget Windows laptops—as well as thousands of keyboards, mice, and other peripherals.

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