Windows 11 Slow After Update? Causes and Fixes That Work

Windows 11 slow after update is a familiar story: the PC was fine yesterday, an update installed overnight, and now apps open slowly and the fan will not settle. Often this is temporary, because Windows has background work to finish after a large update. Sometimes the update brought a driver change or a genuine bug, and then you need to act. This guide helps you tell the two apart and fix it without losing anything.

The advice applies to Windows 11 version 24H2 and 25H2, Home and Pro.

Why Windows 11 gets slow after an update

Three causes cover most cases:

1. Background catch-up work. After an update, Windows and its apps tend to do housekeeping at once: the search indexer updates its catalogue of your files, Microsoft Store apps update themselves, OneDrive re-checks files, and scheduled maintenance tasks run. Microsoft notes that first-time indexing can take up to a couple of hours, and indexing then continues in the background as files change. All of this competes with you for disk and CPU time.
2. Driver changes. Windows Update can deliver new drivers for graphics, storage, Wi-Fi or chipset alongside or after a feature update. A generic or mismatched driver can make a PC feel sluggish, cause stutter or increase battery drain.
3. A problem in the update itself. Less often, an update has a bug that affects performance on certain hardware. These are usually fixed in a later update.

Step 1: Give it time, then restart

Before changing anything, let the background work finish:

• Leave the PC on, plugged in and connected to the internet for a few hours of normal use, or overnight.
• Restart it at least once with Start > Power > Restart. Some updates finish configuring only after a second restart.
• Then go to Settings > Windows Update and select Check for updates. Follow-up fixes often arrive within days.

If the PC is noticeably faster the next day, you were waiting on background tasks and there is nothing more to do.

Step 2: Find what is actually slow

Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager. On the Processes tab, select the CPU, Memory and Disk column headers to sort by each.

What you see	Likely cause	What to do
Microsoft Windows Search Indexer or SearchIndexer high	Index catching up after the update	Wait, or reduce indexed locations
Antimalware Service Executable high	Windows Security scanning new files	Usually temporary; let it finish
Disk at or near 100% for long periods	Background tasks or a struggling drive	See 100% disk usage
One third-party app high	That app does not like the update	Update or reinstall the app
Nothing high, but everything feels slow	Driver or graphics issue	Go to Step 3

If search indexing keeps going for days, open Settings > Privacy & security and the search settings page. Under Find my files, Classic mode indexes only your libraries and desktop, while Enhanced indexes the whole PC and, as Microsoft notes, may use more resources. Switching from Enhanced to Classic reduces the load.

Also check Task Manager’s Startup apps page. Disable anything you do not need at startup, as Microsoft recommends in its performance tips. Our startup apps guide explains which items are safe to turn off.

Step 3: Check drivers that changed

Driver changes are a common reason a PC feels different after an update.

1. Go to Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options > Optional updates and install any driver updates offered.
2. For graphics, download the current driver from your GPU or PC maker. See Windows 11 graphics drivers.
3. If a specific device started misbehaving after the update, open Device Manager, right-click the device, choose Properties, and on the Driver tab select Roll Back Driver if available.

Laptop owners should also check the maker’s support site for chipset and power management drivers, which affect performance and battery life.

Step 4: Repair Windows without losing apps

If the update itself seems damaged, for example installs reported errors, Settings misbehaves, or performance is poor in ways no process explains, repair it in place:

1. Go to Settings > System > Recovery.
2. Under Fix problems using Windows Update, select Reinstall now.

This reinstalls your current version of Windows, repairs system files and keeps apps, files and settings. You can also run DISM and SFC for a quicker check of system files.

Step 5: Uninstall the update

If the slowdown started with a specific update and nothing above helped, remove it:

1. Go to Settings > Windows Update.
2. Under More options, select Update history.
3. Under Related settings, select Uninstall updates.
4. Select the update you want to remove and select Uninstall, then restart.

Some updates cannot be uninstalled. Microsoft advises understanding the risk before removing a security update, since you also lose its protection. To stop it from coming straight back, select Pause updates in Settings > Windows Update and wait for a newer update.

If you cannot sign in at all, the recovery environment has Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Uninstall Updates. If a feature update caused the slowdown, Settings > System > Recovery may also offer Go back for a limited period after the upgrade. Our guide on how to uninstall a Windows 11 update covers all three routes in more detail.

If it is still slow

When the PC stays slow after all this, the update may simply have exposed an older problem, such as a nearly full drive, too little memory for your workload, or an ageing hard disk. Work through our general Windows 11 slow performance guide, and see the Windows 11 troubleshooting hub for the full repair ladder.