Animations in Windows are meant to give you a fast and smooth UI perception however many users prefer a UI that responds instantly without any animation. In this article, we will look at how to improve the responsiveness of Windows 10 by disabling unnecessary animations. With animations disabled, the user interface will feel more faster and responsive.
Advertisеment
By default, Windows 10 has many effects enabled for eye candy. You can see animations on the Start screen, Taskbar, opening and closing apps, drop shadow effects, combo boxes sliding open and so on, to make the user interface appear more fluid. Disabling these will improve the responsiveness of the OS. You will notice that the Start menu will open much faster.
Press Win + R hotkeys on the keyboard. The Run dialog will appear on the screen, type the following into the text box and press Enter:
SystemPropertiesAdvanced
Advanced System Properties will open. Press the Settings button in the Performance section on the Advanced tab.
The following dialog window will be opened:
There are a number of presets available at the top of the window.
Let Windows choose what's best for my computer - the operating system will automatically enable and disable some visual effects that it determines will run fine on your hardware.
Adjust for best appearance - This will enable all available visual effects.
Adjust for best performance - All visual effects will be disabled.
Custom - This will allow you to enable or disable the visual effects manually. Once you change the check boxes in the list below, this option will be selected by default.
To disable animations in Windows 10, tick the Adjust for best performance option. It will remove the check mark from all options which enable visual effects. Keep the following options enabled because they are not related to animations:
- Show thumbnails instead of icons
- Show translucent selection rectangle
- Show window contents while dragging
- Smooth edges of screen fonts
- Use drop shadows for icon labels of the desktop
Press 'Apply', then 'OK' and close all open windows.
Now the user interface of Windows 10 will be more responsive.
Additionally, you can turn off unnecessary animations using the Accessibility options in Windows 10.
Open Settings and go to Ease of Access - Other Options.
On the right, you'll see the option Play animations in Windows. Disable it.
Now animations will be disabled.
Tip: It is possible to slow down window animations in Windows 10.
That's it.
Support us
Winaero greatly relies on your support. You can help the site keep bringing you interesting and useful content and software by using these options:
If you like this article, please share it using the buttons below. It won't take a lot from you, but it will help us grow. Thanks for your support!
Advertisеment
Can you disable animations via Group Policy?
Computer Configuration/ Administrative Templates/ Windows Components/ Do not allow window animations
10 years later and it is still not possible to do it via registry. :'(
OK, this changes all visual settings, you have to change them, based on your option.
Keep: Shows thumbnails/Show windows contents/Smooth edges
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects” /v “VisualFXSetting” /t REG_DWORD /d “3” /f
reg add “HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop” /v “DragFullWindows” /t REG_SZ /d “1” /f
reg add “HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop” /v “FontSmoothingType” /t REG_DWORD /d “2” /f
reg add “HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop” /v “UserPreferencesMask” /t REG_BINARY /d “9012038010000000” /f
reg add “HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics” /v “MinAnimate” /t REG_SZ /d “0” /f
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced” /v “IconsOnly” /t REG_DWORD /d “0” /f
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced” /v “ListviewAlphaSelect” /t REG_DWORD /d “0” /f
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced” /v “ListviewShadow” /t REG_DWORD /d “0” /f
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced” /v “TaskbarAnimations” /t REG_DWORD /d “0” /f
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM” /v “AlwaysHibernateThumbnails” /t REG_DWORD /d “0” /f
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM” /v “EnableAeroPeek” /t REG_DWORD /d “0” /f
But remeber that the Spotlight feature which brings different pictures on yur lock screen does not work if you disable animations.