Every time you log in, a hidden army of apps—from cloud storage clients to updaters—launches in the background. While some are essential, most are just eating your RAM and delaying your workflow.

Open Task Manager right now. What’s the worst offender on your startup list? Drop it in the comments. Want more Windows 11 performance guides? Subscribe below for our weekly “Speed Up Your PC” series.

Does your brand-new Windows 11 PC feel like it’s booting slower than an old hard drive? The culprit is almost always hiding in plain sight: auto-start programs .