3  Windows settings you should change now to declutter your PC

The moment you start using a new Windows PC, you might notice that the experience isn’t quite as clean as you expected. There are apps you don’t need, notifications you never asked for and plenty of things taking up space on the screen. Over time, all of this can make Windows feel unnecessarily cluttered, especially when you just want to get some work done. As someone who uses different Windows PCs regularly, I usually end up changing a few settings almost immediately. If you want a cleaner and less distracting Windows 11 experience, here are three settings that you should change to improve your experience. 

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Clean up the Search experience

Windows Search is something that I find myself using way too often. Whenever I need to quickly find some app, important documents or files, I find myself typing it on the Search bar. But, when you just click on the Search bar for the first time, there is just too much going on. 

And to change that, all you need to do is head over to Settings – Privacy and Security and turn the Search History off. You can also clear search history and turn off show search highlights to clean things up further. 

Once you do this, you won’t be bombarded with your search history the moment you hit up the Search Bar to look for something new. 

Another way to declutter your Windows Search is by heading to Privacy and Security settings once again and turning off Recommendations and offers in settings as well as personalised offers.

You don’t need that many options in your Start menu 

After cleaning up the Windows Search menu, it is time to pay attention to the Start menu. In all honesty, nobody needs 10 different things on that Start Menu. And to make it less overwhelming, the first thing to do is to turn off showing those recently added apps. Because well, you know what apps you install on your PC and there probably is no reason to get reminded about this. 

To get this done, simply head over to the settings menu and click on Personalisation option. Then, click Start and toggle the off button against the Show recently added apps option. 

Apart from this, it is also a good idea to turn off three more options in the same screen. These are – 

• Show recommended files in start, recent files in files explorer and items in jump lists
• Show recommendations for tips, shortcuts, new apps and more
• Show most used apps

Once you do this, your Start menu will only have the essentials, and none of the fluff. And that’s exactly how you want it to be. 

Declutter your task bar

The taskbar can be the most useful, or the most cluttered element of your Windows PC. And this choice depends entirely on you. I prefer keeping my taskbar as clean as possible and the first step towards doing this is turning widgets and task view options off. To do this, simply hover over your taskbar and right click on it. Then, select the Taskbar settings option and click on it. Now, you will see the option to turn widgets and task view off. 

Another great way to declutter your taskbar is by reducing the size of the Windows Search box. Yes, you can actually do that. Simply head over to Search and check out the various options available. Here, the search box will be selected by default and you can either turn it into a small icon or a smaller box and magnifying glass. 

Now in my opinion, the search icon and label option looks best. It is not too small to not notice yet not too large to make your taskbar appear cluttered. 

PS: You can also choose to hide your taskbar entirely to give your PC a cleaner look. Simply head over to Settings – Personalisation – Taskbar- Taskbar Behaviours and check the box against ‘Automatically hide the taskbar’. Once you do that, the taskbar will appear only if you hover at the bottom of your screen.

Do remember that changing settings will not magically make your Windows PC faster. But, they will definitely lead to a better overall experience. After all, less clutter often leads to better work. And on a busy Monday morning, the last thing that you need is 10 different things on your own PC fighting for your attention when all you need to focus on is getting things done. 

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