For decades, there’s been a predatory segment of the Windows maintenance app market. By predatory, I mean one of two things: tools redundant with the ones you already have, or apps that are actively harmful, infecting your machine. You should immediately be cautious about “free” apps that aren’t community-developed or from a well-known brand.

Luckily, Microsoft has built up Windows 11 enough over the years that — for all the essential tasks, anyway — there’s no need to even consider third-party maintenance apps. And I’m dead serious about that. On my own laptop, I can’t remember the last time I made use of a third-party tool for security or cleaning up storage. But you do need to be aware of what Windows PCs include by default, and that’s where this guide comes in.

Protecting against viruses and hackers

McA-who?

You might legitimately need tougher software if you’re in a corporate or government environment, but at home, Windows Security is plenty. It has to be — Windows PCs are still the greatest target for hackers and malware. By default, Windows 11 has real-time scanning enabled, as well as multiple firewalls, and barriers preventing access to critical components like the kernel. It’s also automatically updating its malware definitions. While that might irk you if you don’t like bandwidth consumption without your consent, I’d strongly recommend against disabling definition updates. There’s a constant arms race in the malware world, and some of the attackers out there aren’t just criminals or experimenting teenagers — they can be well-funded spy or warfare agencies.

You may not need to change anything, though I would recommend going to Settings -> Privacy & security -> Windows Security just to check what’s active. You should also trigger Windows Update every few days, and likewise visit the Downloads tab in the Microsoft Store app. Some security improvements require patching apps and the OS at large. Although Windows Security (and your router’s defenses) will catch many threats before they land on your computer, you don’t want to allow them free rein if they make it past the barricades.

Cleaning up storage space

Increasingly trivial to do, but pay attention

Your largest concern with storage shouldn’t be room for personal data so much as swap space. Windows needs several gigabytes free at any given time, as your RAM is never enough to hold every temporary file. If apps, downloads, or other items start to intrude on this space, your PC has to swap files more frequently to compensate. That can result in serious performance hits, particularly for photorealistic 3D games, which are already taxing your system to the limit.

Windows 11 prevents this sort of crisis with a tool called Storage Sense, found under Settings -> System -> Storage -> Storage Sense. This can automatically scrub app and system caches when space is low, and empty your Recycle Bin at regular intervals if you’re prone to forgetting. It can also remove the local copies of files from cloud services like OneDrive and iCloud if they haven’t been accessed for a while. Customize these thresholds to your liking, though I would recommend leaving Windows’ Downloads folder unscrubbed. It can fill up with junk, certainly — but Windows can’t distinguish between an app installer and an irreplaceable video or document, so it’s better to purge the Downloads folder manually.

Something that’s become completely trivial in 2026 is trimming and defragmentation. If you’ve still got an HDD (a platter-based hard drive), you can type defrag into the Taskbar’s search field to find and open the Defragment and Optimize Drives tool. It’s important to defrag HDDs on a frequent basis to maintain performance. As for SSDs, the same tool is automatically performing trim functions on compatible drives. Since most PCs are SSD-based, there may be no need to open the tool, much less tweak it.

Speeding things up

How much do you really need at the drop of a hat?

The silent killer of PC performance is background apps. These not only consume CPU and/or GPU cycles, but RAM, which is a precious commodity given the ridiculous prices created by AI datacenters. If you’re on a PC with 32GB of RAM or less, you should immediately visit Settings -> Apps -> Startup and toggle off anything you seldom use, or don’t want to switch on until it’s absolutely necessary. As often as I use Steam, for example, I don’t want it downloading a multi-gigabyte Cyberpunk 2077 update while I’m stuck on slow hotel Wi-Fi (looking at you, IHG). A further benefit of limiting startup apps is that Windows will naturally finish booting quicker.

You can also keep your system under control by closing your web browser when you’re done with it — Chrome is a massive RAM hog — and ending unnecessary processes in Task Manager by selecting them and clicking End task. Be careful, though. It may not be clear what every process does, and if you end the wrong one, it can temporarily break apps or Windows itself. If you screw up, the easiest solution may be to restart Windows.