Windows settings
Turn off Windows animations for a snappier PC
Reviewed July 2026
No magic FPS promises. Turning off animations and transparency makes the desktop feel instant on a slow PC. Here are the exact settings to change, which to keep, and why it's all reversible.
Step by step
01 Understand what changes (and what doesn't)
Animations are visual polish — windows that fade, minimize effects, transparency. Turning them off makes the desktop feel instant, which helps a lot on a PC that feels sluggish. Honest note: it barely changes in-game FPS; it improves how the system feels, not 3D performance.
02 Use Windows' Performance Options
Press Win+R, type sysdm.cpl, go to Advanced → Performance → Settings. Pick 'Adjust for best performance' to turn everything off at once, or customize the effects one by one.
03 Keep the ones worth keeping
If you customize, leave 'Smooth edges of screen fonts' on — turning it off makes text look jagged and tires your eyes. The rest of the effects are safe to switch off.
04 Turn off transparency and animation in Settings
Go to Settings → Accessibility → Visual effects and turn off 'Animation effects' and 'Transparency effects'. This cuts constant work from the desktop compositor — useful on modest machines.
05 Take the accessibility benefit too
The same switches reduce on-screen motion, which helps people with motion sensitivity. Performance and accessibility pull the same direction here.
06 It's fully reversible
None of this is permanent. Switch back to 'Let Windows choose what's best' in Performance Options, or flip the Accessibility toggles back on, and everything returns to how it was.
Where Neon helps
Neon applies safe, reversible tweaks like this without you hunting through menus, and always shows you what changed.
- Suggests only safe, reversible tweaks, and each one is confirmed before it runs — nothing happens silently.
- One-click Restore puts every change back exactly as it was.
- It never invents a performance number — it shows you what actually changed and why.
To be transparent: this improves how the system feels, not in-game FPS. The installer isn't code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may show a warning.
Questions about safety or what each change does? See the FAQ.