- Microsoft has a support item that addresses Windows performance problems
- A advice is to turn off the synchronization of OneDrive, since “it can slow down its PC”
- This is possibly one of the biggest errors when it comes to a slow performance explorer performance on Windows 11
Microsoft has admitted that file synchronization between its Windows 11 and OneDrive PC can stop its system, while providing a lot of tips to improve your computer’s performance.
Neowin marked that Microsoft’s support account in X highlighted a publication containing these performance tips for Windows 10 and Windows 11.
How to make your PC faster: Step 1: Update it. Read to get more changes you can make: pic.twitter.com/olwt212OJPAugust 11, 2025
The tips are provided in order, so the first is the most important and potentially shocking, and the others continue, with the suggestion related to the OneDrive in number seven. (The others are mainly the standard rate: update everything, which is number one, verify the space on the disc, disable unnecessary applications, attenuate elegant graphics in Windows, etc.).
Microsoft observes that OneDrive Sync is enabled by default on Windows 11 (and 10), reflecting files on its PC at the cloud storage service, to allow you to access your files from any device, wherever it is (whenever it is online). In addition, he explains that these synchronous files in OneDrive also serve as a backup.
However, Microsoft acknowledges that the other face of these benefits is that the process of synchronizing files on your computer to the cloud “can slow down your PC” and then instructions on how to pause the synchronization of OneDrive temporarily. That way, if you are having performance slowdown, you can stop this synchronization and see if you solve those problems.
If you are curious, the way to stop synchronization is to find the OneDrive icon in the taskbar system tray (extreme right), it is the cloud chart, right click on it, and in the configuration COG, you will see the option of ‘stop synchronization’.
ANALYSIS: Exploring causes of slowness
There have been quite a few complaints about the file explorer that run extremely slowly in Windows 11, something Microsoft has recognized, and it is also something that I have experienced on my laptop Windows 11. OneDrive may well be linked to this type of deceleration in some scenarios.
In my main PC, which is Windows 10, File Explorer runs significantly more agile. And in particular on my backup PC, which also has Windows 11, and in which I have decoupled to OneDrive, it is also running skillful.
Then, if you are plagued with a slow performance when you work with the files and folders on your desktop (file explorer), it is certainly worth stopping the synchronization of OneDrive to see if this helps.
However, this is not necessarily about the slow file explorer, and closing OneDrive synchronization could help performance in other areas of its PC, perhaps with other software or PC games. As always, any impact of synchronization can be variable depending on the configuration of its particular PC, the system configuration and the workload that OneDrive could be undertaking at a given time obviously has a relationship with things.
You do not have to use OneDrive with Windows 11 or 10, although Microsoft wants me to do it for obvious reasons: if you are going to subscribe for cloud storage, the software giant wants you to choose your service (nor is it shy to promote it either).
However, you can deactivate your OneDrive account from your PC, and then uninstall the OneDrive application if you want to go further (said, you can reappear through the subsequent updates of Windows 11, or that has been a complaint that I have seen in the past).
Microsoft is right about the benefits of cloud synchronization for backup (and potentially access to files from other devices too), but remember that you don’t have to go with OneDrive: there are other cloud storage suppliers.
In fact, there are other support solutions. Just make sure you have one, and always remember that storing your data in the cloud with any service can be a good idea in some way, but it gives a certain amount of power to a third party, so you should consider it as part of a general 3-2-1 backup strategy.
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