Background apps

[Stormyweather91]

How do I close all of the background apps? There are over 130 of them which is making my laptop so slow! I’ve googled it and everything says go to settings and then background apps but there is no option for background apps. Help! 

[BeemerBiker]

What does the task manager show when system is idle? for example I have 116 apps in memory but most are not running.:  If the system is idle then there should be no disk or network activity and minimum CPU.  Memory usage could vary if too many services were installed.

How much memory do you have?  Windows 10 requires 2gb min and win11 needs 4.  That is for minimum installation.  If you upgraded from 10 to 11 you probably need to double your memory.  If your system came with win11 then it was designed for it and HP set the memory to work correctly when sold.

Memory is only one part of the problem. It is possible the CPU is too busy.  Idle should never be %50 or higher.  Sort the CPU so that you can see what processes are NOT idle. My system shows chrome, edge, system and antimalware but none of them use more than %2 of CPU.

Check your startup apps as described here (do NOT download anything, just read about the startups)

https://www.avg.com/en/signal/how-to-manage-programs-in-windows

If you use iTunes, iCloud, Google Drive, and any backup apps you may need more memory.