Fast Startup, as the name indicates, allows your PC to start faster after it’s shut down. And you don’t really need to shut down your PC when Fast Startup is enabled. It achieves this by ending all other processes and keeping system-related modules and drivers working on your hard disk.
This feature is not without any shortcomings though, according to this Micrsoft troubleshooting guide, if you’ve enabled Fast Startup after you shut down your computer, you might not be able to run Windows updates – which leaves your computer vulnerable to security issues.
Fortunately, turning off Fast Startup on Windows 11 is easy. The whole process takes a few steps and only requires less than a minute to complete. We’ll show you how to do that in this article.
Contents
Method 1: Turn off Fast Startup Via Control Panel
Step 1: Press the Windows key and type “powercfg.cpl” in the search bar, hit the Enter key, or click Open.
Step 2: You’ll see the Power Options windows pops up, click Choose what the power button does on the left-side menu.
Step 3: Another window called System Settings pops up. You’ll find that the Shutdown settings option items are greyed out. To active them by clicking Change settings that are currently unavailable.
Step 4: Uncheck the Turn on fast startup option to turn it off.
That’s it, done!
Method 2: Turn off Fast Startup via Registry Editor
You can also turn off the fast startup by modifying the registry editor. Beware that once it is modified by mistake, you won’t be able to recover it.
Therefore, it’s highly recommended that you create a system restore point before you proceed, so that if something wrong happens, you’ll be able to undo the changes and recover your computer system to normal.
Step 1: Press the Windows key and type “Registry Editor” in the search bar. Click Open or hit the Enter key to run the registry editor.
Step 2: Navigate to Computer > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > Session Manager > Power by double clicking the folders on the left side, and double-click HiberbootEnabled on the right side pane.
Step 3: Modify the Value data to 0 (Value data = 1 will turn it on) to turn fast startup off. Click OK to confirm and close the window.
Now you’ve managed to disable the fast startup feature on your computer.
Method 3: Turn off Fast Startup via Command Prompt
Make sure that you are running your computer as an administrator, otherwise, you will not be able to access this command.
Warning: Windows 11 has the hibernation feature. The command below will disable both hibernation and fast startup.
Step 1: Press Windows + R to open Run, and type cmd in the indicator box. Click the OK button or hit the Enter key.
Step 2: Type Powercfg -h off and hit the Enter key.
Done.
Method 4: Turn off Fast Startup via Group Policy Editor
Modifying the Group Policy Editor will disable your fast startup for good. If you are a Windows 11 Home user, check out step 1-5 first to learn how to enable Group Policy Editor and then step 6-9 to turn off the fast startup; for Windows 11 Pro users, you can directly skip to steps 6-9.
Step 1: Press the Windows key and type “notepad” in the search bar. Hit the Enter key or click the Open button to run Notepad.
Step 2: Type the codes you need to copy and paste.
Step 3: Save it as gpeditenabler.bat. Remember to choose the path you want to save first.
(I saved it to my desktop.)
Step 4: Right-click on the program icon and choose Run as administrator to run it.
Step 5: The program launches automatically. Wait until the “Press any key to continue” appears. Hit any key and the window will automatically close.
Step 6: Press Windows + R, and type “gpedit.msc” in the indicator box. Click the OK button.
Step 7: Navigate to the Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Shutdown folder. Double-click the Shutdown folder.
Step 8: Double-click “Require use of fast startup”.
Step 9: Select Disabled and click the Apply and OK button.
That’s it, all done.
So, which method is your favorite? Did you manage to turn off the Fast Startup feature on your Windows 11 PC? Drop a comment below and share your stories.
