How to stop windows 10 apps from running in the background

Chris Hoffman
Chris Hoffman
Editor-in-Chief

Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. He’s written about technology for over a decade and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Chris has written for The New York Times, been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami’s NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000 articles that have been read nearly one billion times—and that’s just here at How-To Geek. Read more.

Those new Windows 10 apps have permission to run in the background so they can update their live tiles, fetch new data, and receive notifications. Even if you never even touch them, they may drain some battery power. But you can control which apps are allowed to run in the background.

Even if you do use universal apps, you don’t necessarily want them running in the background. For example, by default, apps like the “Get Office” app–which only exists to bug you about purchasing Microsoft Office–have permission to run in the background.

Prevent Specific Apps From Running in the Background

Apps have have permission to run in the background will show up on the battery usage screen, which estimates how much power each one uses on your system. But you don’t need to wait for them to start draining battery power–if you don’t use them, you might as well disable them right now.

To see which apps have permission to run in the background, open the Start menu or Start screen and select “Settings.” Click or tap the “Privacy” icon in the Settings window.

Scroll down to the bottom of the list and select “Background apps.” You’ll see a list of apps that have permission to run in the background with an “On/Off” toggle. The default setting for each app is “On,” allowing each app to run in the background if it likes. Set any apps you don’t want to run in the background to “Off.”

Bear in mind that there’s a downside to this. If you prevent the Alarms app from running in the background, for example, any alarms you set won’t go off. If you prevent the Mail app from running in the background, it won’t notify you of new emails. Apps normally run in the background to update their live tiles, download new data, and receive notifications. If you want an app to continue performing these functions, you should allow it to continue running in the background. If you don’t care, feel free to prevent the app from running in the background. You can still use the app normally, but you may have to wait for it to fetch new data after you launch it.

Prevent All Apps From Running in the Background With Battery Saver Mode

You could also use Battery Saver mode to accomplish this. When Battery Saver mode is activated, no apps will run in the background unless you specifically allow them to. This will save battery power. Battery saver mode is activated automatically when your battery falls to 20% by default, but you can also activate it by tapping or clicking the battery icon in your notification area and tapping or clicking the “Battery saver” quick settings tile.

This is particularly useful if you’re fine with apps running in the background most of the time, but you want to cut them off to save power when you really need to stretch your battery.

You can customize Battery Saver mode from the Settings app, too. Open the Settings app, select “System,” select the “Battery saver” category, and click or tap the “Battery saver settings” link. Apps won’t be allowed to run in the background while Battery Saver mode is enabled unless manually add them to the “Always allowed” list here.

What About Desktop Apps?

None of these settings control traditional Windows desktop apps, unfortunately. They only apply to Windows 10’s new mobile-style universal apps–originally known as “Metro” apps on Windows 8, which Windows 10 has more control over. That’s why this process is similar to how you’d prevent apps from running in the background on an iPhone or iPad.

If you want to prevent desktop apps from running in the background, you’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way: close desktop applications when you aren’t using them. You should also ensure apps aren’t hiding in your notification area and running in the background there. Click or tap the arrow to the left of your system tray to view all system tray icons, then right-click and close any applications you don’t want running in the background. You can use the Startup tab in the Task Manager to prevent these background apps from automatically loading when you sign in, too.

If you really don’t like those new universal apps, there’s a way to uninstall Windows 10’s built-in apps. We’ve managed to uninstall most of them, but this isn’t officially supported and Windows 10 may automatically reinstall those apps in the future after you remove them. You’re better off just preventing them from running in the background, unpinning their tiles, and forgetting about them.

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Chris Hoffman
Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. He’s written about technology for over a decade and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Chris has written for The New York Times, been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami’s NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000 articles that have been read nearly one billion times—and that’s just here at How-To Geek.
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On Windows 10, many apps you download from the Microsoft Store will continue to run in the background to take advantage of additional features, such as the ability to download data, update Live Tiles, and show notifications.

Although these features can be useful in a number of scenarios, apps running in the background (even when you didn’t start them) can drain battery, waste bandwidth and system resources. Luckily, if keeping apps updated isn’t something important for you, Windows 10 ships with settings to control which apps are allowed to operate in the background.

In this Windows 10 guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to prevent apps from running in the background.

How to stop background apps using Privacy settings

To disable apps from running in the background wasting system resources, use these steps:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on Privacy.
3. Click on Background apps.

Under the “Choose which apps can run in the background” section, turn off the toggle switch for the apps you want to restrict.

Alternatively, under the “Background Apps” section, you can turn off the Let apps in the background toggle switch to prevent any app from running in the background toggle switch.

Once you’ve completed the steps, you can still use the apps normally, but when you close them, all the processes will be terminated until you launch the app again.

How to stop background apps using System settings

Alternatively, on laptops and tablets, it’s also possible to prevent apps from running in the background enabling the Battery Saver mode.

While the feature will enable automatically as the battery life drops below 20 percent, you can enable the mode manually at any time using these steps:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on System.
3. Click on Battery.

Under the “Battery saver” section, turn off the Battery saver status until next charge toggle switch.

Quick Tip: It’s also possible to turn on Battery saver by clicking the battery icon in the bottom-right corner of the taskbar and clicking the Battery saver button.

After completing the steps, none of your apps will be allowed to run in the background while the feature is enabled.

These instructions only apply for apps you acquired from the Microsoft store. If you’re looking to stop classic applications from using background resources, you need to close the program manually and make sure to stop the program from running at startup.

Update January 28, 2019: This guide has been revised to make sure it’s current with the latest version of Windows 10.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

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If your computer is running slow, it is likely that it has too many Apps running in the background. You will find below the steps to Stop Apps From Running in Background in Windows 10.

Apps Running in Background in Windows 10

Left to itself, your Windows 10 computer may end up allowing way too many Apps to remain active and keep running in the background.

In addition to native Windows Apps and Services like Skype, Calendar and Email, most downloaded Apps also have the default tendency to keep running in the background.

Unfortunately, most older, budget and mid-level PC’s do not have the resources to keep all the data hungry Apps active and running in background.

Also, you may not even be using the Apps that are unecessarily using up resources on your computer by running in the background.

Hence, it makes sense to stop all unnecessary Apps from running in background and wasting resources on your Computer.

1. Stop Apps From Running in Background in Windows 10

Follow the steps below to stop Apps from running in background in Windows 10.

1. Click on the Start button and click on Settings Icon in the little menu that appears.

2. On the Settings screen, click on the Privacy option.

3. On the Privacy screen, scroll down and click on Background Apps in the left pane. In the right-pane, toggle OFF the option to Let Apps Run in the background .

This will prevent all the Apps from running in background on your computer.

2. Stop Specific Background Running Apps in Windows 10

Windows 10 also makes it easy to stop specific or selected Apps from running in the background on your computer.

This can be useful, in case you only want certain important Apps to bring you fresh updates by remaining active in the background.

1. Open Settings on your computer and click on the Privacy tab.

2. On the Privacy screen, scroll down and click on Background Apps in the left pane. In the right-pane, toggle OFF Specific Apps that you do not want to run in background.

Note: You need to toggle ON “Let Apps Run in Background” option to disable specfic Apps from running in background.

Which Background Running Apps to Stop

Disabling Background Running Apps does not prevent you from using the Apps on your computer.

Stopping Apps from running in background only prevents the Apps from bringing fresh updates and this may slow down the Apps.

However, once you launch the Apps on your computer and start using them, the Apps will have the opportunity to refessh their data and you will be able to use them as usual.

A good approach in this regard is to simply start by disabling All the Apps from running in background and later on allow only the most essentail Apps to run in background.

In case something goes wrong, you can always come back to Background Running Apps screen and Turn ON or Turn OFF Apps as required.

Windows 10 automatically start apps and run them in background. The apps generally started are calculator, movies, weather, xbox, windows store etc. Note that even if you open task manager and try to disable them in the start up tab, they will not be found in the auto-start list. They are called upon by windows runtime and thus to disable them you have to do it via system control panel. These apps send and receive notification and updates even if you are not using them at all. Turning off these apps to run in background is necessary as they eat up RAM and CPU of the system while running in background. Lets us see how to disable apps running in background.

How to disable apps running in background

Step 1 – Press windows key + i to open system panel.

Step 2 – Click on privacy as shown below.

Step 3 – Click on Background Apps from the left menu and in the list of apps, turn off and disable those apps which you probably won’t use.

Note: – If you do not find the service you are looking for (For example Onedrive etc.) :-

Step 1 – just open task manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc.

Step 2 – In the task manager click on startup tab.

Step 3 – Right click on any program or app which you want to disable on startup.

Saurav is associated with IT industry and computers for more than a decade and is writing on The Geek Page on topics revolving on windows 10 and softwares.

Annoyed by some apps which run in the background? These background running apps can start themselves after you login your PC, consume your system memory and make your PC get lag.

Now I will show three methods on how to stop apps from running in the background on Windows 10.

Step 1: Open the start menu to choose “settings”, then click “privacy”.

Step 2: Choose “background” and then you will find a list of apps running in the background of your PC. Now you can turn off the app which you don’t want to run in the background by switching the toggle.

Step 1: Open “Task Manager” by right-click any blank area of the taskbar.

Step 2: In “Processes” tab and you can check which programs take up your memory. And some of them are running in the background. Pick them out to end their tasks.

Step 3: Go for “Startup tab”, it lists some apps keep running once you start your PC. Select the app and click “Disabled”.

Both of the two above methods are easy, aren’t they? But for me, I prefer to use Wise System Monitor to manage the running applications, free up system resources/spaces and save power on my PC. Free, easy, and efficient!

And its floating window enable you to get your PC information at a glance.

Other more features? Download Wise System Monitor now to find them out.

Windows 10 comes with many built-in store apps that can be uninstalled. Additionally, you can install more from the Microsoft store with just a few clicks. All the installed store apps on Windows 10 have the permission to always run in the background by default. For instance, whether you start them or not, apps like Movies and TV, Your Phone app that lets you connect Android to Windows 10, Maps, Messages, etc., have the permission to always run in the background by default. More often than not, they do quietly run in the background.

By revoking the “let apps run in the background” or Background Apps permission, you can stop background apps in Windows 10. Thankfully, it is quite easy to stop background running apps in Windows 10. Let me show you how.

Jump to:

What Happens When You Stop Background Apps in Windows 10

There are a couple of things you should know before stopping background apps in Windows 10.

1. The procedure shown below only applies to Microsoft Store apps. If you want to stop regular win32 apps like Firefox and Chrome, you need to find relevant options in that specific application settings page.

2. When you stop an app from running in the background, it cannot perform background tasks like showing notifications, reminder alerts, etc. If you are only looking to disable app notifications from a specific app, you can do that separately.

3. Once the apps are stopped from running in the background, you need to start the app manually to use them. Moreover, as soon as you close the app, they no longer run in the background.

Stop Running Background Apps

When it comes to stopping background apps, you can either stop all the apps or pick and choose the app that can and cannot run in the background. I will show both approaches. Use the one you need.

Stop All Background Apps in Windows 10

1. Open the settings app by pressing the keyboard shortcut Win + I .
2. Go to the “Privacy” page.
   
3. On the left panel, scroll down and select “Background Apps” tab.
4. On the right panel, toggle the switch under “Lets apps run in the background” to “Off” position.
   

That is all. As soon as you switch off the toggle, all Microsoft store apps stop running in the background. In the future, to allow the apps to run in the background, toggle the switch to the “On” position in step 4 .

Stop Specific Background Apps in Windows 10 (Individual Apps)

1. Open the settings app by pressing the keyboard shortcut Win + I .
2. Go to the “Privacy” page.
   
3. On the left panel, scroll down and select “Background Apps” tab.
4. On the right-panel, scroll down and find the app you want to stop from running the background.
5. Next, toggle the switch next to the app to the “Off” position.
   

That is all. From now on, that specific app will not run in the background. If you want to reverse the change, all you have to do is switch the toggle to the “On” position in step 5 .

Comment below if you face any problems while stopping background apps in Windows 10 or to share to thoughts. Also, do check out how to boost volume in Windows 10.

In Windows 10, some apps are always running in the background. Microsoft designed Windows 10 to run apps constantly to provide notifications to users and keep those apps updated with content that they fetch from the internet. There are plenty of users who never use the Store apps, but they still run in the background and consume system resources. Let’s see how to stop them and free system resources.

Out of the box, some Universal apps are already enabled to run in the background in Windows 10. You may have never opened those apps, not even once and may not need them, but they are running anyway. Alarms and Clock, Photos, Store and some other apps are set to work in the background. The Alarms and Clock app for example is able to show you an alarm notification if you have set one when it is running.

In Windows 10, there is a special section in the Settings app which allows you to manage which apps can run in the background. There, it is possible to prevent some apps from running constantly.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to Privacy -> Background apps.
3. There, disable the apps you don’t intend to use from the list. Switch off the appropriate option for each app:

You are done. This will not require any additional action from you like restarting or signing out. Changes will take effect immediately. If you change your mind about re-enabling the background apps you disabled, you can always return to this Background apps page and enable them. That’s it.

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Windows 10 allows its built-in apps downloaded from the store to run in the background by default. Here’s how to disable them.

On Windows 10 Microsoft’s built-in apps and apps downloaded from the Microsoft Store run in the background by default. This can be handy if you want to stay current and get notifications from apps like Twitter or the Mail app. It also lets the apps update in the background.

However, there are also certain disadvantages apps running in the background. If you’re on a laptop or other Windows 10 device like a Microsoft Surface, you might want to disable non-essential apps from running to save battery juice.

Another reason to turn them off would be if you’re on a cellular connection. You don’t need apps that you’re not using eating away at your data plan. Or, you just might find too many app notifications annoying. Whatever the reason, you can stop them from running in the background. Here’s how.

Allow or Disable Windows 10 Apps from Running in the Background

Turning them off is simple, as long as you know where to look. Head to Start > Settings > Privacy and scroll down the left-hand column and click on Background apps.

From here you have a couple of different ways to go. You can take the nuclear approach and stop all installed apps from running in the background. At the top of the right-hand panel under “Let apps run in the background” toggle the switch off.

Another way you can go is to keep the “Let apps run in the background” switch on. Then scroll down the list and turn off the apps you don’t want. This allows you to turn off unneeded apps from running in the background. Then you can keep the apps you want running in the background turned on.

For example, maybe you want to keep the Mail and Calendar app updating in the background so you get your messages. Then to save power you can turn off non-essential apps like Microsoft News, Weather, and others.

Using this in conjunction with disabling startup apps in Windows 10 can make for a better overall user experience. Especially while you’re on the go and using a laptop or other device.

If you are still running Windows 7 (which is no longer supported) check out how to disable startup apps. And if happen to be one of the few running Windows 8.1 read our article: Stop Windows 8 Apps from Running in Background.

Struggling for battery life? We show you how to stop apps from running in the background in Windows 10 using both privacy and system settings.

Background apps are a useful part of your operating system. Allowing an app to run in the background allows programs to perform tasks such as delivering notifications, updating its content, and update their live tiles. However, all this background use can also drain your battery life and bandwidth or affect your performance. As such, it’s useful to know how to stop apps from running in the background so you can turn off the ones you don’t use.

How to stop apps running in background

We’ll be teaching you how to do this today, using a couple of different methods. One allows you to disable background activity for specific or all apps, and the other lets you specific a battery percentage where background activity will be limited.

Before we start, you should be aware that when you turn off background apps in Windows 10 you’re unlikely to see a sudden and dramatic increase in your battery life. Microsoft, and Windows developers, have designed background activity to be quite efficient. However, if you’re looking to squeeze that little bit more battery life out of an old laptop or you’re running into performance slowdowns, this could help. Let’s get started:

How to Turn Off Background Apps in Windows 10 via Privacy Settings

Strangely, Windows 10 background apps aren’t controlled via the “Apps” settings menu as you might expect. Instead, they’re tucked away in the “Privacy” section. Not to worry, though, we’ll show you how to disable background apps via that interface.

Open Settings

Press the “Start” button, then click the settings cog, above the power button. Alternatively, press Windows + I.

In the sidebar, click “Background apps”, then look for the section that says “Choose which apps can run in the background”. Toggle off any apps you don’t need background features from.

Click “Background apps” in the privacy settings sidebar, then toggle off “Let apps run in the background”. This will turn off background activity for all apps, and save you some battery life in the process.

How to Stop Apps From Running in the Background at a Certain Battery Percentage

As it can be very useful to have apps running in the background at times, a better solution may be to limit them at a particular battery percentage. Though this battery saver mode kicks in automatically on most laptops, you can customize it to percentage. You can even set it to kick in at 100% battery as a way to disable background apps in Windows 10 entirely. Here’s how:

Open Settings

Press the “Start” button, then click the settings cog, above the power button. Alternatively, press Windows + I.

Click “Battery” in the system settings sidebar and scroll down until you see “To get more from your battery when it’s running low, limit notifications and background activity”. Switch the toggle underneath to “On”.

Underneath it, you can adjust the “Turn battery saver on automatically at” dropdown to change the battery percentage at which background apps start to be limited.

How to Check Laptop Battery Health and Configure Power Throttling

Now that you know how to stop apps from running in the background, you may want to learn how to configure power throttling to get even more out of your battery. Still getting poor battery performance? Follow our guide on how to do a battery health check.