Windows includes two related but separate "performance" presets: a power mode setting that affects how your processor balances speed against battery life, and a visual effects preset that strips back animations and shadows. Used together, they give you a quick, one-stop way to prioritise raw speed over polish, particularly useful on an older or lower-spec laptop.
Key takeaway: The Best Performance power mode and the "Adjust for best performance" visual effects option are two separate settings that work together to squeeze more responsiveness out of an ageing PC.
Setting Best Performance power mode
- Open Settings > System > Power & battery.
- Find the "Power mode" dropdown.
- Choose Best Performance (on a laptop running on battery, this setting is separate for "on battery" and "plugged in" — check both).
Before you start: Best Performance mode noticeably reduces battery life on a laptop when unplugged. Consider using Balanced while on battery and switching to Best Performance only when plugged in.
Setting visual effects to best performance
- Search "Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows" in the Start menu and open it.
- On the Visual Effects tab, select "Adjust for best performance" to disable all animations, shadows, and transparency effects at once.
- Alternatively, choose "Custom" and manually tick only the effects you'd like to keep, such as smooth font edges, while disabling the rest.
- Click Apply, then OK.
| Setting | Affects | Typical impact |
|---|---|---|
| Power mode: Best Performance | CPU speed vs battery balance | Faster processing, shorter battery life |
| Visual effects: Best Performance | Animations, shadows, transparency | Snappier feel, less battery/GPU impact |
When to use each preset
The power mode setting matters most for CPU-heavy tasks like exporting video or running several demanding apps at once. The visual effects setting matters most for everyday responsiveness — how snappy menus and windows feel when opening and closing, which is often what people actually notice day to day on an older machine.
Tip: If "Adjust for best performance" feels too stark, try Custom and keep just "Smooth edges of screen fonts" ticked — this preserves comfortable text readability while still disabling the more resource-hungry animations.
Why this matters more on older hardware
Visual animations and transparency effects rely on your graphics hardware to render smoothly, and on a modern, well-specified PC this happens so effortlessly that you'd struggle to measure any difference at all with the effects left on. The picture changes considerably on an older laptop with integrated graphics rather than a dedicated graphics card, or any machine running on a processor that's five or more years old. On this kind of hardware, every window opening or closing with a fade or slide animation is genuine extra work for an already limited graphics chip, work that's entirely skipped once "Adjust for best performance" is applied. This is precisely why this single setting is disproportionately effective on the exact category of PC this site focuses on: modest, ageing, budget-friendly machines rather than high-end recent ones.
Similarly, Best Performance power mode has a more noticeable effect on a processor that was already running close to its limits during everyday tasks — on a fast, modern processor with plenty of headroom, Balanced mode rarely holds performance back in any way you'd actually notice.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need to change both settings, or just one?
- They're independent, so you can use either alone. For the biggest overall improvement on an older PC, using both together tends to give the best combined result.
- Will Best Performance mode damage my laptop's battery?
- No, it doesn't cause physical damage; it simply allows the processor to run faster more often, which uses more power and therefore drains the battery quicker during that session.
- Can I switch back to the default settings easily?
- Yes, just return to the same two settings and choose Balanced for power mode and "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer" for visual effects.