I changed one registry value and my Windows PC feels instantly faster

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Windows is slow. Yes, we know. But if someone hasn’t moved off Windows already, it’s usually for a reason. That means there’s only one real way forward: learn to live with Windows. Some tweaks require third-party apps — essentially adding more code on top of Windows to make it behave the way you want. Others involve disabling features outright. But this time, I stumbled on something much simpler: a single registry edit that makes Windows feel noticeably faster.

File Explorer doesn’t load as fast as it should. Right-clicking on anything in Explorer takes at least a second before the menu shows up. By this point, we all know games can run better on Linux than Windows — but that’s not what I’m talking about here. Windows feels slow on Windows. I already fixed the right-click context menu clutter using NileSoft Shell. But even then, the menus just didn’t feel as snappy as they used to on my dad’s Windows XP machine nearly 20 years ago — despite the superior modern hardware.

Changing this setting is straightforward. Open the Start menu, search for Registry Editor, and launch it. From there, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.

In the right pane, you’ll see an entry called MenuShowDelay. By default, it’s set to 400 milliseconds. Double-click it and change the value to whatever you prefer. I’ve set mine to 0 ms. That’s it. Reboot your computer, log back in, and enjoy the results.

Editing the Windows Registry can break things in subtle or very obvious ways. Changing random values can cause apps to misbehave or Windows to stop working properly. If you’re not experienced, follow the instructions exactly, don’t experiment, and proceed at your own risk.

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