Automatic Maintenance in Windows 11 — How to Disable or Customize It

Automatic Maintenance in Windows 11 is a feature designed to ensure optimal performance and stability of the system. It routinely performs tasks like disk cleanup, updates, system checks, and more, all in the background. Although beneficial, some users prefer to disable or adjust it to prevent unexpected reboots or high resource usage during certain times.

What is Automatic Maintenance in Windows 11?

Automatic Maintenance is a background process in Windows 11 that runs daily. It includes tasks like updating apps and the system, optimizing drives, scanning for malware, defragmenting, and other maintenance activities needed to keep the system in good health. These tasks typically run during periods when the device is idle, minimizing the impact on performance during active use.

How to Disable Automatic Maintenance in Windows 11

If you prefer complete control over your system’s activities, you can disable Automatic Maintenance. However, note that doing so may lead to an accumulation of unnecessary files and potentially slower performance over time. Here’s how to disable it:

  1. Open the Registry Editor by pressing Win + R, typing regedit, and hitting Enter.
  2. Navigate to the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\Maintenance.
  3. In the right panel, locate the MaintenanceDisabled entry. If it doesn’t exist, create a new DWORD (32-bit) value with this name.
  4. Set the MaintenanceDisabled value to 1 to disable Automatic Maintenance.
  5. Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer to apply the changes.

Customizing Automatic Maintenance Settings

If you want to keep Automatic Maintenance enabled but adjust it to your preferences, Windows 11 offers a few options to manage this process.

Changing the Maintenance Start Time

By default, Automatic Maintenance runs at 2:00 AM when the device is idle. To change the start time:

  1. Open Control Panel and go to System and Security.
  2. Select Security and Maintenance, then click on Change maintenance settings.
  3. Choose a time that suits you and save the settings.

Managing Maintenance Frequency

While Windows doesn’t offer a direct option to adjust the frequency of Automatic Maintenance, you can manually set up a customized schedule through Task Scheduler:

  1. Open Task Scheduler via the Windows search.
  2. Navigate to Microsoft > Windows > Task Scheduler > Maintenance.
  3. Adjust the trigger settings to your preference.