How to Disable Fast Startup in Windows 11

To disable Fast Startup in Windows 11, open Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do, select Change settings that are currently unavailable, uncheck Turn on fast startup (recommended), and select Save changes. From then on, Shut down turns the PC fully off instead of saving part of Windows for a quicker start.

These steps work in Windows 11 Home, Pro, Education and Enterprise, and the same path works in Windows 10. You need an administrator account. The setting is not in the Settings app; it lives only in the classic Control Panel.

What Fast Startup Does

Fast Startup is turned on by default on most Windows 11 PCs that support hibernation. When you select Shut down, Windows closes your apps and signs everyone out, but it keeps the Windows kernel (the core of the operating system) and its drivers loaded and writes them to the hibernation file, hiberfil.sys. Microsoft’s documentation explains that a fast startup then loads that file back into memory, which takes much less time than a cold start that sets up Windows and every driver from scratch.

That is why some problems survive a shutdown but disappear after a restart: with Fast Startup on, the drivers and kernel never fully reset.

Action	What Windows saves	Your open apps
Shut down with Fast Startup on	Kernel and drivers in hiberfil.sys	Closed
Shut down with Fast Startup off	Nothing	Closed
Restart	Nothing (a full shutdown and cold start)	Closed
Sleep	Everything, kept in memory with a little power	Still open
Hibernate	Everything, saved to hiberfil.sys	Still open

Fast Startup is also not the same as Fast Boot in your PC’s BIOS or UEFI setup. Fast Boot is a firmware setting that skips some hardware checks before Windows loads. Turning off one does not change the other.

Check Whether Fast Startup Is On

1. Press Windows key + R, type powercfg.cpl, and press Enter. The Power Options window opens.
2. Select Choose what the power buttons do in the left pane.
3. Look under Shutdown settings. A check mark next to Turn on fast startup (recommended) means it is on. If the item is not listed at all, hibernation is off and Fast Startup is already unavailable.

Method 1: Turn Off Fast Startup in Control Panel

This is the method to use if you want to keep Hibernate. It changes only the shutdown behavior.

1. Press Windows key + R, type powercfg.cpl, and press Enter. You can also search Start for Choose a power plan, or open Control Panel and select Hardware and Sound > Power Options.
2. Select Choose what the power buttons do in the left pane. On a laptop, the link may read Choose what closing the lid does; both open the same page.
3. Select Change settings that are currently unavailable at the top. Select Yes if User Account Control asks for permission. The checkboxes under Shutdown settings become clickable.
4. Uncheck Turn on fast startup (recommended).
5. Select Save changes. The window returns to Power Options, and your next Shut down is a full shutdown. No restart is needed.

To turn Fast Startup back on, repeat the steps and check the box again. The same Control Panel page is where Microsoft documents the power button and Hibernate options.

If you can’t find Power Options, there are several ways to open Control Panel in Windows 11, including the Run box.

Method 2: Turn Off Hibernation With a Command

Fast Startup depends on the hibernation file, so turning hibernation off also turns Fast Startup off. Use this only if you do not need Hibernate, or if the Control Panel checkbox will not stay unchecked.

1. Right-click Start and select Terminal (Admin). Select Yes in the User Account Control prompt.
2. Type powercfg /h off and press Enter. No message appears; a new blank prompt means the command worked.

This also deletes hiberfil.sys (which can free several gigabytes), removes Hibernate from the Power menu and turns off hybrid sleep. The Fast Startup checkbox disappears from Control Panel until you run powercfg /h on. Both commands are listed in Microsoft’s powercfg reference. Don’t delete hiberfil.sys yourself in File Explorer; let powercfg manage it.

If you would rather keep hibernation and use it, here is how to enable Hibernate in Windows 11 and add it to the power menu.

Fully Shut Down Once Without Changing the Setting

You don’t have to turn Fast Startup off to get one clean shutdown:

• Select Restart instead of Shut down. A restart always does a full shutdown and cold start, which is why it fixes more problems.
• Hold Shift while you select Shut down from the Power menu.
• Open Terminal, type shutdown /s /t 0, and press Enter. Microsoft’s shutdown command reference shows that only the extra /hybrid switch prepares a fast startup, so this command does a full shutdown. Save your work first, because the PC turns off right away.
• To go straight to firmware settings, run shutdown /r /fw /t 0. The PC restarts into BIOS or UEFI setup. For other ways in, read about entering BIOS or UEFI settings in Windows 11.

When Turning It Off Helps

Turning Fast Startup off makes every Shut down a real shutdown. That helps in these cases:

• Updates and drivers: some updates and new drivers (graphics, audio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) only finish setting up after a full shutdown or restart.
• Dual boot: Linux or another copy of Windows may refuse to write to, or even mount, a Windows drive that was shut down with Fast Startup on, because the drive is still marked as in use.
• Firmware settings: the logo screen can pass too fast to press the setup key. A full shutdown or restart gives you more time.
• Devices and encrypted drives: some USB devices, audio interfaces and encrypted disk images behave better after a cold start.
• Wake-on-LAN or odd power behavior: a PC that won’t wake from the network or won’t shut down cleanly sometimes works once Fast Startup is off.

The trade-off is a slower start from a full shutdown. On a PC with an SSD, the difference is usually a few seconds. On an older PC with a hard drive, it can be much longer, so if nothing is wrong and you don’t dual boot, leaving it on is fine.

Turning it off is also one of the steps if you want to wake the PC from shutdown with Wake-on-LAN, although that only works on motherboards that support it.

Troubleshooting

• The checkbox is grayed out: select Change settings that are currently unavailable first. If that link does not appear or nothing becomes clickable, sign in with an administrator account. Here is how to give yourself administrator rights in Windows 11 on a PC you own.
• The Fast Startup option is missing: hibernation is off. Run powercfg /h on in Terminal (Admin), then reopen Power Options.
• It turned itself back on: a major Windows update, a reset or your PC maker’s power utility can change power settings. Check the box again after big updates.
• The checkbox is locked on a work or school PC: your organization may use the Group Policy Require use of fast startup (Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Shutdown). When it is enabled, Fast Startup is forced on. Setting that policy to Disabled does not turn Fast Startup off; according to Microsoft’s Group Policy article, it just hands control back to the local checkbox. Ask your IT department instead of changing it.

Frequently Asked Questions