Did you know that Microsoft has an official app for boosting performance in Windows 10 and 11? In October 2022, the company launched the so-called "PC Manager" app with a few built-in utilities made for tweaking performance, speeding things up a bit, and keeping your computer in good shape software-wise. Not the app is out of preview, and you can download it from the Microsoft Store.
Microsoft PC Manager is available on Windows 10 and 11 (x64 and ARM). For those downloading it, Microsoft promises one-click solutions for optimizing performance and RAM usage, cleaning your drives from junk files, troubleshooting parts of the OS, anti-virus protection with the help of the Microsoft Defender platform, pop-up blocker for Windows apps (I wonder if it can block OneDrive"s constant nags to enable backups), and more.
The company says the app "adheres to the four product concepts of simplicity, fluency, close to native, efficient and secure, and pure without disturbance." Indeed, the app looks and feels native to Windows 11 and provides quite a lot of features without overwhelming the user.
Besides basic maintenance, the Microsoft PC Manager app offers some extra conveniences, such as a floating toolbar with a RAM usage indicator (sadly, no CPU or GPU tracking, just memory), a link to Snipping Tool, the ability to pin websites for quick access, and more. There is even a sort of built-in Task Manager that lets you browse through running processes, see how much RAM each one consumes, and kill those hogging your computer"s resources. You can keep the floating bar on the screen or hide it in a collapsible sidebar.
The Microsoft PC Manager app was initially made for the Chinese market, but it should now be generally available in more regions. Sadly, the localization is still sub-par, with only English and Chinese languages available.
If you are interested in trying the Microsoft PC Manager app, head to the Microsoft Store using this link.