I downloaded this free app and in 5 minutes my PC ran smoother

It never ceases to amaze me just how passionate and uncompromising third-party software developers can be. When it comes to the Windows 11 platform in particular, there’s a strong incentive to rely on older frameworks and web technologies to phone in on design, making it all the more impressive when I stumble upon beautiful, fluidly crafted experiences tailor-made for the OS.

One such Windows 11 app that falls firmly into this category of star-studded software is Wintoys — a free program from the Microsoft Store that offers a world of tinkering and tweaking options geared towards PC lovers. The app looks and feels like a native part of modern Windows, it’s lean and lightweight, it’s well-organized, and, fundamentally, it actually works as advertised.

Wintoys is slick, powerful, and pragmatic

You won’t find me ever uninstalling this app from my Windows 11 PC

Right off the bat, after installing Wintoys onto my PC for the first time a while back, I was immediately impressed by its fit and finish. The app expertly leverages Microsoft’s modern Fluent Design principles and WinUI 3 elements, with the end result being an interface that fits right in with other modernized parts of Windows 11. There are subtle animations that smoothly play out as you navigate, there’s support for dynamic color accenting, and there’s even a choice to toggle between the standard Mica background window material and its slightly more saturated Mica Alt counterpart.

By default, the app is configured to take you straight to a home landing page, which surfaces a dashboard of key PC specifications including system name, processor and graphics hardware, memory capacity, Windows version, and more. There’s also separate tiles that relay how many apps, processes, services, and more are currently on deck, which is a nice touch.

As a one-stop-shop solution for tweaking various aspects of the PC experience, the app achieves its goals and does so in style.

Beyond this Home page, there are several tabs available to sift through in Wintoys: Apps, Services, Performance, Health, and Tweaks. It would take far too long to go through every available setting within each tab, but some of my favorites include the Fast startup and hibernation quick-access toggles, the toggle to turn off ads from across the system, the drive optimization and cleanup tools, and the option to extract images directly from Windows Spotlight on the lock screen.

Of course, there’s also a dedicated Settings page located within Wintoys, which offers a robust selection of adjustable options. These include the ability to set the landing page, to change the app theme and backdrop, to restore all settings to their default values, and to enable or disable error reporting.

For those wondering, Wintoys isn’t an open-source application. The decision to keep its source code closed-source, according to the developer in a Reddit post, was made as there are plans to introduce additional premium add-on content at a later date. As of the time of writing, said paid content hasn’t been published onto the Microsoft Store, though this is subject to change in a future release at a later date.

Overall, I’m a big fan of Wintoys for Windows 11. As a one-stop-shop solution for tweaking various aspects of the PC experience, the app achieves its goals and does so in style. Whenever I set up a new tablet, laptop, or desktop computer, Wintoys is one of the first applications I install without fail, and I can’t see this changing any time soon.

With a name like Wintoys, the app also evokes familiarity with the Microsoft-published PowerToys suite, which likewise provides a set of powerful tools and customization options in a well-refined package that looks and feels native to the Windows 11 experience. When put together with the developer-focused DevToys app by a separate developer, I can’t help but love the flexibility that these various apps provide at absolutely no additional cost.