Prevent Apps From Running In Background In Windows 10

With default settings, Windows 10 allows built-in apps as well as apps installed from Store to run in the background. Apps running in the background can send notifications, receive information, and stay up-to-date even when you are not using them.

The Mail app in Windows 10 runs in the background, for instance. When running in the background, it checks for new emails and sends out desktop notifications when you receive a new email in your inbox.

As said before, not just built-in apps, but also all apps installed from Store (all apps other than desktop apps) can run in the background by default. While this is a good feature, tens of apps running in the background might take some system resources.

Besides that, you can conserve power by stopping apps running in the background. This means, if you have a laptop or tablet, you should let only important apps run in the background to extend the battery life.

One can view all apps running in the background by navigating to the Privacy section of Settings app, and prevent all or specific apps from running in the background.

Prevent apps from running in background in Windows 10

In this guide, we will see how to prevent all or specific apps from running in the background in Windows 10.
Step 1: Open the Settings app and navigate to Privacy > Background apps.

Step 2: In the Background apps section, turn Let apps run in the background switch to the off position to prevent all apps from running in the background. Note that this will prevent all apps from running in the background. We recommend you prevent only apps that you don’t find not so useful from running in the background.

If you want to disable a specific app, please scroll down the page. Here, you can see all apps that have the privilege to run in the background. Turn off apps that you want to prevent from running in the background.

We recommend you let apps like Mail, Facebook, Store, OneNote, Skype, Weather, and Windows Defender Security Center run in the background.

Did you know that Windows 10 automatically stops all apps running in the background when running in battery saver mode?