If your Windows 11 PC feels sluggish, some of the cause may be background services you never use. Four services are worth checking: the Windows AI Fabric Service (WSAIFabricSvc), Delivery Optimization, the telemetry service DiagTrack, and the Xbox services. On some machines, stopping the AI Fabric Service alone has freed about 5GB of memory.
Change these one at a time and restart after each change. That way, if something breaks, you’ll know which change caused it and can turn it back on.
Why background services slow down your PC
Signs of the problem include slow web browsing, lag when you move around File Explorer, and files that take about twice as long to open as they used to. Closing your open apps is the obvious first step, but Windows also runs background services that you rarely see, and some of them use a lot of memory, disk activity or bandwidth.
Most people never check these services, so a heavy one can run for months without anyone noticing. Some services can be turned off, while others are better adjusted than switched off completely.
Limit Delivery Optimization
Delivery Optimization is a built-in peer-to-peer feature. Instead of getting everything from Microsoft’s servers, your PC downloads pieces of Windows updates and Microsoft Store apps from other computers on your local network or the internet, and it shares pieces with them too.
This is meant to make downloads faster, but it has costs:
- It uses your upload bandwidth to share updates with other computers.
- It fills a cache on your drive.
- Its RAM usage grew heavily for many people in late 2025. Microsoft reduced its memory use in a spring 2026 update.
Your PC doesn’t need to act as a small update server for other machines. Adjust the Delivery Optimization settings to cut back the sharing, even if you’d rather not turn the feature off completely.
Turn off the telemetry service (DiagTrack)
DiagTrack, the Connected User Experiences and Telemetry service, collects data about how you use Windows and sends it to Microsoft. That data covers device performance, app usage and system errors, and Microsoft uses it to fix bugs and improve Windows.
DiagTrack runs all the time as a system service, and it can sometimes cause CPU or disk activity. It uses fewer resources than the other services in this guide. The main benefits of turning it off are that Windows logs less of your activity and older machines have less disk activity.
Disable the Xbox services if you don’t game with them
Windows 11 comes with four Xbox services:
- Xbox Accessory Management Service
- Xbox Live Auth Manager
- Xbox Live Game Save
- Xbox Live Networking Service
They’re set to Manual, which means they only start when something asks for them, so their impact is small. On a low-end PC, though, every service you trim helps.
Leave them alone if you use Xbox features. Game Pass, cloud saves and Xbox controllers all need these services to work properly. If you play games on your PC but never use Xbox features, you can disable all four.
Stop the Windows AI Fabric Service (WSAIFabricSvc)
The Windows AI Fabric Service, listed as WSAIFabricSvc, runs the local AI features and component integrations in Windows 11. It powers features such as Recall, Click to Do and Live Captions.
This is the service most likely to free a large amount of memory. In July 2026, a user on Microsoft’s Q&A forum reported that eight of these processes were holding about 5GB of RAM while their PC sat idle. Stopping the service freed that memory straight away.
Keep two things in mind:
- This service mostly runs on Copilot+ PCs, which have an NPU (a chip built for AI tasks). If your PC isn’t a Copilot+ PC, you may not have it.
- Turning off Recall doesn’t solve the problem, according to the same report. You have to stop the service itself.
Stopping the service may also stop the AI features that depend on it, such as Recall, Click to Do and Live Captions.
How to disable these services safely
You can disable most of these services from the Services app. Delivery Optimization is different: you change it through its settings instead of turning it off in Services.
- Pick one service from this guide and change it.
- Restart your PC.
- Use your PC normally for a while and see whether it feels faster.
- If something stops working or feels wrong, turn the service back on.
- Move on to the next service only when you’re happy with the last change.
These four aren’t the only services that can slow a PC down, so other services may be the cause on your machine. After you’ve sorted out your services, you can also get more speed by reducing CPU usage.
Frequently asked questions
Does turning off Recall stop the Windows AI Fabric Service from using RAM?
No. According to the user who reported the problem, turning off Recall didn’t fix it. Stopping the service did free the memory.
Will disabling the Xbox services break my games?
It can if you use Xbox features. Game Pass, cloud saves and Xbox controllers all need these services to work properly.
Is Delivery Optimization still a memory problem?
Microsoft reduced its memory use in a spring 2026 update. It still uses upload bandwidth and drive space for its cache, so limiting it in its settings is still worthwhile.
Does every Windows 11 PC have the AI Fabric Service?
No. It’s mostly found on Copilot+ PCs with an NPU.
