Did you know that you can disable fast startup on Windows 10? The fast startup feature, first introduced in Windows 8 and enabled by default in Windows 10, makes your system start faster than a regular startup. Fast startup is also available and enabled on Windows 11. While fast startup is a great feature, it can sometimes cause issues and make your system misbehave. For example, with fast startup enabled, the Wake-on-LAN feature doesn’t work as expected. In addition, some hardware devices may glitch occasionally and stop working until you restart the system.
Fortunately, you can easily turn OFF fast startup in Windows 10 through the Control Panel. In this quick and easy tutorial, I’ll show you each step in detail. Let’s get started.
Before You Begin
- Administrator rights are required to change the fast startup state on Windows 10.
Steps to Turn OFF Fast Startup on Windows 10
On Windows 10, you can disable fast startup using the power options in the Control Panel. Here’s how to do it.
- Press the “Start” button.
- Search and open the “Control Panel“.
- Click the “View by” dropdown and select “Large icons“.
- Click “Power Options.”
- Click the “Choose what the power buttons do” link.
- Press the “Change settings that are currently unavailable” link.
- Uncheck the “Turn on fast startup” checkbox.
- Click the “Save changes” button.
- With that, Fast Startup is turned OFF.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
The first thing we need to do is open the Control Panel. To do that, open the Start menu by pressing the Start button on your keyboard, search for “Control Panel” in the Start menu, and click the top result. Alternatively, You can also type “control panel” in the Run dialog (Windows key + R).

After opening the control panel, change the default view by clicking the “View by” dropdown menu and selecting the “Large icons” options. Next, click the “Power Options” option.

In the “Power Options” window, click the “Choose what power buttons do” link on the sidebar. This is where you will find the options related to the power buttons and other startup options.

Next, click the “Change settings that are currently unavailable” link. Since the fast startup option requires admin privilege, you need to click on this link.

Now, uncheck the “Turn on fast startup” checkbox and click the “Save changes” button.
Note: If the “turn on fast startup” option is missing, follow the linked guide to fix it.

Finally, close the Control Panel window and restart your computer. With that, the fast startup is fully disabled. From this point forward, your system will start normally.
Wrapping Up — Disabling Fast Startup on Windows 10
As you can see, you can easily disable fast startup on Windows 10 via the Control Panel. After turning it off, when you shut down the system, it will be a true shutdown and when you turn it on, you will avoid fast startup. Keep in mind that disabling fast startup will slightly increase the overall Windows startup time. Of course, you can optimize it by delaying startup programs in the task manager. Also, if you are using Windows 11, follow this guide instead—turn off fast startup on Windows 11.
If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.