I’ve been dealing with persistent slowdowns on my high-spec Lenovo Yoga Aura, even though there’s no obvious reason for the performance drop. Today I decided to start from scratch and reinstalled the operating system to rule out any software issues. After setting everything up again, the system was running smoothly—until I reinstalled Lenovo Vantage, which is Lenovo’s built-in utility for managing hardware settings, system updates, power modes, and performance optimization.
As soon as Vantage was installed, the performance degraded significantly, to the point where the machine became extremely sluggish. After uninstalling it, the system immediately returned to normal with no noticeable lag. This makes me question whether Lenovo Vantage itself could be responsible for the slowdown, even though it’s designed to control and optimize the system.
At this point, the system runs well without it, but still how can I manage device settings without the app?
By Maldalain, 27 April, 2026
Forum
Windows
Comments
Details please
What exactly does this application do, that you cannot do through window settings?
Examples
A lot actually: performance profiles, keyboard backlighting, display view modes, and more.
All can be found within the Windows 11 settings
I get the desire to use that application, because it makes everything convenient, but I guarantee you can find all of those within Windows settings if you just look hard enough. I don't think you actually, "need", that act. Again though, I can see the desire to use it for convenience sake.
Regardless, if it's slowing down your system, I say get rid of it. 👎
For what it's worth, HP comes with a lot of stuff like this, and I was very happy to get rid of it all. In fact I think the only thing I have kept is HP audio HQ, which is basically an audio profile manager application. However, that is the only thing that app does. It's not an all in one like you have described.
Best of luck, with whichever way you decide to go.
Weirdness Continues
It appears that the app imposes constraints on CPU and RAM usage, likely as part of a strategy to optimize battery life. In my observations, system memory usage sits at around 35% without the app installed, but drops to approximately 20% when the app is active. This supports my suspicion that the app is actively throttling system performance.
I’d prefer to remove the app, but there are a few functions it currently controls that I still need. I’m looking for alternative ways to manage these without relying on the app:
1. The app allows adjustment of the keyboard backlight (auto, low, high, or off). I’m unsure whether this can be controlled through native Windows settings or another tool.
2. By default, the F keys control volume and brightness. The app allows switching them to standard function keys (e.g., F2 for rename). Is there a way to change this behavior without the app?
3. My machine supports up to 120Hz, but I would prefer to reduce it to 60Hz. As a blind user, visual smoothness is not a priority, and lowering the refresh rate could improve battery life.
If anyone knows how to configure these settings independently of the app, I’d appreciate the guidance.
Hi, As a Lenovo user and big fan of Vantage app, I suggest this:
It could be that the app introduces certain performance limitations initially, probably to preserve battery-life, but, you may try to overcome this by going to Win+b, Arrow till Power Battery Status, Press Applications key or shift+f10, Power and Sleep Settings> Power-Mode> change both plugged in and on battery to best performance. If your power mode sections appears to be unreachable via screen-reader, chances are it's grayed out due to energy efficiency settings found on the same page. Disable those settings and the power mode sections becomes visible to screen-reader.
I don't believe that the Vantage app itself causes any significant performance overload, as it seems to be a web-app mostly, and my CPU or Ram usage doesn't spike that much upon launching it. It is much accessible compared to any other vender's built-in laptop management apps as well.
Maldalain
Regarding the function keys, some laptops allow you to adjust this feature by pressing certain key combinations. Sometimes it is something like the FN key plus shift, or FN key plus escape, etc. I'd say Google it, and see what you find. Sadly, it is not a universal hotkey, although I wish it was.
Weirdness Continues Answers
1. The app allows adjustment of the keyboard backlight (auto, low, high, or off). I’m unsure whether this can be controlled through native Windows settings or another tool.
Check Lenovo's page for FN Keyboard shortcuts. On my machine, pressing FN+Space cycles between Keyboard backlighting modes.
2. By default, the F keys control volume and brightness. The app allows switching them to standard function keys (e.g., F2 for rename). Is there a way to change this behavior without the app?
Pressing FN+escape toggles behaviour of f1-f12 keys. On Some Lenovo laptops, the shortcut to toggle same could be FN+Shift.
3. My machine supports up to 120Hz, but I would prefer to reduce it to 60Hz. As a blind user, visual smoothness is not a priority, and lowering the refresh rate could improve battery life.
Windows Settings>Display Settings>Scaling>Advance Display settings> Refresh-rate.
well, that was obvious
I knew that every driver driver river update manager would do this. This was so obvious to so many people. Lol, accessible lawsuits plus update scheduling lawsuits and memory hogging lawsuits coming for all companies.
Easier way to change to 60
Press function key plus r. You can also press function key plus Q to change laptop performance mode, however for both of these if you want to know what it is set to your best to switch on narrator for a few seconds as NVDA doesn’t announce the changes.