Hey all! I recently bought an Asus Zephyrus G14 after returning an HP Omen Transcend 14 because it was buggy. I love the G14—great form factor and the RTX 4070 performs great for travel compared to my main RTX 4080 PC. But I’m running into a frustrating issue: some programs like Steam take 20-30 seconds to launch from desktop shortcuts or the Start menu, even though they open instantly if already running in the system tray. Also, some UI buttons don’t respond to mouse clicks in certain apps. I tried a factory reset with a clean Windows 11 install (since the initial install took forever), checked NVMe speeds and CPU benchmarks, but the problem persists. Both this laptop and the Omen have this issue of slow launches and unclickable UI elements. Any tips or advice would be much appreciated—I’m not very tech-savvy!
3 Answers
Your RAM speed is pretty fast too (6400MHz), so that probably isn’t the culprit. I’ve noticed Windows 11 can be glitchy with certain UI elements, especially if drivers or software conflict. Have you tried updating all your drivers, especially chipset and display drivers? Sometimes outdated drivers cause things like unclickable buttons. Also, try running compatibility mode or checking the programs’ permissions to see if that helps with launch delays or UI responsiveness.
Yeah, Windows 11 can be super bloated right out of the box, which can definitely slow down program launches. Even though your hardware is solid, the stock Windows installation might have extra background apps or processes causing those delays. Sometimes a clean install with bloatware removed or switching to a lighter OS environment helps. There aren’t official ‘lighter’ Windows versions, but using tools to disable unnecessary startup programs could speed things up.
I had a similar issue where programs from shortcuts took forever to open unless already running in the tray. For me, it was related to how Windows cached those shortcuts and handled background apps. One trick that helped was to rebuild the icon cache or even creating new shortcuts manually. Also disabling visual effects in Windows can sometimes speed up the UI. It’s a bit of trial and error but worth a shot!
PLATFORM INFORMATION
Thanks for the tip! I’ll check for driver updates and see if running programs as admin or in compatibility mode makes a difference.