How to Control PC Fan Speed in Windows

• BIOS/UEFI fan settings: available on every board, work without Windows, but limited to a few points per header and only motherboard sensors.
• Manufacturer utilities: convenient for one brand, often heavy, and they cannot see the graphics card or coolers from other vendors.
• Dedicated fan control software: one app for every fan and sensor, curve types beyond simple lines, profiles you can switch without rebooting. This is where Fan Control fits.
• Hardware fan controllers: knobs or hubs with their own logic; useful in special cases but another thing to manage.

Get the latest release from the download page, extract or install it, and start it as administrator. Close any other fan software first; two programs cannot own the same header. On first launch the app scans the system and lists every temperature sensor, fan speed sensor and controllable header it recognizes.

A control is the output that sets a header’s duty cycle; a speed sensor is the tachometer reading that tells you what the fan is actually doing. The assisted setup finds the matching pairs by nudging each header and watching which RPM changes. Accept its suggestions, then run calibration on each fan so the app learns where it starts, stops and how percent maps to RPM.

Pick the sensor that best represents what each fan is cooling. CPU fans follow the CPU package temperature, GPU fans follow the GPU core, and case fans should watch several components at once. Custom sensors let you average a jumpy reading over time or combine two sensors into one. Details on which reading to trust are in the CPU and GPU guides.

Start with Linear curves: a minimum speed at a comfortable idle temperature, a maximum a few degrees below the component’s limit, and a straight line between them. Switch to a Graph curve when you want a flat, quiet zone through normal use and a sharper rise under load. For case fans, combine the CPU and GPU curves in a Mix curve using the Max function so airflow follows whichever part is hot. Add a few degrees of hysteresis and a short response time to stop the fans from reacting to every spike. The PWM fan control guide explains how duty cycle, headers and fan types interact.

Attach each curve to its control from the dropdown on the control card, then run something demanding for ten to fifteen minutes and watch the live temperatures and RPM. Adjust until load temperatures settle where you want them and idle is quiet. Save the configuration, enable Start with Windows, and consider a second profile for maximum cooling that you can switch to from the tray.

• No controls listed: another utility is running, the app is not elevated, or the board chip is unsupported.
• Fan ignores the curve and runs at full speed: header mode in the BIOS does not match the fan (PWM vs DC).
• Fan pulses up and down: add hysteresis, lengthen the response time, or use a Time Average sensor.
• GPU fan will not drop below about 30%: normal driver behavior; set 0% below the card’s fan-stop temperature instead.
• Settings vanish after restart: the configuration was not saved or the startup task points at a different file.
• Laptop shows temperatures only: see the laptop fan control guide.

• Fan Control for Windows 11
• Documentation
• All guides