Windows 10/11 optimization guide for gaming

GAMING6698 said:

Even though Windows 10 keeps getting faster and leaner, and hardware more capable, eventually, the performance of your computer will slow down due to a lot of factors. Pc in today's world have been upgraded with Smarter operating system and advanced hardware. Yet slow performance and sluggishness still remain the biggest problem for computer users. No matter how smart your Operating System is, it still requires a few tweaks  to optimize Windows 10 performance.

How does this guide going to affect your PC you may ask?

*More FPS in games, less shuttering
*overall better performance

*Less resource-intensive

*Reduce input lag

*Makes your windows highly responsive 

🔴: Before starting it is recommended to create a system restore point

-In the search box on the taskbar, type Create a restore point and select it from the list of results.

-On the System Protection tab in System Properties, select Create.

-The System Protection tab in System Properties

-Type a description for the restore point, and then select Create > OK.

🔴:if something goes wrong, you can run System Restore and point it to a recent restore point

1) Installing Windows updates

One of the best ways to get the most out of your PC is to make sure you have the latest version of Windows 10 installed. When you check for updates, your PC will also search for the latest device drivers, which can also help improve your PC's performance. New updates tend to add bug and stability fixes or, in the case of things like video card drivers, better performance and functionality with newer games and apps.

check for updates-Select the Start button, then select Settings  > Update & Security  > Windows Update  > Check for updates

Go to settings> System> Notifications & actions 

Scroll down until you see the ''Get notifications from these senders'' section. Go through the list and toggle off the button for the apps you don't want to receive notifications from.

As long as you're here, there is another adjustment you can make. Under Notifications, you can turn off the option to ''show notifications on the lock screen'' and ''show reminders and incoming VoIP calls on the lock screen''

I disable everything under notification just for personal preference

(Go to settings> System> Focus assist)

Now go to Focus assist tab and make sure under focus assist select ''OFF'' and toggle off every thing under ''Automatic rule''

(Go to settings> System> storage)

Click on storage tab and turn off ''storage sense''

I didn't like this feature windows might delete your stuff and files without your knowledge in the background

(Go to settings> System> Clipboard)

Click on Clipboard tab and turn off ''clipboard history''

(Go to settings> System> Remote desktop)

Now we gonna head into remote desktop tab and turn off ''Enable Remote Desktop''

(Go to settings> System> Shared experiences)

Now finally, Go to Shared experiences tab and toggle off everything

2) Go to settings> Personalization> Colors

Scroll down a bit and under More options turn off ''Transparency effects''

(Go to settings> Personalization>start)

Click on the start tab and here we going to turn off everything

now, click on ''Choose which folders appears on start'' and turn off everything except settings to keep a more minimalistic look

(Go to settings> Personalization>Taskbar)

Finally, Click on taskbar tab scroll down a bit and under Notification area click on ''Turn system icon on or off''

Here we gonna turn off everything except Power, Network, Volume, Clock

(Keep input indicator ON if you're switching between multiple keyboard languages)

Now get back scroll down a bit under people turn off everything

3) Go to settings> apps> Offline maps

click on delete all maps then  scroll down a bit and turn off ''Metered connections'' and ''Automatically update map''

(Go to settings> apps>Startup)

Click on startup tab here Many of the apps installed on your computer can configure themselves to launch automatically during startup and continue to run in the background.

However, if you don't use those apps on a daily basis, or you don't have a powerful device, they can waste valuable system resources, which can significantly slow down the experience

Once you complete the steps, your device should now start faster than before. Of course, levels of improvement will vary depending on the applications you're disabling and your hardware configuration.

(Go to settings> apps> apps & features)

-click on apps & features tab Move towards the right pane and click on the link ''Optional Features'' 

-Select and uninstall those features that you don't use on a daily basis, they can waste valuable system resources

4) Go to settings> Gaming> Xbox Game bar

Here we gonna turn off everything

Turn off Xbox game bar and untick open Xbox game bar using this button on a controller

(This fixes crashes in online games like Fortnite and apex legends)

(Go to settings> Gaming> Game Mode)

Finally, click on Game mode tab there you need to turn off or on this feature

• For Nvidia users- Ultimately Keep game mode feature on but if you experience any performance problems turn it off

• For AMD users- No need to check anything just Keep this game mode feature off it may Cause lag, FPS drop, Shuttering, Freezing in AMD GPUs when turn on

(This feature is on by default)

5) Go to settings> Ease of Access> speech

Turn off ''Speech Recognition''

(Go to settings> Ease of Access> Keyboard)

Click on keyboard tab and here we literally gonna turn everything off and untick 

(This is to remove the small annoyances that might occurs with your mouse and keyboard while you're playing games)

6) Go to settings> Privacy> General

Under general, turn off everything

(Go to settings> Privacy> speech, Inking & typing personalization, Activity history, app diagnostics)

one by one click on speech tab, Inking & typing personalization and activity history then turn off everything

(Go to settings> Privacy> Diagnostic & feedback)

Click on Diagnostic & feedback tab then set it to basic then scroll down a bit and set Feedback frequency to Never.

Also, don't forget to delete diagnostic data

(Go to settings> Privacy> location and microphone)

click on location tab and turn off location access then click on the microphone tab and turn off microphone access if you don't use 

(Go to settings> Privacy> Other devices)

click on other devices tab and turn off ''Communicate with unpaired devices''

(Go to settings> Privacy> Background apps)

Click on background apps tab and Turn off ''Background apps''

Note- You can also turn off tasks, Emails, Messaging, radios tabs settings if you don't use

7) Go to settings> Update & security > Windows update

Click on advanced options and make sure everything is turned off then click on delivery optimization and turn off ''allow downloads from other PCs''

8) Go to settings> Accounts> Sign-in options

Under Restart and Privacy Turn OFF all configuration

9) Turn off visual effects

- Hold window key and press R

-Now under run window type sysdm.cpl ,3 and press enter

-Under the advanced tab in the performance, category click on settings then select ''Custom'' and follow below image

-now in the same window click on the advanced tab then click on change under virtual memory> untick automatically manage paging file size for all drives then one by one set all drives no paging files

-now Assign the virtual memory to the fastest drive select your fastest drive> tick system managed size and click on SET 

🔴(SSD is faster than HDD, install your games in the fastest drive)

-In the virtual memory window, press ok> ok> apply

-Now navigate to startup and recovery> click on settings> untick ''time to display list of the operating system'' > ok

-Finally, go to remote tab then click on advanced> untick ''Allow this computer to be controlled remotely'' > ok then untick ''Allow Remote Assistance connection to this computer'' > apply> ok>  restart later 

10) Defragment your Windows 10 PC

Note- Don't do this step if you have SSD, With a solid-state drive, however, it is recommended that you should not defragment the drive as it can cause unnecessary wear and tear which will reduce its life span.

Optimizing your drives can help your PC run smoother and boot up faster. To optimize them:

-Select the search bar on the taskbar and enter defrag

-Select Defragment and Optimize Drives

-select and optimize disk driver one by one

🔴(Also under scheduled optimization make sure it is set to off (untick run on a scheduled)

11) Turn Off Mouse Acceleration

-open settings

-click Devices

-In the Bluetooth & other devices window, click Mouse in the left navigation pane

-In the Mouse window, click Additional mouse options in the right navigation pane

-In the Mouse Properties window, click the Pointer Options tab

-Untick Enhance pointer precision checkbox and select the middle setting, number 6 for mouse sensitivity

-Click Apply

12) Decrease sound quality to improve system performance

This will highly benefits you in games and music

-Head down to bottom right corner where you'll find little speech

-Right click on it and press sound

-A new window will appear and in this window go to playback tab

-First right click on sound device and select show disconnected devices

-Then one by one disable sound devices that you are not using or not plugged in one by one.

-Now right-click on your primary audio device (DEFAULT DEVICE) then go to properties

-In the sound properties window, Go to spatial sound tab and make sure spatial sound format is set to off

-Finally go to the advanced tab (same window) under default format set DVD Quality(16bit, 48000hz) and under exclusive mode untick both configurations.

-Apply and ok

(In the sound window, do these same steps under Recording tab)

13) Delete temporary files

-Click on window icon then search %temp% and press enter

-Select all files and folders. You can click the first file, click the first file and press Ctrl+A to select them all

-Right-click anywhere in the file and click Delete. You will need an administrator account to do this

14) Services tweaks

-Press the Win + R keys and type services.msc in the ''Run'' dialog that opens click ''OK'' and the Windows services will open

-Now find and disable these services
1)Connected User Experiences and Telemetry
2)Distributed link Tracking client
3)Sysmain
4)Print Spooler(ignore this service if you use printer)
5)Download maps manager (ignore this service if you use maps)
6)Windows search/search indexing 

-One by one double click on it to enter its properties window then click the Stop button and set startup type ''Disable''
7)AllJoyn Router Service (If you not use any smart devices then disable this service)
8)Windows insider service
9)Remote Desktop Services 
10)Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel service (Windows 10 is now fully compatible with both touch screens and handwriting recognition, but most desktop and laptop systems don’t have that hardware. Disable this service if you don’t use the touch keyboard or a pen)
11)Windows Error Reporting Service (If you don’t want to send error reports to Microsoft then disable this service)

-Apply and ok

Note- some services will be turned on after every window update.

15) Disabling HPET settings

*Many gamers have pointed out on forums that the HPET bug is causing problems in the gaming performance in certain situations

*Disabling HPET removes the micro-stuttering and screen tearing that may occur during gameplay. It allows unrestricted input-output to occur and turning it off can gain you around 3-4 FPS.

-From search, type Device Manager and press Enter to open settings

-Locate and expand System devices

-Right-click on High Precision Event Timer and select Disable to stop the HPET service

16) Optimizing games

-Navigate to the .exe file of the game (it’s likely in Program Files)
-Right-click the file, select properties
-Navigate to the compatibility section of the window that just opened up
-Check the box that says “disable fullscreen optimizations”



-Now go to ''change high DPI settings''
-check the box saying ''override high DPI scaling behavior''
-ok, apply, ok

17) Install/update two important Microsoft gaming software/packages

-DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer
https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=35
Go through link download and run this program

-Visual Studio 2015, 2017 and 2019

• x86: vc_redist.x86.exe

• x64: vc_redist.x64.exe

18) Update your GPU driver

Installing latest AMD/NVIDIA software will update your GPU driver and solve many bugs, improve performance and optimized for new games

*AMD-https://www.amd.com/en/support
*NVIDIA-https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

19) Turn on GPU Scheduling

-Open Settings app
-Select System thereafter Display on the succeeding screen.
-Go to the right pane and locate Graphics settings

-Once you find this option, click it to reach the “Default graphics settings” page.
-Here, enable the toggle switch present under the “hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling” head.

How did this feature work?

Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling (HAGS) will pass memory management control from the software to the GPU, which in turn should allow the GPUs to better manage their VRAM and free up the CPU a little to improve graphics responsiveness and performance.
Huge fps gain in Fortnite using this feature

20)Disable Unnecessary Features Using Folder Options

You can disable many unnecessary options using Folder Options to improve system performance and functionality.

-Open This PC and click on “View” tab present in Ribbon. Now click on “Options” button present at the end to open Folder Options window.

-Now go to “View” tab and uncheck following options:

• Display file size information in folder tips
• Hide empty drives
• Hide extensions for known file types
• Hide folder merge conflicts
• Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color
• Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items

-Apply the changes and close Folder Options window.

21) Automatically Clear ram chaches to get smooth gameplay without shuttering

-Download EmptyStandbyList on your computer.

-Open C drive then create new folder name Empty standly list then open this folder and paste EmptlyStandbyLink.exe here after download)

-Close the browser window.

-Click on the Search box beside Windows icon and type “Task Scheduler“.

-Click on “Task Scheduler” from the elevated Search result to open Task Scheduler.

-In the Task Scheduler window, on the right-hand side, click on “Create Task…“.

-In Create Task window, name the task “Cache Cleaner“.

-Now, click on “Create User or Groups…“.

-Click on “Advanced“.

-In Select User or Groups window, click on “Find Now“.

-In the Search results: scroll down and then select “SYSTEM“.

-Finally, click on “OK” to save the changes.

-Now, click on “OK” to save the changes. 

-Go to settings tab then untick "stop the task if runs longer than" and go to general tab

-Coming back to Create Task window, check the option “Run with highest privileges“.

-Click on the drop-down beside ‘Configure for:’ and select “Windows 10“.

-Now, go to the “Triggers” tab.

-Click on “New…“.

-In the New Trigger window, under ‘Advanced settings‘ set the ‘Repeat task every:’ to “5 minutes“.

-And set ‘for a duration of:‘ to “Indefinitely“.

-In the same window, check the option “Enabled“.

-Click on “OK” to save the trigger settings.

-Now, go to the “Actions” tab.

-Then, click on “New…“.

-In the New Action window, click on “Browse“. 

-Now, navigate to the location where you have downloaded the ‘EmptyStandbyList‘ application.

-Select the application and then click on “Open“.

-Now, click on “OK” to save the action.

-Coming back to the “Create Task” window, click on “OK” to save the task.

-In the Task Scheduler window, click on “Refresh” to refresh the tasks list.-

-That’s it! From now on at a regular interval of  5 minutes, this ‘Cache Cleaner‘ task will automatically run on your computer to clean cache memory

22)Turn off Hardware Acceleration

Discord
-Go to Settings by clicking the gear icon next to your username.
-Under App Settings select Appearance.
-Under Appearance Settings, scroll down and click Hardware Acceleration to disable it.

If you're a gamer and you experience frame drops while playing, it's recommended you turn off hardware acceleration discord.

Google Chrome

-First, you need to open the Settings page:
Click on the three dots symbol in the top-right of your browser, then select Settings.
-Scroll to the very bottom of the page and click on Advanced.
-Scroll down further until you see System. Here, click on the switch next to Use hardware acceleration when available so it turns grey.
-Click on the Relaunch button to restart Chrome and finalize your change

Note→same way to disable hardware Acceleration in other browsers like opera, firefox, edge

23)Disable Nagle’s Algorithm

Nagle’s Algorithm is a way to improve the efficiency of TCP/IP networks by decreasing the number of packets that need to be sent over the network.

So, in order to improve game performance on Windows 10, you can try disabling Nagle’s Algorithm.

Now, here is the tutorial.
-Press Windows key and R key together to open Run
-Then type regedit in the box and click OK to continue.
-Navigate to the path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
-To access the file, match your IP address to the listed DhcpIPAddress in one of those folders.
( You can check your IP address by pressing the Windows + X keys on your keyboard, then choosing Windows Powershell. Here, type in “ipconfig” and look for “IPv4 address.”)
-Right-click it and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
-Create two new keys and name them as TcpAckFrequency and TCPNoDelay.
-After that, double-click them and change their value data to 1.

24)Use static picture as wallpaper or solid background

Make Windows 10  not change wallpapers while gaming.
If you have slideshow running in Windows 10 background, that also changes the system accent colors when the wallpaper does, this causes the PC to drop a few FPS for a few seconds, freezes, stuttering.
Use static picture as wallpaper or for best performance use solid background.

To do this- Select the Start  button, then select Settings  > Personalization.

In Background, Use the drop-down menu under “Background” in the main windows to choose whether to use a picture, or solid color as a wallpaper

25) A clean PC ensures smoother performance, and a dedicated PC cleaner software will ensure your PC stays in tip-top condition.

I’ll recommend you to use CCleaner It has a powerful free version that offers many PC cleaning tools in a single interface and easy to run

There are many tools to optimize your PC, including a duplicate file finder, a disk analyzer and wrong registry cleaner.

CCleaner-https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner

Also follow below steps to stop CCleaner from running on startup-

Open CCleaner and click the Options icon in the left pane of the window. Step 2: Under the Settings tab, uncheck the Run CCleaner when the computer starts option. That's it, simple!

Now restart your laptop and enjoy it!
Let me know in the comments below your results or if you have any questions and don't forget to like if this guide is helpful !!!