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Post-Install Instructions

OOBE Setup

Activate Windows

Use the commands below to activate Windows using your license key if you do not have one linked to your HWID. Ensure that the activation process was successful by verifying the activation status in computer properties. Open CMD as administrator and enter the commands below.

slmgr /ipk <license key>
slmgr /ato

Visual Cleanup

Disable features on the taskbar, unpin shortcuts and tiles from the taskbar and start menu.

Miscellaneous

  • Open CMD as administrator and enter the commands below

    • Disable fast startup. Must be disabled before booting into Linux to avoid file system errors

      powercfg /hibernate off

    • Set the maximum password age to never expire

      net accounts /maxpwage:unlimited

    • Clean the WinSxS folder

      DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

    • Disable reserved storage (Windows 10 1903+)

      DISM /Online /Set-ReservedStorageState /State:Disabled

    • Set PowerShell execution policy to unrestricted

      PowerShell Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

  • Disable all messages in System and Security -> Action Center -> Change Action Center settings -> Change Security and Maintenance settings by typing control in Win+R

    • This section is named Security and Maintenance on Windows 10+

  • Configure the following by typing sysdm.cpl in Win+R:

    • Advanced -> Performance -> Settings - configure Adjust for best performance and preferably disable the paging file for all drives to avoid unnecessary I/O

    • System Protection - disable and delete system restore points. It has been proven to be very unreliable

    • Remote - disable remote assistance and remote desktop

  • Allow users full control of the C:\ directory to resolve xperf etl processing

  • Windows 8+ Only:

    • Disable the following by pressing Win+I:

      • Everything in System -> Notifications and actions

      • All permissions in Privacy Allow microphone access if desired

  • Windows Server Only:

    • In Server Manager, navigate to Manage -> Server Manager Properties and enable the option to prevent Server Manager from starting automatically

    • Set the Windows Audio and Windows Audio Endpoint Builder services startup type to automatic by typing services.msc in Win+R

    • Navigate to Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Account Policies -> Password Policy by typing gpedit.msc in Win+R and disable Password must meet complexity requirements

      • Open CMD as administrator and type gpupdate /force to apply the changes immediately

    • Navigate to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System by typing gpedit.msc in Win+R and disable Display Shutdown Event Tracker to disable the shutdown prompt

    • To remove the user password, navigate to User Accounts by typing control in Win+R then enter your current password and leave the new/confirm password fields blank

Remove Bloatware Natively

  • Open CMD as administrator and enter the commands below to remove the chromium version of Microsoft Edge (if present) and OneDrive

    • Remove Microsoft Edge

      if exist "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application" (for /f "delims=" %a in ('where /r "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application" *setup.exe*') do ("%a" --uninstall --system-level --verbose-logging --force-uninstall))

    • Remove OneDrive

      for %a in ("SysWOW64" "System32") do (if exist "%windir%\%~a\OneDriveSetup.exe" ("%windir%\%~a\OneDriveSetup.exe" /uninstall))

  • Although nothing should appear, as a precautionary measure check and uninstall any bloatware that exists by typing appwiz.cpl in Win+R

  • Disable everything except for the following by typing OptionalFeatures in Win+R. On Windows Server, this has to be accessed via the Server Manager dashboard by navigating to Manage -> Remove Roles and Features (top right)

  • Windows 10+ Only:

    • Windows 10:

      • Uninstall bloatware in Apps -> Apps and Features by pressing Win+I

      • In the Optional features section, uninstall everything apart from Microsoft Paint, Notepad and WordPad if applicable (these do not exist in earlier Windows 10 versions)

    • Windows 11:

      • Uninstall bloatware in Apps -> Installed apps by pressing Win+I

      • In the Apps -> Optional features section, uninstall everything apart from WMIC, Notepad (system) and WordPad

  • Restart your PC once to apply the changes above (do not boot into Linux without a full restart beforehand)

Removing Bloatware with Linux

As mentioned previously, the instructions below are specific to Linux Mint. If you are using another distro, interpret the steps below and follow along accordingly.

  • Boot into Ventoy on your USB in BIOS and select the Linux ISO

  • Open file explorer which is pinned to the taskbar and navigate to the volume Windows is installed on. You can identify this by finding the volume that has the win-debloat.sh script in

  • Right-click an empty space and select Open in Terminal to open a terminal window in the current directory. Use the command below to run the script

    sudo bash win-debloat.sh

  • Once finished, use the command below to reboot

    reboot

  • You can use Task Manager to check for residual bloatware that is running in the background and possibly create an issue on the repository to let me know that it should be removed. This is difficult to maintain as Microsoft never likes to be consistent

Disable Residual Scheduled Tasks

Open PowerShell as administrator and enter the command below. To launch with administrator privileges, type PowerShell in Win+R then simultaneously press Ctrl+Shift+Enter

C:\bin\scripts\disable-scheduled-tasks.ps1

Merge the Registry Files

Open PowerShell as administrator and enter the command below. Replace <option> with the Windows version you are configuring (e.g. 7, 8, 10, 11).

C:\bin\scripts\apply-registry.ps1 -winver <option>

  • Ensure that the script prints a "successfully applied" message to the console, if it has not then PowerShell was probably not opened with administrator privileges and the registry files were not successfully merged

  • Restart your PC through Ctrl+Alt+Delete. After and only after a restart, you can establish an internet connection as the Windows update policies will take effect

User Preference

Go through the C:\bin\preference folder to configure common user settings.

Install Drivers

  • Avoid installing chipset drivers

  • GPU drivers will be installed in a later step so do not install them at this stage

  • You can find drivers by searching for drivers that are compatible with your device HWID. See media/device-hwid-example.png in regard to finding your HWID in device manager for a given device

  • Try to obtain the driver in its INF form so that it can be installed in device manager as executable installers usually install other bloatware along with the driver itself. Most of the time, you can extract the installer's executable with 7-Zip to obtain the driver

  • I would recommend updating and installing following:

  • Since we do not have browser access at this stage, download them on another operating system or PC

Configure a Web Browser

A standard Firefox installation is recommended. Open PowerShell and enter the command below.

C:\bin\scripts\install-firefox.ps1
  • On Firefox, after configuring extensions, I usually customize/cleanup the interface further in Menu Settings -> More tools -> Customize toolbar then skim through about:preferences. The Arkenfox user.js can also be imported, see the wiki

Install Visual C++ Redistributable Runtimes

Download and install the Visual C++ redistributable runtimes.

Install .NET 4.8 Runtimes

Download and install the .NET 4.8 runtimes.

Spectre, Meltdown and CPU Microcode

Install 7-Zip

Download and install 7-Zip. Open C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7zFM.exe then navigate Tools -> Options and associate 7-Zip with all file extensions by clicking the + button. You may need to click it twice to override existing associated extensions.

Configure the Graphics Driver

Install DirectX Runtimes

Download and install the DirectX runtimes.

Configure MSI Afterburner

If you usually use MSI Afterburner to configure the clock/memory frequency, fan speed and other settings, download and install it.

  • Disable update checks in settings

  • I would recommend configuring a static fan speed as using the fan curve feature requires the program to run continually

  • To automatically load profile 1 (as an example) and exit, type shell:startup in Win+R then create a shortcut with a target of "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\MSIAfterburner.exe" /Profile1 /Q

Configure CRU

You should have already found a stable overclock for your display in the Physical Setup section. Download and extract Custom Resolution Utility.

  • See How to set up Display Scaling, works with all games | KajzerD

  • Aim for an "actual" integer refresh rate (e.g 60.000 not 60.002). Using the exact timing can help achieve this

  • Try to delete every resolution and the other bloatware (audio blocks) apart from your native resolution, this may be a workaround for the 1-second black screen when alt-tabbing in exclusive fullscreen, feel free to skip this step if you are not comfortable risking a black screen

  • Restart your PC instead of using restart64.exe as it may result in a black screen

  • Ensure your resolution is configured properly in Display Adapter Settings

Install Open-Shell (Windows 8+)

  • Download and install Open-Shell. Only install the Open-Shell Menu

  • Settings I personally use as per section:

    • Skin

      • Midnight

      • Show user picture - Disable

      • Transparency level - Opaque

    • Main Menu

      • Show recent or frequent programs - Don't show

      • Enable hybrid shutdown - Disable

    • General Behavior

      • Check for Windows updates on shutdown - Disable

  • Windows 8 Only:

    • Open "C:\Program Files\Open-Shell\Start Menu Settings.lnk", enable Show all settings then navigate to the Windows 8 Settings section and set Disable active corners to All

Install a Media Player

Configure Power Options

Open CMD and enter the commands below.

  • Set active power scheme to High performance

    powercfg /setactive 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

  • Remove the Balanced power scheme

    powercfg /delete 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e

  • Remove the Power Saver power scheme

    powercfg /delete a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a

  • USB 3 Link Power Management - Off

    powercfg /setacvalueindex scheme_current 2a737441-1930-4402-8d77-b2bebba308a3 d4e98f31-5ffe-4ce1-be31-1b38b384c009 0

  • USB Selective Suspend - Disabled

    powercfg /setacvalueindex scheme_current 2a737441-1930-4402-8d77-b2bebba308a3 48e6b7a6-50f5-4782-a5d4-53bb8f07e226 0

  • Turn off display after - 0 minutes

    powercfg /setacvalueindex scheme_current 7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99 3c0bc021-c8a8-4e07-a973-6b14cbcb2b7e 0

  • Set the active scheme as the current scheme

    powercfg /setactive scheme_current

Configure the BCD Store

Open CMD and enter the commands below.

  • Disable the boot manager timeout when dual booting (does not affect single boot times)

    bcdedit /timeout 0

  • Data Execution Prevention is set to Turn on for essential Windows programs and services only by default. However, DEP can be completely disabled with the command below but a minority of anticheats require DEP to be left on the default setting. Do not change if unsure

    bcdedit /set nx AlwaysOff

  • Configure the operating system name, I usually name it to whatever Windows version I am using e.g. Windows 10 1803

    bcdedit /set {current} description "OSNAME"

  • Windows 8+ Only

    • Implemented as a power saving feature for laptops and tablets, you absolutely do not want a tickless kernel on a desktop

      bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes

Replace Task Manager with Process Explorer

This step is not optional as the performance counter driver will be disabled which breaks the stock Task Manager functionality.

Reasons not to use Task Manager

  • It relies on a kernel mode driver to operate (additional overhead)

  • Does not display process tree

  • On Windows 8+, Task Manager reports CPU utility in % which provides misleading CPU utilization details, on the other hand, Windows 7's Task Manager and Process Explorer report time-based busy utilization. This also explains why the disable idle power setting results in 100% CPU utilization on Windows 8+

  • Download and extract Process Explorer

  • Copy procexp64.exe into C:\Windows and open it

  • Navigate to Options and select Replace Task Manager I also configure the following:

    • Confirm Kill

    • Allow Only One Instance

    • Always On Top (helpful for when applications crash and UI becomes unresponsive)

Configure Memory Management Settings (Windows 8+)

  • Open PowerShell and enter the command below

    Get-MMAgent

  • If anything is set to True, use the command below as an example to disable a given setting

    Disable-MMAgent -MemoryCompression

Configure the Network Adapter

  • Open Network and Sharing Center -> Change adapter settings by typing control in Win+R

  • Disable any unused network adapters then right-click your main one and select properties

  • Disable all items except QoS Packet Scheduler and Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)

  • Configure a Static IP address. This is required as we will be disabling the network services that waste resources

  • Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP in General -> Advanced -> WINS to prevent unnecessary system listening

Configure Audio Devices

  • The sound control panel can be opened by typing mmsys.cpl in Win+R

  • Disable unused Playback and Recording devices

  • Disable audio enhancements as they waste resources

  • Disable Exclusive Mode in the Advanced section

  • Set the option in the communications tab to Do nothing

  • I also like to set the sound scheme to no sounds in the sounds tab

  • Consider using REAL or LowAudioLatency to minimize the size of the audio buffer. Beware of audio dropouts due to CPU not being able to keep up under load

    • Be warned regarding CPU 0 being reserved/underutilized with the usage of the mentioned programs

Configure Services and Drivers

I am not responsible if anything goes wrong or you BSOD. The idea is to disable services while gaming and use default services for everything else. Feel free to customize the lists by editing C:\bin\minimal-services.ini in a text editor. There are several comments in the config file you can read to check if you need a given service. As an example, a user with Ethernet does not need the Wi-Fi services enabled.

  • The High precision event timer device in device manager uses IRQ 0 on the majority of AMD systems and consequently conflicts with the System timer device which also uses IRQ 0. The only way that I'm aware of to resolve this conflict is to disable the parent device of the System timer device which is PCI standard ISA bridge by disabling the msisadrv driver (edit the config)

  • Use the command below to prevent the Software Protection service attempting to register a restart every 30s while services are disabled. I'm not sure what the problematic service is, but online sources point to Task Scheduler

    reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform" /v "InactivityShutdownDelay" /t REG_DWORD /d "4294967295" /f

  • On Win10 1503 - 1703, delete the ErrorControl registry key in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Schedule to prevent an unresponsive explorer shell after disabling the Task Scheduler service

  • Use Autoruns to remove entries with a yellow label in the Services section to prevent obsolete services from being added to the scripts that are going to be built in the next steps

  • Download and extract the latest service-list-builder release. Open CMD and CD to the extracted folder where the executable is located

  • Use the command below to build the scripts in the build folder. Move the build folder somewhere safe such as C:\ and do not share it with other people as it is specific to your system. Note that NSudo with the Enable All Privileges option is required to run the batch scripts

    service-list-builder.exe --config C:\bin\minimal-services.ini

  • If desired, you can use ServiWin to check for residual drivers and possibly create an issue on the repository to let me know that a given driver should be disabled

Configure Device Manager

The section is directly related to the Configure Services and Drivers section. The methodology below will ensure maximum compatibility while services are enabled because devices with an associated driver will be toggled in the Services-Disable.bat script which means we do not need to permanently disable them

  1. If you haven't disabled services at this stage, run the Services-Disable.bat script

  2. Open device manager by typing devmgmt.msc in Win+R

  3. DO NOT disable any devices with a yellow icon because these are the devices that are being handled by disabling services

  4. Navigate to View -> Devices by connection

    • Disable any PCIe, SATA, NVMe and USB controllers with nothing connected to them

    • Unnecessary HID devices can be disabled, but mouse software will not work

    • Disable write-cache buffer flushing on all drives in the Properties -> Policies section

    • Navigate to your Network adapter -> Properties -> Advanced and disable any power saving features. Disable the power saving option in the Power Management section

    • Disable everything that isn't the GPU on the same PCIe port

  5. Navigate to View -> Resources by connection

    • Disable any unneeded devices that are using an IRQ or I/O resources, always ask if unsure and take your time on this step

    • If there are multiple of the same devices, and you are unsure which one is in use, refer back to the tree structure in View -> Devices by connection. Remember that a single device can use many resources. You can also use MSI Utility to check for duplicate, unneeded devices in case you accidentally miss any with the confusing device manager tree structure

  6. Run the Services-Enable.bat script

  7. Open device manager by typing devmgmt.msc in Win+R

  8. Now you CAN disable devices with a yellow icon because these are devices that actually have errors and are not due to services being disabled

  9. Optionally use DeviceCleanup to remove hidden devices

Disable Driver Power Saving

Open PowerShell and enter the command below to disable power saving on devices in device manager.

C:\bin\scripts\disable-pnp-powersaving.ps1

Configure Event Trace Sessions

Create registry files to toggle event trace sessions. Programs that rely on event tracers such will not be able to log data until the required sessions are restored which is the purpose of creating two registry files to toggle between them (identical concept to the service scripts). Open CMD and enter the commands below to build the registry files in the C:\ directory. As with the services scripts these registry files must be run with NSudo. The sessions can be viewed by typing perfmon in Win+R then navigating to Data Collector Sets -> Event Trace Sessions.

  • ets-enable

    reg.exe export "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Autologger" "C:\ets-enable.reg"

  • ets-disable

    >> "C:\ets-disable.reg" echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 && >> "C:\ets-disable.reg" echo. && >> "C:\ets-disable.reg" echo [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Autologger]

  • Disable SleepStudy (UserNotPresentSession)

    for %a in ("SleepStudy" "Kernel-Processor-Power" "UserModePowerService") do (wevtutil sl Microsoft-Windows-%~a/Diagnostic /e:false)

Optimize the File System

Open CMD and enter the commands below.

  • Disables the creation of 8.3 character-length file names on FAT- and NTFS-formatted volumes

    fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1

  • Disable updates to the Last Access Time stamp on each directory when directories are listed on an NTFS volume

    fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess 1

  • Enables delete notifications (also known as trim or unmap), should be enabled by default, but it is here for safe measure

    fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0

Message Signaled Interrupts

Message signaled interrupts are faster than traditional line-based interrupts and may also resolve the issue of shared interrupts which are often the cause of high interrupt latency and stability.

  • Download and open MSI Utility or GoInterruptPolicy

  • Enable Message Signaled Interrupts on all devices that support it

    • You will BSOD if you enable MSIs for the stock Windows 7 SATA driver which you should have already updated as mentioned in the Install Drivers section

  • Be careful as to what you choose to prioritize. As an example, you will likely stutter in an open-world game that utilizes texture streaming if the GPU IRQ priority is set higher than the storage controller priority. For this reason, you can set all devices to undefined/normal priority

  • Restart your PC, you can verify whether a device is utilizing MSIs by checking if it has a negative IRQ in MSI Utility

  • Although this carried out in the Physical Setup section, confirm that there is no IRQ sharing on your system by typing msinfo32 in Win+R then navigating to the Conflicts/Sharing section

Interrupt Affinity

By default, CPU 0 handles the majority of DPCs and ISRs for several devices which can be viewed in a xperf dpcisr trace. This is not desirable as there will be a latency penalty because many processes and system activities are scheduled on the same core competing for CPU time. We can set an interrupt affinity policy to the USB, GPU, NIC, HD Audio and storage driver, which are few of many devices responsible for the most DPCs/ISRs, to offload them onto another core. The device can be identified by cross-checking the Location Info with the Location in the Properties -> General section of a device in device manager. Restart your PC instead of the driver to avoid issues.

Ensure that the corresponding DPC for an ISR are processed on the same CPU. Additional overhead can be introduced if they are processed on different CPUs due to increased inter-processor communication and interfering with cache coherence.

  • Ensure that the interrupt affinity policies have been configured correctly by analyzing a xperf trace while the device is busy

  • Use Microsoft Interrupt Affinity Tool or GoInterruptPolicy to configure driver affinities

  • Use AutoGpuAffinity to benchmark the GPU affinity

  • Use Mouse Tester to compare polling variation between the USB controller on different cores

    • Use the Interval vs Time graph (frequency = 1000 / interval)

    • Ideally this should be benchmarked during realistic load such as a game running in the background as idle benchmarks are misleading but as we do not have any games installed yet, you can and benchmark this later

  • Open CMD and enter the command below to configure what CPU handles DPCs/ISRs for the network driver. Ensure to change the driver key to suit your needs. Keep in mind that RSS queues determine the amount of consecutive cores ndis.sys is processed on. For example, ndis.sys will be processed on CPU 2/3/4/5 (or 2/4/6/8 with HT/SMT enabled) if RssBaseProcNumber is set to 2 with 4 RSS queues configured. The NIC must support MSI-X for RSS to function properly.

Raise the Clock Interrupt Frequency (Timer Resolution)

There is a lot of misleading and inaccurate information regarding this topic polluting the internet along with people having no idea what it influences. Raising the timer resolution helps with precision where constant sleeping or pacing is required such as multimedia applications, frame rate limiters and more. Below is a list of bullet points highlighting key information regarding the topic.

  • Applications that require a high resolution already call for 1ms (1000hz) most of the time. In the context of a multimedia application, this means that it can maintain the pace of events within a resolution of 1ms, but we can take advantage of 0.5ms (2000hz) being the maximum resolution supported on most systems

  • The implementation of timer resolution changed in Windows 10 2004+ so that the calling process does not affect the system on a global level but can be restored on Windows Server and Windows 11+ as explained here with the registry key below. As long as the process that requires high precision is calling for a higher resolution, this does not matter. Although, it limits us from raising the resolution beyond 1ms (unless you have a kernel mode driver which is a topic for another day)

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\kernel]
"GlobalTimerResolutionRequests"=dword:00000001

  • Even if you do not want to raise the timer resolution beyond 1ms, it is useful to call for it nonetheless as old applications do not raise the resolution when they should

  • Higher resolution results in higher precision, but in some cases 0.5ms provides less precision than something slightly lower such as 0.507ms. You should benchmark what calling resolution provides the highest precision (lowest deltas) in the MeasureSleep program while requesting different resolutions with the SetTimerResolution program. This should be carried out under load while running something CPU/memory/cache intensive such as linpack as idle benchmarks may be misleading

Configure Control Panel

It is not a bad idea to skim through both the legacy and immersive control panel to ensure nothing is misconfigured.

Analyze Event Viewer

This step is not required, but can help to justify unexplained performance issues. From a developer's perspective, we have certainly "broken" the operating system as we are running minimal services, debloated Windows and more. Code that naturally depends on something that is disabled or removed will throw errors or get stuck in an error loop. We can use event viewer to inspect whether everything is running as it should be. This is the method I used to identify that the Software Protection service was attempting to register a restart every 30s as explained in the Configure Services and Drivers section (along with the solution).

  • The Services-Disable.bat script disables logging, so the start values for Wecsvc and EventLog must be changed to 3 and 2 respectively

  • After running the script, use your PC normally for a while then open event viewer by typing eventvwr.msc in Win+R. Inspect each section for errors and investigate how they can be solved

  • Once finished, set the Wecsvc and EventLog start values back to 4 in the Services-Disable.bat script

Configuring Games and Applications

Install any programs and game launchers you commonly use to prepare us for the next steps.

  • Consider NVIDIA Reflex if your game has support for it

  • Cap your frame rate at a multiple of your monitor refresh rate to prevent frame mistiming. E.g. possible frame rate caps with a 144Hz monitor include 72, 144, 288, 432. Consider capping at your minimum fps threshold for increased smoothness and ensure the GPU is not maxed out as lower GPU utilization reduces system latency

    • Capping your frame rate with RTSS instead of the in-game limiter will result in consistent frame pacing and a smoother experience but at the cost of noticeably higher latency but disabling passive waiting in the settings page marginally helps with that. Disabling the Enable dedicated encoder server service setting also prevents EncoderServer.exe running which wastes resources

  • Configure present mode

    • Always check whether the game is using the desired present mode with PresentMon. Hardware: Legacy Flip (exclusive fullscreen) and Hardware: Independent Flip (fullscreen optimizations) are optimal

    • Assuming the Disable fullscreen optimizations checkbox is ticked, and you are having trouble with using Hardware: Legacy Flip, try to run the command below in CMD and reboot

      reg.exe add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\GameConfigStore" /v "GameDVR_DXGIHonorFSEWindowsCompatible" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f

    • If you are stuck with Hardware Composed: Independent Flip, try to run the command below to disable MPOs in CMD and reboot

      reg.exe add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Dwm" /v "OverlayTestMode" /t REG_DWORD /d "5" /f

  • Configuring QoS policies

Cleanup

  • Use Autoruns to remove any unwanted programs such as game launchers. Remove all obsolete entries with a yellow label and run with C:\bin\NSudo.exe if you encounter any permission errors

  • Some locations you may want to review for leftover bloatware and unwanted shortcuts

    • "C:\"

    • "C:\Windows\Prefetch"

    • "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\download"

    • "C:\Windows\Temp"

    • "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp"

    • "%userprofile%\Downloads"

  • Clear the PATH user environment variable of locations pointing to Windows bloatware folders

  • Configure Disk Cleanup

    • Open CMD and enter the command below, tick all the boxes, press OK

      cleanmgr /sageset:50

    • Run Disk Cleanup

      cleanmgr /sagerun:50

  • Reset Firewall rules

    • Open CMD and enter the commands below

      reg.exe delete "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\FirewallRules" /f && reg.exe add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\FirewallRules" /f

Final Thoughts and Tips

  • Avoid applying random tweaks, using tweaking programs or fall for the "fps boost" marketing nonsense. If you have a question about a specific option or setting, just ask

  • Try to favor free and open source software. Stay away from proprietary software where you can and ensure to scan files with VirusTotal before running them

  • Consider removing your game off the GPU core by setting an affinity to the game process to prevent them being serviced on the same CPU as this improves frame pacing. Your mileage may vary, but it is definitely something worth mentioning

  • Favor tools such as Bulk-Crap-Uninstaller to uninstall programs as the regular control panel does not remove residual files

  • Kill processes that waste resources such as game clients and explorer.exe

    • Use Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open process explorer then use File -> Run to start the explorer.exe shell again

  • Consider disabling idle states to force C-State 0 with the commands below before launching a game and enable idle after you close your game. This will mitigate jitter due to the process of state transition. Beware of higher temperatures and power consumption. The CPU temperature should not increase to the point of thermal throttling because you should have already dealt with that in docs/physical-setup.md. 0 is idle enabled, 1 is idle disabled

    powercfg /setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor 5d76a2ca-e8c0-402f-a133-2158492d58ad 1 && powercfg /setactive scheme_current

  • If you are using Windows 8.1+ and Hardware: Legacy Flip (exclusive fullscreen) with your game, you can disable DWM using the scripts in C:\bin\scripts\dwm-scripts as the process wastes resources despite there being no composition. Beware of the UI breaking and some games/programs will not be able to launch (you may need to disable hardware acceleration)