Optimize PC For Gaming Windows 10 Archives

#1: Keep Everything Updated!

We know this first tip sounds quite obvious. But you would be surprised to find out how many people overlook this simple aspect. Keeping everything up-to-date is extremely vital to a frustration-free gaming experience. Windows 10 does a good job of automatically installing updates, but many users turn this feature off.

If it’s been a while since you last received a Windows 10 update, you should go and check manually:

• Click on start and type the word “updates” in the search bar.
• An option called “Check for updates” should pop up.
• Click on this and it should take you to the update settings.
• Click on the “check for updates” tab and Windows should search for any updates that are pending. If an update does pop up, click on download and install.
• Remember to restart of reboot your system after the update.

Update GPU Drivers

Here’s another simple fix to make Windows 10 faster for gaming. If you are experiencing game crashes, stuttering or freezes, the issue could be related to the graphics card. Although GPU drivers also have an automatic update option, they rarely detect new updates as soon as they come out.

Related Guide: How to FIX PC freezes while playing games?

If you’re having issues in-game, you will benefit from doing a clean install of the GPU drivers. To erase all trace of the previous drivers uses the DDU program to fully clean up.

After that just go to Nvidia or AMD’s site, depending on your GPU, and find the most recent driver update. Download and install, and make sure to reboot your PC afterward.

Verify Game Files

If you’re having issues in a particular game, try this quick fix and see if it works for you.

• First off, restart your computer and launch Steam.
• Go to your library and right-click on the game that is troubling you.
• Select “Priorities” from the menu that pops up and then click on the “Local Files” tab.
• Select “Verify integrity of game files” and steam will validate every file for that game.
• This process might take a few minutes.

#3: Change the Windows 10 Power Plan

Depending on the power plan you have enabled, power management can be a hit or miss in Windows 10. This option is helpful for gaming laptop users who might want to save on battery life. But Desktop users don’t need to worry about this restriction so we can set it to high-performance mode.

• To do this, open the Start menu and type in power plan in the search bar.
• Click on “Choose a power plan” and select “Show additional plans”.
• After that just switch the power plan to high-performance mode.

This is another trick that can help people with older hardware to tweak Windows 10 for gaming and even productivity. It most likely won’t have a major effect on gaming performance for people with higher-end hardware.

NOTE: If there are no High-Performance plan anymore. You can manually create and activate high-performance plan in power options on Windows 10.

#5: Switch the Game API

This is one of the best tweaks you can make to get better performance in games like Fortnite, especially in 2020. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s answer the question in your head. What is an API exactly?

Well, you’ve probably heard of OpenGL, DirectX, and Vulkan. All of these pieces of software are categorized under APIs. The API is a software interface that allows the processor and graphics card to communicate with the game.

Depending on the hardware and the game you are playing, different APIs will give you different results in performance. For example, DirectX 12 is the successor to DirectX 11, and it uses less power yet gives better performance in a lot of games. The list of games that support DirectX 12 is growing longer every day.

Certain games also work better with the Vulkan API. A prime example is Red Dead Redemption 2, as a lot of people report they get better performance with Vulkan. AMD cards also tend to take advantage of Vulkan in its full capacity compared to Nvidia GPUs.

You could be pleasantly surprised by how much this improves gaming performance in Windows 10. Most games have the option to switch the API under visual or graphics settings. Whether you have an older system or a newer one, this tweak can help make Windows faster for gaming.

#7: Prevent Downloads In Steam While Gaming

If you are a PC gamer these days, the chances are likely that you use Steam to buy and launch all of your games.

While Steam is popular for good reason, it can eat up a lot of resources.

If you leave the automatic downloads option enabled, it can cause a lot of lag in online games.

• Open the Steam client and head over to the settings.
• Go to the downloads section.
• Untick “allow downloads during gameplay”.

#9: Disable Mouse Acceleration

This is another tweak that doesn’t impact performance in any way, shape or form. But it does enhance the overall experience, and you’ll thank us for this one later. Mouse acceleration is a feature in Windows which moves the cursor depending on the speed of the mouse movements.

Related Guide:Best Mouse for Gaming in 2020

This can hinder precision in first-person shooting games by quite a lot. We all know how important timing your shots are, and if you don’t have the best precision, you’re going to be in a bit of trouble.

• Go to start and bring up the search bar.
• Type in “mouse pointer” and open the option that comes up. In this window.
• Go to the pointer options tab and untick the option called “Enhance pointer precision”.
• This will disable mouse acceleration and give you better precision in every game.

#11: Defragmenting Your PC

Well, it is not a widespread method of optimizing your windows, though it is extremely easy to follow.

If you’ve had your windows 10 installed for a while now, and not defragmented it, then this might help to boost the performance.

Steps to Defragment drives:

• Search for “Defragment and Optimize Drives” in the menu and open it.

• From here, select the windows drive of your system. (Mostly the C: drive)
• Click “Optimize”, and let the program do its job.

• It may take some time, so we recommend doing this only when your PC isn’t busy somewhere else.

Defragmenting the drive organizes all the files, so your computer can access it quicker.

It also makes sure that all the files are in place, and nothing is missing.

Sources

Windows 10 is a great OS for gamers, mixing native games, support for retro titles, and even Xbox One streaming. But it isn't perfect straight out of the box.

Some tweaks are required to enjoy the best gaming experience Windows 10 has to offer. Here are several ways to optimize your Windows 10 PC for gaming.

1. Optimize Windows 10 With Gaming Mode

Looking for another option to squeeze the best gaming performance out of Windows 10?

Later releases of the operating system feature a gaming mode, built-in optimizations for Windows 10 gamers. To find out more:

1. Press Windows key + I
2. Type game mode
3. Click Game Mode settings or Turn on Game Mode
4. On the Gaming screen, click Game Mode
5. Switch to On to use Game Mode

If your PC supports Game Mode, resources will be managed to achieve the optimum frame rate. Additionally, Windows Update will be suspended.

While this is one way to improve gaming performance on Windows 10, Game Mode is not perfect. Keep reading for more Windows 10 gaming tweaks.

2. Disable Nagle's Algorithm

Nagle's algorithm essentially bundles data packets at the cost of a smoother internet connection. It's useful but having Nagle's algorithm enabled on your computer may contribute to latency issues when playing games online.

To disable this and improve gaming performance on Windows 10, start by checking your IP address:

1. Hit Windows key + X
2. Select Windows PowerShell
3. Enter ipconfig
4. Look for "IPv4 address" to identify your PC's IP address

With the IP address noted, edit the Windows Registry:

1. Click Start
2. Type regedit
3. Select Registry Editor (Tread carefully when fiddling with the Windows Registry)

In the address bar, copy and paste the following path:

In the left-hand pane, you'll see a collection of folders, with filenames comprised of letters and numbers. To access the correct file, match your IP address with the one listed against DhcpIPAddress in one of these folders.

When you find your matching folder:

1. Right-click on the folder
2. Select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value
3. Name this TcpAckFrequency
4. Click OK
5. Select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value again
6. Name this one TCPNoDelay.
7. Double-click on each and set their parameters to 1

Doing so disables Nagle's Algorithm. If you run into any problems, reset their parameter values to 0 and they will be disabled.

3. Optimize Windows 10 Online Gaming With Faster DNS

If you're playing online multiplayer or relying on a remote server for Windows 10 gaming, network traffic can cause problems.

While upgrading to faster internet can help, it's quicker and cheaper to just make some networking tweaks.

1. Hit Windows + I to open Settings
2. Find Network and Internet > Change Adapter Settings.
3. Right-click on your wireless network
4. Select Properties
5. Highlight Internet Protocol Version 4.
6. Make a note of the two DNS entries for future reference
7. Replace them with 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1.
8. Click OK, then Close.
9. Restart your default browser

Your internet should now be faster, which will help with online gaming.

4. Disable Automatic Updates for Better Windows 10 Gaming

Windows 10 will automatically update your OS and schedule a restart without your permission. While this feature doesn't activate often, you never want to be caught unaware and risk your game save.

Not only can automatic updates restart Windows without warning, downloading updates in the background will limit your network connectivity.

While you cannot disable automatic restart, it can be delayed. To reduce the chance of Windows Update downloads interrupting your gaming performance:

1. Open Settings with Windows key + I
2. Click Update and Security >Windows Update
3. Look for Advanced options then click Update Options
4. Disable Restart this device as soon as possible when a restart is required to install an update.
5. Enable Show a notification (Windows will give plenty of warning when the system is going to restart following an update)
6. Use Pause updates to delay installation of updates for up to 35 days

By specifying when you'll be using Windows 10, you can prevent Windows Updates downloading and installing during active hours.

5. Disable Notifications in Windows 10

The Focus Assist feature in Windows 10 lets you specify how and when you receive notifications.

Popups and chimes usually accompany notifications, but these can interrupt games. The solution is to minimize the impact of notifications, using Focus Assist. It's basically a feature that lets you manage what level of focus you devote to your work.

1. Hit Windows + I to open Settings
2. Click System > Focus Assist
3. Select Alarms Only to hide all other notifications
4. Close the Settings screen

6. Prevent Steam Auto-Updating Games

If you use Windows to play games, you're probably buying and installing games via Steam.

One of the largest annoyances with Steam is its update feature. This blocks you from preventing automatic updates across all your games. This may eat up memory by updating games you don't play or limit your network connectivity with background updates.

To prevent Steam from updating games in the background:

1. Launch the Steam client
2. Open Steam > Settings > Downloads
3. Uncheck Allow downloads during gameplay

You can also prevent Steam from downloading updates for largely unused games:

1. Open the Steam Library
2. Right-click an underused but installed game
3. Select Properties and find Automatic Updates
4. Change Always keep this game up to date to Only update this game when I launch it

With Steam correctly optimized, Windows 10 will be ready for AAA gaming.

7. Tweak Windows 10 Visual Effects for Game Improvements

Your graphical user interfaces (GUI) can be a hindrance to your processing power. By default, your Windows 10 appearance settings are set to impress.

Games running in the foreground may conflict with a shiny GUI running in the background. Adjust these settings to optimize Windows 10 for gaming performance.

1. Open Settings with Windows key + I
2. Type performance
3. Select Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows.
4. In the settings box, select Adjust for best performance
5. Click Apply
6. Click the Advanced tab
7. Ensure that Adjust the best performance of is set to Programs
8. Apply again, then OK to confirm

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8. Tweak Your Mouse Settings for Windows 10 Gaming

Could you mouse be impacting gaming performance on Windows 10? To find out, it's a smart idea to optimize your mouse settings. A feature called pointer precision (AKA mouse acceleration) can impact how your mouse performs in games. Disabling this can help to optimize gaming in Windows 10.

1. Open Settings
2. Click Devices > Mouse
3. View the Pointer Options tab
4. Clear the Enhance pointer precision checkmark
5. Click Apply
6. Click OK to exit---you might also adjust the pointer speed to suit

If gaming has improved, your mouse was almost certainly slowing things down.

9. Max Power Plan to Improve Windows 10 Gaming Performance

Power options are often ignored due to their supposedly negligible effect. Some gamers claim adjusting for higher performance works, while others fail to notice any difference changing their PC power settings.

The only way to know for sure is to test it out on your PC. To change your power settings:

1. Open Settings
2. Type power
3. Click > Power & sleep settings > Additional power settings
4. Select the high-performance option
5. If none is available, use Create a power plan to configure a new, custom power plan

This option will allow your PC to perform better at the cost of higher energy consumption and temperature levels. For this reason, it's better to activate this Windows 10 optimization on the desktop rather than laptop PCs.

10. Keep Your Windows 10 Drivers Updated for Improved Gaming Performance

Your GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is the core of your PC gaming experience. However, the GPU requires the latest Windows driver to keep it working faster and better.

All graphics cards, no matter how old or new, benefit from continually updated drivers.

To check your GPU name and specs:

1. Right-click Desktop
2. Select Display settings > Advanced display settings
3. At the bottom, find Display adapter properties

You can download driver updates through this window under Properties > Driver > Update Driver. Alternatively, visit the manufacturer's website to ensure the driver is up to date.

Manufacturers will often provide free gaming and update software to keep your drivers up to date automatically. An example is AMD's Gaming Evolved client.

For optimal performance, it is highly recommended that you install the chipset and LAN drivers for your motherboard as well. Since these are crucial for optimal gaming performance, this makes sense.

The easiest method to check chipset drivers is to open Windows PowerShell (right-click Start to find it) and enter:

Your motherboard's manufacturer and the product name will appear in the command prompt.

List your manufacturer and product name to search for your drivers online. You should find the necessary software on the Support page of the manufacturer's website.

Along with the chipset drivers, you will also find your on-board LAN drivers for an optimal internet connection.

11. Install DirectX 12 to Optimize for Gaming

DirectX 12, the latest version of Microsoft's popular API tool, is a key element of Windows 10 gaming.

It delivers support for multiple GPU and CPU cores, better frame rates, lowered power consumption and enhanced graphical effects.

To check if you have the latest version of DirectX:

1. Open Windows PowerShell
2. Type dxdiag
3. Tap Enter

Moments later, you'll see the DirectX Diagnostic Tool.

Don't have DirectX 12 installed? There's a small chance this can happen if you have upgraded from Windows 8.1. Fix this by:

1. Opening Settings with Windows key + I
2. Select Update and security
3. Find Windows Update > Check for updates
4. Wait while the updates install

DirectX12 will automatically optimize many gaming settings in Windows 10.

Optimize Windows 10 for Gaming With These 11 Tweaks

Windows 10 is a legitimate delight for the modern gamer (and now, so is Linux, thanks to these technologies and services that have saved gaming on Linux.)

With a towering game selection, Xbox One compatibility and software specifically designed for gaming, it's clear the gamer community has a special place in Windows 10's future. However, nothing's perfect. Reach closer to gaming perfection with these Windows 10 gaming optimizations:

1. Windows 10 Gaming Mode
2. Disable Nagle's Algorithm
3. Use faster DNS servers
4. Disable automatic updates
5. Disable Notifications in Windows 10
6. Prevent automatic updates from Steam
7. Tweak visual effects for performance
8. Adjust mouse settings to improve gaming speeds
9. Use maximum power settings
10. Keep drivers up to date
11. Install DirectX 12

Gaming on your laptop? You'll benefit from these extra tips to improve gaming performance on your Windows 10 laptop. Do you also need a special router for a better gaming experience? Let's see if gaming routers are worth it.

Christian Cawley (1394 Articles Published)

Deputy Editor for Security, Linux, DIY, Programming, and Tech Explained. He also produces The Really Useful Podcast and has extensive experience in desktop and software support. A contributor to Linux Format magazine, Christian is a Raspberry Pi tinkerer, Lego lover and retro gaming fan.

More From Christian Cawley

THIS GUIDE WAS UPDATED 5th April 2019
I play a lot of games and haven’t found a comprehensive guide on Tweaking Windows 10 for Gaming, Performance, System Tweaks, Overclocking & Ping/Latency Improvements and all the relatively simple things you can do to give you better performance in games, a better ping online and make the right choices for your needs, I am sure there are changes here that some people will disagree with, feel free to message me & I will change anything that gets out of date or is no longer working.

This Guide is in the process of being fleshed out, when it’s done it will be an article & video, each of the sections will have a skip timecode or bookmark too. And if you are unsure about a setting, quickly google it to make sure you aren’t wrecking your OS, I take Zero responsibility for anything going wrong, all I have done here is compiled and tested the Tweaks and for ME they work and are Safe.

The Windows 10 April 2018 Update broke & caused a lot of issues for users, here is links to an additional guide if you are suffering more issues after the update.

If you are using Shadow & want to set that up, you can find more info here

Why Windows 10?
General Gaming Tweaks
Online Gaming Tweaks
System Tweaks
Basic Overclocking
(EXPERIMENTAL) Programs & Settings

Why Windows 10 over 7 or 8.1?
Windows 10 Pro 64bit is actually your best option now,
It has better boot times than 7 & 8.1
And better Gaming performance, though some of it is fractional
More hardware is supported in general
And DX12 is supported thru it – which we will start seeing more and more games using.

Windows 10 Pro
Pro Gives you a few advantages but not really any performance gains over Home. I recommend Pro but if you need to save a couple of bucks or pounds or Euros then you can grab Windows 10 Home.
I think you can still grab Windows 10 Pro Licencesfrom Kinguin.net for $30-35 & as far as I am aware they are legit.

General Gaming Tweaks
Update Your Drivers!
The Most obvious and necessary make sure you have the latest drivers installed for you system & devices especially your graphics card update your Windows 10 via the Update & Security Tab.

Grab The Latest Graphics Card Drivers
AMD Radeon Adrenaline Drivers |amd.com/en/support
Nvidia Geforce Drivers | geforce.co.uk/drivers
You only need the Core Drivers & potentially the PhysX Software.
For those of you that want a clean installation here is DDU | Display Driver Uninstalled

Speed Up & Secure Your Internet DNS

• Click on the Start menu, then click on Control Panel.
• Click on Network and Internet.
• Click on Change Adapter Settings.
• Right click on the Wi-Fi network you are connected to, then click Properties.
• Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (or Version 6 if desired).
• Click Properties.
• Write down any existing DNS server entries for future reference.
• Click Use The Following DNS Server Addresses.
• Replace those addresses with the 1.1.1.1 DNS addresses:
• For IPv4: 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1
• For IPv6: 2606:4700:4700::1111 and 2606:4700:4700::1001
• Click OK, then Close.
• Restart your browser.

See more info at 1.1.1.1

Turn off Focus Assist
In Control Panel/Settings
Click System
Focus assist
Turn it to Alarms only

Power Options
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options
It’s worth changing your Power Options to High Performance

Disable Mouse Acceleration
I Honestly Can’t believe the amount of people that still have this on.
Mouse acceleration needs to be turned off for gaming otherwise you are aiming.

• Again in Control Panel
• Mouse
• Pointer Options
• Untick Enhance Pointer Precision (this is mouse acceleration)
• Also try adjusting the Pointer Speed slider here till you are happy

What DPI & Sensitivity should you select?
With some mice you will have software to set you dpi,
so in most games I recommend 400-1600 if in doubt try 800 even if your mouse have 20 billion DPI.
Some people will set their DPI far too high, you want to adjust the sensitivity via the mouse options and in game

NVIDIA Graphics Settings, if you have an NVIDIA Card

• Go into the NVIDIA Control Panel
• Manage 3D Settings
• Set Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration – Single display performance mode (If you have issues with low frame rates on your other monitors OR you are using multiple monitors to game with then change this to Multi)
• Preferred refresh rate – Highest available
• [OPTIONAL] Turn Off Shader Cache, some people experience gains with it off, some people lose performance. I leave Shader Cache On.
• I set Pre-Rendered Frames to 1, this will give you the least latency.
• Texture Filtering Quality – Performance, there is no discernible graphics improvement at higher Qualities IMO.

Under Display, click Adjust desktop size and position.
On the Scaling tab, turn off Override the scaling mode set by games and programs.

Disable Windows Update Delivery Optimization
Windows Updates  has a setting where it can munch your bandwidth by sending Windows updates to other PCs on the net. It’s worth turning this off as it can affect your gameplay and also eat into any data allowance you might have.

To turn this feature OFF, follow these given steps:

• Go to Settings in the Start menu
• Search for Update & Security
• Under Windows Update, open Advanced Options
• Click Choose How Updates are Installed, select Choose how updates are delivered
• Disable the toggle under Updated from More than One Place

Disable OneDrive
If you don’t use OneDrive then disable it, it eats up your bandwidth. The OneDrive app of Windows 10 uploads your new files to the cloud internet server so you can access them anywhere.
To disable OneDrive:
Right click on the OneDrive app which is located on your taskbar and click exit.

System Tweaks
Disable Hibernate
Hibernate mode is set up by default to allow the hard drive disk to load the programs faster instead of booting the system, but it is unnecessary for an SSD system drives.

• To do this, simply open your CMD command
  Search for CMD in the start menu search bar
• Right click CMD and Run as Admin & Type,
• powercfg -h off
• Press Enter

Setting your Page File

• Press Windows Key
• Click In the Search Box
• Search for “Control” then Click on it,
• Click System
• Click Advanced System Settings
• Click the Advanced Tab

• Under Performance, Click Settings
• Under the Advanced tab Click Change
• Uncheck Auto manage
• PLEASE NOTE THAT I RECOMMEND SETTING THIS TO AN SSD DRIVE, however this may shorten the lifespan of the Drive, I believe it’s minimal though.
• Set a single one of your Drives to SYSTEM MANAGED SIZE
• Set
• All other Drives should be set to None (unless if the pagefile you set wasn’t on your OS drive & you want to leave 300mb on your main boot drive for “crash info & recovery”)

If you have loads of Ram some people recommend having no pagefile, though some applications require a page file to operate optimally.

I recommend having a Page File on a separate drive or secondary drive.
I use an SSHD that I also use for storage. And let the system workout how much it needs. After much testing I found that I get FRACTIONAL improvements consistently with a 4GB Pagefile on a 2nd drive & NO page file on my main or gaming drives.

Some people say if you have 16GB+ ram you should entirely disable pagefiles.
Some programs & games however are designed to operate with a Pagefile & for me it is literally faster to have one. But all gains seem to be pretty negligible when it comes to what size, this is likely to be more noticeable from a stability POV or if you have a small amount of Ram sub 12GB.

Visual Effects and Performance
You can try disabling some of the Visual effects in Windows, it makes Windows faster and a bit more responsive and gives a bit more performance, it’s also in:

• Control Panel
• System
• Advanced System Settings
• Performance Options
• Visual Effects

Keep These 3 enabled

• Show thumbnails instead of icons
• Show window contents while dragging
• Smooth edges of screen fonts

HDD, SSD & Service Optimizations
You’ll want to Defrag your HDDs every so often BUT not your SSDs
It will damage them if you force defrag them, instead you want to TRIM them.
Also I recommend Turning off Indexing on SSDs.

• Press Windows Key + E
• Click on your SSD and right click on it.
• Click properties then uncheck “Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties“
• Click apply then click OK

Disable Restrictive Services – If using Shadow IGNORE this step.

• Press Windows Key + R
• Type services.msc
• Look for the Service you want to disable and right click on it
• Click properties then click Startup type
• Select Disabled, click OK
• Click the folder icon on your taskbar.

You can turn off The Services Listed Below (if you know you don’t use them), they are a mixture of useless & optimization settings: If you have problems running a service then you can reactivate it.

• Windows Search (This will disable Windows Search TOO, keep it if you use it)
• All Xbox Services* You do need these for any Xbox Service games like Sea of Thieves.
• Microsoft SMS router service
• Diagnostics tracking service
• Fax service
• dmwappushsvc

Here is an extended list of Services that I have disabled as I pretty much just play Star Citizen,
I have disabled all of these on my Windows 10 Pro but it’s at your own risk:

AllJoyn Router Service
Application Layer Gateway Service
Bluetooth Support Service
BranchCache
Certificate Propagation
Client for NFS
Distributed Link Tracking Client
dmwappushsvc
Downloaded Maps Manager
Enterprise App Management Service
Geolocation Service
Health Key and Certificate Management
Hyper-V Data Exchange Service
Hyper-V Guest Service Interface
Hyper-V Guest Shutdown Service
Hyper-V Heartbeat Service
Hyper-V Remote Desktop Virtualization Service
Hyper-V Time Synchronization Service
Hyper-V VM Session Service
Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Requestor
Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
Internet Explorer ETW Collector Service
IP Helper
Microsoft Diagnostics Hub Standard Collector Service
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service
Microsoft Windows SMS Router Service
Netlogon
Offline Files
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
Retail Demo Service
Sensor Data Service
Sensor Monitoring Service
Sensor Service
Smart Card Device Enumeration Service
Smart Card Removal Policy
SNMP Trap
Storage Service
Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service
Windows Biometric Service
Windows Connect Now – Config Registrar
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
Windows Mobile Hotspot Service
Windows MultiPoint Server Host Service
Windows MultiPoint Server Repair Service
Windows Remote Management (WS-Management)
Xbox Live Auth Manager
Xbox Live Game Save
XboxNetApiSvc

Data Mining & Bloatware Removal
There are 2 different ways I recommend to do this, but using the More Automated Newer way is probably better, I’ll leave the Manual way here too.

Spybot Anti-Beacon – If usingShadowIGNORE this step.
This program turns off and stops a load of data mining and Microsoft / Other Services it’s basically designed to block and stop the various tracking (telemetry) issues present in Windows 10.

NOTE – If you are using Skype then after you have run this
You’ll need to unblock some hosts can find your hosts-file here:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
Just open it with Editor and see if you find any lines containing “skype”, “hotmail” or “messenger.live”. Save as a .file then delete the extension and place in the folder.

Turn off Other Tracking , Data-mining, increase Privacy & Performance

• Right Click the Notification Box in the Bottom Right
• Open Action Centre
• All Settings
• System
• In Notifications & Actions I turn all the sliders off
• Apps & Features – There is loads of bloatware
• Sway, Phone, Get Skype, Maps
• I delete everything that I am obviously not going to use.
• If in doubt DON’T DELETE
• Offline Maps – Turn Everything Off Here

Back to Settings

• Privacy
• Go Thru EVERY tab and turn the sliders off unless you have a reason to have them on.
• In Feedback & Diagnostics
• Change Windows Feedback to Never
• If you have the option under Send your device data to Microsoft Select Never OR Basic

Back to Settings

• Update & Security
• I Turn off Everything in Windows Defender, But you may need some form of Virus and Online protection
• Windows Update
• Click Advanced Options
• Choose How Updates are delivered
• Set to Off

Remove Pre-Installed Apps (More Removals)
Windows 10 comes with pre-installed apps or “bloatware” and basically if you don’t use them DELETE / Remove them.

• Control Panel\All Control Panel Items
• Programs and Features
• Uninstall anything that you know you don’t need

Also you can to save some more space by removing the pre-installed apps that came with Windows 10 if you aren’t going to use those apps at all.

• Press the windows key
• Search for Powershell
• Right Click Run as Admin

Enter the following commands to remove one or more apps of your choice:
(I keep calculator BUT get rid of everything else)
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *BingFinance* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *BingNews* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *BingSports* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *BingWeather* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *Getstarted* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *MicrosoftOfficeHub* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *MicrosoftSolitaireCollection* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *Office.OneNote* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *People* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *SkypeApp* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *Windows.Photos* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *WindowsAlarms* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *WindowsCalculator* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *WindowsCamera* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *windowscommunicationsapps* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *WindowsMaps* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *WindowsPhone* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *WindowsSoundRecorder* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *XboxApp* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *ZuneMusic* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *ZuneVideo* | Remove-AppxPackage”
powershell “Get-AppxPackage *3DBuilder* | Remove-AppxPackage”

The More Automated Way is using W10Privacy
Still getting my head around this simple Windows 10 program, it combines loads of other Privacy Tweaks as well as loads of things to disable in Windows for a better experience.

• Download it from Here
• Run the EXE in it’s own folder by right clicking and “Run as Admin”
• Disable / Tweak anything you want
• Then Press Set Changed Settings, wait then restart

I tick pretty much everything except:

• Show Hidden and Cache Files
• Any Remote Access Services
• Items / Services I know I use
• Some of the Settings in Tweaks & Explorer
• Just have a quick read of the tooltip of each setting before you tick it

NOTE – If you are using Skype then after you have run this
You’ll need to unblock some hosts can find your hosts-file here:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
Just open it with Editor and see if you find any lines containing “skype”, “hotmail” or “messenger.live”. If you have issues saving then, Save as a .file then delete the extension and place in the folder.

Graphics Card Overclocking
This is much safer and easier than CPU Overclocking
As with CPUs it’s still worth googling your card and the word overclock to see what settings are recommended and achievable.
The Latest GTX 1060, 1070 & 1080 Cards | Precision XOC
For Nvidia Cards Prior to the GTX 1060, 1070 & 1080 Series | Precision
For AMD & ATI Cards Use | AMDTrixx

Overclock your Monitor too you can use those tools to up your pixel clock or hz rate on your monitor, again it’s worth googling your monitor and seeing what others have achieved. You can also just Set a Custom Resolution now in the latest Nvidia Drivers.
I have my AOC 144hz Monitor @ 171hz without any issues.
BUT do this as WITH ALL THE OTHER OVERCLOCKING AT YOUR OWN RISK

And make sure you always Test your Overclocks
Test your overclocks to make sure your system is stable I run a series of 3d Mark Tests
And I also recommend 3d Mark Firestrike for general benchmarking too.
The Basic Version is FREE too!

Also http://www.cpuid.com have loads of great Monitoring Software for your Temps & Voltages.
I can recommend HWMonitor for pretty much everything, again the Freeware version is great.

Other Programs & Settings (EXPERIMENTAL) – If usingShadowIGNORE this step.
So these are programs, tweaks and tools that I am trying out and may be AMAZING, Useless OR Damaging, I don’t know I don’t know enough about them.
Process Lasso – http://bitsum.com
This is a Program that you can use to set process and system priorities to tasks & processes as well as a whole world of other features. I am messing around with the features at the moment & it seems good but I am yet to make up my mind.

Prio Process Priority Saver – http://www.prnwatch.com/prio/
Does a similar more slimline job that Lasso does, saving the Process Priorities so you don’t have to keep setting them.

The CMark Win 10 “Fix” – donewmouseaccel.blogspot.co.uk
This is a registry fix that removes anything that sounds like it might be acceleration related in regards. I haven’t seen any real change (after disabling Mouse Acceleration) It might be magic thinking but every frame is a gain… that doesn’t work when talking about mice does it?

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