Windows 11 Gaming Optimization: What Still Works in 2026
Short answer
UpdatedThe Windows 11 settings that still measurably improve gaming in 2026 are: power mode set to Best performance, Game Mode on, windowed-game optimizations and variable refresh rate on, Xbox Game Bar background recording off, startup applications pruned, and games installed on an SSD. Most other circulated Windows tweaks are either placebo, already the default, or trade security for a few percent.
Key takeaways
- Roughly six Windows settings account for nearly all of the real gain. The rest of the internet's tweak lists are noise or obsolete.
- Power mode and startup app pruning are the two highest-value changes, and both are free and instantly reversible.
- Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling genuinely helps on some systems and hurts on others: it is one of the only settings you must test rather than set.
- Aggressive debloating scripts frequently break Windows Update, the Microsoft Store or Xbox services, for gains that are within measurement noise.
- Disabling Memory Integrity returns a few percent and costs you real kernel-level protection. Know the trade before you make it.
- Applies to
- Windows 11 (23H2, 24H2, 25H2) and Windows 10 22H2
- Time required
- 20-30 minutes
- Typical gain
- Largest on a neglected install, small on a clean one
- Requires admin
- Yes, for power and service settings
- Reversible
- Yes: all settings listed are UI toggles
The settings that measurably help
Windows 11 ships in a configuration tuned for laptops and battery life on a distribution that includes a great many machines that are not gaming PCs. Several of its defaults cost you performance on a desktop. These are the ones worth changing.
Set the power mode to Best performance
Settings > System > Power & battery > Power mode. The Balanced default parks CPU cores and ramps clocks lazily, which shows up as inconsistent frame times rather than a lower average. On a desktop there is no reason not to change this.
Turn Game Mode on
Settings > Gaming > Game Mode. It deprioritises background scheduling and blocks Windows Update restarts and driver installs while you are playing. The frame-rate effect is small; the interruption prevention is worth it on its own.
Enable windowed-game optimizations and variable refresh rate
Settings > System > Display > Graphics > Change default graphics settings. Turn on both. The first gives borderless-windowed games a presentation path with latency close to exclusive fullscreen; the second lets windowed games use G-Sync or FreeSync.
Disable Xbox Game Bar background recording
Settings > Gaming > Captures, and turn off 'Record what happened'. Continuous background capture reserves GPU encoder resources and costs frames for a feature most players never use.
Prune startup applications
Task Manager > Startup apps. Disable launchers, RGB utilities, printer helpers and updater services. Each one holds memory and, in the case of overlay software, injects into your game process. This is one of the most reliable stutter fixes on older systems.
Confirm your games are on an SSD
Several 2025-2026 releases now list an SSD as a hard requirement and stutter badly on mechanical drives. Moving a game off an HDD does more for traversal hitching than any registry key you will find online.
Set your monitor to its full refresh rate
Settings > System > Display > Advanced display. Windows frequently defaults a high-refresh monitor to 60 Hz after a driver install or cable change. Check this: it is the single most common cause of 'my new monitor does not feel any different'.
The one setting you have to test rather than set
Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling (HAGS) moves parts of frame scheduling from the driver onto the GPU itself. Settings > System > Display > Graphics > Change default graphics settings.
- It is required for DLSS Frame Generation. If you use frame generation, it must be on.
- On many recent CPU and driver combinations it slightly improves frame-time consistency.
- On some systems (particularly older CPUs and certain driver revisions) it introduces stutter.
- There is no way to predict which case you are in from specifications alone.
Benchmark the same scene twice, once in each state, and keep whichever gives you better 1% lows. Anyone telling you confidently to always turn it on or always turn it off has not tested it on enough machines.
Tweaks that no longer do anything
These circulate endlessly. All of them were either fixed by Microsoft years ago, apply to a Windows version no longer in use, or never worked in the first place.
| Setting | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Registry cleaning | No effect | Has had no measurable performance impact on any Windows version in over a decade, and carries a real chance of breaking installed software. |
| 'Unlock all CPU cores' via msconfig | No effect | The boot core count checkbox limits cores; it does not unlock them. Windows already uses every core. Setting it can only make things worse. |
| Disabling the page file | Harmful | Modern games and Windows itself assume a page file exists. Removing it causes crashes and out-of-memory errors, not speed. |
| RAM cleaning / working set trimming | Harmful | Forces Windows to discard cached data it will immediately need again from disk. The free-memory number improves and the machine gets slower. |
| Defragmenting an SSD | Harmful | Wears the drive with no benefit. Windows already runs TRIM on the correct schedule; leave the default optimization job alone. |
| Disabling dozens of services | Mostly no effect | Idle services consume no CPU. Disabling them saves a few megabytes of RAM and regularly breaks Windows Update, audio devices or networking. |
| Setting game priority to Realtime | Harmful | Realtime starves input, audio and driver threads. If you must adjust priority at all, High is the ceiling, and modern schedulers rarely need the help. |
Debloating: the honest version
Debloating scripts are popular because the theory is intuitive: less software running means more resources for the game. In practice the frame-rate gain from removing apps is usually small, because most of what these scripts remove was not running while you played. The part that does cost something during a session is background work: Windows Search indexing, SysMain, telemetry, Delivery Optimization uploads, Cortana and background apps use some CPU, disk and memory, and those are worth switching off one setting at a time.
What debloating actually gets you is disk space, a shorter Start menu, and fewer notifications. Those are legitimate reasons to do it. Frame rate is rarely one, and aggressive scripts can break Windows Update, the Microsoft Store, Xbox services and Widgets.
The genuinely useful subset (removing startup entries, uninstalling preinstalled vendor utilities on prebuilt machines, and disabling background app permissions for apps you do not use) is available through the normal Settings interface and does not require a script at all.
Tweaks that trade security for frames
Two changes in this category come up constantly. Both are real gains and both cost you something. We list them because pretending otherwise would be dishonest, not because we think you should apply them by default.
| Setting | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Core Isolation > Memory Integrity off | Small, larger on older CPUs | Removes hypervisor-enforced code integrity. Real gain, particularly on older CPUs, and a genuine reduction in kernel-level protection against driver-based attacks. Some anti-cheat systems now prefer it enabled. |
| Virtualization-based security off | Small, broader cost | Same class of trade, broader in scope. Also disables Windows Defender Credential Guard. If your machine is used for anything besides games, this is a poor trade. |
There is no third option that gives you the frames without the exposure. Decide deliberately, and if the machine handles banking, work accounts or anything you would mind losing, leave both enabled.
Memory Integrity and VBS have their own page in our tweak catalog: what turning them off changes, what you give up, and how to turn them back on.
Frozen Tweaks
Free for Windows 10 and 11
Frozen Tweaks has a switch for several of the settings on this page, and every catalog tweak is listed publicly with what it changes, so you choose which trade-offs to make. The Pro one-click run is different: it applies its own full list at once, including changes to Windows Security, which the FAQ on our homepage explains.
v2.0.0 · 6.4 MB · Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · free account, no payment details
Or type frozentweaks.com on your PC.
Questions
Does Game Mode actually improve FPS in Windows 11?
Its effect on average frame rate is small, usually within a few percent and sometimes within noise. Its real value is that it prevents Windows Update from installing drivers and restarting while you play, and deprioritises background scheduling during a session. Leave it on; the interruption prevention alone justifies it.
Should I turn hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling on or off?
Test it. It is required for DLSS Frame Generation, so if you use that it must be on. Otherwise, it improves frame-time consistency on some CPU and driver combinations and introduces stutter on others, with no reliable way to predict which from specifications. Benchmark the same scene in both states and keep the one with better 1% lows.
Is debloating Windows 11 worth it for gaming?
For frame rate, generally no: the components debloat scripts remove are not consuming CPU while you play. For disk space, notification noise and startup time, yes. The risk is real: aggressive scripts routinely break Windows Update, the Microsoft Store and Xbox services, and some break the Windows Security app. Prune startup apps through Task Manager instead; that part genuinely helps.
Is it safe to disable Memory Integrity for gaming?
It can help, mostly on older CPUs, and it is a real reduction in security. Memory Integrity blocks a class of attack that uses vulnerable signed drivers to reach the kernel, and some anti-cheat systems now prefer it enabled. If the machine is only ever used for games, it is a defensible trade. If it handles anything you would mind losing, leave it on.
Which Windows 11 power plan is best for gaming?
Set Power mode to Best performance in Settings > System > Power & battery. On Windows 11 this supersedes the old control-panel power plans for most purposes. The Ultimate Performance plan offers little beyond Best performance on modern hardware and is mainly relevant to workstations. On a laptop, also set the manufacturer's own performance profile and stay plugged in: battery power caps clocks regardless of what Windows is set to.
Tweaks in this guide
Each setting below has its own page in the tweak catalog: what it changes in Windows, what it costs, and how to undo it.
- Memory Integrity and VBSSecurity · Pro
- Game DVR and Game BarWindows · Free
- Hardware-accelerated GPU schedulingGPU · Pro
- SysMain (Superfetch)Debloat · Free
- Windows Search indexingDebloat · Free
- Delivery OptimizationNetwork · Free
- Windows telemetrySecurity · Pro
- Background appsDebloat · Free
- Xbox servicesDebloat · Free
- CortanaWindows · Free
Sources
- Enable memory integrity (Microsoft Learn) (opens in a new tab)learn.microsoft.com
- Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling (Microsoft DirectX Developer Blog) (opens in a new tab)devblogs.microsoft.com
- Optimizations for windowed games in Windows 11 (Microsoft Support) (opens in a new tab)support.microsoft.com
Written by
Frost LIVEFounder of Frozen Tweaks, based in Hamburg, Germany. Publishes settings guides for competitive games on his YouTube channel, Frost LIVE.
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Frozen Tweaks
Free for Windows 10 and 11
58 tweaks free, each with an undo switch. Never edits game files.
v2.0.0 · 6.4 MB · Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · free account, no payment details
Or type frozentweaks.com on your PC.
The free Windows app for competitive games.
58 tweaks free, each with an undo switch. Never edits game files.
v2.0.0 · 6.4 MB · Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · free account, no payment details
Frozen Tweaks runs on Windows. Send the link to your PC and download it there.
Or type frozentweaks.com on your PC.