---
title: "Disable Power Throttling: stopping Windows from slowing your own game"
description: "PowerThrottlingOff = 1 under Control\\Power\\PowerThrottling: what Windows power throttling does, how to turn it off on Windows 11, and when it matters."
url: https://frozentweaks.com/tweaks/disable-power-throttling
author: Frost LIVE, Founder of Frozen Tweaks
published: 2026-08-30
updated: 2026-10-08
category: "CPU"
source: Frozen Tweaks (https://frozentweaks.com)
---

# Disable Power Throttling: stopping Windows from slowing your own game

**Short answer:** Setting PowerThrottlingOff to 1 under SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerThrottling stops Windows from throttling processes it judges to be non-critical. It matters most on laptops and on anything where a game, launcher or capture tool spends time out of focus, because Windows will otherwise slow those threads deliberately to save power.

## In the app

- Switch: Disable Power Throttling (CPU, Free, Standard)
- Undo: Yes. Switching it off sets a standard Windows value, which may not be exactly how you had it.
- Catalog row: https://frozentweaks.com/tweaks#t-1005

## What it does

Windows watches which processes are in the foreground and throttles the rest, parking them at lower clocks to save power. The heuristic is good for battery life and occasionally wrong about what matters.

This is separate from your power plan. You can be on Best performance and still have individual processes throttled.

## When it helps

- Stops background but latency-sensitive processes, like voice chat, capture, launchers and anti-cheat, being slowed.
- Removes a cause of first-frame hitching when alt-tabbing back into a game.
- Most visible on laptops, where the heuristic is most aggressive.

## When it hurts

- On a laptop running on battery, expect measurably shorter runtime and more heat.
- On a desktop already set to Best performance, the gain is often small.

## What it writes

Read from the app's source. "Switching it off" is what the app writes when you turn the tweak off again.

Registry values:

| Key | Value | With the tweak | Switching it off | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerThrottling` | `PowerThrottlingOff` | `1` | 0 | Disables the OS-level power-throttling heuristic for all processes. |

Source: Tweaks/power_throttling.hpp in the app's source, app 2.0.0, checked 2026-10-08.

## The same change by hand

Run in a Command Prompt opened as administrator. Make a restore point first.

```bat
reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerThrottling" /v "PowerThrottlingOff" /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
```

Put it back:

```bat
reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerThrottling" /v "PowerThrottlingOff" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
```

See what it is set to now:

```bat
reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerThrottling" /v "PowerThrottlingOff"
```

## How to undo it

Delete the PowerThrottlingOff value, or set it to 0, and reboot. Switching it off in Frozen Tweaks sets it to 0.

## Verdict

Low risk and worth doing on a desktop. On a laptop, take it while plugged in and understand it costs battery.

## Related guides

- [Windows 11 Gaming Optimization: What Still Works in 2026](https://frozentweaks.com/guides/windows-11-gaming-optimization)
- [How to Increase FPS on PC: The Complete 2026 Guide](https://frozentweaks.com/guides/how-to-increase-fps-on-pc)
- [Low-End PC Gaming Optimization: Getting Playable Frame Rates](https://frozentweaks.com/guides/low-end-pc-gaming-optimization)
- [CS2 FPS Boost: Best Settings and Launch Options for 2026](https://frozentweaks.com/guides/cs2-fps-boost)

## More tweak explainers

- [CPU core parking](https://frozentweaks.com/tweaks/disable-core-parking)
- [Dynamic tick and HPET](https://frozentweaks.com/tweaks/disable-dynamic-tick)
- [MMCSS and SystemResponsiveness](https://frozentweaks.com/tweaks/mmcss-system-responsiveness)

---
Written by Frost LIVE, founder of Frozen Tweaks. Canonical version: https://frozentweaks.com/tweaks/disable-power-throttling