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Interactive guide

Tune this machine, in order.

A start-to-finish walkthrough for a Windows 11 gaming PC — firmware, drivers, Windows, then the registry. Pick your parts and every step below rewrites itself for them: your board's exact menu paths, your card's control panel, your panel's frame cap, your power budget.

11 phases56 processors and graphics cardsRuns entirely in your browser

Step one

What are we working on?

Six choices. Everything after this is derived from them, in your browser — nothing is uploaded, and there is nothing to sign into.

01 / 06

Processor

Intel 12th gen and newer, Ryzen 5000 and newer

Intel 12th gen

Intel 13th gen

Intel 14th gen

Intel Core Ultra 200S

Ryzen 5000

Ryzen 7000

Ryzen 9000

Build my plan

Pick every part to continue

The full guide

Every phase, start to finish.

The complete walkthrough without the personalisation — the same steps the tool above serves, in order. Build a plan first if you want your board's exact menu paths, your card's control panel settings and the steps that do not apply removed.

15 min

Before you touch anything

Every step after this is reversible. This one is the reason that stays true.

Optimal handles the restore point and the readout

Launching Optimal does read-only detection — CPU, GPU, memory, boot drive, Windows build and network adapter — so the Dashboard is your spec sheet. And applying anything creates a System Restore point first; if Windows cannot create one, the run stops rather than continuing.

  1. Answer these before you change a setting

    What games get played on it — anything with kernel anti-cheat means Secure Boot and TPM stay on, permanently. Is it also a work or school machine, because that decides how far the debloat goes. Which Windows apps are actually used, so you have a whitelist before anything is removed. And is there anything on the drive nobody has a second copy of.

  2. Back up the files first

    Documents, Pictures, Desktop, and any game saves that live outside cloud sync. To an external drive or their cloud, before anything else. This step is boring and it is the one you will be glad about.

  3. Create a restore point by hand as well

    Optimal makes one before each run, but make a clean one now, before any of this starts, so there is a known-good point that predates the whole session.

    SystemPropertiesProtection
  4. Write down the exact motherboard model

    You need it for firmware and chipset drivers, and “a Gigabyte board” is not enough — revisions differ. Optimal's Dashboard reads the board and Windows build for you, or run msinfo32.

    msinfo32
  5. Check the boot drive's health before you tune around it

    A drive throwing reallocated sectors is not a software problem and no setting on this page helps it. Optimal's Apps page installs CrystalDiskInfo through its published WinGet ID if you do not already have something that reads SMART data.

  6. Consider a clean install instead

    A three-year-old prebuilt packed with OEM software is often faster to reinstall than to clean. Use a fresh Windows 11 ISO rather than the recovery partition, then rejoin this guide at the firmware phase.

30 min

Take the before numbers

You cannot claim an improvement without one. Screenshot everything in this phase.

  1. Capture frametimes, not average FPS

    Run the same sixty-second route in the game that actually matters, or a built-in benchmark. What you are recording is the 1% low and the frametime graph — average FPS hides exactly the stutter people are complaining about when they ask for this work.

  2. Run a DPC latency check for sixty seconds at idle

    This is how a bad network, audio or GPU driver announces itself, and it is worth knowing now rather than after you have changed thirty settings. LatencyMon is in Optimal's Apps catalogue.

  3. Screenshot what loads at boot

    Task Manager → Startup apps. You want the before picture, both to measure against and so you can put something back if they miss it.

  4. Check temperatures under load

    If the CPU is sitting at 95°C or the GPU above 85°C under load, the problem is thermal and the fix is dust, airflow or paste — not the registry. Fix that first or none of the rest will show up.

45 min

BIOS and UEFI

The largest free gains on this list live here, and most machines are leaving them on the table. Enter with Delete or F2 at boot.

  1. Update the firmware first, from the vendor's page only

    Never from a driver-updater utility. Use the flashing tool built into the firmware itself. Flashing resets everything to defaults, so do it before the settings below rather than after.

  2. Enable the memory profile

    The single highest-value setting in this guide. Most machines run their memory at the JEDEC fallback speed rather than the speed printed on the kit. Boot and test after enabling it — if it fails to post, clear CMOS and try the second profile.

  3. Enable Resizable BAR

    Free frames on every card in this guide's range. It needs Above 4G Decoding enabled and CSM disabled — turn Above 4G on first or the Resizable BAR entry may not appear at all.

  4. Leave Secure Boot and TPM enabled

    Not optional. Several kernel anti-cheat games require both on Windows 11, and turning them off to chase a percent locks the machine out of the games it exists to play.

    Only disable CSM if Windows is already installed in UEFI/GPT mode. Check msinfo32 → BIOS Mode first — switching it on a legacy install stops the machine booting.

  5. Tune the fan curve while you are in here

    Quieter and cooler, at zero cost. Use the firmware's own tuning routine, which measures each fan's real RPM range rather than guessing.

  6. Physically verify the memory slots

    Two sticks in a four-slot board belong in the second and fourth slots from the CPU. This is worth opening the case for — wrong slots costs real bandwidth and no setting compensates.

  7. Curve Optimizer, if you are staying to test it

    A negative all-core offset lowers temperatures and raises sustained boost clocks. Start conservative, and only do this if you will be around to stability test properly — an unstable undervolt shows up as a crash a week later.

  8. Apply the Intel Default Settings profile

    If the board offers it, use it. Unlimited power limits on a mid-range cooler is how these parts end up thermally throttling and, on 13th and 14th gen, how they degrade.

  9. Leave these alone

    Do not force HPET. Do not disable C-States or SpeedStep — modern parts need them to boost properly, and turning them off lowers your maximum clocks. Do not set a manual all-core overclock; the stock boost algorithm beats it on everything in this guide.

30 min

Windows updates and storage baseline

Get the platform current before you tune it, or you will tune something an update is about to overwrite.

  1. Update until it comes back clean

    Settings → Windows Update, install everything, reboot, check again, repeat. Include optional driver updates for now — you will override them with vendor drivers in the next phase.

  2. Update the Store apps too

    Microsoft Store → Library → Update all. Stale Store apps cause a surprising share of odd, hard-to-attribute behaviour.

  3. Update everything else

    One command for every package manager–aware app on the machine.

    winget upgrade --all
  4. Leave the boot drive 15–20% free

    A nearly full SSD is a slow SSD. Settings → System → Storage shows where it went, and Storage Sense — which Optimal can switch on for you — keeps it that way.

  5. Confirm TRIM is enabled

    A zero means TRIM is on. Leave the scheduled Optimize Drives task alone as well: on an SSD it sends TRIM, it does not defragment.

    fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify
45 min

Drivers, in the right order

Chipset, then graphics, then everything else. Chipset drivers lay down the power and PCIe plumbing the rest depends on, so they go first.

  1. Chipset first, then reboot

    From the CPU or motherboard vendor's own page for your exact chipset. Reboot before moving on — this is not the step to batch.

  2. Clean-install the graphics driver

    Download the new driver first. Then disconnect from the internet so Windows Update cannot push its own driver mid-process, run the vendor installer, and tick its own clean-installation option — both NVIDIA's and AMD's installers will remove the previous driver properly. Reconnect afterwards.

    If the machine has been upgraded over the top for years and shows driver-related crashes, do this from Safe Mode. Otherwise the installer's clean option is enough.

  3. Skip the extras you will not use

    Uncheck the components you do not need during install. The tuning and overlay features are genuinely useful; the rest is background processes for features nobody on this machine has opened.

  4. LAN, audio, USB and storage firmware

    From the motherboard vendor's page: the network driver in particular, because Windows' generic one is often worse for latency. Then audio, USB controllers, and your SSD vendor's firmware updater — firmware bugs on NVMe drives are real and they present as stutter.

  5. Peripheral software: configure, save to onboard, uninstall

    Mouse and keyboard suites are heavy background processes. If all they need is a DPI setting and a lighting profile, set it, save it to the device's onboard memory, and remove the suite.

  6. Never use a driver updater

    Driver Booster, DriverPack, Driver Easy and the rest ship repackaged or wrong drivers and frequently arrive with adware. Vendor pages only. This is the same argument this whole site makes about tweaking tools, applied to drivers.

30 min

Debloat and tune with Optimal

This is the phase that used to be four separate utilities, each with its own idea of what “recommended” means. One catalogue, one plan, one undo.

Why this replaces the tool stack

Optimal covers app removal, telemetry and privacy policy, the power plan, input and capture, Explorer behaviour and update policy — the union of what the usual chain of debloat scripts does, from one catalogue where every control names the registry key or command it runs. It takes a restore point before writing, exports the affected keys as readable .reg files, and records each operation's prior value so any of it can be reverted from the History page.

  1. Install Optimal and let it read the machine

    Startup is read-only detection. It reads your hardware and the current state of every control it can detect, and opens with nothing selected — there is no “recommended” preset waiting to be clicked past.

  2. Decide between Simple and Advanced

    Simple shows the everyday controls. Advanced adds the expert policy and security ones — network hardening, Memory Integrity, Windows Update policy — each with its full tradeoff written out. On someone else's machine, start in Simple.

  3. Read the plan before you confirm it

    The confirmation screen lists every operation with its exact target. Read it. This is the step the tools this replaces do not offer, and it is the whole reason to work this way.

  4. Review the debloat list against what they actually use

    Removal is current-user AppX packages only, and Security, Store, Terminal, runtimes and frameworks are protected and cannot be selected. Everything else, check against the whitelist you took in the prep phase. Anything removed by mistake reinstalls from the Store.

  5. Apply, then reboot before you judge anything

    Several of these — the network and policy controls especially — do not take effect until a restart. Judge the result after a full reboot, not before.

  6. Know where the undo lives

    The History page holds every run, its operations, and the button that reverts them. Undo takes its own restore point before it starts. Show this to whoever owns the machine before you leave.

20 min

The Windows settings pass

The manual passes that live in Settings rather than in the registry. Several of these are more valuable than anything in the phase after this one.

  1. Verify the monitor is actually running at its full refresh rate

    Settings → System → Display → Advanced display. This is the single most common miss in this entire guide: a 165Hz panel quietly running at 60Hz because nobody changed it after plugging it in.

  2. Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling: on

    Settings → System → Display → Graphics → Change default graphics settings. It is a prerequisite for the driver's lowest-latency modes. Verify with a benchmark — on a small number of setups it causes stutter, and you want to know which you have.

  3. Optimisations for windowed games: on

    In the same menu. A real latency win for borderless windowed play, which is how most people play now — exclusive fullscreen no longer has the advantage it did.

  4. Variable refresh rate: on

    Same menu again. Then enable adaptive sync in the monitor's own on-screen menu as well — both sides, not one.

  5. Set games to High performance per-app

    Same Graphics menu, per application. This matters most where an integrated GPU is in play and a game has quietly chosen it.

  6. Two advanced power settings the plan does not cover

    Control Panel → Power Options → Change advanced settings: set PCI Express → Link State Power Management to Off, and USB selective suspend to Disabled. These stop peripheral and GPU idle hiccups mid-session.

  7. Strip the startup list

    Task Manager → Startup apps. Launchers, updaters, RGB suites, printer monitors — off. They can all be started when they are needed.

  8. Leave the pagefile on System managed

    Do not disable it. Some games hard-require it and the failure mode is a crash with an unhelpful message, hours later.

  9. Do not turn off Defender. Use exclusions

    The gaming cost is negligible and the security cost is not. Adding the game install folders as exclusions in Windows Security gets you most of the benefit with none of the exposure.

  10. Memory Integrity: know the trade before you touch it

    Turning it off is worth a few percent in CPU-bound games. It also removes a real mitigation, and some anti-cheat now checks for it. Optimal ships this as an Advanced control labelled aggressive rather than hiding it in a preset — leave it on unless the person owning the machine understands and wants the trade.

15 min

The registry-level tuning

Small, real, and reversible. Optimal applies most of what follows and keeps the prior values; the rest is here so you know what it deliberately does not do.

Most of this phase is a checkbox

Game DVR and capture, pointer acceleration, the multimedia scheduler behaviour and the power scheme are all controls in Optimal's catalogue, applied behind a restore point with their prior values recorded. Doing it by hand is documented below so you can verify what was written rather than take it on trust.

  1. Export the hives first if you are doing this by hand

    Optimal writes per-run registry exports for you. If you are editing manually, take your own.

    reg export HKLM C:\regbackup\HKLM.reg /y
    reg export HKCU C:\regbackup\HKCU.reg /y
  2. Disable Game DVR properly

    Background recording costs overhead and input latency. Optimal's Gaming category covers this; these are the keys it writes.

    HKCU\System\GameConfigStore
      GameDVR_Enabled          DWORD  0
      GameDVR_FSEBehaviorMode  DWORD  2
    
    HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GameDVR
      AllowGameDVR             DWORD  0
  3. Multimedia scheduler priority for games

    Setting SystemResponsiveness to 0 is the common advice and it is worse: it can starve audio. 10 is the safe value.

    HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile
      SystemResponsiveness   DWORD  10 (decimal)
    
    …\SystemProfile\Tasks\Games
      GPU Priority           DWORD  8
      Priority               DWORD  6
      Scheduling Category    STRING High
      SFIO Priority          STRING High
  4. Turn off pointer acceleration

    The clean route is Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Mouse → Additional mouse settings → Pointer Options → uncheck Enhance pointer precision. Optimal does exactly this. Set DPI on the mouse itself rather than compensating in Windows.

    HKCU\Control Panel\Mouse
      MouseSensitivity  STRING  10
      MouseSpeed        STRING  0
      MouseThreshold1   STRING  0
      MouseThreshold2   STRING  0
  5. What Optimal will not write, and why

    No blanket TCP registry presets, and no disabling of receive-side autotuning. They get copied between guides without measurement, they are not one-size-fits-all, and disabling autotuning measurably hurts throughput. If you want to see the current state rather than guess at it, check it — and leave autotuning at normal.

    netsh int tcp show global
10 min

The graphics control panel

Vendor territory. Optimal does not reach in here — this is the driver's own configuration and it belongs to the driver.

  1. Power management mode: prefer maximum performance

    Globally, or per game if you would rather be surgical about it.

  2. Low Latency Mode: on

    Better still, enable Reflex inside any game that offers it and leave the driver setting at On. The in-game implementation is the more effective of the two.

  3. Texture filtering to high performance, vertical sync off globally

    Control VSync per game instead. Leave threaded optimisation on Auto.

  4. Anti-Lag on, Radeon Chill off

    Check anti-cheat compatibility for your specific games before enabling the more aggressive anti-lag mode. Chill saves power by capping frames — the opposite of what a competitive setup wants.

  5. Enhanced Sync off, surface format optimisation on

    Enhanced Sync fights FreeSync. Set texture filtering quality to Performance, and turn on Smart Access Memory here to match the Resizable BAR setting you enabled in firmware.

  6. Cap the frame rate just under your refresh rate

    This is what keeps an adaptive-sync panel inside its working range: no tearing, and none of the input latency VSync adds. Set it in the driver, or in-game where the game has a proper limiter.

  7. Check the cable can carry what you are paying for

    DisplayPort 1.4 or HDMI 2.1 for high-refresh 1440p and 4K. A marginal cable silently caps people at 60Hz and it is invisible until you look.

  8. Set the monitor's overdrive to the middle option

    In the monitor's own menu. The most aggressive setting nearly always adds inverse ghosting, which looks worse than the smearing it was meant to fix.

15 min

The connection

The part of this guide most likely to be the actual problem, and the part least likely to be fixed by anything on the PC.

Optimal measures rather than presets

The Networking page reads your adapter, addressing, MTU, DNS and live gateway and public-route latency, all read-only, and offers three reversible local-network hardening controls. It ships no blanket TCP presets on purpose — see the previous phase.

  1. Use Ethernet

    Everything else is a distant second. If Wi-Fi is genuinely unavoidable, be on 5GHz or 6GHz — never 2.4.

  2. Set a fast DNS resolver at the router

    Doing it on the router covers every device rather than just this one. This is a responsiveness change, not a bandwidth one — do not expect it to move your frame rate.

  3. Turn off Energy Efficient Ethernet on the adapter

    Device Manager → your network adapter → Advanced. Disable Energy Efficient or Green Ethernet. If you are chasing latency specifically, interrupt moderation off as well — but leave the offload features alone.

  4. Test for bufferbloat before blaming the PC

    A cheap ISP router with a full buffer will do more damage to online play than every setting in this guide combined. Test the line under load, and check the router's firmware while you are in there.

  5. The reset sequence, if something is genuinely broken

    In that order, then reboot. Optimal's Networking page links straight to Windows' own network reset as well.

    ipconfig /flushdns
    netsh winsock reset
    netsh int ip reset
30 min

Prove it worked, then hand it over

The phase people skip. Without it you have a feeling, not a result.

  1. Full reboot, then let it settle

    Not a fast-startup half-shutdown — a real restart. Give it five minutes before you measure anything.

  2. Re-run every baseline measurement identically

    Same route, same settings, same duration. Compare 1% lows and the frametime graph, not the average. If the average moved and the lows did not, you have not fixed the stutter.

  3. Confirm the boring things still work

    Audio, microphone, webcam, printer, the games launch, Store apps update, Windows Update runs, Defender is on. This is what separates a tuned machine from a broken one.

  4. Take a fresh restore point and label it

    “Post-optimisation”. It is the point you want to come back to if something surfaces in a fortnight.

  5. Leave a written record

    Optimal's History page already holds one: every run, every operation, and the undo button. Show whoever owns the machine where it is, and what to revert first if a game starts behaving oddly.

If something went wrong

Common mistakes, and how to undo them.

Nearly every problem after a tuning pass comes from one of the following. Work down the list — the fix is almost always a reversal, not another change.

The machine will not boot, or fails to POST after firmware changes

Likely cause

Almost always the memory profile. XMP and EXPO are factory overclocks and not every kit, board and CPU combination holds the rated speed.

How to undo it

Clear CMOS — the jumper or button on the board, or pull the coin cell for a minute with the power supply switched off. The board comes back at default speed. Re-enter firmware and try the second profile, or a manually lower speed. This is expected behaviour, not damage.

A game says it cannot run, or an anti-cheat refuses to start

Likely cause

Secure Boot or TPM was turned off, or Memory Integrity was disabled and the anti-cheat now checks for it.

How to undo it

Turn Secure Boot and TPM back on in firmware. If you disabled Memory Integrity, Optimal's History page reverts it with the exact prior value — or Windows Security → Device Security → Core isolation, back on. Reboot.

Audio crackles, drops out, or stutters after tuning

Likely cause

Usually SystemResponsiveness set to 0 rather than 10, or an audio driver that was replaced by a Windows generic one during the driver phase.

How to undo it

Undo the multimedia scheduler change from Optimal's History page, then reinstall the audio driver from your motherboard vendor's page. If you edited the registry by hand, set SystemResponsiveness back to 20 — the Windows default — rather than to 10.

An app you needed is gone

Likely cause

It was in the debloat selection and nobody checked the list against what is used.

How to undo it

Debloat removes current-user AppX packages, which reinstall from the Microsoft Store. Search the Store and install it again. Optimal's History page also lists exactly what was removed and when, so you are not guessing at what is missing.

The frame rate got worse, or a new stutter appeared

Likely cause

Most often hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling on a setup that does not like it, or a frame cap set above the panel's adaptive-sync range.

How to undo it

Turn HAGS off in Settings → System → Display → Graphics and re-measure — this one genuinely varies by machine. Then check the cap sits under your refresh rate, not at or above it. If neither, revert the whole run from Optimal's History page and reapply in smaller batches to find the culprit.

Windows Update stopped working, or Defender is off

Likely cause

Something disabled them — usually a tweaking script run before this pass, since nothing in this guide does.

How to undo it

Windows Security → turn real-time protection back on. For Update, Settings → Windows Update and check the service is running. If a prior tool set policy keys, they live under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows and removing them restores the default.

Peripherals disconnect, or the GPU hitches at idle

Likely cause

USB selective suspend or PCI Express link state power management came back on.

How to undo it

Control Panel → Power Options → advanced settings for the active plan. Set USB selective suspend to Disabled and PCI Express link state to Off. A Windows feature update can reset these, so check them again after one.

Everything feels wrong and you want the whole thing back

Likely cause

You changed several things at once and cannot isolate which.

How to undo it

Optimal's History page reverts an applied run in one action, replaying each operation's recorded prior value behind a fresh restore point. Failing that, use the System Restore point taken before the session. This is the reason both of those exist.

A Windows feature update can quietly reset several of these. Re-run the same plan afterwards rather than assuming it held.

Guide FAQ

Asked before every job.

How do I optimize Windows 11 for gaming?

In this order: update the motherboard firmware and enable the memory profile (XMP or EXPO) and Resizable BAR; install chipset drivers, then a clean graphics driver, then network and audio; debloat and set telemetry, power, input and capture policy; verify your monitor is running at its full refresh rate with hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling on; then the registry-level tuning. Order matters — firmware and drivers before software tweaks, and a baseline measurement before any of it so you can prove the result.

What is the single biggest performance setting most people miss?

Two, and both are free. The memory profile — most machines run their RAM at the JEDEC fallback speed rather than the speed printed on the kit, because XMP or EXPO was never enabled in firmware. And the monitor's refresh rate, which Windows frequently leaves at 60Hz on a 144Hz or 165Hz panel until somebody changes it in Advanced display settings.

Is it safe to enable XMP or EXPO?

Yes, with the caveat that both are factory overclocks and not every combination of kit, board and CPU holds the rated speed. The failure mode is a machine that will not POST, which is fixed by clearing CMOS — the board returns to its default speed and nothing is damaged. Test with a memory stability run after enabling it.

Should I turn off Secure Boot or TPM for more FPS?

No. There is no measurable frame rate benefit, and several major games with kernel anti-cheat require both on Windows 11 — turning them off locks the machine out of the games it exists to play. The same applies to disabling Windows Defender: the gaming cost is negligible, and folder exclusions get you the benefit without the exposure.

Do I need DDU to clean-install a graphics driver?

Usually not. Both the NVIDIA and AMD installers include their own clean-installation option, which removes the previous driver properly. Download the new driver first, disconnect from the internet so Windows Update cannot push its own driver mid-process, run the installer with the clean option ticked, then reconnect. Doing it from Safe Mode is worth it only if the machine has been upgraded over the top for years and is showing driver-related crashes.

Are registry tweaks and “FPS boost” scripts worth running?

A small number of registry changes are real and reversible — Game DVR, the multimedia scheduler, pointer acceleration. Downloaded .bat and .reg packs are not: they are unaudited, frequently break networking, audio or Windows Update, and some carry malware. The distinction is whether you can read what it does before it runs. Optimal shows the exact key and value for every change and records the prior value so it can be walked back.

Will this guide work on a laptop?

Most of it. Firmware memory settings, fan curves and undervolting are usually locked on laptops, so the value shifts to thermals, the vendor's performance profile, making sure games run on the discrete GPU rather than the integrated one, and the Windows and driver phases — which apply identically. Pick Laptop in the builder and the guide adjusts.

Does the guide send my hardware details anywhere?

No. The whole tool runs in your browser: the catalogue is a static file served with the page, the plan is derived locally, and your build and progress are stored in this browser's local storage. There is no account, no upload and no analytics call.

Do not do this

The advice to undo if you find it.

All of the below is common, widely repeated, and either useless or harmful. If someone has already run it on this machine, unwinding it is part of the job.

Unaudited .bat and .reg “FPS boost” packs

From a Discord, a YouTube description, or a forum post. Frequently break networking, audio or Windows Update, and some carry malware outright. If you cannot read what it does, it does not run.

Registry cleaners

Zero measurable performance benefit, non-zero chance of breaking an install. Optimal ships nothing of the kind and never will.

Disabling the pagefile

Some games hard-require it. The result is crashes and out-of-memory errors that look like anything except the setting that caused them.

Disabling Windows Defender or Windows Update

Negligible gaming cost, real security cost — and games increasingly require a current build. Delay updates if you must; never disable them.

Forcing the platform clock

bcdedit /set useplatformclock true almost always makes stutter worse on modern systems. If it is already set, remove it with bcdedit /deletevalue useplatformclock.

Timer resolution utilities running at boot

Windows 11 handles this per-process already. Mostly placebo, occasionally harmful, always another thing running.

RAM cleaners and memory optimisers

They force pages out of cache that Windows put there deliberately. They make the machine slower, measurably.

Disabling every service you do not recognise

This is how audio, printing, networking and the Store break. Where a service genuinely matters, change the specific policy — do not batch-disable by preset.

Turning off Secure Boot or TPM

Locks the machine out of several major titles on Windows 11 in exchange for nothing measurable.

Any closed-source “gaming optimizer” with no visible operation list

If it will not tell you what it is about to write, it does not get administrator rights on someone else's machine.

The tuning half of this is one download.

Firmware, drivers and the control panel are yours to do. Everything else on this page — debloat, telemetry, power, input, capture, Explorer, update policy — is a plan you review and confirm in Optimal, behind a restore point, with an undo.