General tweaks

Broadly-applicable Windows optimizations covering faster desktop and menu navigation, gaming defaults, update control, background app and maintenance cleanup, and a few convenience toggles. Every row is independent, so turn on what you want.

Gaming

• Disable Game DVR & Game Bar turns off Game DVR and Game Bar background recording, removing its CPU and GPU overhead.
• Disable Game Mode turns off Windows Game Mode, which can stutter or cap FPS on some systems by managing CPU/GPU priority itself.
• Disable Mouse Acceleration turns off Enhance Pointer Precision so mouse movement maps 1:1 to cursor travel. Critical for shooters.
• Enable Hardware GPU Scheduling turns on Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling. Requires a compatible GPU, WDDM 2.7+ driver, and a reboot.

Updates

Take Windows Update off autopilot. It's generally recommended for most users to disable automatic Windows updates and only manually update when you're ready.

• Disable Driver Installation via Windows Update stops WU installing or replacing drivers. It forces Windows to use only locally-cached drivers, blocks the WU driver search path, excludes drivers from the monthly cumulative updates, and stops device-metadata downloads, so WU can't clobber your manually-installed GPU or audio drivers with generic versions.
• Disable Automatic Windows Updates makes updates install only when you manually trigger a check. You become responsible for staying patched.

Feature updates can also silently undo tweaks you've applied. The overview lists the ones seen so far; re-check every tab after a big update.

Responsiveness

• Remove Menu Show Delay makes menus and tooltips appear instantly instead of after the default ~400ms.
• Fast Desktop Switching removes the delay when switching between user accounts from the Start menu.
• Disable Audio Ducking stops Windows auto-lowering other app volumes when a call or media starts.

Background Apps

• Disable Background Apps blocks Microsoft Store apps from running in the background when not in use.
• Disable News and Interests removes the News and Interests / Widgets pane from the taskbar.
• Disable OneDrive File Sync stops the OneDrive sync client. Files will no longer sync to the cloud.

Maintenance & Reporting

• Disable Automatic Maintenance stops Windows running scheduled defrag, diagnostics, and optimizations in the background.
• Disable Store Auto-Download stops the Microsoft Store auto-installing app updates.
• Disable Sleep Study turns off the Windows sleep-study logger that continuously records system and device activity throughout sleep and modern standby.

Convenience

• Disable Accessibility Shortcut Prompts stops the “turn on Sticky Keys?” pop-ups you get from accidentally hitting the keyboard shortcut.