Maximizing TF2 Performance: Windows Settings Guide for Beginners (W11 Compatible)

Windows 10 is a Microsoft operating system for personal computers, tablets, embedded devices and internet of things devices.

Microsoft released Windows 10 in July 2015 as a follow-up to Windows 8. Windows 10 has an official end of support date of October, 2025, with Windows 11 as it’s successor.

Anyone adopting Windows 10 can upgrade legacy machines directly from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10 without re-imaging or performing intrusive and time-consuming system wipes and upgrade procedures. To upgrade from a previous version of Windows 10, IT or users run the Windows 10 OS installer, which transfers any applications and software on the previous OS, as well as settings and preferences over to Windows 10.

Organizations and users can pick and choose how they will patch and update Windows 10. IT or users can access a Windows 10 upgrade through the Windows Update Assistant to manually begin an upgrade or wait for Windows Update to offer an upgrade when it is set to run.

Windows 10 features built-in capabilities that allow corporate IT departments to use mobile device management (MDM) software to secure and control devices running the operating system. In addition, organizations can use traditional desktop management software such as Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager.

Explore effective and efficient Windows 10 PC Performance Enhancement Tweaks to optimize the performance of your system:

Nowadays, everybody needs a powerful system that can perform numerous operations at a time and also provide them with the best gaming experience possible. Users even expect their system to work smoothly, but sometimes their system gets laggy, and they are stuck in work.

It does mean that you cannot utilize your system in the best possible way.

In this guide, we will discuss various Windows 10/Windows 11 performance tweaks that will improve your system’s performance so that you can speed up your work and utilize your system efficiently.

What are Tweaks?

Tweaks are ways by which you can optimize a certain process and by performance enhancement tweaks we refer to various tips and methods that can optimize the working of your system.

Power plays a crucial role in determining the user’s feedback. So, if a system consumes less power or it consumes high power with enhanced performance, then it can be useful for you based on your requirements.

It is crucial to optimize and decide your power plan accordingly because it decides the performance level and efficiency of your system.

Follow the steps listed below to optimize a power plan in Windows 10 as it is the most useful Windows 10 performance tweak:

#1) Click on start and then go to search bar and type “Control Panel“.

#2) A window will open, as displayed in the image below. type on search bar “Battery” and go to “Power Option”.

#3) Click on “Create a Power Plan” and, then click on “High Performance“. name it whatever and choose the sleep and display settings that you want your computer to use. you can decide whatever you want on this step. since it doesnt really affect any of performance and click create. (in the first image, i had created one by my own. windows default setting doesn’t have that option so you had to manually create one)

#4) Once it done, Click on “High Performance” Power Plan as displayed in the image below and go to “change plan setting”

and go to “change advanced power settings”

#5) Now, Follow every instructions on these images i displayed below to get better settings/tweaks.

(Note : If you are using non intel processor, this settings under might be different. but i’m not sure if its different or not. should be same maybe. im running intel processor and i dont know how AMD works)

(Note : processor performance core parking overutilization threshold is a setting for SSD improvement. i will make a guide about it next time)

(Note : battery section should be setting the way you want to be. theres no performance impact whatever you set it. but for PC user, it shouldnt be displayed as your main power is electricity and not a battery)

Once its done, click “Apply” and click “OK” and go to the next step.

The system adds some applications to the startup list, which allows the selected programs to start automatically when the system boots up. These startup applications hold a considerable amount of memory.

It can affect the working of the system, so you must make sure that the applications in startup sections are minimum and are of utmost importance.

Follow the steps listed below to add or remove applications from the startup folder and add Windows 10 tweaks to your system.

#1) Right Click on the taskbar and go to “Task manager”

#2) A window will open as displayed below. go to “startup” tabs, and right click those apps you dont think you wanna use and click “disable”

once its done, we go to the next step.

Various applications, including antivirus software, run numerous processes in the background. These processes include antivirus scans or some continuous background services, like notification alerts that take a considerable amount of system memory.

Disabling these background applications can increase your system speed with visible efficiency.

Follow the steps listed below to Disable background apps in the system and improve Windows 10 performance:

#1) Click on the Windows button and click on “Settings“.

#2) A window will open as displayed in the image below. Further, click on “Privacy“

#3) Now, scroll down to “apps permission” section and click on “Background apps“. Toggle the switch off under the heading “Let apps run in the background.

(note : if you are wondering why there is a note that says some of these settings are hidden or managed by your organization, because i tweaked it with special settings. which is complicated on how to explain it. but it doesnt matter. with or without it they are gonna be the same. this guide is dedicated on how to do simple tweaks without in worrying of breaking windows settings)

When a user saves any form of data on a hard disk, then a specific memory location is reserved for that data. But even after that data is deleted, the particular space remains reserved for that data and this creates memory blocks in the hard disk.

These memory blocks make it harder for the crawler to search in the memory and organize data, so you must defrag your hard disk to remove all such possible memory blocks and make your system faster.

Follow the steps listed below to Defrag HDD / Trim SSD :

#1) Go to “This PC” and right click on any of your Storage and go to ‘Properties”

#2) Go to “tools” tab and click “optimize”

#3) press ctrl and click each of drives you have, then click “Analyze all”. wait until the process complete and click “Optimize all”

For SSD it usually takes seconds. but for HDD it usually takes 30-45 mins depending on your HDD speed. it may vary.

once its done, we can go to the next step.

Visual effects are a wonderful feature provided by Windows which allows its users to experience amazing animations on the screen. These visual effects enhance the user experience and working, but i’m not sure if they are actually affecting the game’s framerates.

but if you want to give it try, you can follow these steps :

#1) Open Search bar, and type “control panel”, and then click on search bar on control panel. Now, type on “Advanced system settings” as displayed in the image below.

#2) As displayed in the image below, a dialog box will open, click on “Advanced,” and then, under the heading performance, click on “Settings“

#3) A dialog box will now open and you need to click on “Visual Effects“. Then click on the title “Adjust for best performance“. and checklist “Show Thumbnails instead of Icons” then Click on “Apply” and “OK” as displayed in the image below.

once its done, we can go to the next step.

There are different users with different priorities. Some prefer using the system for core gaming, whereas some need them to develop advanced video editing skills. And the software that these users use on the system requires high graphic card configurations.

But when such requirements are not met, then unwanted system lags and crashes occur. Therefore, whenever you use advanced software on your system, make sure that your graphic cards are configured appropriately.

Follow the steps listed below to configure your graphic card settings on your system:

#1) right click on nvidia icon on your taskbar icon and click “nvidia control panel”

#2) These settings you need to change (I wont provide images because its too much but you can just find it by your own :

(Adjust Image Settings with Preview)
1. Tick Use my preference emphasizing:
2. Drag the slider all the way to the left so that it says Performance.
3. Hit Apply in the bottom right.
4. Now tick Use the advanced 3D image settings.
“This enforces a good foundation by applying the Performance image settings preset. This will save us some time in the next step.”

(Manage 3D Settings)
You may not be able to see some of the Settings listed down below, just ignore them.
Ensure that your 3D settings match the following.

Global Settings:

-Image Sharpening: Off
-Ambient Occlusion: Off
-Anisotropic filtering: Application-controlled
-Antialiasing – FXAA: Off
-Antialiasing – Gamma correction: Off
-Antialiasing – Mode: Application-controlled
-Antialiasing – Setting: None
-Antialiasing – Transparency: Off
-CUDA – GPUs: All
-DSR – Factors: Off
-DSR – Smoothness: Off
-Low Latency Mode: On
-Monitor Technology: Fixed Refresh
-Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA): Off
-OpenGL rendering GPU: [your GPU]
-Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance
-Preferred refresh rate (monitor name): Highest available
-Shader Cache: On
-Texture filtering – Anisotropic sample optimization: On
-Texture filtering – Negative LOD bias: Allow
-Texture filtering – Quality: High performance
-Texture filtering – Trilinear optimization: On
-Threaded optimization: Auto
-Triple buffering: Off
-Vertical sync: Off
-Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames: 1
Now, finally click Apply in the bottom right.

(Configure Surround PhysX)

Under PhysX settings, make sure the Processor is set to your GPU.

(Change resolution)
1.Navigate to Change Resolution
2.Scroll down and tick Use NVIDIA color settings.
3.Make sure that Output dynamic range is set to Full.

“Additionally make sure that Output color format is set to RGB, most displays support it nowadays.

(Adjust desktop color settings)
“Tick Use NVIDIA Settings”
-This ensures that your display colors will stay the same universally.

(Adjust desktop size and position)
1. Select your display.
2. Under:
-Apply the following settings: Scaling – Tick No scaling.
-Next under Perform scaling on: select Display and tick Override the scaling mode set by games and programs.
Note:
-The best resolution for your monitor will almost always be your native resolution with No scaling ticked. This is enforces the lowest display lag.
-If you’re using a stretched resolution set the scaling mode to Full-Screen.
-If you have multiple monitors you might want to replicate above, using your secondary monitor(s).

(Setup G-SYNC)
Untick Enable G-SYNC, G-SYNC Compatible.
“This is a debatable topic, whether G-SYNC causes additional input lag. Technically G-SYNC will add input lag, as it is a sync feature, meaning one thing has to wait for another, in order for them to be in sync. The question then remains, is the added input lag even perceivable? Probably not”

(Adjust video color settings)
1.Head down to 2. How do you make color adjustments?
2.Tick With the NVIDIA settings.
3. Go to Advanced and set Dynamic range: to Full (0-255). Replicate this on your other monitor(s) if you have any.

(Adjust video image settings)
1. Go to 2. Apply these settings to my video content:
2. Under Edge enhancement tick Use the NVIDIA settings and drag the slider all the way to the left so that it says 0%.
3. Apply the same settings to Noise reduction by ticking Use the NVIDIA setting then make sure the slider is all the way to the left, yet again at 0%.

Replicate this on your other monitor(s) if you have any.

once its done, we can go to the next steps

Windows has an amazing feature called Ready Boost. The feature allows users to use an external/Internatl storage device as RAM. The feature is extremely useful and increases the system’s speed and efficiency.

This feature can be easily accessed from Drive properties. Follow the steps listed below to enable the Ready Boost feature on your system:

#1) Insert flash drive in the System, go to “This PC”, right-click on the flash drive/Your SSD, and click on “Properties“.

#2) A dialog box will open as displayed in the image below. Click on “ReadyBoost” and click on apply and then “OK“. (Reserved space for ReadyBoost should be left default. i cant guarantee if something bad happens to your drives so leave it default to ensure it works properly)

once its done, we can go to the next step.

Windows has a feature of indexing the documents and files in an arranged manner, which makes it easier for the users to search files. This feature is termed as search indexing.

The process takes up a vast amount of system speed, as it needs to keep arranging the files in an indexed manner.

Follow the steps listed below to disable search indexing on your system:

#1) Open Settings, search for “Searching Windows” and a screen will appear as displayed in the image below. Click on “Advanced Search Indexer Settings“.

#2) A dialog box will now open. Click on “Modify“.

#3) Uncheck all the folders and click on “OK“.

once its done, we can go to the next step.

Drivers play a crucial role in syncing devices and their functions to the system. Drivers are the major reason for various features on Windows, so you must make sure that you keep your driver updated for the latest software so your driver can configure with them appropriately.

to update your drivers, you should go to your device manufacturer website.
for my case that im using Intel and Nvidia. you can get the latest update of your driver to

Intel : https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download-center/home.html
Nvidia : https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/drivers/

pick the drivers you currently own and once its done, you can go to the next step

Note : updating driver through windows update should be enough in my opinion. but if you want to update it to newest version to ensure you can get max performance and without issues, you can just try those websites ive provided and compare it by your own.

Local Disk C on your system is especially reserved for all sorts of system files. Therefore, you must make sure that maximum space on your Disk C: is free so that it can function efficiently. It is best advised that you should store your data on external drives rather than storing it on the system. Keep the maximum possible space for your system free.

Follow the steps listed below to initiate disk cleanup on your system:

#1) Go to “This PC”, right-click on the C drive, and click on “Properties“.

#2) go to “general” tab and click “disk cleanup”

#3) pick anything you want to delete. but be careful of what you gonna choose. as its not reversible if you accidentally deleted it.

#4) repeat on the first step till 2nd and go to “more option” and select “clean up” on the “program and feature” section if you want to uninstall stuff you dont need.

note : dont delete system restore and shadow copies as it contains restore points you have stored. theres no performance benefits for deleting them. its useful if you mess with any settings you made and you want to roll back to previous state

click any apps you dont need and click uninstall. follow any instructions thats given on the uninstaller.

once its done, we can go to the next steps.

Windows keep updating based on the user’s feedbacks and various advancements made on the system, so you must keep your system updated to the latest version available.

Follow the steps listed below to update your windows on your system:

#1) go to start button and go to settings

#2) go to update and security

#3) click check on update and wait till all of updates displayed updating on your settings

note : ignore “some setting are managed by your organization and your device is missing important security and quality fixes”. the reason is because im using old version of windows to make some testing. this guide is should be targeted on how to tweak/power up your windows in general way.

if your windows has been updated, it should be appeared like this

once its done. you can go to the next step.

The game mode is a special mode in Windows that allows you to use Windows in the most optimized and advanced way. tbh its kinda complicated and much more debatable whether you should leave it on or off. Based on reports from several Reddit users who use game mode on Windows, some say they get more FPS when game mode is turned on, there are also those who get reduced FPS when game mode is turned on. please try it yourself.

Follow the steps listed below to use your system in Game mode:

#1) Go to start, and go to settings.

#2) go to gaming section, and go to game mode tab and slide the bar until it says “on”

once its done, we can go to the next step.
if this setting reduces fps, you can turn it off and try to compare it by your own

To make applications work smoothly, Windows provide memory to each application, but sometimes the allotted memory is not enough for the application. So, in such a situation, you can increase the paging size and fix this issue.

Follow the steps listed below to increase paging size in your system:

#1) Open Start menu, type on search bar “Control Panel”

#2) once the window of control panel opened and then type “Advanced system settings” on the control panel search bar as displayed in the image below and click on it.

#3) on system properties window, click on advanced tab , click “settings” button above of “performance” section

#4) on performance options window, click on advanced tab, go to “virtual memory” section and click “change”‘

#5) windows default setting for virtual memory is automatically manage paging file size for all drives. uncheck it and checklist “custom size”‘

The initial size must be multiplied by 1.5 by the RAM you have

and the maximum size is multiplied by 3 by the RAM you have

as an example.
1 GB is equal to 1024 MB. So 8 GB is equal to 8 x 1024 = 8192 MB (multiply the rams you own by yourself, i only give one example)

Initial size : 8192 x 1.5 = 12.288
Maximum size : 8192 x 3 = 24576

once done, click set, apply, and ok and go restart if it prompted to restart.

once its done, we can go to the next step.

Tips and notifications are a feature of Windows, some says enabling notification works on background and consumes a hefty amount of system speed. i cant tell if its confirmed or not which you can decide it by your own. but back in windows xp, vista, 7 and 8.1 era, notification system never been exists and shouldnt be an important things to be worry of.

but either way, you can follow the steps listed below to turn off tips and notifications :

#1) Click on start and then click on “Settings” as displayed in the image below:

#2) A window will open, as displayed in the image below. Click on “System“

#3) Click on “Notifications & Actions” as displayed in the image below and untick all the options, and toggle “Get notifications from other apps and senders” to off.

To keep your system in the best possible condition is one of the essential things that users should always keep in mind. Therefore, you need to follow all the tips and tricks that we have mentioned in this guide to ensure that your system is in optimized condition.

In this guide, we have discussed various Windows 10 speed tweaks and we hope that the above tweaks will help you in taking out the best performance from your system to play Team Fortress 2