Casual Gamer and Windows 11

B

Brutser

New Member
Hi all,

I know all you gaming enthusiasts are already trying to create the ultimate gaming preset for NTLite, but what if you are a casual gamer, playing some known RPG games like The Witcher series, Tomb Raider, Unchartered etc. and you are only playing maybe a few times per month.
I just wanted to ask all you experts, what would you add/change to the default Windows 11 installation, things that you say are really needed to get a decent gaming experience on Windows 11 - with that I mean almost critical things, so I am not talking about more FPS and also the desktop system has decent specs (AM5 latest with 4060ti), so there is no real need to free resources on the system (yes I know, that is the whole fun with NTLite, still I really care for some advice).

Thanks!
 
Personally, if you are a casual gamer with no issues regarding lag, amongst other things, then i would stick with a 'vanilla' install of windows.

Most people here, altho, most are gamers, are using the program to debloat their windows ( just remove things they know they won't use) .
So to each individual person, their choices of what they would add or remove will be subject to difference.

It is more of a , what suits you - suits you.

I know when i debloat, i remove programs that i don't use. not for a FPS thing or anything like that, it's just i have no use for it on my system. Of anything, it is more of a smaller install footprint, even tho i have more than enough storage space.
 
As a hardcore gamer of many years, if I had to sit down on a default install of any Windows and only had about 5 minutes to prepare before a game, the things I would do is set the power plan to High performance, disable Indexer, Sysmain, OneDrive, Defender, Firewall, Store's automated downloads, and pause Windows Update. All of this could even be put into a batch file to easily toggle everything on/off.

The higher power plans unlock the CPU's potential by removing limiters that Microsoft puts on it to be energy friendly. Indexer, Sysmain, OneDrive, Store, and Widows Update do intense background work, which greatly raises DPC latency, resource usage, and bandwidth. Defender and Firewall behave similarly, but can also block game files and internet communication as well.

Instead of disabling Defender/Firewall, one could add exceptions for the games and there will still be some potential interference remaining, but for users that value security it's the best alternative. The BIOS offers performance boosts too, by disabling most power savings and overclocking novelties, such as C1E, speedstep, and turboboost, because a CPU running at a consistant pace produces far less DPC latency--the key to successful gaming.
 
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Taosd yes, probably a little debloat just the most annoying stuff and not get into the finetuning too much, as this can get so much time consuming and will not be needed for what I do with it.
Hellbovine Ok, some good things I did not even think about tbh - perhaps there are some registry tweaks in that to automate it?

I guess any libraries needed are usually installed by the games right? There is no real need to do that beforehand, right?

Any other simple tweaks are appreciated if anyone more can give some input ! Thanks already so far.
 
I am a System Administrator and a casual photographer and gamer, and I only customize Windows 11 for business use (for office users who do not want to see any "Gaming" functionality in Windows 11).

I have at home a modest system (Ryzen 5 7600x, GeForce 4070 Super 12GB and 64GB RAM) and plays The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur's Gate, Forza Horizon 5, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade, etc. As far as I know, Windows 11 is a great OS by itself for gaming, and you do not get a lot of benefits by modifying the OS without worrying of breaking stuff. Since you are not interested in FPS, I would not suggest you add Ryzen Master and GeForce Experience to optimize your system for gaming.

If you are sure that you won't be using Xbox or PC Game Pass functions (e.g., if you only play Steam games), you may remove the whole gaming section in Windows 11. But be aware that you probably cannot get it back without reinstalling the whole system.
 
Xbox components can be reinstalled on a live system, because they're Appx packages. I know because some gamers insist on using LTSC or Enterprise, and often ask how can they install missing Xbox and Store apps.
 
Annie Ng the reply I was hoping for, from a similar user :) I am such an unexperienced gamer, that I don't even know what I would use the Xbox or PC Game Pass in Windows for, so yes, I have my games in Steam and EA software only, but maybe that of course can change in the future.
I also agree with not modifying the OS too much, because it can break things as you say. My system is even more modest, with the same configuration, except a 4060ti and 32GB RAM.
I saw this 'trick' to install Windows 11 with English (World) and this prevents the installation of all the bloatware, I thought of using that instead of using NTLite to modify the installation files too much.
What else do you do to customize for business use?
My thoughts right now are just do the vanilla install with that 'trick' and most of the drivers integrated and not a lot more.
 
Brutser said:
Annie Ng the reply I was hoping for, from a similar user :) I am such an unexperienced gamer, that I don't even know what I would use the Xbox or PC Game Pass in Windows for, so yes, I have my games in Steam and EA software only, but maybe that of course can change in the future.
I also agree with not modifying the OS too much, because it can break things as you say. My system is even more modest, with the same configuration, except a 4060ti and 32GB RAM.
I saw this 'trick' to install Windows 11 with English (World) and this prevents the installation of all the bloatware, I thought of using that instead of using NTLite to modify the installation files too much.
What else do you do to customize for business use?
My thoughts right now are just do the vanilla install with that 'trick' and most of the drivers integrated and not a lot more.
Click to expand...
Hi Brutser, that "trick" just disables creation of shortcuts in Windows, and I am sorry to say that it does not "debloat" your Windows.

Xbox on Windows is just like Steam, it has some exclusive games (such as "Nier: Automata Become As Gods Edition"), and quite often it gives good deals (e.g., you may apply for "PC Game Pass" and play Forza Horizon 5 like forever, and just purchase the Deluxe add-on to get premium cars.). So I do not suggest your remove anything related XBox as they may be useful to you later on.

There are obvious components that can be safely removed via NTLite, and they are mostly marked as "Green" or "Blue" items. Examples are Retail Demo, Legacy Edge (the non-Chromium one), Internet Explorer, and Cache items. You may experiment with the green and blue items as a start, but I usually do not touch yellow or red items.

Please note that these removals of deprecated components may secure your OS a little bit and may reduce the footprint of Windows by a few hundred MBs, but in this era that games occupy tens of GBs, the space savings are virtually negligible, and the removals generally do not provide any performance benefits in games.

For adding software in Windows, I think "out-of-box" driver support for your GPU is one nice-to-have item. You may include the Nvidia driver in Post-Setup and install it in Silent Mode, and you can learn how NTLite handles Post-Setup software installations. A reference on how to install Nvidia drivers silently is provided from the Nvidia support site.

Good Luck~
 
Annie Ng Ok, I will need to find what is needed for my setup and what I expect from it and find the way that works for me. Thanks for your input and all future advice from anyone is welcomed of course.
I understand that the Nvidia drivers cannot be integrated and it's better to do a post-setup install as you mentioned? The amd chipset and igpu drivers (adrenalin) I integrated and seem to work fine.
I will need to check on XBox on Windows and maybe the good deals will tempt me to try it also :cool:
 
There's only one way you'll really gain any gaming performance, and it's because the OS you're on right now is so bloated that it's becoming a problem. And believe me, I've neutered windows so much that it was barely operational. I was so crazy about this early on, after I launched the game I would open task manager and end task on explorer. I had Windows 10 down to 40 processes running while not doing anything and using only 1.0 gb ram.

I find now the biggest benefit of tweaking windows is performance stability. Not letting anything run on its own when it wants to my computer operates the same all the time. Windows Defender is notorious for this. It doesn't care what you're doing. I don't condone this, but I haven't run any av/pc scanner/malware on my computer in 8 years. But I've spent so much time tweaking, I know what everything is. It's easy for me to spot a weird proccess or cpu utilization that's out of the ordinary. And again. I don't think anyone should not use an av. But....just sayin...any linux os doesn't have one...Windows Update should be illegal. Microsoft breaks updates consistantly, and don't get me started on driver updates.

People believe that by removing/disabling things it's going to be some magic potion that'll gain them 100 fps. I wish the latency mon thing would fall off the internet. That program is made for monitoring the time it takes for things to go through your hardware. It's strictly for audio. Again...unless you have something that's causing an issue, trying to minimize latency mon isn't going to gain you anything. There's proper latency tools for gaming and unless you can develop your own drivers for your gpu, mouse, and chipset, there isn't much you can do about system latency besides going to faster hardware.
 
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