Hellbovine
Well-Known Member
Welcome to the Gaming Lounge.
Here you will find a collection of guides, notes, and tools for tweaking the Windows operating system, as well as gaming advice. This page contains useful information for all types of users, but it is geared more towards gamers and people seeking high performance. As such, this is not a thread for those looking to discuss domains or security, because in general those topics do not apply to the majority of home users and/or are not focused on performance.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for Windows or gaming, instead I am offering advice for curious users to try, based on what I have personally settled on after spending 30 years on computers and from reading hundreds of articles on the topic.
GUIDE: NTLITE FOR BEGINNERS
GUIDE: INSTALLING WINDOWS
GUIDE: OPTIMIZED IMAGE
GUIDE: DPC LATENCY
GUIDE: QUALITY CONTROL
GUIDE: DEFAULT RESOURCE USAGE
GUIDE: START MENU AND TASKBAR
GUIDE: PAUSE WINDOWS UPDATES
GUIDE: OPTIMIZING CORTANA
DIRECTX (DX) RUNTIMES
VISUAL C++ RUNTIMES
BEST WINDOWS FOR GAMING
BENCHMARKING
GAMING LAPTOPS
GAMING PERFORMANCE
HUMAN PERFORMANCE
ABOUT ME
Here you will find a collection of guides, notes, and tools for tweaking the Windows operating system, as well as gaming advice. This page contains useful information for all types of users, but it is geared more towards gamers and people seeking high performance. As such, this is not a thread for those looking to discuss domains or security, because in general those topics do not apply to the majority of home users and/or are not focused on performance.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for Windows or gaming, instead I am offering advice for curious users to try, based on what I have personally settled on after spending 30 years on computers and from reading hundreds of articles on the topic.
GUIDE: NTLITE FOR BEGINNERS
How to get started with the NTLite program:
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-ntlite-for-beginners.2979/
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-ntlite-for-beginners.2979/
GUIDE: INSTALLING WINDOWS
How to install Windows and update drivers:
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-installing-windows.2986/
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-installing-windows.2986/
GUIDE: OPTIMIZED IMAGE
How to make a customized Windows install for high performance:
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-optimized-image.2990/
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-optimized-image.2990/
GUIDE: DPC LATENCY
How to identify and troubleshoot DPC latency issues:
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-dpc-latency.3274/
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-dpc-latency.3274/
GUIDE: QUALITY CONTROL
How to be more efficient in your Windows tweaking:
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-quality-control.3010/
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-quality-control.3010/
GUIDE: DEFAULT RESOURCE USAGE
Information about the overhead of Windows 10:
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-default-resource-usage.2761/
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-default-resource-usage.2761/
GUIDE: START MENU AND TASKBAR
How to remove ads and sponsored apps from a Windows install:
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-start-menu-and-taskbar.2794/
Note: these tweaks are already included in the "Optimized Image" guide.
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-start-menu-and-taskbar.2794/
Note: these tweaks are already included in the "Optimized Image" guide.
GUIDE: PAUSE WINDOWS UPDATES
How to pause updates for any amount of time:
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-pause-windows-updates.2897/
Note: these tweaks are already included in the "Optimized Image" guide.
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-pause-windows-updates.2897/
Note: these tweaks are already included in the "Optimized Image" guide.
GUIDE: OPTIMIZING CORTANA
How to optimize Cortana without breaking the operating system:
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-optimizing-cortana.3215/
Note: these tweaks are already included in the "Optimized Image" guide.
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/guide-optimizing-cortana.3215/
Note: these tweaks are already included in the "Optimized Image" guide.
DIRECTX (DX) RUNTIMES
The following package must be manually installed on all Windows since it is not included by default, and is especially important for gamers. This package contains "optional" components that are actually mandatory for a lot of games and game related software to function properly.
DX9 June 2010 redistributable:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109
DX9 June 2010 redistributable:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109
VISUAL C++ RUNTIMES
The following package must be manually installed on all Windows since it is not included by default, and is especially important for gamers. This package contains files that are mandatory for a lot of games and other tools to function properly.
C++ 2015-2022 (32-bit):
https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x86.exe
C++ 2015-2022 (64-bit):
https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe
Documentation:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist
Note: if you are on a 64-bit Windows you will need to install both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions, however 32-bit Windows only need the 32-bit version.
C++ 2015-2022 (32-bit):
https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x86.exe
C++ 2015-2022 (64-bit):
https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe
Documentation:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist
Note: if you are on a 64-bit Windows you will need to install both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions, however 32-bit Windows only need the 32-bit version.
BEST WINDOWS FOR GAMING
If you are a gamer then the first thing you need to know is that Microsoft seems to have gotten a lot of other companies onboard with their end of life road map. Anti-cheat software is now dropping support for versions of Windows that are no longer supported by Microsoft. This alone is a big enough reason to move on from an older Windows 10, such as 1809, 1903, or any other outdated edition.
You will eventually find yourself unable to play your favorite games if your Windows is not supported. Anti-cheat is not the only ones doing this either, Battle.net dropped support for older operating systems, even though most of their games were designed for them. This is "planned obsolescence" and it is happening in a lot of places right now, and growing at a rapid pace.
In addition to that, I do not recommend using any new operating system that just released, which in this case is Windows 11. The reason is because it takes several years for operating systems to mature, as well as for drivers and other 3rd party software to adapt.
At this point in time I recommend Windows 10 21H2 (also called the November 2021 update):
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
Note: version 22H2 has released and the Microsoft ISO link will point to that now, but 22H2 is very buggy and should not be used (link1, link2), so you will have to use a 3rd party resource to download the 21H2 ISO, such as the Rufus tool.
You will eventually find yourself unable to play your favorite games if your Windows is not supported. Anti-cheat is not the only ones doing this either, Battle.net dropped support for older operating systems, even though most of their games were designed for them. This is "planned obsolescence" and it is happening in a lot of places right now, and growing at a rapid pace.
In addition to that, I do not recommend using any new operating system that just released, which in this case is Windows 11. The reason is because it takes several years for operating systems to mature, as well as for drivers and other 3rd party software to adapt.
At this point in time I recommend Windows 10 21H2 (also called the November 2021 update):
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
Note: version 22H2 has released and the Microsoft ISO link will point to that now, but 22H2 is very buggy and should not be used (link1, link2), so you will have to use a 3rd party resource to download the 21H2 ISO, such as the Rufus tool.
BENCHMARKING
The internet has so much misinformation regarding computers, and the reality is a lot of tweaks that people use do not apply to their operating system, which means it does nothing (though the person will claim it is a good tweak), or the tweak does apply and actually decreases performance.
This is because most gamers just go by how their computer "feels" rather than doing proper benchmarks or actual testing. It is common for gamers to blindly apply a bunch of random tweaks and scripts from the internet, and then the placebo effect makes them feel good since they think they got this advice from a professional. The takeaway here is to always test everything, or at least see if someone else did and take a look at that data.
This is because most gamers just go by how their computer "feels" rather than doing proper benchmarks or actual testing. It is common for gamers to blindly apply a bunch of random tweaks and scripts from the internet, and then the placebo effect makes them feel good since they think they got this advice from a professional. The takeaway here is to always test everything, or at least see if someone else did and take a look at that data.
GAMING LAPTOPS
If you are a gamer then you are wasting your time playing on a laptop, you will never find high-end performance on a laptop, period. A desktop computer can be built at a fraction of the price and will always outperform the best “gaming” laptop there is. There is a reason graphics cards nowadays are literally the same size as a small laptop, you just cannot fit all of that performance into a paper-thin device.
There is also a lot of other hidden issues in laptops too, such as the thermal drivers, lack of bios options, and other types of throttling which will happen no matter how much you tweak things, not to mention overheating issues since they just do not have the active cooling capabilities of a desktop. These concerns also introduce a lot of DPC latency that many times cannot be avoided. Overall, it just is not worth it, and I am truly sorry if you got talked into buying a "gaming" laptop, because no such thing exists, it is just marketing hype.
If you need a laptop for everyday browsing and general office work, then save yourself the Windows headache and buy a Chromebook, since Chrome OS is infinitely lighter than Windows in terms of bloat and resource usage. Plus, Chromebooks are extremely cheap to own and super easy to maintain.
There is also a lot of other hidden issues in laptops too, such as the thermal drivers, lack of bios options, and other types of throttling which will happen no matter how much you tweak things, not to mention overheating issues since they just do not have the active cooling capabilities of a desktop. These concerns also introduce a lot of DPC latency that many times cannot be avoided. Overall, it just is not worth it, and I am truly sorry if you got talked into buying a "gaming" laptop, because no such thing exists, it is just marketing hype.
If you need a laptop for everyday browsing and general office work, then save yourself the Windows headache and buy a Chromebook, since Chrome OS is infinitely lighter than Windows in terms of bloat and resource usage. Plus, Chromebooks are extremely cheap to own and super easy to maintain.
GAMING PERFORMANCE
We need to talk about what tweaking is and is not. There are way too many misconceptions out there about how to improve gaming performance, and many people are looking at a lot of it the wrong way.
The few ways to improve performance are through updating firmware and drivers, adjusting a game's config files, optimizing Windows, overclocking, and buying faster hardware. Let us breakdown each of these topics.
1) Firmware and drivers fix bugs and add support so that hardware works as intended, and it is as simple as making sure things are always updated to see those benefits.
2) Many game engines are unoptimized and your gameplay can be improved by tweaking hidden settings in the config files, but every game requires its own guide on that topic.
3) Optimizing Windows is where we get into trouble, because there is so much misinformation out there, but the main takeaway about Windows tweaking is that you are not going to see increased framerates. Instead, what we are doing is reducing the overhead of Windows so that it stops interfering with games, which it does heavily by default.
Tweaks will not result in another 50 frames being added to your maximum framerate or something like that, what they will provide though is stability in what is called "1% lows" and in "DPC latency". In other words, the minimum framerate is what gets improved, which in many cases is actually more important than the maximum framerate.
It does not do you any good to have a framerate that fluctuates wildly, as that will result in a ton of stuttering/hitching/micro-stutter or whatever you want to call it. Instability is very noticeable and it takes enjoyment out of the game and negatively affects your ability to compete against others.
Minimum framerate is what consoles (Playstation, Xbox) are all about. Most games on consoles only run at maximum caps of 30 or 60 frames per second, which is atrocious by PC standards. But they get away with it, and most people do not notice just how bad it is because they are very stable framerates, thanks to lightweight, custom operating systems. If a game is running at 30 frames on a console, it will only fluctuate down to as low as 25 in a heavy action scene and you do not notice the low framerate because it is so stable overall.
All of the Windows operating systems after XP became very heavy on resources and it causes those fluctuations because there is so much overhead and background activity going on all the time. Once you calm down Windows with enough tweaks you can maintain a stable framerate much easier.
4) Overclocking the processor, memory, or graphics will give noticeable improvements, but at the cost of a lot of added heat, and as such it is not recommended on air cooling, since it is not worth the decreased life span that comes from excess heat.
5) Buying new hardware is self-explanatory, it is just expensive, and so most gamers cannot afford to have the best stuff and instead need to spend time optimizing other things to make up for the lack of firepower from their hardware.
The few ways to improve performance are through updating firmware and drivers, adjusting a game's config files, optimizing Windows, overclocking, and buying faster hardware. Let us breakdown each of these topics.
1) Firmware and drivers fix bugs and add support so that hardware works as intended, and it is as simple as making sure things are always updated to see those benefits.
2) Many game engines are unoptimized and your gameplay can be improved by tweaking hidden settings in the config files, but every game requires its own guide on that topic.
3) Optimizing Windows is where we get into trouble, because there is so much misinformation out there, but the main takeaway about Windows tweaking is that you are not going to see increased framerates. Instead, what we are doing is reducing the overhead of Windows so that it stops interfering with games, which it does heavily by default.
Tweaks will not result in another 50 frames being added to your maximum framerate or something like that, what they will provide though is stability in what is called "1% lows" and in "DPC latency". In other words, the minimum framerate is what gets improved, which in many cases is actually more important than the maximum framerate.
It does not do you any good to have a framerate that fluctuates wildly, as that will result in a ton of stuttering/hitching/micro-stutter or whatever you want to call it. Instability is very noticeable and it takes enjoyment out of the game and negatively affects your ability to compete against others.
Minimum framerate is what consoles (Playstation, Xbox) are all about. Most games on consoles only run at maximum caps of 30 or 60 frames per second, which is atrocious by PC standards. But they get away with it, and most people do not notice just how bad it is because they are very stable framerates, thanks to lightweight, custom operating systems. If a game is running at 30 frames on a console, it will only fluctuate down to as low as 25 in a heavy action scene and you do not notice the low framerate because it is so stable overall.
All of the Windows operating systems after XP became very heavy on resources and it causes those fluctuations because there is so much overhead and background activity going on all the time. Once you calm down Windows with enough tweaks you can maintain a stable framerate much easier.
4) Overclocking the processor, memory, or graphics will give noticeable improvements, but at the cost of a lot of added heat, and as such it is not recommended on air cooling, since it is not worth the decreased life span that comes from excess heat.
5) Buying new hardware is self-explanatory, it is just expensive, and so most gamers cannot afford to have the best stuff and instead need to spend time optimizing other things to make up for the lack of firepower from their hardware.
HUMAN PERFORMANCE
There is kind of a sixth section related to the gaming performance topic above, but it is related to human performance instead. There are some things you can tweak or buy which provide advantages, but you might not see them manifest in a benchmark or other tool.
An example of this could be something like turning off the Windows mouse "enhance pointer precision" option which is on by default. Why? Because in the background what this is actually doing is adding what is called "mouse acceleration" and that can be a problem for a few reasons. Most notably though, is that it messes with your muscle memory in games, especially first person shooters.
Something that pro gamers will often do is to actually lower their mouse speed (only tweak that in-game, do not use Windows settings because it causes acceleration to turn on). This is usually the opposite of what people think, and a lot of players will crank mouse sensitivity up high, but by turning down the mouse sensitivity it helps to control things like weapon recoil for example, making it far easier to use automatic guns. It is something that you definitely need to try for a week or two and give yourself time to adjust, but once you do it will be game changing.
A similar tip is to get a mouse with a higher polling rate (500 Mhz or 1000 Mhz is plenty), but do not get sucked into the marketing hype for numbers above that. A higher polling rate causes the mouse to update faster, and it is quite noticeable over a traditional 125 Mhz mouse. I personally like the Razer Abyssus because it has no drivers to install, which means less overhead and bugs to deal with. On a related note, always use wired mice, as there is extra input lag in wireless devices. I would also recommend a black cloth mouse pad, without graphics, otherwise the raised glossy/gritty graphic design can an issue sometimes for the sensor or in the drag on the mouse.
Your keyboard and monitor are in the same camp as the mouse. Higher refresh rates on monitors help gamers see and react better, and using a mechanical keyboard along with something called "n-key rollover" is a major advantage over a traditional keyboard. I have a Deck Legend with a PS/2 connector (not USB) because it is the only way you can have full n-key rollover, which means I can mash my hand down on it and every single key will register.
N-key rollover is important, because you can only press a few keys simultaneously on a USB keyboard. Now think about how that applies to a first person shooter, you are trying to run diagonally forward, which requires two keys being pressed, then you are dolphin diving by pressing jump and prone while also pressing the run key, as well as trying to reload and throw a frag grenade, then melee someone who pops out of nowhere, all while accidentally pressing other keys like caps lock. A traditional keyboard starts to ignore most of your key-presses and stops sending those signals to your computer because it does not have n-key rollover. These are the kinds of secret tidbits worth learning about.
An example of this could be something like turning off the Windows mouse "enhance pointer precision" option which is on by default. Why? Because in the background what this is actually doing is adding what is called "mouse acceleration" and that can be a problem for a few reasons. Most notably though, is that it messes with your muscle memory in games, especially first person shooters.
Something that pro gamers will often do is to actually lower their mouse speed (only tweak that in-game, do not use Windows settings because it causes acceleration to turn on). This is usually the opposite of what people think, and a lot of players will crank mouse sensitivity up high, but by turning down the mouse sensitivity it helps to control things like weapon recoil for example, making it far easier to use automatic guns. It is something that you definitely need to try for a week or two and give yourself time to adjust, but once you do it will be game changing.
A similar tip is to get a mouse with a higher polling rate (500 Mhz or 1000 Mhz is plenty), but do not get sucked into the marketing hype for numbers above that. A higher polling rate causes the mouse to update faster, and it is quite noticeable over a traditional 125 Mhz mouse. I personally like the Razer Abyssus because it has no drivers to install, which means less overhead and bugs to deal with. On a related note, always use wired mice, as there is extra input lag in wireless devices. I would also recommend a black cloth mouse pad, without graphics, otherwise the raised glossy/gritty graphic design can an issue sometimes for the sensor or in the drag on the mouse.
Your keyboard and monitor are in the same camp as the mouse. Higher refresh rates on monitors help gamers see and react better, and using a mechanical keyboard along with something called "n-key rollover" is a major advantage over a traditional keyboard. I have a Deck Legend with a PS/2 connector (not USB) because it is the only way you can have full n-key rollover, which means I can mash my hand down on it and every single key will register.
N-key rollover is important, because you can only press a few keys simultaneously on a USB keyboard. Now think about how that applies to a first person shooter, you are trying to run diagonally forward, which requires two keys being pressed, then you are dolphin diving by pressing jump and prone while also pressing the run key, as well as trying to reload and throw a frag grenade, then melee someone who pops out of nowhere, all while accidentally pressing other keys like caps lock. A traditional keyboard starts to ignore most of your key-presses and stops sending those signals to your computer because it does not have n-key rollover. These are the kinds of secret tidbits worth learning about.
ABOUT ME
I have been a gamer and computer enthusiast for the last 30 years. I started on DOS at a young age, playing games like Doom and other fun things. Eventually that evolved into Diablo 2 where I took my gaming handle from the secret cow level.
I really got into tweaking computers when I first got started playing the Call of Duty game series. This first person shooter not only stressed the need for high performance due to more demanding visuals, but how well your computer performed also happened to be tied directly into how well you the player are able to perform, and so the never-ending quest for low latency and high framerates was born.
As the years went on I started to get into competitive gaming. I joined a few different clans and we competed on Team Warfare League, where we managed to do well in a few places, reaching rank #1 in North America on a couple of ladders. I also placed on the top boards in some Diablo 3 season ladders, but that place was overrun with botters so I dropped out early on.
It became too hard for me to stay competitive as I progressed further in college, got married, had kids, and so forth. Instead, I used my free time to continue learning about computers, and having fun doing what the gaming nerds refer to as "pub stomping" which is when players of a high skill level hop into random public games and dominate the scoreboards.
My favorite moments were in Modern Warfare and Black Ops, I had a few games with scores of like 180 kills with 10 deaths, and some 30-0 free for all games, and so forth. It became a meta game to get high kill-to-death ratios. As a result I got banned from a lot of servers, and I would save screenshots of each ban as a personal trophy. The reason was always some form of "suspected cheating", but there was of course never any cheating going on. That was one of the ups and downs of having “dedicated servers” which is where individual people rent or own the game server, and moderators can just ban people for any reason.
What is my point to all of this? Well, my goal now as an old fart is to pass on all the knowledge I learned over the years to the newbies out there. I want to teach them all of the stuff that I had to learn the hard way, so they can spend more time dominating in their games, rather than troubleshooting things. I want to try and create a page here where people can come to learn a few things, get an optimized version of Windows installed, and then just login to their favorite game and kick butt.
I really got into tweaking computers when I first got started playing the Call of Duty game series. This first person shooter not only stressed the need for high performance due to more demanding visuals, but how well your computer performed also happened to be tied directly into how well you the player are able to perform, and so the never-ending quest for low latency and high framerates was born.
As the years went on I started to get into competitive gaming. I joined a few different clans and we competed on Team Warfare League, where we managed to do well in a few places, reaching rank #1 in North America on a couple of ladders. I also placed on the top boards in some Diablo 3 season ladders, but that place was overrun with botters so I dropped out early on.
It became too hard for me to stay competitive as I progressed further in college, got married, had kids, and so forth. Instead, I used my free time to continue learning about computers, and having fun doing what the gaming nerds refer to as "pub stomping" which is when players of a high skill level hop into random public games and dominate the scoreboards.
My favorite moments were in Modern Warfare and Black Ops, I had a few games with scores of like 180 kills with 10 deaths, and some 30-0 free for all games, and so forth. It became a meta game to get high kill-to-death ratios. As a result I got banned from a lot of servers, and I would save screenshots of each ban as a personal trophy. The reason was always some form of "suspected cheating", but there was of course never any cheating going on. That was one of the ups and downs of having “dedicated servers” which is where individual people rent or own the game server, and moderators can just ban people for any reason.
What is my point to all of this? Well, my goal now as an old fart is to pass on all the knowledge I learned over the years to the newbies out there. I want to teach them all of the stuff that I had to learn the hard way, so they can spend more time dominating in their games, rather than troubleshooting things. I want to try and create a page here where people can come to learn a few things, get an optimized version of Windows installed, and then just login to their favorite game and kick butt.
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