In the security reg file, the control flow guard does have a key underneath it, there should be like 7 comments ontop of a key, that's because that key is the configuration for all of those comments stacked above it.
The issue you're having though is that I think GamerOS uninstalls defender as well as security center, and that's why you cannot toggle it. Like I said before if you use that preset it will uninstall components completely, and you lose functionality. You need to uncheck the windows defender component from the GamerOS preset xml.
Basically this isn't my issue, it's that preset's issue, so you'll have to troubleshoot in that thread.
Yes. So once you have Defender installed again by unchecking it from the GamerOS xml, and then making a new image, you can delete that key you just posted from the .reg file and Windows will then use the default values for those 7 settings, which would turn CFG back on.
Or, you could leave the .reg file as-is if you're seeking the most performance possible, and then just re-enable the features you need, such as CFG. And that can be done easily by going into the Security Center after Windows is installed and simply changing the CFG setting to "Use default".
Yes. So once you have Defender installed again by unchecking it from the GamerOS xml, and then making a new image, you can delete that key you just posted from the .reg file and Windows will then use the default values for those 7 settings, which would turn CFG back on.
Or, you could leave the .reg file as-is if you're seeking the most performance possible, and then just re-enable the features you need, such as CFG. And that can be done easily by just going into the Security Center after Windows is installed and simply changing the CFG setting to "Use default".
Keep in mind for WSL you also need a few other things. Virtualization in your BIOS must be enabled, and there's probably some other virtualization settings in the GamerOS that will need unchecking too. But I don't know what all components deal with that, so some of the guys familiar with that preset will have to help you.
Keep in mind for WSL you also need a few other things. Virtualization in your BIOS must be enabled, and there's probably some other virtualization settings in the GamerOS that will need unchecking too. But I don't know what all components deal with that, so some of the guys familiar with that preset will have to help you.
its been many days now i have been working with this preset now finally when i added these tweeks reg files wsl2 stopped working ...so from there i went and found the solution regarding CFG ...
if i dont include these reg it works so that means i have everything else included ... il figure this out as well but will keep ur tweeks too
its been many days now i have been working with this preset now finally when i added these tweeks reg files wsl2 stopped working ...so from there i went and found the solution regarding CFG ...
if i dont include these reg it works so that means i have everything else included ... il figure this out as well but will keep ur tweeks too
Hrm. Well if that's the case it's very interesting, because we had a discussion in another thread about how uninstalling Defender should not uninstall Security Center too, and NTLite needs to split out Security Center because people are losing access to be able to toggle important settings from a user interface.
The reason this matters is because I think a lot of people are under the assumption that if Defender/Security Center are uninstalled, then all the features that they handle, such as CFG would be disabled too. It sounds like this may not be the case, which would be a big deal for people looking to maximize performance.
Try this out. Manually go into the registry and find that key you posted:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\kernel]
Then right-click on MitigationOptions and delete it. Reboot the computer, and CFG should be enabled, since all of those options will reset to default.
Hrm. Well if that's the case it's very interesting, because we had a discussion in another thread about how uninstalling Defender should not uninstall Security Center too, and NTLite needs to split out Security Center because people are losing access to be able to toggle important settings from a user interface.
The reason this matters is because I think a lot of people are under the assumption that if Defender/Security Center are uninstalled, then all the features that they handle, such as CFG would be disabled too. It sounds like this may not be the case, which would be a big deal for people looking to maximize performance.
Try this out. Manually go into the registry and find that key you posted:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\kernel]
Then right-click on MitigationOptions and delete it. Reboot the computer, and CFG should be enabled, since all of those options will reset to default.
This is a guide that walks users through the entire process of creating an optimized Windows 10 install using NTLite, designed for everyday users, power-users, and gamers alike.
Windows 10 version 21H2 (November 2021 Update) is recommended, since it is the latest, supported version, and there are no gaurantees that all of these tweaks here will work on other editions. Please do not reply to this thread with issues you have created for yourself by choosing to use a different version of Windows, or because you went off course from this guide's instructions. Instead, create a new thread to ask for help in those circumstances.
If you are a gamer you do not really have many options nowadays, Microsoft has managed to get more companies onboard with their end of life roadmap, and many gaming anti-cheat software and game platforms (Blizzard.net, etcetera) are dropping support not only for older operating systems (XP, Vista, etcetera), but even dropping older Windows 10 editions, such as 1809, 1903, and so forth. By "dropping support" it means your games literally will not load anymore. For example, you cannot play Diablo 3 single player on your PC using an unsupported operating system, even though it was working before, because the launchers were intentionally updated to force it to fail.
On that note I also do not recommend using Windows 11, as it is too new, and all operating systems take several years to mature and become stable, which includes waiting for 3rd party software, games, and drivers to mature as well.
Lastly, we need to define what "optimized" means. This customized operating system is unlike most others you will find on the internet, for a few reasons:
- It does not focus on component removals, instead it uses registry keys. The benefit here is substantial, because this method ensures that nothing "breaks" in Windows, since all of the keys are the same official methods that Microsoft themselves would use to tweak something (meaning they can be reversed). No apps have been uninstalled, everything works, it is just much faster and better on resource usage, with annoyances removed, thus improving the user-experience. In other words, Microsoft could release a "Gaming" edition of Windows 10, and this is potentially what it could look like.
- Every individual key has been meticulously tested to ensure that they actually work for this operating system and version. They also all "stick" in a clean install and do not get overwritten by the automated processes that happen silently in the background. This is a big deal, because so many tweaks on the internet are bad, meaning more often than not the person peddling those tweaks did not test them, they did not try integrating them into an image, and did not benchmark them. Instead, they just claim that performance is improved by how it "feels" which is really just the placebo effect in most instances.
- This image was purposely constructed in a modular way, meaning you can take bits and pieces from it, or you could take the whole guide and actually layer it ontop of other custom NTLite images. This means someone using a built-in NTLite preset, or their own custom preset they have already spent a bunch of time working on, can still follow this guide and add all of these tweaks to further enhance their image.
Note: this is version 1.0 as of August 23rd, 2022, and includes 584 total registry keys. It took 8 months of about 20 hours a week to work through all of this, and I already have version 2.0 and 3.0 planned out, with heaps of other tweaks that I need more time to thoroughly vet before I can update this guide. Because proper testing is so time consuming, a new version will probably take at least a few months or more. If anyone discovers any mistakes or issues then I will fix those and update the guide with a minor version change, such as 1.1 to represent that.
STEP 1: GETTING STARTED
Before you begin, check that you have everything you need in advance.
1A) Download the files attached to this post. The "Screenshots" folder is an optional download, it just contains a few images showing the resource monitor and LatencyMon results. Compared to a stock Windows 10 21H2 install, this optimized image has 17% fewer processes, 34% fewer threads, 23% fewer handles, reduced memory usage by 300 MB, and a whole lot of tweaks that improve the user-experience which do not really have a way to be measured by a tool. The other folder is "Tweaks" and it contains the XML and registry files you will need to create this image. After downloading the folders, right-click on them and "Extract all", choose a destination, and then "Finish". Afterwards, delete the original zipped folders.
1B) Exit out of all open programs and reboot.
1C) Temporarily disable any antivirus programs, such as Defender (it slows down NTLite).
1D) Right-click on NTLite and select "Run as administrator".
1E) In NTLite, click on "File" then "Check for updates" and update NTLite by choosing the "Update" button below the "Tool" section. If it is greyed out then you are on the latest version already.
1F) Once NTLite is finished updating then proceed below.
STEP 2: CLEAN START MENU, LIVE TILES, AND TASKBAR
This step prevents all of the "bloat" from getting installed, such as links to trial products, games and apps you did not ask to download (Candy Crush), and other ads and sponsored services designed to get you to spend money. You can still use live tiles and customize that panel, this tweak just cleans up the stuff that many users do not like.
2A) Load an unmodified, official, Windows 10 21H2 image into NTLite by going to "Add" then choosing "Image directory" and pointing to the Windows image you want to use, then double-click on "Windows 10 Home" from within the "Image history" section to load it (if you do not have an image then check my other guides for instructions on how to create one).
2B) After the image has finished loading it automatically moves into the "Mounted images" section, which means we can begin editing. Now right-click on the "Windows 10 Home" that has a green circle and select "Explore mount directory".
2C) Left-click twice in the address bar in the blank space to the right of "NLTmpMnt01" and add the following text exactly as shown below.
Put that text at the end of the address that already exists in the text box, and then press enter and it should take you to a folder that has 1 file inside.
2D) Next, copy and paste the custom DefaultLayouts.xml and LayoutModification.xml files that you downloaded earlier into this mounted Shell directory, choose the option to "Replace" when prompted, and then hit "Continue" on both screens to approve the action.
2E) Exit the mounted Shell window.
STEP 3: IMPORT NTLITE REGISTRY FILE FOR REAPPLY
This registry file is going to be integrated into all four parts of the Windows image (Install, PE, Setup, Recovery) which changes the default power plan from Balanced to High performance in each of those. This greatly increases the speed at which Windows will install, reducing the total install time by about 50%. This also fixes a bug in Windows, which causes certain older SSDs to hang or be extremely slow during the install process.
3A) Click "Registry" from the left menu, then "Add", choose "Registry files" and then select the Reg_0_NTLite file you downloaded earlier and NTLite will update to show that those keys were added.
STEP 4: UNINSTALL COMPONENTS
This step is optional, but I strongly urge everyone to do it anyway. Here we are removing the only component in this guide, OneDrive. There are several reasons to do this, the biggest one being that it is a resource hog, and because it is not integrated into Windows, instead it is a standalone installer that does not actually install until the first user is created.
Even if you want to use OneDrive, it is still best to remove this outdated installer and go download the latest version to install manually, after Windows is installed. I still cannot recommend that action though, because it is also faster and better overall for users to directly access the OneDrive cloud via their web browser, than to use the app. The app just adds unecessary resource usage to the background of Windows, eats up internet bandwidth, and you will inevitably experience syncing issues and/or file corruption, it just makes more sense to adjust how you use it than it does to try and optimize this unecessary app.
Note: the removal of OneDrive is one of the features that require the purchase of a license for NTLite, and it is more than worth it. You are not only supporting the tremendous amount of work that has gone into the NTLite program, but you are indirectly supporting the members that spend their time trying to help others with guides like these, because as NTLite grows the community grows too. I bought a license just for OneDrive and I have no regrets.
4A) Click "Components" from the left menu, then "Remoting and Privacy", choose "Cloud Files API" and uncheck "OneDrive".
STEP 5: APPLY AND PROCESS PART ONE
At this point we are done with the first set of tweaks and ready to process this image into something we can install Windows with. You could stop here after processing, and be left with a really nice base image to do your own tweaking, or continue on through the remainder of the guide to add in the other tweaks.
5A) Click "Apply" from the left menu, expand "Reapply tasks across editions", check the box for "Integrate - Registry" and then expand it to make sure that all four boxes inside are checked.
5B) On the top left menu bar select "Process" to begin creating the customized image.
Note: it will take several minutes to process the image and a message will appear when it is complete. Also, do not try to combine this step with the remaining steps below. It is best practice to integrate registry keys after processing the removal of components, otherwise you may end up deleting some of the keys you integrated when the components get removed.
STEP 6: IMPORT REMAINING REGISTRY FILES
Now to finish up this custom image we need to load our previously processed image and add a few more layers into it.
6A) Click "Source" from the left menu, then double-click on the "Windows 10 Home" inside the "Image history" to load it again (it now includes all the previous tweaks we just did, baked in). When it is finished loading, click "Registry" from the left menu and then do the following tasks.
Below is a list of a few highlights that each of these registry files are responsible for. This is not everything, but it should give you a basic idea of what is going on at least. If you want to learn more, right-click and edit a registry file from within Windows and it will show comments on what each item inside does. If you really do not want a certain feature to be tweaked then you can delete those registry keys from the files, though I highly recommend trying everything as-is for at least a week before modifying things, so you can give this curated product a fair try and see if maybe some of the preferences rub off on you. Nothing here is slapped together, it was all very carefully crafted to create an overall better experience for Windows users, based on what I have learned after 30 years of doing this kind of thing.
Reg_1_Power: disables hibernation (saves several gigabytes of space, while still keeping sleep available), disables fast startup, converts the original High performance power plan into the equivalent of the Microsoft Ultimate power plan and the Bistum power plan combined, plus a few other additional performance improvements. While performance improved, temperatures actually decreased in this image because there is less background overhead and so the processor is not working as hard all the time.
Reg_2_Security: this file has to do with the Windows Security center app, it disables Defender, firewall, and many of the overly aggressive security features which substantially interfere with gaming, especially multiplayer games. This is where most of the bad game pings, DPC, stutter, and general game issues come from. There is a reason why older operating systems perform better, because they lack these features by default.
Reg_3_Settings: there are tons of tweaks in this file, and all of them are things that a user can toggle on/off straight from within the Windows "Settings" pages. There are a lot of settings that fix the DWM and theme management in Windows, disables syncing, disables various telemetry, pauses Windows Update until 2026 (but can still be manually resumed and paused again as desired), and so much more.
Reg_4_Control: everything inside this file has to do with settings inside the Control Panel. A lot of annoyances are disabled here, such as disabling various user tracking, cleans up some of the user interfaces, some basic keyboard and mouse tweaks for gamers, and disables the constant user account control nagging, among other changes.
Reg_5_Apps: this file contains the settings that handle all of the background apps, and stops them from running in the background for no reason except to consume resources unecessarily.
Reg_6_Other: all of the miscellaneous tweaks are here, along with a lot of the desktop/taskbar being cleaned up and made more user friendly. Also disables prefetch, disables superfetch, disables indexer, disables file compression, and a number of other tweaks to make things less annoying, more stable, or to reduce overhead.
STEP 7: APPLY AND PROCESS PART TWO
For the last step all we have to do is process the addition of those remaining registry files.
7A) Click "Apply" from the left menu, then select "Process" to begin creating the customized image.
Once NTLite has finished processing it will give a message that it is complete, then you can exit NTLite and copy these newly edited files onto a USB drive, then boot into that drive and install your custom Windows! If you are not sure how to install Windows or how to deal with drivers, then check out my other guides on that topic.
KNOWN ISSUES:
There are no known issues with this custom image, but below are some things that might be asked about.
- The Xbox Game Bar will not run when you click on it from the start menu. This is by Microsoft's design, and it is not intuitive. If you need to use the Game Bar just go to Start > Settings > Gaming > and toggle it on, and the Game Bar will now run when clicked from the start menu.
- I tried really hard to not use GPO (group policy registry keys) unless it was absolutely required because there was no other documentated way to accomplish something. In the end I had to use about a half dozen policies. This is not a bad thing, but the downside to policies is they do lock down those settings, so the user cannot toggle them on/off from within Windows. Instead the user will need to delete the policy key. In the future I will continue to work on reducing the use of policies and hopefully get rid of them all.
- On laptops, Microsft decided it was a good idea to alter the power buttons, so that instead of shutting down when "Shut down" is clicked, it silently goes to sleep instead. This is turning out to be difficult to combat, and I know that I can address it in a clean, proper way, but it is simply eating up way too much time and I needed to put it on the backburner so I could release this guide, since I was many months behind my projected finish date. This is Microsoft's issue though, not anything to do with my tweaks. Laptops are much more difficult to handle because Windows autodetects the power capabilities of laptops and overwrites several dozen settings based on that. I will fix this in a minor update or in version 2.0, but I really do not recommend anyone using Windows on a laptop to begin with. Especially if you are a gamer, there is no such thing as a gaming laptop, it is all just marketing unfortunately.
- Defender and Firewall have been disabled, but it is not as scary as some people will lead you to believe. If you use a good browser and keep it updated, but also spend time optimizing the browser settings to disable things like prefetching, autofill forms, etcetera, and practice common sense on the internet you will be fine (do not visit shady sites, do not download anything that is not from extremely reputable sources). Install a good ad-blocker though, such as uBlock Origin (I have tested them all and it is superior by far). I cannot even use the internet anymore these days without this extension, the number of ads and crap cluttering up every page is beyond obnoxious, but with this extension installed all of that is removed, including ads in things like YouTube videos. It also speeds up page loading because it prevents all that garbage from being downloaded to begin with.
This is a guide that walks users through the entire process of creating an optimized Windows 10 install using NTLite, designed for everyday users, power-users, and gamers alike.
Windows 10 version 21H2 (November 2021 Update) is recommended, since it is the latest, supported version, and there are no gaurantees that all of these tweaks here will work on other editions. Please do not reply to this thread with issues you have created for yourself by choosing to use a different version of Windows, or because you went off course from this guide's instructions. Instead, create a new thread to ask for help in those circumstances.
If you are a gamer you do not really have many options nowadays, Microsoft has managed to get more companies onboard with their end of life roadmap, and many gaming anti-cheat software and game platforms (Blizzard.net, etcetera) are dropping support not only for older operating systems (XP, Vista, etcetera), but even dropping older Windows 10 editions, such as 1809, 1903, and so forth. By "dropping support" it means your games literally will not load anymore. For example, you cannot play Diablo 3 single player on your PC using an unsupported operating system, even though it was working before, because the launchers were intentionally updated to force it to fail.
On that note I also do not recommend using Windows 11, as it is too new, and all operating systems take several years to mature and become stable, which includes waiting for 3rd party software, games, and drivers to mature as well.
Lastly, we need to define what "optimized" means. This customized operating system is unlike most others you will find on the internet, for a few reasons:
- It does not focus on component removals, instead it uses registry keys. The benefit here is substantial, because this method ensures that nothing "breaks" in Windows, since all of the keys are the same official methods that Microsoft themselves would use to tweak something (meaning they can be reversed). No apps have been uninstalled, everything works, it is just much faster and better on resource usage, with annoyances removed, thus improving the user-experience. In other words, Microsoft could release a "Gaming" edition of Windows 10, and this is potentially what it could look like.
- Every individual key has been meticulously tested to ensure that they actually work for this operating system and version. They also all "stick" in a clean install and do not get overwritten by the automated processes that happen silently in the background. This is a big deal, because so many tweaks on the internet are bad, meaning more often than not the person peddling those tweaks did not test them, they did not try integrating them into an image, and did not benchmark them. Instead, they just claim that performance is improved by how it "feels" which is really just the placebo effect in most instances.
- This image was purposely constructed in a modular way, meaning you can take bits and pieces from it, or you could take the whole guide and actually layer it ontop of other custom NTLite images. This means someone using a built-in NTLite preset, or their own custom preset they have already spent a bunch of time working on, can still follow this guide and add all of these tweaks to further enhance their image.
Note: this is version 1.0 as of August 23rd, 2022, and includes 584 total registry keys. It took 8 months of about 20 hours a week to work through all of this, and I already have version 2.0 and 3.0 planned out, with heaps of other tweaks that I need more time to thoroughly vet before I can update this guide. Because proper testing is so time consuming, a new version will probably take at least a few months or more. If anyone discovers any mistakes or issues then I will fix those and update the guide with a minor version change, such as 1.1 to represent that.
STEP 1: GETTING STARTED
Before you begin, check that you have everything you need in advance.
1A) Download the files attached to this post. The "Screenshots" folder is an optional download, it just contains a few images showing the resource monitor and LatencyMon results. Compared to a stock Windows 10 21H2 install, this optimized image has 17% fewer processes, 34% fewer threads, 23% fewer handles, reduced memory usage by 300 MB, and a whole lot of tweaks that improve the user-experience which do not really have a way to be measured by a tool. The other folder is "Tweaks" and it contains the XML and registry files you will need to create this image. After downloading the folders, right-click on them and "Extract all", choose a destination, and then "Finish". Afterwards, delete the original zipped folders.
1B) Exit out of all open programs and reboot.
1C) Temporarily disable any antivirus programs, such as Defender (it slows down NTLite).
1D) Right-click on NTLite and select "Run as administrator".
1E) In NTLite, click on "File" then "Check for updates" and update NTLite by choosing the "Update" button below the "Tool" section. If it is greyed out then you are on the latest version already.
1F) Once NTLite is finished updating then proceed below.
STEP 2: CLEAN START MENU, LIVE TILES, AND TASKBAR
This step prevents all of the "bloat" from getting installed, such as links to trial products, games and apps you did not ask to download (Candy Crush), and other ads and sponsored services designed to get you to spend money. You can still use live tiles and customize that panel, this tweak just cleans up the stuff that many users do not like.
2A) Load an unmodified, official, Windows 10 21H2 image into NTLite by going to "Add" then choosing "Image directory" and pointing to the Windows image you want to use, then double-click on "Windows 10 Home" from within the "Image history" section to load it (if you do not have an image then check my other guides for instructions on how to create one).
2B) After the image has finished loading it automatically moves into the "Mounted images" section, which means we can begin editing. Now right-click on the "Windows 10 Home" that has a green circle and select "Explore mount directory".
2C) Left-click twice in the address bar in the blank space to the right of "NLTmpMnt01" and add the following text exactly as shown below.
Put that text at the end of the address that already exists in the text box, and then press enter and it should take you to a folder that has 1 file inside.
2D) Next, copy and paste the custom DefaultLayouts.xml and LayoutModification.xml files that you downloaded earlier into this mounted Shell directory, choose the option to "Replace" when prompted, and then hit "Continue" on both screens to approve the action.
2E) Exit the mounted Shell window.
STEP 3: IMPORT NTLITE REGISTRY FILE FOR REAPPLY
This registry file is going to be integrated into all four parts of the Windows image (Install, PE, Setup, Recovery) which changes the default power plan from Balanced to High performance in each of those. This greatly increases the speed at which Windows will install, reducing the total install time by about 50%. This also fixes a bug in Windows, which causes certain older SSDs to hang or be extremely slow during the install process.
3A) Click "Registry" from the left menu, then "Add", choose "Registry files" and then select the Reg_0_NTLite file you downloaded earlier and NTLite will update to show that those keys were added.
STEP 4: UNINSTALL COMPONENTS
This step is optional, but I strongly urge everyone to do it anyway. Here we are removing the only component in this guide, OneDrive. There are several reasons to do this, the biggest one being that it is a resource hog, and because it is not integrated into Windows, instead it is a standalone installer that does not actually install until the first user is created.
Even if you want to use OneDrive, it is still best to remove this outdated installer and go download the latest version to install manually, after Windows is installed. I still cannot recommend that action though, because it is also faster and better overall for users to directly access the OneDrive cloud via their web browser, than to use the app. The app just adds unecessary resource usage to the background of Windows, eats up internet bandwidth, and you will inevitably experience syncing issues and/or file corruption, it just makes more sense to adjust how you use it than it does to try and optimize this unecessary app.
Note: the removal of OneDrive is one of the features that require the purchase of a license for NTLite, and it is more than worth it. You are not only supporting the tremendous amount of work that has gone into the NTLite program, but you are indirectly supporting the members that spend their time trying to help others with guides like these, because as NTLite grows the community grows too. I bought a license just for OneDrive and I have no regrets.
4A) Click "Components" from the left menu, then "Remoting and Privacy", choose "Cloud Files API" and uncheck "OneDrive".
STEP 5: APPLY AND PROCESS PART ONE
At this point we are done with the first set of tweaks and ready to process this image into something we can install Windows with. You could stop here after processing, and be left with a really nice base image to do your own tweaking, or continue on through the remainder of the guide to add in the other tweaks.
5A) Click "Apply" from the left menu, expand "Reapply tasks across editions", check the box for "Integrate - Registry" and then expand it to make sure that all four boxes inside are checked.
5B) On the top left menu bar select "Process" to begin creating the customized image.
Note: it will take several minutes to process the image and a message will appear when it is complete. Also, do not try to combine this step with the remaining steps below. It is best practice to integrate registry keys after processing the removal of components, otherwise you may end up deleting some of the keys you integrated when the components get removed.
STEP 6: IMPORT REMAINING REGISTRY FILES
Now to finish up this custom image we need to load our previously processed image and add a few more layers into it.
6A) Click "Source" from the left menu, then double-click on the "Windows 10 Home" inside the "Image history" to load it again (it now includes all the previous tweaks we just did, baked in). When it is finished loading, click "Registry" from the left menu and then do the following tasks.
Below is a list of a few highlights that each of these registry files are responsible for. This is not everything, but it should give you a basic idea of what is going on at least. If you want to learn more, right-click and edit a registry file from within Windows and it will show comments on what each item inside does. If you really do not want a certain feature to be tweaked then you can delete those registry keys from the files, though I highly recommend trying everything as-is for at least a week before modifying things, so you can give this curated product a fair try and see if maybe some of the preferences rub off on you. Nothing here is slapped together, it was all very carefully crafted to create an overall better experience for Windows users, based on what I have learned after 30 years of doing this kind of thing.
Reg_1_Power: disables hibernation (saves several gigabytes of space, while still keeping sleep available), disables fast startup, converts the original High performance power plan into the equivalent of the Microsoft Ultimate power plan and the Bistum power plan combined, plus a few other additional performance improvements. While performance improved, temperatures actually decreased in this image because there is less background overhead and so the processor is not working as hard all the time.
Reg_2_Security: this file has to do with the Windows Security center app, it disables Defender, firewall, and many of the overly aggressive security features which substantially interfere with gaming, especially multiplayer games. This is where most of the bad game pings, DPC, stutter, and general game issues come from. There is a reason why older operating systems perform better, because they lack these features by default.
Reg_3_Settings: there are tons of tweaks in this file, and all of them are things that a user can toggle on/off straight from within the Windows "Settings" pages. There are a lot of settings that fix the DWM and theme management in Windows, disables syncing, disables various telemetry, pauses Windows Update until 2026 (but can still be manually resumed and paused again as desired), and so much more.
Reg_4_Control: everything inside this file has to do with settings inside the Control Panel. A lot of annoyances are disabled here, such as disabling various user tracking, cleans up some of the user interfaces, some basic keyboard and mouse tweaks for gamers, and disables the constant user account control nagging, among other changes.
Reg_5_Apps: this file contains the settings that handle all of the background apps, and stops them from running in the background for no reason except to consume resources unecessarily.
Reg_6_Other: all of the miscellaneous tweaks are here, along with a lot of the desktop/taskbar being cleaned up and made more user friendly. Also disables prefetch, disables superfetch, disables indexer, disables file compression, and a number of other tweaks to make things less annoying, more stable, or to reduce overhead.
STEP 7: APPLY AND PROCESS PART TWO
For the last step all we have to do is process the addition of those remaining registry files.
7A) Click "Apply" from the left menu, then select "Process" to begin creating the customized image.
Once NTLite has finished processing it will give a message that it is complete, then you can exit NTLite and copy these newly edited files onto a USB drive, then boot into that drive and install your custom Windows! If you are not sure how to install Windows or how to deal with drivers, then check out my other guides on that topic.
KNOWN ISSUES:
There are no known issues with this custom image, but below are some things that might be asked about.
- The Xbox Game Bar will not run when you click on it from the start menu. This is by Microsoft's design, and it is not intuitive. If you need to use the Game Bar just go to Start > Settings > Gaming > and toggle it on, and the Game Bar will now run when clicked from the start menu.
- I tried really hard to not use GPO (group policy registry keys) unless it was absolutely required because there was no other documentated way to accomplish something. In the end I had to use about a half dozen policies. This is not a bad thing, but the downside to policies is they do lock down those settings, so the user cannot toggle them on/off from within Windows. Instead the user will need to delete the policy key. In the future I will continue to work on reducing the use of policies and hopefully get rid of them all.
- On laptops, Microsft decided it was a good idea to alter the power buttons, so that instead of shutting down when "Shut down" is clicked, it silently goes to sleep instead. This is turning out to be difficult to combat, and I know that I can address it in a clean, proper way, but it is simply eating up way too much time and I needed to put it on the backburner so I could release this guide, since I was many months behind my projected finish date. This is Microsoft's issue though, not anything to do with my tweaks. Laptops are much more difficult to handle because Windows autodetects the power capabilities of laptops and overwrites several dozen settings based on that. I will fix this in a minor update or in version 2.0, but I really do not recommend anyone using Windows on a laptop to begin with. Especially if you are a gamer, there is no such thing as a gaming laptop, it is all just marketing unfortunately.
- Defender and Firewall have been disabled, but it is not as scary as some people will lead you to believe. If you use a good browser and keep it updated, but also spend time optimizing the browser settings to disable things like prefetching, autofill forms, etcetera, and practice common sense on the internet you will be fine (do not visit shady sites, do not download anything that is not from extremely reputable sources). Install a good ad-blocker though, such as uBlock Origin (I have tested them all and it is superior by far). I cannot even use the internet anymore these days without this extension, the number of ads and crap cluttering up every page is beyond obnoxious, but with this extension installed all of that is removed, including ads in things like YouTube videos. It also speeds up page loading because it prevents all that garbage from being downloaded to begin with.
The first two keys are group policies that lock down Defender, and you need to delete those keys on your live install to "unlock" Defender options. Then you can exit regedit and go into the Security Center and manually toggle on whichever features you want, such as real-time protection.
This same procedure applies to the firewall, there's 3 keys that have \Policies\ in the path and those are group policies which are locking the pages. Once they are deleted you can manually toggle the other settings from within the Security Center app.
I planned to update all my guides for 22H2, but there's a bug in it right now preventing me from doing so (link). This guide should still work though, at worst maybe a few keys need to be updated and added for 22H2.
These regkeys are v.good & essential in most of my custom iso`s but some of them are questionable.
Code:
; Start > Settings > System > Display > Advanced scaling settings > Fix scaling for apps > Off
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"EnablePerProcessSystemDPI"=dword:00000000
Breaks window placement on nvidia Win10LTSC2021.
Personalization settings should not be set by these regkeys because they are up to users decision which wallpaper and theme they want.
Code:
; Start > Settings > Time & Language > Date & time > Set time automatically > Off
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W32Time\Parameters]
"Type"="NoSync"
I dont think it changes anything in case of performance. Dualboot breaks Windows time & it can be easily fixed in linux by typing
Code:
timedatectl set-local-rtc 1 --adjust-system-clock
so I perceive mentioned regkey as useless and potentially harmful.
Code:
; Start > Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard > Allow the shortcut key to start Toggle Keys > Off
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\ToggleKeys]
"Flags"="58"
; Start > Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard > Allow the shortcut key to start Filter Keys > Off
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\Keyboard Response]
"Flags"="122"
If I understand this correctly then this can break programs using defined shortcuts ex. shift + somekey to toggle mic mute.
Code:
; Start > Settings > Privacy > X > Allow apps to access your X
Denying access to camera, library, mic, notifications, sounds etc does more harm than good. ex. discord desktop can't use mic/mic activation, ObsidianMD can't use documents folder, slack can't use notifications.
Code:
; Start > Windows System > Control Panel > View by > Large icons
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ControlPanel]
"StartupPage"=dword:00000001
As mentioned before - user`s decision.
Code:
; Start > Windows System > Control Panel > Internet Options > General > Home page > Google
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"Start Page"="https://www.google.com/"
I'm not discounting what you're saying, but I address this in the guide, here's the quote:
"If you really do not want a certain feature to be tweaked then you can delete those registry keys from the files"
There isn't a single image on this planet that will appease every single person. Everyone is expected to customize things to their preferences before making an image. The important thing here is every single one of these settings can be toggled through the Windows interface too, so even if someone installed this image as-is, they can go and easily modify whatever they need to change after it's installed.
Think of it this way: Microsoft toggles all these settings how they want it. I'm toggling them how most gamers and general home users want it (removing annoyances, excess resource usage, etcetera). It's just taking Microsoft's image and toggling the hundreds of settings, so that users don't have to go online and follow 50 different website's of "tweaking/performance" tips and manually do all that work. This image just makes them toggled by default towards privacy/performance.
I'll go through each of your suggestions in a separate post I'll make soon, because I want to clarify some so I can investigate them.
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