How to turn on Windows Game Mode (and fine-tune its settings)

Windows 10 and Windows 11 offer a killer Game Mode that can help make unplayable games playable — sometimes. It’s especially handy in lower-powered systems that have lots of programs running in the background.

As soon as you switch Game Mode on, the behavior of the operating system changes. Windows update no longer performs installations of new drivers, and Windows no longer notifies you of upcoming necessary restarts. In addition, any running games are treated with higher priority by the CPU and GPU, and Windows reduces the resources for processes running in the background.

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You can find the Game Mode switch in the Settings app under Gaming > Game Mode. Make sure you set the switch to “Off” during normal office use to achieve a more balanced performance distribution for your applications.

In the same window, a link to the graphics settings appears. There you can set the graphics performance for selected apps. Often these settings do not make sense; databases and office tools, for example, are given a high priority that they do not need at all. Click on the corresponding entries, select “Options” and check the “Don’t use optimizations for windowed games” box for programs that do not require high graphics performance. Confirm each with “Save”. On the other hand, you can add games that do not appear in this list to the list at the top via “Add app” with the “Browse” button. In the following, set them to “High performance” in the options.

Further reading: Hey, gamers: Don’t overlook these killer Windows 11 tools

This article was translated from German to English and originally appeared on pcwelt.de.