Most, if not all, gaming computers are running the Windows operating system. More specifically, they are running Windows 10. There are a lot of reasons why Windows dominates the computing market, but in the world of gaming, it comes down to compatibility. Unfortunately for us PC gamers, Windows 10 does not offer the best gaming experience out of the box. This playbook will give you a handful of quick setting changes to help you in optimizing Windows 10 for gaming.

When optimizing Windows 10 for gaming, I like to do the following:

Enable Gaming Mode

Disable Nagle’s Algorithm

Prevent Automatic Updates

Adjust Power Settings

Adjust Visual Settings

Keep Drivers Updated

Utilize Third-Party Performance Software

Windows 10 Game Mode

As much as Windows 10 needs tweaking out of the box to be optimized for gaming, at least Microsoft built in a pretty decent quick fix: Game Mode. I have to mention that this is not available in all releases of Windows 10, so don’t be made if it doesn’t work.

To find this setting, press the Windows Button + I, type in Game Mode in the search, then select Turn On Game Mode. Once in the screen, toggle Game Mode to on It’s that simple!

Ultimately, game mode turns off Windows Update and manages system resources to optimize your gaming experience. It is not a perfect solution, but it is a pretty good start.

Disable Nagle’s Algorithm

The next step in optimizing Windows 10 for gaming is to disable Nagle’s Algorithm. Full transparency—I refuse to publish how to do this. This step requires messing with registry keys, and not everyone should be doing that. If you need help, feel free to direct message me on Twitter: @Bitw1seDan.

I’ve told you that I’m not going to publish how to do this step, but I will explain why it helps optimize Windows 10 for gaming. Ultimately, Nagle’s algorithm bundles data packets together and can cause latency issues. If you want to know all about packets and network latency, I wrote an article about gaming routers that should help explain some of the key concepts.

Prevent Automatic Updates

Is there anything worse than your machine re-booting in the middle of something important to update and apply the latest patches? How about Steam needing to close out and update right when you are just about to hop into your favorite game? Not only are both of those scenarios annoying, but background patch downloads can eat up precious network bandwidth. This step is precisely for stopping those things from happening.

For the Windows Update component of this equation, all you have to do is press Windows Button + I > Update and Security > Windows Update > Advanced Options > Update Options. Once on this screen, disable Automatically download updates, even over metered data connections (charges may apply).

Another option is to go back to the Windows Update screen and select Change active hours. This section will let you time-box when Windows will not download and automatically restart. It’s a great option, and I use it in my everyday life to make sure my laptop does not re-boot during work hours.

To keep Steam from updating the game as a background process, open the Steam client and go to the update settings under Steam > Settings > Downloads. Toggle the checkbox off for Allow downloads during gameplay.

If there are individual games that you want Steam to avoid downloading updates for, you have to do that game-by-game. Right-Click on the game you want to change the setting for in your Library and select Properties.

In the game’s Properties under Automatic updates, swap Always keep this game up to date for Only update this game when I launch it.

Adjust Power Settings

By default, Windows wants to balance performance and power consumption. This is great for a standard computer, but a well-tuned gaming rig needs to feed its components all of the electricity they need when trying to give you the best performance.

To change the power settings, press Window Button + I and search for power. Select Power and sleep settings > Additional power settings. If you see the High-performance option, select it. If you do not have that option, no worries; go in and set up a Custom power plan.

Adjust Visual Settings

Windows 10 comes out of the box trying to look sexy, and frankly, it does a pretty good job. Unfortunately, all of that polish and shine costs you on performance. I personally only care about my game having that polish, so I always tweak my visual settings.

Back to our good old friend Windows Key + I, and search for performance. Select Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows > Adjust for best performance > Apply > OK.

Before declaring victory, I recommend flipping over to the Advanced tab and make sure Adjust the performance of is set to Programs.

Keeping Drivers Updated

Any computer has a bunch of device drivers that need to be kept updated. The most important one is the driver for your GPU. Most GPUs, at least the higher-end ones, come with its own management software. My NVIDIA prompts me anytime there is an update.

If you are not so lucky, right-click Desktop > Display settings > Advanced display settings > Display adapter properties. If you want to download updates from here, you can go to Properties > Driver > Update Driver. Again, not the preferred method but one that will work.

Utilize Third-Party Performance Software

There are always ways to get even more out of your gaming computer. One piece of software I use is Ryzen Master. Ryzen Master is management and monitoring software available for anyone running an AMD Ryzen processor. From here, I have set up different CPU overclocking profiles and regularly monitor resource utilization and system temperature.

Another great piece of software is Killer Networking’s GameFast. You turn this program on, and it does all of the heavy lifting in optimizing your machine. It goes so far as to pause or slow background processes to free up to 10% of your CPU cycles and 20% of your RAM. Pretty nice way to further optimize Windows 10 for gaming.

Closing Thoughts

Even though Windows 10 does not come out of the box with gaming in mind, it shouldn’t take too long to tweak a few settings to get a little more out of your PC. The steps outlined in this playbook are the first few things I do once I boot up a freshly built gaming computer. If there is enough interest, maybe one day I will package all of the settings into a neat little script.

What do you think? Is there anything I missed, or little tips and tricks you have kept to yourself? Let me know in the comments below.