What this section changes
Background work after sign-in or while you play, and restarts mid-match. Turning fast startup off makes boot slower.
| Setting | What it does | Registry path |
|---|---|---|
| Remove startup delay | StartupDelayInMSec 0 — startup apps load without waiting | HKCU\...\Explorer\Serialize\StartupDelayInMSec |
| Turn off fast startup | Shutdown becomes real instead of hibernation, so driver problems no longer survive it (a restart always was a real one). Boot takes longer | HKLM\...\Session Manager\Power\HiberbootEnabled |
| Turn off background apps | Store apps stop running for updates and notifications while you play | HKCU\...\BackgroundAccessApplications\GlobalUserDisabled |
| Stop sharing updates with the internet (Delivery Optimization) | Windows stops uploading update pieces to machines on the internet over your connection, which shows as ping spikes. Sharing with PCs on your own network stays on. | HKLM\...\DeliveryOptimization\DODownloadMode |
| Stop Windows installing promoted apps by itself | Stops games and trial apps from installing themselves into the Start menu, each a background download that can land mid-match. Windows Update is untouched. | HKLM\...\Policies\...\CloudContent\DisableWindowsConsumerFeatures |
| Turn off the Ndu network usage driver (Windows data usage and data limits stop working) | Ndu feeds Task Manager's per-app network column and keeps per-process records in non-paged pool, a known source of pool growth over days of uptime. With it off, Windows' Data usage page and data limit stop counting, so it is skipped on a metered connection. | HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Ndu\Start |
| Turn off Recall/Copilot background activity | On Copilot+ PCs Recall periodically captures, OCRs and indexes the screen in the background; elsewhere this is a harmless no-op, no FPS promised. Turning it on also deletes snapshots Recall already saved; reverting does not bring them back. Remove the 24H2 Copilot app on the Uninstall Apps page. | HKLM+HKCU\...\Policies\...\WindowsAI\DisableAIDataAnalysis |
| Ask Windows not to restart on its own | Against a restart landing mid-match: sets active hours to 06:00–00:00 in the policy (Pro, Enterprise, Education) and in Windows' own setting (all Home has). Whether Windows 11 keeps to them was not measured (automatic active hours can move them); outside them it can still restart. Updates are not blocked or delayed. | HKLM\...\WindowsUpdate\SetActiveHours + UX\Settings\ActiveHours |
Applying it
- Open w0a
- Go to the Regedit Tweaks page in the left menu
- Find this section and press Apply on the entries you want
Every entry has its own button, so you are not required to apply a whole section — Apply All at the top of the page is there for when you do want all of them.
Undoing it
Two ways, both of which work:
- Backups & Restore — puts back the checkpoint written before the change was applied. It
puts back everything applied after that point, later checkpoints included — the confirmation says exactly that before it starts.
- The Fix page — searched by symptom, writes the Windows default unconditionally. It does not
read a backup, so it works even if w0a's own backup file is gone.
The undo log lives at %ProgramData%\w0a\backup.json, outside your user profile.
The risk
Everything here is a documented value Windows supports; none of it is kernel-level and none of it is irreversible. The honest sentence is still this: a setting may have no measurable benefit for you. If you apply a change and feel no difference, you are probably right — these pages are not selling you a feeling, they are telling you what was changed.
If you want to measure it, the rule from reading the benchmark applies: change one thing at a time, and read the lows rather than the average.
Which Windows settings change anything in a game, who each one helps and who it does nothing for: How to optimize Windows 11 for gaming: the settings that actually matter
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