In the realm of gaming, players often gravitate towards a specific display mode to maximize their experience. While the full-screen mode traditionally offers an immersive gaming session, many players today prefer the windowed or borderless windowed mode. This shift in preference is primarily due to the convenience these modes offer, especially when multitasking between games and other applications. The windowed mode, in particular, displays the game in a resizable window, similar to other applications, allowing seamless transitions between tasks. However, playing in windowed mode can sometimes lead to performance issues like lag, unresponsiveness, or a drop in frames per second (FPS).
Windows 11 recognizes these challenges and, as a result, offers the “Optimizations for windowed games” feature. This feature is designed to enhance the performance of games running in windowed mode, ensuring a smoother and more enjoyable gameplay experience. In this risewindows article, we will walk you through the steps to enable or disable these optimizations, helping you strike the perfect balance between gaming performance and multitasking flexibility. Before diving in, let’s first understand what a windowed game is in more detail.
How to Turn On “Optimizations for windowed games” on Windows 11?
To enable the “Optimizations for windowed games” in your Windows 11 machine, do the following steps:-
Step 1. Firstly, open the Settings app.
Step 2. Next, select System in the left side pane of the Settings window.
Step 3. Then, choose the Display tab on the right sidebar.
Step 4. After that, click on the Graphics option under the “Related settings” section.
Step 5. Then, click the link Change default graphics settings under the “Default settings” section.
Step 6. At last, turn ON the toggle switch “Optimizations for windowed games.”
How to Turn Off “Optimizations for windowed games” on Windows 11?
To disable the “Optimizations for windowed games” in your Windows 11 machine, do the following steps:-
Step 1. Firstly, open the Settings app.
Step 2. Next, select System in the left side pane of the Settings window.
Step 3. Then, choose the Display tab on the right sidebar.
Step 4. After that, click on the Graphics option under the “Related settings” section.
Step 5. Then, click the link Change default graphics settings under the “Default settings” section.
Step 6. At last, turn OFF the toggle switch “Optimizations for windowed games.”
How to Enable “Optimizations for windowed game” for a specific app?
To enable “Optimizations for the windowed game” for a specific game or app, do the following steps:-
Step 1. Firstly, open the Settings app.
Step 2. Next, select System in the left side pane of the Settings window.
Step 3. Then, choose the Display tab on the right sidebar.
Step 4. After that, click on the Graphics option under the “Related settings” section.
Step 5. Then, click on the app name and hit the Options button on the following screen.
Step 6. Uncheck the option “Don’t use optimizations for windowed games” and click the Save button.
How to Disable “Optimizations for windowed game” for a specific app?
To disable “Optimizations for the windowed game” for a specific game or app, do the following steps:-
Step 1. Firstly, open the Settings app.
Step 2. Next, select System in the left side pane of the Settings window.
Step 3. Then, choose the Display tab on the right sidebar.
Step 4. After that, click on the Graphics option under the “Related settings” section.
Step 5. Then, click on the app name and hit the Options button on the following screen.
Step 6. Check the option “Don’t use optimizations for windowed games” and click the Save button.
How to Enable or Disable “Optimizations for windowed games” using Registry Editor?
To turn on or off “Optimizations for windowed games” using Registry Editor, do the following steps:-
Step 1. Firstly, launch Registry Editor.
Step 2. When Registry Editor opens, navigate to the following key in the left sidebar:-
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\DirectX\GraphicsSettings
Step 3. Next, right-click on GraphicsSettings and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Step 4. Name the newly created REG_DWORD as SwapEffectUpgradeCache.
Note: If SwapEffectUpgradeCache REG_DWORD already exists, skip this step.
Step 5. Double-click on SwapEffectUpgradeCache and set its Value data to 1.
Step 6. Click OK.
Step 7. Then, navigate to the following path in the Registry Editor:-
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\DirectX\UserGpuPreferences
Step 8. On the right side of the UserGpuPreferences folder, double-click the REG_String DirectXUserGlobalSettings and set the Value data as SwapEffectUpgradeEnable=1;.
Step 9. Click OK.
Step 10. Restart your computer.
To disable the “Optimizations for windowed games,” set Value data 0 for SwapEffectUpgradeCache in step 5 and SwapEffectUpgradeEnable=0; for DirectXUserGlobalSettings in step 8 above.
Conclusion
Choosing the right display mode can significantly impact your gaming experience. Windows 11’s “Optimizations for windowed games” feature is an effort to enhance gameplay performance in windowed mode. The options provided in the article guide users on how to enable, disable, or customize this feature, allowing players to have an optimized experience while enjoying the benefits of multitasking. Whether you’re toggling this feature on a system level or for individual apps, or even diving deep into the Registry Editor, Windows 11 provides the flexibility to tailor the settings to your needs.
