Tag: HowTo

Optimize Windows 10 For Gaming: Prevent Store Apps From Running in the Background

In Windows 10, Store apps (also called universal apps) are applications you install from the Windows Store or come pre-installed on the system, those apps can run automatically in the background to offer certain features. For instance, Store apps can download data from the Internet, show toast notifications, and fetch information to display in their Live Tiles in the Start Menu.

The issue with Windows Store apps is that some of these apps keep running in the background once you launch them even after closing the app window or even if you do not open them at all.

Leaving many apps running in the background would drain battery power, bandwidth, and other system resources and may slow down your computer, thus affecting your gaming experience negatively.

Fortunately, Windows offers an option to prevent Store apps from staying in the background once they have been closed. You can control apps background activities using options in the Settings app or using the Windows Registry.

In this Optimize Windows 10 for Gaming guide, we walk you through the steps to prevent Windows Store apps from running in the background, to help you boost PC performance and enhance your gaming experience.

Do you know that our game booster Game Fire can automatically optimize Windows 10 store apps when playing games and can apply various system tweaks to help boost games performance and eliminate in-game lags.

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Turn Off Background Apps using the Settings app

Step 1: Open the Settings app by clicking Settings in the Start Menu.

Step 2: Click on Privacy.

Windows 10 Settings

Step 3: Select Background apps from the left pane.

Step 4: To disable background activity of all Store apps toggle the Let apps run in the background switch off.

Step 5: If you want to turn off background activities for certain Store apps, Under Choose which apps can run in the background toggle the switches for those apps off so that they won’t run in the background.

Turn Off Background Apps using Windows Registry

Step 1: Press Win + R and Type regedit, then hit Enter or OK.

Step 2: Navigate to the following registry path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\BackgroundAccessApplications

Step 3: If you don’t see the GlobalUserDisabled value, then right-click, select New, and click on DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new value GlobalUserDisabled and press Enter.

Step 4: Double-click GlobalUserDisabled and set the value to 1 then hit Enter or OK.

Step 5: Navigate to the following path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search

Step 6: If you don’t see the BackgroundAppGlobalToggle value, then right-click, select New, and click on DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new value BackgroundAppGlobalToggle and press Enter.

Step 7: Double-click BackgroundAppGlobalToggle and set the value to 0 then hit Enter or OK.

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Learn more about how to optimize Windows 10 for gaming

Optimize Windows 10 For Gaming: Disable Windows Defender

Windows Defender is an anti-virus solution that comes integrated into Windows 10 to protect your device and data against viruses, ransomware, spyware, and other security and privacy threats. In this Optimize Windows 10 for Gaming guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to temporary or permanently disable Windows Defender.

Despite the critical role played by Windows Defender to protect your computer from emerging threats, there are still several scenarios when you may want to disable Windows Defender. For example, when setting up a computer that won’t connect to the internet and no one will be allowed to connect peripherals. Or when performing certain tasks that Windows Defender may interfere with.

You may also want to turn off Windows Defender temporarily to enhance your gaming experience as this will significantly improve your computer`s performance and reduce overhead specially when playing resources-demanding games.

Do you know that our game booster Game Fire can automatically deactivate Windows Defender when playing games and can apply various system tweaks to help boost games performance and eliminate in-game lags.

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Optimize Windows 10 games’ performance by turning off Windows Defender temporarily

If you want to turn off Windows Defender to improve your computer’s performance, it’s very recommended that you did this temporarily in order not to make your computer vulnerable to security threats.

Step 1: Launch the Settings app by clicking Settings in the Start Menu and then click Update & Security.

Step 2: Select Windows Security from the left pane, then click the Open Windows Security button.

Step 3: In the Windows Security app, choose Virus & threat protection from the left pane, then under the Virus & threat protection settings click on Manage settings.

Step 4: Set the Real-Time protection option to Off to suspend Windows Defender temporarily.

Disabling the Real-time protection will deactivate Windows Defender temporarily for some time or until the next computer startup.

Permanently disable Windows Defender

DO NOT disable Windows Defender permanently unless you are using a third party security solution, as this will make your computer vulnerable to security threats.

Method 1: Turn off Windows Defender using Group Policy

If you’re running Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education, you can use the Local Group Policy Editor to permanently disable Windows Defender.

Step 1: Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box and type gpedit.msc then hit Enter or OK.

Step 2: Choose Computer Configuration from the left pane then click Administrative Templates.

Step 3: Choose Windows Components then double click Windows Defender Antivirus.

Step 4: Double click Turn off Windows Defender Antivirus.

Step 5: Check the Enabled radio button then click OK.

Restart your computer to apply the new changes.

Method 2: Turn off Windows Defender using Windows Registry

Tamper Protection

You need to disable the Windows Defender Tamper Protection feature to be able to change Windows Defender settings using Windows Registry. Learn how to disable Tamper Protection

Step 1: Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box and type regedit then hit Enter or OK.

Step 2: Browse the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender

Step 3: If you don’t see the DisableAntiSpyware value then right-click the Windows Defender key, select New, and click on DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new value DisableAntiSpyware and press Enter.

Step 4: Double-click DisableAntiSpyware and set the value from 0 to 1 then hit Enter or OK

Restart your computer to apply the new changes.

Learn more about how to optimize Windows 10 for gaming

Game Fire Tip: Game Covers

My Games is a feature of our game booster Game Fire that enables you to manage and access all of your favorite games from one place whether games installed on your PC, online games, or games from popular gaming platforms like Steam.

Game Fire v6.3 brought many enhancements to My Games feature, one of those improvements is Game Covers. This new feature enables you to add large covers to all of your listed games (Game Fire will support Steam games in the upcoming release) instead of small game thumbnails generated from game launcher EXE files which is the default behavior of previous versions of Game Fire. Therefore, you will be able to add a personal touch to your games collection.

Game cover vs Game thumbnail

To add a cover art to your games, just follow the steps below:

  • Select the game you want to add a cover art.
  • Click the Edit button in the upper right corner of My Games section.
  • Click the button with the directory icon next to the Game cover text field.
  • Select an image to add as a cover art.
  • Click OK button to save the changes.

We have also created a games database website for Game Fire users where you can search information for your favorite games as well as download great game covers to use in our game booster software.

More information about Game Fire:
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Optimize Windows 10 For Gaming: Disable Cortana

Cortana is a digital assistant created by Microsoft for Windows 10 to help you interact with the operating system in a simple and intuitive way.

Cortana can help you perform basic functions with just your voice. The more it learns about you, the more it understands you and be able to assist you more efficiently.

However, there is the issue of privacy as Cortana collects various pieces of information and personal data to learn how to assist you accordingly. For instance, Cortana collects information about your contacts, calendar, location, internet history and favorites, speech, and typing.

If you do not use Cortana or you have privacy issues with Microsoft`s digital assistant collecting your personal information, then you can follow the steps below to completely disable Cortana in order make more resources available for playing games with the best performance and to harden your privacy settings.

Disable Cortana using Group Policy

If you use Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise editions, then you can disable Cortana using Group Policy Editor.

  • Press Windows key + R and type gpedit.msc in the Run dialog box.
  • Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search.
  • Select Allow Cortana in the right pane.
  • Right-click Allow Cortana and select Edit.

  • Select Disabled radio button on the left.
  • Click the OK button.

Disable Cortana using Windows Registry

As Group Policy Editor is not available in Windows 10 Home, you will need to use the registry to disable Cortana.

  • Press Windows key + R and type regedit in the Run dialog box.
  • Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search

  • From Edit menu, select New and DWORD (32-bit) Value.
  • Name it AllowCortana and give it a Value of 0.
  • Click OK button to save the new registry key.

To get most of your Windows 10 machine and boost your gaming experience, we recommend using Game Fire which is a great game booster designed to optimize Windows 10 gaming performance.

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Real-time PC Games TuneUp With Live Optimization

Nowadays PC games become more demanding of system resources so that you can enjoy playing them without any slowdown or lags, the good thing is that many of modern PCs and laptops are equipped with powerful hardware platforms that are capable of playing the most resources hungry games however the problem is that your system resources are not by default dedicated only to your games as they are shared among other apps, background processes and other system components, so this makes your games not able to fully utilize your hardware platform power.

The solution for the problem is the Live Optimization feature of Game Fire 5, which unlike other game boosters can significantly boost running apps and games performance in real-time by allowing them to fully utilize all available system resources and in the same time restrict the access to available resources by background processes and services which are not necessary for playing games.

Live Optimization

In the following example you will get the idea of how Live Optimization works. when you launch your web browser to surf the Internet, Live Optimization automatically allocates high processing priority to your web browser application allowing faster startup and allow you to enjoy a smoother Internet experience with HD movies streaming and web applications, when you switch to another application Live Optimization restores the normal processing priority of the web browser application and focuses processing priority on the application you switched to. All of these operations take place in the background without any interruptions, the end result would be a smoother computing experience.

Also in order to improve system response rate, Live Optimization automatically optimizes background processes, for example when a certain background process is taking too much of CPU processing power, Live Optimization will automatically deprioritize it in order to improve system response and make more system resources available to run your applications and games.

You can configure the way Live Optimization works by going to Game Fire Settings and then switch to Live Optimization tab (see Help file for detailed information).

To access Live Optimization log and information of last optimized applications and processes, right click on Game Fire icon in the system tray and then click Status.

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Game Fire is a powerful PC games optimization solution, that enables you to enjoy a smoother and more pleasant gaming experience with a touch of button by optimizing your computer for peak performance.

Game Fire Tip: Access Your Favorite Games From Anywhere

Game Fire is a great software solution that not only can optimize your computer performance for intensive PC games playing but also helps you improve your gaming experience by allowing faster access and better management of your favorite games.

By using My Games feature in Game Fire, you can add and manage games whether installed on you computer or online ones.

In addition to My Games, Game Fire provides My Games desktop widget that enables you to manage and launch games from anywhere on your computer without the need to start Game Fire.

My Games widget

You can either open My Games desktop widget by right clicking on Game Fire icon in the system tray and choosing My Games or by using a hotkey that can be easily customized in Game Fire settings (Default hotkey Ctrl+Shift+M )

My Games Hotkey

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Game Fire is a PC games optimization solution, that enables you to enjoy a smoother and more pleasant gaming experience with a touch of button by optimizing your computer for peak performance.

Game Fire Tip: Gaming Mode Refresh

Game Fire 4

When you switch to Gaming Mode, Game Fire temporary suspends unneeded Windows services, background applications, scheduled tasks and other useless system functions in order to make more resources available for running your games with best performance and reliability available.

However, over time some of these unneeded functions are started automatically and system memory gets occupied by useless apps, in the case you need to re-activate Gaming Mode to allow the suspension of these unneeded functions.

Prior to Game Fire 4, in order to re-active Gaming Mode, you had to switch back to Normal Mode and then switch to Gaming Mode again. In Game Fire 4 a new feature introduced named Gaming Mode Refresh, which enables Game Fire to re-apply Gaming Mode optimizations without the need to completely restart Gaming Mode.

Gaming Mode Refresh button is located on the right side of Switch To Gaming Mode button, it will be active only if you switched to Gaming Mode.

More information about Game Fire:
http://www.smartpcutilities.com/gamefire.html

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Game Fire is an open source games accelerating software, that enables you to enjoy a smoother and more pleasant gaming experience with a touch of button by optimizing your computer for peak performance level.

Improve PC Gaming Performance in 3 Steps

In the following three easy steps, I will show you how to enhance Windows performance and how to take full advantage of your computer hardware in order to enjoy playing modern PC games with best speed and reliability.

1. Optimize Windows Services

Disable unneeded Windows services to gain an immediate performance boost, as having many of unneeded services running in the background consumes a lot of computer resources. You can optimize Windows services using system built-in tool services.msc or you can use a more advanced software like PC Services Optimizer and XP Services Optimizer, which can optimize windows services easily and safely without the need to have any technical knowledge or affecting normal PC function.

2. Running Applications

Close unneeded applications to free up computer memory and save CPU power, you can use Windows Task Manager to do the job or you can use Game Fire‘s Applications Manager which is able to automatically detect unneeded applications and can automatically restore closed apps after you finish gaming.

3. Disk Defragment

Disk defragment greatly helps improve the startup speed of apps and games by reducing the amount of fragmentation in the File System, by physically organizing the contents of the disk to store the pieces of each file close together and contiguously, this reduces the time it takes to load programs and open files. You can use the default system tool Disk Defragmenter , however it will take some time to finish as it defragments the whole disk or you can use Games Defragment tool in Game Fire which is very fast as it only defragments the selected games files.

 

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Optimize third-party apps in Game Fire 4

As you may know, Game Fire is an excellent solution that can improve your computer performance in general, and enhance gaming experience in particular. Game Fire works by temporary turning off system applications and services that you do not need during playing games.

But what about third party applications and services that are running on your computer, Can Game Fire optimize them too? Before Game Fire 4, you can optimize them manually by explicitly adding them to your Gaming Profile settings, using options under Advanced Settings category in Gaming Profile dialog box, where you can add or remove third party applications and services to be optimized during Gaming Mode.

Game Fire – Gaming Profile

In Game Fire 4, the program can automatically detect the running of third party apps and services and offers the ability to turn them off during Gaming Mode.

Game Fire – Third party apps

When you click on Switch to Gaming Mode button, a dialog box appears where third party apps & services are listed along with their related information like description, software publisher and memory usage . You can check the apps and services you want to be turned off during Gaming Mode. All turned off apps will be automatically started if you returned to Normal Mode.

To help protect system security, you will not be able to optimize critical third party apps and services like services related to anti-virus software.

For more information about Game Fire:
http://www.smartpcutilities.com/gamefire.html

Free Download Game Fire:
http://www.smartpcutilities.com/gamefiredl.html

Game Fire is an open source games accelerating software, that enables you to enjoy a smoother and more pleasant gaming experience with a touch of button by optimizing your computer for peak performance level.

Game Fire Tip: Gaming Hotkey

Game Fire Settings

By using Game Fire hotkey option, you can toggle Gaming Mode on or off from anywhere on your computer without the need to open Game Fire application.

To enable gaming hotkey, Launch Game Fire and go to Settings and check Enable Gaming Mode hotkey option. You can also customize the key used in hotkey combination to toggle Gaming Mode.

To switch to Gaming/Normal Mode, press and hold Cntrl + Shift + the key you selected in Game Fire settings until Game Fire interface appears.

Notice: Game Fire tray application should be running in the system notification area to enable you to use gaming hotkey.

For more information about Game Fire:
http://www.smartpcutilities.com/gamefire.html

Free Download Game Fire:
http://www.smartpcutilities.com/gamefiredl.html

Game Fire is an open source games accelerating software, that enables you to enjoy a smoother and more pleasant gaming experience with a touch of button by optimizing your computer for peak performance level.

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