How to Enable or Disable “Optimizations for windowed games” in Windows 11?

What is the windowed game?

Games typically run in either exclusively full-screen mode, a windowed mode, or a “borderless windowed” mode — a window that looks like a full-screen app but lets you more easily swap between open applications.

You can see that your computer’s graphics might not comply with the game window, and you might face issues such as lagging, hanging, etc. Also, you can see an FPS drop issue while playing the game on your PC.

In this risewindows article, we will guide you on how to Enable or Disable “Optimizations for windowed games” in Windows 11. It helps in resolving the above issue.

How to Turn On “Optimizations for windowed games” in 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” in 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 Enable or Disable “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 above step 5 and SwapEffectUpgradeEnable=0; for  DirectXUserGlobalSettings in above step 8.

That’s it.