Tweaks · Gaming
Gaming tweaks
Two tweaks for Xbox Game Bar. Neither is in Default mode. The second one matters if you remove Game Bar: without it, Windows keeps trying to open the missing app.
On this page 3 sections
| Tweak | Default | Policy | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|
Disable Xbox game/screen recording-DisableDVR | policy | Any | |
Disable Game Bar integration-DisableGameBarIntegration | Any |
Worth knowing
- Game and screen recording (
-DisableDVR) turns off Game Bar's background recording and capture. It uses a policy. - Game Bar integration (
-DisableGameBarIntegration) stops games, Win + G and controller Xbox buttons from opening Game Bar. Apply it whenever you remove the Xbox Game Bar apps, or you get ms-gamingoverlay and ms-gamebar pop-ups. The project added it for exactly that (issue #367). - A stutter report. An open issue (#784) reports stutter and much lower 1% lows in several games after applying both tweaks on an Intel Core i7-14700K. The maintainer believes Game Bar helps Windows on CPUs with performance and efficiency cores, and has added a warning to Game Bar's description for the next release. It is not confirmed. More.
Removing the Xbox apps themselves is under apps: -RemoveGamingApps removes the Xbox app and both Game Bar packages. Keep the Xbox Identity Provider if you play games that sign in with Xbox.
Every tweak, in detail
Each card shows the switch, the exact registry values from the release's .reg file, and the undo file that reverses it.
Disable Xbox game/screen recording
This will disable the Xbox game/screen recording features included with the Game Bar app. This feature uses policies, which will lock down certain settings.
Tested alone on Windows 11 25H2 (build 26200.9711): changed 3 registry values.
The undo file reverted the change. 2 values came back differently from before, as the undo file writes Windows' standard value: AppCaptureEnabled not set → 1; AllowGameDVR not set → 1.
What changed
GameDVR_EnabledHKCU\System\GameConfigStore | 1→0 |
AppCaptureEnabledHKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\GameDVR | not set→0 |
AllowGameDVRHKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GameDVR | not set→0 |
Registry changes 3 values · HKCU + HKLM
Regfiles/Disable_DVR.regsource| Key | Value | Data |
|---|---|---|
| HKCUSystem\GameConfigStore | GameDVR_Enabled | DWORD0 0x00000000 |
| HKCUSOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\GameDVR | AppCaptureEnabled | DWORD0 0x00000000 |
| HKLMSOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GameDVRpolicy | AllowGameDVR | DWORD0 0x00000000 |
Undo file: Regfiles/Undo/Enable_DVR.reg (“Enable Xbox game/screen recording”)
Regfiles/Undo/Enable_DVR.regsource| Key | Value | Data |
|---|---|---|
| HKCUSystem\GameConfigStore | GameDVR_Enabled | DWORD1 0x00000001 |
| HKCUSOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\GameDVR | AppCaptureEnabled | DWORD1 0x00000001 |
| HKLMSOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GameDVRpolicy | AllowGameDVR | DWORD1 0x00000001 |
Disable Game Bar integration
This will disable the Game Bar integration with games and controllers. This stops annoying ms-gamebar popups when launching games or connecting a controller.
Tested alone on Windows 11 25H2 (build 26200.9711): changed 9 registry values.
The undo file reverted the change. One value came back differently from before, as the undo file writes Windows' standard value: UseNexusForGameBarEnabled not set → 1. 2 values were left as the tweak set them: (Default) URL:ms-gamebarservices; URL Protocol .
What changed
UseNexusForGameBarEnabledHKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\GameBar | not set→0 |
NoOpenWithHKCR\ms-gamebar | not set→ |
(Default)HKCR\ms-gamebar\shell\open\command | not set→%SystemRoot%/System32/systray.exe |
(Default)HKCR\ms-gamebarservices | not set→URL:ms-gamebarservices |
URL ProtocolHKCR\ms-gamebarservices | not set→ |
NoOpenWithHKCR\ms-gamebarservices | not set→ |
(Default)HKCR\ms-gamebarservices\shell\open\command | not set→%SystemRoot%/System32/systray.exe |
command (key)HKCR\ms-gamebar\shell\open\command | no key→key exists |
command (key)HKCR\ms-gamebarservices\shell\open\command | no key→key exists |
Registry changes 9 values · HKCR + HKCU
Regfiles/Disable_Game_Bar_Integration.regsource| Key | Value | Data |
|---|---|---|
| HKCUSOFTWARE\Microsoft\GameBarDisable allow your controller to open Game Bar | UseNexusForGameBarEnabled | DWORD0 0x00000000 |
| HKCRms-gamebarDisable `ms-gamebar` popups | (Default) | SZ"URL:ms-gamebar" |
URL Protocol | SZ"" | |
NoOpenWith | SZ"" | |
| HKCRms-gamebar\shell\open\command | (Default) | SZ"%SystemRoot%/System32/systray.exe" |
| HKCRms-gamebarservices | (Default) | SZ"URL:ms-gamebarservices" |
URL Protocol | SZ"" | |
NoOpenWith | SZ"" | |
| HKCRms-gamebarservices\shell\open\command | (Default) | SZ"%SystemRoot%/System32/systray.exe" |
Undo file: Regfiles/Undo/Enable_Game_Bar_Integration.reg (“Enable Game Bar integration”)
Regfiles/Undo/Enable_Game_Bar_Integration.regsource| Key | Value | Data |
|---|---|---|
| HKCUSOFTWARE\Microsoft\GameBarEnable allow your controller to open Game Bar | UseNexusForGameBarEnabled | DWORD1 0x00000001 |
| HKCRms-gamebarEnable `ms-gamebar` popups | (Default) | SZ"URL:ms-gamebar" |
URL Protocol | SZ"" | |
NoOpenWith | —deleted | |
| HKCRms-gamebar\shell\open\commandkey deleted | ||
| HKCRms-gamebarservices | (Default) | SZ"URL:ms-gamebarservices" |
URL Protocol | SZ"" | |
NoOpenWith | —deleted | |
| HKCRms-gamebarservices\shell\open\commandkey deleted | ||
Questions
Does disabling Game Bar improve gaming performance?
Nobody has shown that it does, and one report says the opposite: stutter after turning off Game Bar on a hybrid-core Intel CPU (#784). We cannot measure games: our test machines have no GPU. See debloating for gaming.
Keep going
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