Something broke

If alt-tabbing in games became slow or fullscreen behaviour changed, restores fullscreen-optimization settings to Windows defaults.

If Win+G does not open, or game recording / 'record last 30 s' stopped working, restores Game Bar and Game DVR to Windows defaults (enabled).

If Xbox app sign-in fails, Game Pass games will not launch or achievements/cloud saves stopped syncing, restores the Xbox services to their Windows default (Manual).

If CS2 launch options or autoexec changes caused trouble, restores Steam launch options from the backup and reverts autoexec.cfg. Steam must be closed.

If CS2 will not start, shows a black screen, or its video settings look wrong, restores the copy w0a took before it first wrote to them. Windows has no default here — this file is your own settings, so with no backup nothing is done.

If windowed or borderless games flicker, go black or lose the cursor, the game shows up black in streaming or screen share, or in-game overlays stopped drawing, removes the 'optimizations for windowed games' value and lets Windows decide again. With Auto HDR on, Windows keeps the feature on by itself; before Windows 11 22H2 the value is not read at all.

If the whole machine stutters whenever one game or program runs (choppy mouse, crackling audio, slow alt-tab), or a program behaves oddly at every launch, removes every standing priority rule w0a created and any rule, whichever tool wrote it, that starts a program at High priority, with the I/O priority stored beside it. A rule another tool set at a lower level stays.

If video playback flickers or uses too much GPU, or 'Connect to a wireless display' disappeared, restores multi-plane overlay and Miracast to Windows defaults.

If some games no longer get HDR on an HDR display, removes the per-game Auto HDR override so games follow the global Windows setting again.

If a game should stop being forced onto the high-performance graphics card, this removes the “high performance” GPU preference from every app that has one — whether w0a wrote it or it was chosen in Settings — and lets Windows decide again. A power-saving preference you set yourself in Settings is left alone.

If CS2 shows tearing, in-game VSync is ignored, or the GPU stays at high clocks even when idle, removes the NVIDIA driver profile settings this app wrote, restoring driver defaults.

If the machine never recovers when the GPU stalls (no picture, no cursor, no input), or short black screens became long freezes, restores the GPU recovery settings to Windows defaults. If you raised these timeouts deliberately for long GPU compute jobs, this card removes that too.

Turns Windows' memory integrity (core isolation) back on after it was switched off for frames. Use it if an anti-cheat now refuses to start a match, if Windows Security shows a warning, or if you simply want the protection back. Takes effect after a restart; if a driver on this machine is incompatible Windows will say so instead of enabling it.

If the internet got slower, Task Manager shows 0 network usage per app, or Wake-on-LAN stopped working, restores TCP, QoS and adapter settings to Windows defaults.

If pages will not load, some sites cannot be found, or the router page / local device names stopped resolving, sets DNS back to automatic (DHCP), flushes caches and resets the network stack. Where an adapter has an address you set by hand, the stack reset is skipped and said so - it would wipe that address. Otherwise the reset also clears layered network software (older VPN and filtering clients may need reinstalling). It also sets Windows' built-in encrypted DNS (DNS over HTTPS) entries back to how Windows ships them (off).

If one CPU core pegs while downloading, throughput sits far below the line's speed, or large file transfers stutter, returns the adapter's hardware offload and interrupt-moderation settings to the driver's own defaults. If you turned interrupt moderation, Energy Efficient Ethernet or selective suspend off deliberately, those come back too.

If downloads run below the line's speed, some pages half-load and hang (especially over PPPoE or VPN), or a game reports 'port in use', removes the persistent values old TCP tuner sets leave behind and returns the dynamic port range to the Windows default.

If store, sign-in and launcher pages sit there for several seconds before they appear, your connection may be advertising IPv6 without being able to carry it - every site with an IPv6 address is tried that way first and has to time out. This card tests both, and only if IPv4 is the one that works does it tell Windows to try IPv4 first. It changes nothing on a connection whose IPv6 is fine. Needs a restart. The “Xbox networking and IPv6” card undoes it.

If normal internet works but Xbox / Game Pass party chat and multiplayer will not connect, invites never arrive, or NAT shows 'Strict', returns the IP Helper service and the Teredo/IPv6 transition settings to their Windows defaults. This also clears the “try IPv4 first” setting written by the “Pages hang for a few seconds” card, so pressing both undoes the first one.

If the Store and Xbox app cannot sign in and Windows Update keeps failing while the browser works fine, removes the hosts-file lines that point Microsoft sign-in, licensing and update addresses at a dead address. Your own entries are left alone and a copy of the file is saved first.

If the screen never turns off, the PC never sleeps or the battery drains fast, activates Balanced, deletes plans this app created, and restores power-saving settings to Windows defaults.

If Windows' own Balanced plan is missing from the list — which is why the 'Power plan and battery' card reports success and changes nothing — rebuilds the built-in plans with powercfg. That also deletes plans you or your vendor created, so it asks first.

If the PC still idles hot, the fans never settle or the battery drains fast even after the power-plan repair, returns the core-parking and minimum/maximum processor state values written into Windows' own plans to that plan's own defaults.

If apps and boot got noticeably slower, restores Prefetch/SysMain memory preloading to the Windows default (enabled).

If the PC boots much slower after a shutdown, restores fast startup and hibernation to the Windows default (enabled).

If every startup program (Steam, Discord, cloud sync) launches at once right after sign-in and the desktop and tray icons arrive late, restores Windows' behaviour of holding startup items back until the shell is ready.

If apps get force-closed at shutdown without the unsaved-work warning, restores shutdown timeouts and prompts to Windows defaults.

If an old program keeps crashing, compatibility help no longer appears for installers, or crash reports vanished, restores the related Windows protections to their defaults (on).

If RAM usage went up, services group strangely in Task Manager, or background jobs crawl, restores memory and scheduler settings to Windows defaults.

If the SSD slowed down over time or another tool turned TRIM off, restores TRIM to the Windows default (enabled).

If restore points can no longer be created, or the Configure button in System Protection does nothing, removes the restore policies and returns the shadow-copy services and scheduled task to their Windows defaults.

If Start-menu search lost web results, new files show up late in search, or indexing stopped, restores search policies and the indexing service to Windows defaults.

If Alt+Shift no longer switches keyboard language, or accessibility shortcuts like 5x Shift stopped working, restores keyboard shortcut settings to Windows defaults.

If windows steal focus while you type, or macro/overlay tools randomly lose their hotkeys, restores focus and input-hook timeouts to Windows defaults.

If toast notifications never appear (messages, calendar, reminders), or the notification/calendar flyout will not open at all, returns the notification settings and the policies that switch the notification centre off to the Windows default (enabled).

If transparency and animations disappeared, dragging a window shows only an outline, Personalization > Themes errors out, or the accent colour is never applied, restores the Themes service that loads visual styles and the visual-effect settings to Windows defaults.

If the taskbar weather/Widgets board or Copilot/Recall disappeared, removes the blocking policies, restoring Windows defaults.

If the desktop/taskbar froze, icons look broken, or pictures and videos never show a thumbnail, restores the thumbnail setting to the Windows default, rebuilds the icon cache and restarts Explorer. Thumbnails are regenerated folder by folder the first time you open one.

If Start's 'Recommended' section stays empty, or Personalization/Privacy toggles are greyed out with 'managed by your organization', removes the suggestion policies and restores the content settings to the Windows default (on). Where the Spotlight policy was applied, the lock-screen picture starts rotating again too.

If Mail, Calendar and other Store apps stopped running in the background (no sync, late notifications), returns the global background-app permission to the Windows default (on).

If Task View history stays empty or apps stop offering to pick up where you left off, removes the activity-history policies and restores the Windows default (recording on).

If the touch keyboard stops predicting or handwriting recognition gets worse, turns Windows' typing and pen learning back on.

If nothing happens when you plug in a USB stick or external drive, removes the AutoPlay policy and hands the decision back to Windows settings.

If the disk no longer clears itself or the Storage Sense setting appears greyed out, removes the policy that turned it off.

If your apps no longer come back after a restart and you want them to, removes the switch so Windows returns to reopening them at sign-in.

If the taskbar's right-click "End task" entry should go away, removes the developer setting so the taskbar returns to the Windows default (no such entry).

If sound cut out, devices are missing or apps play no audio, restarts the audio stack and returns the audio scheduling setting to the Windows default.

If the pointer feels different, mouse/keyboard input stutters, or the touchpad dies while a mouse is connected, restores pointer acceleration, input queues and the touchpad setting to Windows defaults.

If a held key repeats too fast, or takes too long to start repeating, restores both values to the Windows defaults: half a second before repeat begins, fastest rate after that. Nothing to do with how long a single press takes to reach the game — this setting only governs a key that is held.

If a key press or a mouse movement occasionally does not register at all, restores the driver queue sizes to the Windows defaults. Writes 100 to the class drivers and deletes the values at the HID layer below them, where a clean Windows writes nothing at all. Needs a restart.

If every printer disappeared, even 'Microsoft Print to PDF' is gone, or nothing prints at all, returns the Print Spooler service to the Windows default (Automatic) and starts it.

If the Bluetooth toggle vanished from Settings and Quick Settings, or headsets, controllers and mice will not pair, returns the Bluetooth services to their Windows default (Manual).

If Spotify or other Store apps will not open, or the Store no longer updates apps, re-registers the apps, resets the Store cache and restores automatic updates to default.

If Edge starts slowly or shows 'Managed by your organization', removes the Edge policies, restoring default behaviour.

If updates stopped arriving, download very slowly, or Insider/Feedback Hub no longer works, restores update and diagnostics services to Windows defaults.

If a Remote Assistance invitation (the classic 'ask for help' feature, msra) cannot connect, restores the permission to ask for help to the Windows default (on). Works whichever tool turned it off. Quick Assist does not use this setting.

If a USB device keeps dropping out, is slow to wake, or you want to undo a priority change made on the USB Ports page, restores every input device's sleep and power-management permissions to the Windows default.

If you cannot print, Bluetooth will not connect, fingerprint sign-in stopped working or a troubleshooter will not open, restores the services an optimisation set to manual start back to the Windows default and starts the print spooler right away.

Re-enables the compatibility and telemetry scheduled tasks an optimisation turned off. Windows' compatibility reporting comes back; it was off for performance, so turn it on here if something needs it.

If devices you plug in show as 'Unknown device' or get the wrong icon, lets Windows fetch device information from the manufacturer again.

If the pen button does nothing or the Windows Ink tools will not open, turns the pen workspace back on.

If Performance Monitor, WPR or another event-log based tool cannot collect data, puts the boot-time trace sessions back to the Windows default.

If Performance Monitor finds no counter sets at all, or typeperf, Get-Counter or a monitoring tool that reads Windows performance counters sees no data, deletes the switch that turns counters off.

If a device stopped working after a tuning tool pinned its interrupts to particular processor cores — a controller that will not start, a mouse that drops out, Device Manager showing Code 10 — removes that pinning from every PCI device and hands the placement back to Windows. Also the way to undo the steering older w0a versions offered on the Latency Test page. Takes effect after a restart.

If other sounds no longer dip when a call starts and you want the Windows behaviour back, removes the ducking preference so Windows returns to its default (other sounds reduced by 80% during a call).

If the "get the latest updates as soon as they're available" toggle is stuck off, removes the value so Windows shows and follows its own default again.

If Windows Update no longer offers drivers and you want it to, removes the policy that excluded them (ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate) so Windows follows its own default again.

If your RGB devices went dark or stopped following Windows after Dynamic Lighting was turned off, removes the switch so Windows drives them again.