What it changes
Nothing changes until you press a button or switch an engine on, and on a new installation every engine is off.
The optimizations write Windows settings: registry values, power plans, DNS servers and encrypted DNS, scheduled tasks, and the start type of services on a named list. A registry value has to be on a list compiled into the application; a write anywhere else is refused.
Before it writes, w0a reads the current value and records it in a ledger in %ProgramData%\w0a, which every user can read and only administrators can change. A value that is already in place is neither written nor recorded. Before the first change of a session, w0a offers to create a Windows restore point.
A few pages change things of their own, each with its own way back:
- CS2. The launch options in Steam's settings file, the game's video settings file, and w0a's own w0a.cfg, which one line in your autoexec.cfg runs. A file w0a did not create is copied before w0a first changes it.
- NVIDIA's profile for cs2.exe. Up to four documented driver settings. Undoing them removes only those values, so anything you set in that profile yourself stays.
- Graphics card. Clock offsets, voltage boost, power limit and fan speed, saved as profiles on the Graphics Card page, where one button returns the card to its defaults.
- Startup entries. An entry switched off on the Startup page stays where it is and can be switched back on from the same list.
- Deletions. The Logs page deletes the logs and caches you select, and the Uninstall Apps page removes apps. Neither can be undone, and both pages say so and ask before they start.
Engines you switch on act on running programs, for example by raising the game's priority.
How a change is undone
The Backups page lists a w0a restore point for every operation. Restoring one reverts every change made after it, later points included, and Revert All writes back the first recorded value of every setting.
The Fix page does not need that ledger. Nearly every card writes the Windows default back, so it also repairs a setting another tool or an older installation changed. The CS2 card puts back the copies w0a made before its first write.
How to undo every change, step by step
What it refuses
- Kernel settings. Every value under Session Manager\kernel is refused.
- Display driver keys. The keys that switch multiplane overlay (MPO) off and the TDR keys, which decide how Windows recovers from a hung graphics card, froze CS2 on a real machine. w0a writes none of them.
w0a may delete these values, which puts the Windows default back on a PC that still carries them from an older w0a build or from another tool. It never writes them.
- Microsoft Defender. w0a changes none of its settings, adds no exclusions and never lowers the priority of its processes. Defender is not on the list of services whose start type w0a may change, and its security-intelligence updates keep downloading when w0a holds other background downloads back during a game. The Logs page is the one place w0a touches Defender's files: with its box ticked, which it is by default, the clean-up empties Defender's diagnostic and scan-history logs. The protection engine, signatures and quarantined files stay untouched.
- Your games. w0a injects no code into them and reads none of their memory.
- Memory integrity. The switch that turns this Windows protection off is unticked by default and left out of select-all. It refuses to run when FACEIT is installed or w0a cannot tell whether it is, and when the setting is locked.
- One click for everything. There is no button that optimizes the whole PC at once and no first-run tour: you choose each change.
Which driver it can load
w0a has no driver of its own and ships none. Some readings need one: the processor's package temperature, memory timings and the memory modules' temperature. For those it can install PawnIO, a separately signed driver made by an independent developer, which w0a uses only to read. It installs it only after you press its button and confirm a prompt naming the publisher Windows verified on the file, and it downloads the setup over HTTPS from GitHub and from nowhere else.
FACEIT's anti-cheat will not start beside older PawnIO releases. w0a always installs the latest one, which is signed by Microsoft's hardware compatibility publisher, and warns you first when FACEIT is installed beside an older one.
PawnIO is a separate product with its own entry in Windows' list of installed apps: removing w0a does not remove it.
What goes over the network
- Licence check. Only once a key is entered: the key, a one-way hash of the hardware ID, and which version of the agreement you accepted and when. While a key is entered, a connection to the licence server stays open, so a revoked or changed licence takes effect without a restart. Claiming the free trial sends the hashed hardware ID and the one-time code from the Discord bot.
- Activation. Activating a key sends a hardware summary with it: Windows version and architecture, computer name, manufacturer and model, processor and core count, motherboard, BIOS version, graphics card, memory, screen resolution, uptime and local IP address. The server keeps only the summary from the key's first activation.
- Error diagnostics. On by default, switched off with one box on the Settings page, and sent only with a key. Two minutes after start-up and then every six hours, or every six minutes for up to about an hour while a long backlog goes out: the key, the hashed hardware ID, the app version and the new lines of the error log, with paths, the user name and key patterns removed. Kept for 90 days.
- Problem reports. Only when you send one: your message and contact details, the app version, Windows version, processor and graphics card, the end of the error log if you tick its box, and the licence key and hashed hardware ID. Paths, the user name and key patterns are removed.
- Updates. At start-up and on the Updates page, w0a reads a version file signed with our key and ignores one that is unsigned or wrongly signed. An update installs only if it came over HTTPS, its SHA-256 matches the signed file and it carries the same code signature as the running copy.
- Other services. Only when you open a page or press its button: the Drivers page asks NVIDIA for the latest driver, the Ping page fetches Valve's relay list from Steam, the DNS page tests public resolvers such as Cloudflare, Google and Quad9, the Internet page and a Benchmark capture send small probes to Cloudflare's public resolver, and the Updates page reads the release notes from w0a.app.
The full list, with how long each item is kept, is in the Privacy Policy.
What w0a collects, explained step by step
How to check a download
Download w0a only from the download page on w0a.app. Each published build's SHA-256 is shown under the download button: compare it with the file you received, and delete the file if the two differ.
Related pages: How It Works, Privacy Policy and Contact.