Tip: Fullscreen optimizations might be hurting your game performance in Windows 10

It seems like what causes a minor FPS boost for some might be causing major performance issues for others. Reddit user LovableContrarian ran into a variety of issues with the game Overwatch on Windows 10, and it seems like the fix is tied to a part of Windows 10 known as fullscreen optimizations.

The issues themselves ranged from jittery gameplay to an overheating GPU, and the benefits that fullscreen optimizations are intended to provide are performance boosts. A Microsoft employee using the alias JohnMSFT commented on the issue previously, noting that issues are nothing new.

It is on by default because in most cases it provides a small benefit to gameplay. We’ve seen reports of some people who are having problems with it, and we’re taking actions to fix them through OS updates and working with Intel, Nvidia, etc to update drivers as well.

With the Windows 10 Creators Update the option was added to disable fullscreen optimizations for individual executable files, and doing this isn’t difficult whatsoever. You just have to do the following:

1. Navigate to the .exe file of the game you’re having issues with (it’s likely in Program Files)
2. Right click the file, select properties
3. Navigate to the compatibility section of the window that just opened up
4. Check the box that says “disable fullscreen optimizations”
5. Click apply.

That will likely solve your issues with that individual game, but it’s also possible to disable them system wide. This is even easier to do, as it doesn’t require finding the game’s executable.

1. Open the settings app
2. Go to the gaming section
3. Uncheck “show game bar when I play full screen games Microsoft has verified”

After that, you’ll be good to go. Microsoft is working with hardware companies to fix this, and the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update might not even have this issue by the time it launches. It’s worth keeping in mind for the time being, however.