Windows Visual Effects (Performance Mode)

What it changes

Turns off two desktop effects the Desktop Window Manager pays for on every frame: the minimize and restore window animation, and window drop shadows.

Why it helps

• Frees a small amount of compositor GPU time, which matters most on integrated graphics and older GPUs.

Trade-offs

• On a modern GPU the difference in a game is marginal. This is a visual-polish-for-a-small-gain trade, so it is opt-in.
• Everything else in Performance Options (font smoothing, taskbar animations, transparency) is left alone.
• No restart and no administrator rights needed.

Details

• Uses SystemParametersInfo (SPI_SETANIMATION and SPI_SETDROPSHADOW), the same calls the Performance Options dialog makes, and marks VisualFXSetting=3 ("Custom") under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects so that dialog does not later apply its full "best performance" set on top.
• TrayTrigger records what both effects were set to before applying and restores exactly that on revert.

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Part of Performance Tweaks. This page is the same text as the app's Learn more button, generated from Help/tweaks/visual_fx.md. To fix something, edit that file (or open an issue); wiki edits are overwritten on the next sync.