Game and display repairs

Every card below runs the same way. The first two steps are the same for all of them; the other two are under each card, with what that card changes.

Each repair card writes back the Windows default unless its own description says otherwise. Most cards do not read a backup made by w0a, so they also help if some other tool was what changed your machine.

What to do

1. Open w0a
2. Go to the Fix page in the left menu

Fullscreen optimizations

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

3. Type fullscreen into the search box
4. Press the button on the Fullscreen optimizations card

Game Bar / game capture

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).

3. Type capture into the search box
4. Press the button on the Game Bar / game capture card

Xbox / Game Pass

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).

3. Type pass into the search box
4. Press the button on the Xbox / Game Pass card

CS2 settings

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

Unlike most repair cards, this one does not write a Windows default back: Windows has none for these files, because they hold your own CS2 settings. The card puts back the copy w0a saved before it first wrote to them; without that copy it changes nothing.

3. Type cs2 into the search box
4. Press the button on the CS2 settings card

What the card's answer means

• "Fixed — N setting(s) put back from the copy w0a saved." — before it first changed them, w0a had saved a copy of the Steam launch options, of autoexec.cfg or of both, and that copy is back in place. N is how many of the two were put back. If the problem continues, see below.
• "The backup was already in place — there was nothing in the file to change." — what is on disk already matches the copy w0a saved, so nothing was written. Whatever you are seeing has another cause, and pressing this card again will not help.
• "No backup found to restore — nothing was changed on this machine." — w0a holds no copy to put back, for example because it never changed these files on this PC. Without one the card changes nothing: your own launch options and autoexec stay as they are. The same line appears when Steam or CS2's config files could not be found.
• "Could not restore the backup. See the error log." — a saved copy exists but could not be written back. The reason is in %LocalAppData%\w0a\errors.log.
• "Cannot run while Steam is open — close Steam completely and try again." — Steam keeps the launch options in memory and writes its own copy back when it exits, so a restore made while it runs would be lost. Quit Steam fully, not just its window, and press again.
• "Whether Steam or CS2 is running could not be read, so nothing was written." — w0a could not tell whether Steam is running, and it refuses to write on a guess. Press again; if it keeps happening, the reason is in %LocalAppData%\w0a\errors.log.
• "Another repair is running." — only one card runs at a time, because several of them would undo each other's work. Wait for it to finish and press again.
• "The repair stopped here with an error." — the card hit an error part-way. Anything it had already done is named before this sentence; pressing again retries, and the reason is in %LocalAppData%\w0a\errors.log.
• "Could not fix — see the error log." — the card did not finish. The reason is in %LocalAppData%\w0a\errors.log.

If an FPS cap is stuck: this card deliberately does not touch CS2's own settings store (cs2_machine_convars.vcfg) — an fps_max found there is indistinguishable from one you set in the console on purpose. The way back is the Launch Options page in w0a: untick the FPS cap box and the autoexec is rewritten so the game itself persists its default (fps_max 400) again.

CS2 video settings

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.

Unlike most repair cards, this one does not write a Windows default back: Windows has none for these files, because they hold your own CS2 settings. The card puts back the copy w0a saved before it first wrote to them; without that copy it changes nothing.

3. Type cs2 into the search box
4. Press the button on the CS2 video settings card

What the card's answer means

• "Fixed — N setting(s) put back from the copy w0a saved." — w0a had saved a copy of CS2's video settings file before it first wrote to it, and that copy is back in place. If the problem continues, see below.
• "The backup was already in place — there was nothing in the file to change." — the video settings file already matches the copy w0a saved, so nothing was written. Whatever you are seeing has another cause, and pressing this card again will not help.
• "No backup found in any Steam account's folder; nothing was changed." — w0a holds no copy of the video settings for any Steam account on this PC, for example because it never wrote to them. Without one the card changes nothing: your own video settings stay as they are.
• "Could not restore the backup. See the error log." — a saved copy exists but could not be written back. The reason is in %LocalAppData%\w0a\errors.log.
• "CS2 is running. The game rewrites this file as it closes; close the game first." — a restore made while the game runs would be overwritten when it exits. Close CS2 and press again.
• "Whether Steam or CS2 is running could not be read, so nothing was written." — w0a could not tell whether CS2 is running, and it refuses to write on a guess. Press again; if it keeps happening, the reason is in %LocalAppData%\w0a\errors.log.
• "Another repair is running." — only one card runs at a time, because several of them would undo each other's work. Wait for it to finish and press again.
• "The repair stopped here with an error." — the card hit an error part-way. Anything it had already done is named before this sentence; pressing again retries, and the reason is in %LocalAppData%\w0a\errors.log.
• "Could not fix — see the error log." — the card did not finish. The reason is in %LocalAppData%\w0a\errors.log.

Windowed game presentation

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.

Unlike most repair cards, this one does not always put the Windows default back. It removes only SwapEffectUpgradeEnable=1, the entry that turns the option on for every game. If you turned 'optimizations for windowed games' off on the Graphics settings page, Windows stores that as SwapEffectUpgradeEnable=0, and the card leaves that choice as it is, just like a choice you made for a single game.

3. Type windowed into the search box
4. Press the button on the Windowed game presentation card

Game and app priorities

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.

3. Type rule into the search box
4. Press the button on the Game and app priorities card

Display and video

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.

3. Type video into the search box
4. Press the button on the Display and video card

Auto HDR

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.

3. Type hdr into the search box
4. Press the button on the Auto HDR card

Which GPU a game runs on

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.

3. Type gpu into the search box
4. Press the button on the Which GPU a game runs on card

NVIDIA profile

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.

When w0a writes that profile it sets V-Sync off and the G-Sync/FreeSync setting to fixed refresh for cs2.exe, without asking: a competitive profile runs at a fixed refresh rate, and whoever wants variable refresh for CS2 turns it back on in the NVIDIA panel. Running this card removes the written profile, so on a VRR monitor the behaviour you see in CS2 returns to the driver default; that is the card working, not a new problem.

3. Type nvidia into the search box
4. Press the button on the NVIDIA profile card

GPU crash recovery

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.

If the driver reset happened while w0a's own GPU tuner was running, you do not need this card for that: a tuning run that sees a driver reset (TDR) reverts its own settings and does not count as completed. A successful run is applied and recorded straight away — there is no timer asking you to confirm. What answers a freeze is the startup guard instead: a session that dies with an offset live comes back at stock with "apply at startup" switched off, and Reset puts stock values back at any time.

3. Type recovery into the search box
4. Press the button on the GPU crash recovery card

Memory integrity back on

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.

The card writes Enabled under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceGuard\Scenarios\HypervisorEnforcedCodeIntegrity as 1 — exactly what the Windows Security toggle writes. It only takes effect after a restart. If it is still off afterwards, Windows found a driver that does not support memory integrity; Windows Security names that driver, and until it is replaced or uninstalled the feature cannot be switched on.

3. Type integrity into the search box
4. Press the button on the Memory integrity back on card

What the card's answer means

After you press it, the card writes a line underneath. Which line you get decides your next step.

• "Fixed — N setting(s) put back to the Windows default." — this was the broken thing and it has been put back. If the problem continues, see below.
• "Nothing to fix — this was already at the Windows default." — these settings were never changed. Whatever you are seeing has another cause, and pressing this card again will not help.
• "Nothing to fix — this component is not installed on this PC." — the thing this card repairs is not present on this Windows. Your edition may not include it, or it may have been removed earlier.
• "Fixed — N setting(s) restored. Restart the PC for full effect." — the setting is written, but Windows reads it at boot, so the difference shows after a restart. A card only prints this when what it changed genuinely needs one.
• "Fixed — N setting(s) restored. Sign out and back in for full effect." — the cheaper version of the same thing: what reads the setting is the session, so the machine does not have to go down.
• "Another repair is running." — only one card runs at a time, because several of them would undo each other's work. Wait for it to finish and press again.
• "Could not fix — see the error log." — the card did not finish. The reason is in %LocalAppData%\w0a\errors.log.

If it did not help

If the card said it fixed something and the problem is still there, these settings were not the cause. Write to us — tell us which card you ran and what it printed; the two together are what narrows it down.