One of the biggest differences between Windows and macOS is that the former lets you tweak and customize a lot of things by going deep into the settings. For instance, you can edit the registry using the Registry Editor and adjust how things work across the OS.

While this lets you fine-tune your experience when using Windows by optimizing and tweaking it just the way you want it, doing so requires a certain level of technical know-how. That's where Wintoys comes in as the perfect utility that lets you optimize and adjust the OS easily with minimal effort.

What is Wintoys? Wintoys is a tool developed by Bogdan Pătrăucean to make it easy to customize and tweak Windows just the way you want. You can do a lot of things with it, such as debloating, repairing, tweaking, and optimizing the OS. It can also help keep your system running properly, and you can perform all of these tasks from a single place.

Some of the things you can do with Wintoys include managing installed apps, controlling running services, optimizing performance, replacing certain Windows utilities, adjusting privacy options, etc. Basically, the tool brings the different settings and options of the OS together while adding a few of its own, making it easy to tweak and customize Windows depending on your preferences. It is also completely free to use and you can use it in multiple languages besides English.

Using Wintoys

  1. Download Wintoys from the Microsoft Store and open it.
  1. When you open Wintoys you will see the homepage of the utility. This shows information about your system, such as the processor, graphics, RAM, Windows version, and so on. It will also show information about your system, running applications and services, and details about hardware utilization. Additionally, you will see a welcome message that informs you about the things you can do with Wintoys. Click on the arrow on the right of the message to view more details.
Note: Wintoys will recommend creating a system restore point before you make any changes to your system using the tool. This is a good idea since it will let you undo the changes in case something goes wrong after making changes.
  1. You can navigate between different pages of the tool using the icons on the left.
  1. Click on the 'Apps' icon below the 'Home' icon to switch to the Apps page. From here, you can remove apps from your system, including those apps Windows does not allow you to remove. This can help you debloat your system easily.
  1. To view the available options for an application, click on the three dots to its right. You can open or close the app, browse, search, reset, or uninstall it using the options in the dropdown menu.
  1. Next, you have the 'Services' page, which shows the different types of services and their current state.
  1. You can toggle between different types of services by clicking the dropdown at the top and selecting the service type you want to view.
  1. Click on the three dots on the right of a service to make changes to it. You can stop, restart, browse, search, and change the mode of a service using the dropdown menu.
  1. Then you have the 'Boost' or 'Performance' page, which lets you switch your power plans, control startup apps, disable indexing, and make other changes to improve your system performance.
  1. To enable or disable an option, click on the button on the right of an option. Some options you will find here include the Ultimate Performance Power Plan, Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling, Virtualization-based Security, etc.
  1. Below the Boost page, you have the 'Health' page, listing the features that can affect the health of the system. These include Fast Startup, Hibernation, Drive Optimization, and more. You can also generate a battery report from here, check for updates, and rebuild the app cache, among other options.
Note: The Repair option combines multiple utilities, including the System File Checker (SFC), Check Disk (CHKDSK) tools, and Deployment Imaging Servicing Management (DISM), which can fix various problems like BSODs, failed updates, and more.
  1. Lastly, there is the 'Tweaks' page, which includes settings to customize various aspects of the OS, including the Desktop, Start Menu, File Explorer, and others.
  1. Click on the arrow on the right of each section to view the customization settings it offers. Then you can click on the toggle to enable or disable an option. You can enable the classic Context Menu, disable Bing search results, turn off Telemetry, and make other adjustments to your system from here.
  1. Once you've made the changes, click on the 'Restart' button on the left. You will need to sign out or restart your device for the changes to take effect.

Things to know

  • As mentioned before, Wintoys allows you to make changes to your Windows system that you cannot otherwise. While the tool provides explanations for most options, it does not do so for certain high-level commands. That is why you should learn about various settings and controls before you change them to avoid issues and unwanted changes.
  • You need to be logged in with an administrator account for the Wintoys tweaks to be applied to your system. It will not work with a non-admin user account.
  • If you're running Windows 11 on older hardware, you can use Wintoys to make tweaks to help the OS perform better. Consider disabling telemetry, ads, unrequired startup apps, and other features you don't use.
  • Settings that are controlled by your organization may revert to their default values even after you change them using the Wintoys utility.