PC games: scanning and per-game settings

BRUTAL finds the PC games installed through your launchers and lists them on Game mode, under On this PC. Open a game in the Game Library for two things: a tailored list of in-game graphics settings for your hardware and GPU, and a one-click set of Windows optimizations for that game. There are 2,017 hand-tuned PC game profiles, covering popular competitive, online, single-player and casual games.

Finding your games

Game mode scans when you open it; click Rescan to scan again. BRUTAL detects installed games across several launchers:

• Steam — matched by App ID from Steam's library manifests (VDF)
• Epic Games — from Epic's JSON manifests
• GOG — from the registry
• Riot — from Riot's metadata (e.g. Valorant, League)
• plus an uninstall-registry fallback for anything the launcher scans miss — this is how Battle.net, EA app, Ubisoft Connect and standalone games are found

The games it finds appear under PC GAMES on Game mode.

A game's page in the Game Library

Search the catalog or pick a game to see its anti-cheat class, its profile and its in-game settings. The recommended settings are tuned to three things: the game's genre (competitive shooter, battle royale, MOBA, online/single-player AAA, casual), your hardware tier, and your GPU vendor.

That guidance includes resolution, display mode, V-Sync, frame-rate cap, an overall preset, and vendor-aware advice for upscaling (DLSS on NVIDIA, FSR on AMD, XeSS on Intel) and low-latency tech (Reflex / Anti-Lag), plus shadow, anti-aliasing, texture and ray-tracing recommendations. Where an installed game's files show it, the page also names the game's engine (Unreal Engine, Unity or Source 2), with short, sourced notes on how that engine handles shader compilation. These are guidance only — BRUTAL does not rewrite the game's own config files.

What "Optimize this game" actually does

Click Optimize this game and BRUTAL applies a set of safe, Windows-level tweaks for that title:

• IFEO priority — asks Windows for High CPU and I/O priority when the game starts, only for a title with no anti-cheat, and not written while an anti-cheat service is running or under a program name the game shares with other software
• Network QoS — DSCP 46 (Expedited Forwarding) policies scoped to the game's programs and declared server ports, so game traffic can be prioritised over background traffic
• GPU preference — sets each of the game's programs to your high-performance GPU (useful on laptops with integrated + discrete GPUs), when BRUTAL found where the game is installed
• Disable fullscreen optimizations for the game's programs (when the install path is known)

The log shows each step. The game's page then shows it as applied, and a Remove button appears: it deletes the priority, QoS, GPU-preference and fullscreen-optimization entries it created.

Anti-cheat safety

This is where BRUTAL's honesty matters. When a game uses anti-cheat, its page says so explicitly:

• Riot Vanguard — no priority write. Only Windows-level settings (QoS, GPU preference, fullscreen optimizations) are applied; the profile makes no kernel-level change for any game.
• Other anti-cheats (EAC, BattlEye, etc.) — no priority write; the optimizations change only Windows-level settings.

BRUTAL never injects into a game, hooks its rendering, or touches its files for these optimizations. Each publisher decides what its anti-cheat allows.

How to use it

1. Open Game mode. Your installed games appear under On this PC; click Rescan if one is missing.
2. Open the Game Library and pick the game.
3. Copy its recommended in-game settings into the game's own graphics menu.
4. Click Optimize this game and watch the log confirm each tweak.
5. To revert, open the game in the Game Library and click Remove.

Common issues / troubleshooting

• A game I own isn't listed under On this PC. BRUTAL lists the games that match one of its 2,017 hand-tuned PC profiles. Make sure the game is installed (not just in your library) and click Rescan. On Windows 11, a game without a profile still gets the FPS overlay when it runs full-screen in front.
• The scan failed. Click Rescan to try again. A launcher manifest that couldn't be read is the usual cause, and rescanning generally fixes it.
• "Per-game Windows tuning is part of Pro." Optimize and Remove require Pro. Activate to apply.
• GPU preference didn't change my laptop GPU. The preference is a Windows hint; some games override it. Confirm in Windows Graphics settings that the game is set to High performance. If BRUTAL didn't find where the game is installed, it sets no GPU preference, and the log says so.

Playing mobile titles instead? See Game profiles (mobile games). Want a live FPS readout while you play? See The FPS overlay.