Start with Windows and the system tray

BRUTAL Optimizer is built to live quietly in the background: it minimizes to the system tray instead of closing, and it can start automatically when you sign in to Windows, without nagging you for elevation every boot. Here's how to set it up and control it.

Start automatically with Windows

Open the app and go to the Account tab, then Settings.
Find Start with Windows (subtitle: "Launch minimized to tray on Windows startup").
Turn the toggle on.

From then on, the app launches itself a few seconds after you sign in and goes straight to the tray, minimized, so it's ready in the background without a window popping up.

Behind the scenes this uses an elevated scheduled task, not the old Run-key approach. That matters: because the app requires Administrator rights, a plain startup shortcut would either be skipped by Windows or trigger a UAC prompt every boot. The scheduled task launches it elevated with no UAC prompt at sign-in. The app also self-heals this task on each launch, so it keeps working after updates that move the app.

Minimize to tray

The app intentionally stays out of your way:

Clicking minimize or the X (close) button hides the window to the tray rather than exiting.
A brief balloon tip confirms it's still running ("Running in background. Guardian is active." for Pro users, or "Minimized to tray.").
The icon appears in the system tray near the clock.

This keeps background features, like the Pro Guardian and the global FPS-overlay hotkey, working even when no window is open.

The tray menu

Right-click the tray icon for a small menu:

Open BRUTAL Optimizer, restores the window.
Run Guardian Now, triggers an immediate Guardian cycle (Pro; only acts if Guardian is running).
Exit, fully quits the app.

You can also double-click the tray icon to restore the window instantly.

Actually quitting the app

Because the X button only minimizes, the way to truly close the app is the tray menu's Exit. When you choose Exit, the app stops Guardian cleanly, releases its optimizations, and removes the tray icon so nothing is left behind.

If you want the app gone for this session, use tray → Exit. Just clicking the window's X will leave it running in the tray, which is by design.

Single instance

Only one copy of BRUTAL Optimizer runs at a time. If you launch it again while it's already running (or minimized to the tray), the new launch hands off to the existing one and exits, so you won't get two windows, two Guardians, or a hotkey conflict. If "nothing happens" when you start it, check the tray, it's probably already there.

Common issues / troubleshooting

The window won't close. That's intentional, X minimizes to tray. Use tray → Exit to quit.
It didn't start at sign-in. Re-open Settings and toggle Start with Windows off and on. If it still fails, the toggle reverts with a warning; try again after a moment off the busy startup window.
I see a UAC prompt at boot anyway. The scheduled task is meant to avoid that. If you previously had a manual startup shortcut, remove it, the app's self-heal migrates legacy entries to the elevated task.
No tray icon. Windows may have hidden it in the overflow (the up-arrow near the clock). Drag it onto the visible tray, or check Windows' notification-area settings.

"Start with Windows" controls only this app's own startup. To manage other apps that launch at sign-in, use the Startup Manager page under PC Optimizer instead, that's a separate tool.