How to Set Up a Windows PC for Gaming and Productivity

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Congratulations! You've just gotten a new PC, taken it out of the box, plugged it in and powered it up for the first time. Windows 11 (or 10) probably asked you for your Microsoft login and network credentials the first time you booted up, but you're not done yet. To get the best performance and user experience, you need to take a few more actions to set up your PC.

There are a number of default Windows settings, particularly in Windows 11, that slow you down and limit your productivity. And, if you didn't build this PC yourself, both the OEM and Microsoft have likely thrown on some crapware for good measure. You may also be able to make some tweaks that make the computer faster or you faster.

Bring Back Full Context Menus in Windows 11

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Microsoft's latest OS has several awful default settings and we've outlined the 11 worst Windows 11 features and how to fix them elsewhere. The most annoying feature of all is the truncated context menu you get when right clicking on anything.

In Windows 10 and prior, you could see all of your options right away, but in Windows 11, it shows you just a few choices and then makes you click the "Show more options" link to see them all. That's an unnecessary extra click that you may end up making quite a lot.

Fortunately, there's a registry hack that gives you back the full context menu. Open the registry editor and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\CLSID\ then create a new registry key called {86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}. Then add a new registry key called InprocServer32 under that. Finally, open the (Default) key in InprocServer32 and set its value to blank. As always, with registry key changes, you'll want to restart the computer to see the changes.

Uninstall the Crapware

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No matter what vendor you buy your PC from, it is almost certain to come loaded with free-to-play games, antivirus trialware and other software you don’t need or want. Sadly, a lot of that stuff is actually shoveled on by Microsoft itself, rather than the OEM.

While most of the preloaded crapware is harmless and barely takes up any disk space, some of it is going to drain system resources and nag you to buy something (like a full subscription to antivirus software when you can use Windows 11’s built-in, free antivirus).

To get rid of crapware, search for “add or remove” in Windows search, click-through to the menu and go through the list of applications. We recommend keeping anything you’re not sure about and leaving OEM utilities in place, just in case you need them.