Power, startup and performance 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

Power plan and battery

If the screen never turns off, the PC never sleeps or the battery drains fast, activates Balanced, deletes plans this app created, and restores power-saving settings to Windows defaults.

3. Type battery into the search box
4. Press the button on the Power plan and battery card

Missing power plans

If Windows' own Balanced plan is missing from the list — which is why the 'Power plan and battery' card reports success and changes nothing — rebuilds the built-in plans with powercfg. That also deletes plans you or your vendor created, so it asks first.

3. Type missing into the search box
4. Press the button on the Missing power plans card

Processor power settings

If the PC still idles hot, the fans never settle or the battery drains fast even after the power-plan repair, returns the core-parking and minimum/maximum processor state values written into Windows' own plans to that plan's own defaults.

3. Type processor into the search box
4. Press the button on the Processor power settings card

Slow app launches

If apps and boot got noticeably slower, restores Prefetch/SysMain memory preloading to the Windows default (enabled).

3. Type prefetch into the search box
4. Press the button on the Slow app launches card

Fast startup

If the PC boots much slower after a shutdown, restores fast startup and hibernation to the Windows default (enabled).

3. Type startup into the search box
4. Press the button on the Fast startup card

Startup program delay

If every startup program (Steam, Discord, cloud sync) launches at once right after sign-in and the desktop and tray icons arrive late, restores Windows' behaviour of holding startup items back until the shell is ready.

3. Type startup into the search box
4. Press the button on the Startup program delay card

Shutdown behaviour

If apps get force-closed at shutdown without the unsaved-work warning, restores shutdown timeouts and prompts to Windows defaults.

3. Type shutdown into the search box
4. Press the button on the Shutdown behaviour card

Page file clearing at shutdown

If shutdown or restart takes unusually long because Windows clears the page file every time, restores that setting to the Windows default (off). Needs a restart.

3. Type shutdown into the search box
4. Press the button on the Page file clearing at shutdown card

The setting itself

ClearPageFileAtShutdown under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management. At 1, Windows overwrites the page file at every shutdown so that what was in it cannot be read off the disk later; the bigger the page file, the more there is to overwrite. The card sets the value to 0, which is what a clean install carries, and does not delete it. Windows reads the value when it starts, so the shutdown that ends the current session can still clear the file; the shutdowns after the restart no longer do. How much shorter they get has not been measured.

On a work or school PC, the value can come from a security policy set by IT, and the policy writes it back, so the change may not last. Ask whoever manages the PC before you change it there.

Crash reporting and legacy apps

If an old program keeps crashing, compatibility help no longer appears for installers, or crash reports vanished, restores the related Windows protections to their defaults (on).

3. Type crash into the search box
4. Press the button on the Crash reporting and legacy apps card

Memory and system defaults

If RAM usage went up, services group strangely in Task Manager, or background jobs crawl, restores memory and scheduler settings to Windows defaults.

3. Type memory into the search box
4. Press the button on the Memory and system defaults card

SSD TRIM

If the SSD slowed down over time or another tool turned TRIM off, restores TRIM to the Windows default (enabled).

3. Type ssd into the search box
4. Press the button on the SSD TRIM card

Scheduled drive optimisation

If drives are no longer optimised on a schedule, turns Windows' weekly Optimize Drives task back on (the Windows default) and runs one TRIM pass on internal SSDs. Changes nothing while a game is running.

3. Type scheduled into the search box
4. Press the button on the Scheduled drive optimisation card

The setting itself

The weekly run is the Task Scheduler task \Microsoft\Windows\Defrag\ScheduledDefrag, the schedule behind Windows' drive optimisation window (dfrgui). Windows ships it switched on; some "SSD optimiser" scripts switch it off. The card switches it back on and then reads it again, so it says the task is on only after Windows reports it on. It does not change when the task runs or which drives it covers.

Then the card runs the pass the task missed, once on each internal SSD: defrag C: /L, the retrim, and no other switch. Only drives formatted NTFS or ReFS get it. This card never defragments a hard disk. USB drives, virtual disks, storage pools, FAT and exFAT volumes, and any drive whose type or connection Windows does not report are left to the weekly task.

Answers only this card gives

If the task was already on, the card prints "Nothing to fix — this was already at the Windows default." and runs no TRIM pass: that pass is the weekly task's job, and the task is on. The lines below are this card's own:

• "Scheduled drive optimisation was off; it is on again." — the task was off and is on now. The line goes on with the drives that got the TRIM pass, for example "One TRIM pass was run on C:, D:."; with no drive named, none qualified. A drive that refused the pass adds the sentence saying how many changes could not be made, and the error log names the drive.
• "A game is running, so nothing was changed: this card's TRIM pass does not start during a game. Press the card again after the game." — w0a saw a full-screen program and treats it as a game. Nothing was touched, not even the task, so pressing the card after the game does the whole job.
• "Windows takes an SSD for a hard disk (C:): switched back on, scheduled drive optimisation would defragment that drive instead of running a TRIM pass on it, so nothing was changed." — Windows lists the drive as a hard disk, but another sign shows it is an SSD: an NVMe connection, or the storage driver's own answer that the disk does not seek like a spinning one. Switched on, the task would defragment that SSD every week, so the card leaves it off and runs no TRIM pass either. As long as the misreading lasts, the card does not switch the task on. If you want it on anyway, do it yourself in the drive optimisation window (dfrgui), and take that drive off the schedule first.
• "The drive optimisation task could not be read — it may be missing from this Windows — so nothing was changed." — the task is not there, or Task Scheduler did not answer about it. The card does not create a task or guess what one should look like.
• "Task Scheduler could not be reached — whether scheduled drive optimisation is on could not be read, so nothing was changed." — Windows' task service did not answer. The card counts that as a change it could not make, so the sentence saying how many changes could not be made follows; the error log has the reason.

System Restore

If restore points can no longer be created, or the Configure button in System Protection does nothing, removes the restore policies and returns the shadow-copy services and scheduled task to their Windows defaults.

3. Type system into the search box
4. Press the button on the System Restore 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.