If your PC has accumulated years of software bloat, a clean Windows 11 install is the most impactful single optimization you can do. It's not uncommon to gain 20–50 FPS across all games purely from eliminating years of driver conflicts and background processes.
Before You Start — Backup
A clean install erases everything on your system drive. Back up all important files, note your Windows product key (run wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey in Command Prompt), and export browser bookmarks.
Create a Bootable USB
Download the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool from Microsoft's official website. Run it, select Create installation media for another PC, choose a USB drive of at least 8GB — all data on it will be erased.
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See Services →The Installation Process
Insert the USB, restart, and boot from it (press F11, F12, or Del for boot menu). Select Custom: Install Windows only (advanced). Delete your existing Windows partition and install to the unallocated space for a completely fresh installation.
Post-Install Driver Order
Install in this order: 1) Chipset drivers → 2) GPU drivers (clean install via DDU) → 3) Network adapter → 4) Audio → 5) All others. Installing GPU drivers before chipset can cause conflicts on some systems.
First-Time Gaming Optimization
After a clean install, immediately: switch to High Performance power plan, disable Xbox Game Bar, set GPU driver to maximum performance mode, enable XMP/EXPO in BIOS, disable Memory Integrity, and install only software you actually need.