Performance in Windows 10 or 11: Tricks to Optimize! ⚡️

The arrival of Windows 11 to our computers has brought several interesting new features. 🚀 Among them is the use of hardware virtualization in the most advanced CPUs to provide an additional layer of security 🔒, but its use implies a reduction in performance. 🖥️ With this tutorial, you can disable the VBS and recover lost performance on your PC, especially in Windows 11. 💡

One of Microsoft's obsessions with its new version of Windows It has to do with security and the goal of achieving a reliable computing environment 👍, which is important in corporate and business environments where a large amount of sensitive and private data is handled. 📊🔐

Specifically, they recommend that manufacturers and assemblers of new computers sell them with the VBS enabled by default, which prevents malicious code from being executed that fails code integration checks by masquerading as trusted applications and drivers. 🛡️👨‍💻

Any extra security is always good 🔒, but the problem arises when that extra security becomes a considerable loss of performance in the CPUs 🖥️, especially if you use a AMD Ryzen first generation, the 1000 series, or an Intel Core 10 or older. If you use hardware Relatively modern, you can lose up to 5% of performance 📉, but as we go further back in time, we can see performance cuts of up to 28% 🚫.

Microsoft currently allows gaming PCs sold with Windows 11 to have VBS and HVCI disabled 🎮, but maybe you've purchased a pre-built PC that wasn't originally designed for gaming and converted it for gaming, or you've simply upgraded from Windows 10 🖱️.

What are VBS and HVCI?

In its simplest definition, the VBS uses the capabilities of virtualization by hardware to create a region within memory that is completely isolated from the rest of the system. 🛡️ In other words, it takes advantage of the functionalities that allow us to run other operating systems through a hypervisor, but not to run an entire system, but to run certain functions of Windows 10 and later versions in said isolated environment. 🖥️

One way to breach security is through hardware drivers. 🕵️‍♂️ These drivers are used to communicate programs with the different physical components of the computer. Many of them have a level of privileges much higher than that of a normal program, and a programmer with bad intentions can take advantage of this to make malicious applications behave like drivers. 🚨

To increase security 💪, the Hypervisor-Enforced Code Integrity (HVCI) along with the Virtualization-based Security (VBS) in Windows to check if the code is malicious or not. How does it work? It's similar to how a gunner can detonate a bomb in a controlled environment 🔒: the driver malicious program runs in a separate environment that cannot affect the rest of the system.

Another important feature is to assign an exclusive memory environment to the module TPM to store key credentials 🔑 required for sensitive actions, such as user personal and banking data. However, this involves running an additional environment that consumes processor resources, reducing the power available to our applications 💻.

Let's see below how Disable this feature in Windows 11 and recover lost power ⚡.

How to know if VBS is enabled?

The first and most important thing is to know if the VBS is active on your installation of Windows 11 🖥️. The answer depends on how you performed the installation. For example, if you upgraded from Windows 10, the VBS will be inactive 🚫. However, if you did a clean installation or it's a new device, it will always be active ✅. Therefore, the first thing we should do is check if this technology is enabled.

1. 1. Type in the search box of the taskbar: system information 🔍.
   2. The search should find a homonymous program that you will need to run 📂.
   3. Without selecting anything, scroll down until you see the line that says Virtualization-based security. There you can see if VBS is enabled or not 🛡️.

An important clue: the VBS requires a module TPM 2.0 (software or hardware) to work 🛠️. If you don't have one, you won't be able to activate this feature. Also, this is a great way to check if your PC is running Windows 10 has a TPM module enabled and working properly 🔄.

How to disable Windows 11 VBS on your PC

The first thing you need to know is that there are two ways to disable, or rather, deactivate VBS on your Windows 11. 🇦🇷 To do so, follow these steps:

1️⃣ In the Windows search bar, I typed: isolation of the core. This will take you to a specific section of the system settings, as shown below:

2️⃣ Simply keep the option disabled «integrity of memory» to completely disable VBS. 🚀 With this, your Intel or AMD CPU will gain performance in Windows 11, although at the cost of reduced security.

We recommend doing this if you plan on doing things like playing video games, rendering scenes in Blender, or installing programs that require a lot of processing power to decompress. 🎮🖥️🔧

Using the command prompt

The other option is to use the command prompt 🔧. To do so, follow these steps:

1️⃣ I wrote cmd in the taskbar search Windows to bring up the command prompt, but don't open it directly. Instead, right-click on the search and select Run as administrator to run it with all necessary permissions.

2️⃣ Then, enter the following: `bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off`

This will disable VBS immediately 🚫. There is no need to tell me as much as in the previous case, but it is highly recommended to restart the computer 💻 for the changes to take effect on the system.

We hope that this tutorial I hope this has been helpful and that your lost CPU performance returns to normal after disabling VBS. However, if you work in an environment that requires data protection 🔒 We do not recommend this, as putting your clients' data at risk has legal consequences in several countries. Therefore, if you are a professional in certain sectors, we recommend that you do not perform this operation to avoid risks with malicious programs.