Guide: Optimized Image
Hellbovine
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It is not disabled by any of the registry tweaks I've posted to date. However, my current DPC Latency guide (link) suggests disabling virtualization. There are also countless "debloat" scripts out there that disable these features. Many tools that disable Defender will also turn these features off.
This is a good "teach a man to fish" moment. For readers interested in learning how to decipher these kinds of questions on your own, so you can build tweaking experience and no longer have to wait for answers from other people, this is how to figure these things out:
1. If a game mandates something, they will have a support article detailing the steps to enable/disable it, so the first thing I did was Google search for "Valorant Core Isolation VBS" without quotes and then clicked on the Riot Games link that appeared on top.
2. Next, I expanded all of the sections to reveal their text, and then I skimmed around looking for a registry tweak and saw they listed it as: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceGuard\Scenarios\HypervisorEnforcedCodeIntegrity
3. The important bit you need from most registry tweaks is the words after the last backslash, which is "HypervisorEnforcedCodeIntegrity" in this case. Now download my Optimized Image "Tweaks" folder, then extract the folder and make that newly extracted folder the active window. From here you can either use the file explorer search of Windows to locate text within all of my tweak files, or you can open each file seperately and do a ctrl+f search for "HypervisorEnforcedCodeIntegrity" without quotes.
4. You will discover no such tweak exists in my guide, meaning the Windows operating system will use its default setting for that. In other words, my guide doesn't disable the Memory Integrity setting that Valorant needs, which is actually a subset of Core Isolation. At this point, I then read the rest of the support article and noted that for Valorant to work you also need to enable Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x) and Execute Disable Bit (XD) in the BIOS. On AMD systems those BIOS settings are called SVM Mode (Secure Virtual Machine) and NX Mode.
2. Next, I expanded all of the sections to reveal their text, and then I skimmed around looking for a registry tweak and saw they listed it as: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceGuard\Scenarios\HypervisorEnforcedCodeIntegrity
3. The important bit you need from most registry tweaks is the words after the last backslash, which is "HypervisorEnforcedCodeIntegrity" in this case. Now download my Optimized Image "Tweaks" folder, then extract the folder and make that newly extracted folder the active window. From here you can either use the file explorer search of Windows to locate text within all of my tweak files, or you can open each file seperately and do a ctrl+f search for "HypervisorEnforcedCodeIntegrity" without quotes.
4. You will discover no such tweak exists in my guide, meaning the Windows operating system will use its default setting for that. In other words, my guide doesn't disable the Memory Integrity setting that Valorant needs, which is actually a subset of Core Isolation. At this point, I then read the rest of the support article and noted that for Valorant to work you also need to enable Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x) and Execute Disable Bit (XD) in the BIOS. On AMD systems those BIOS settings are called SVM Mode (Secure Virtual Machine) and NX Mode.
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VBS requires you have Secure Boot enabled. Valorant and other online games will normally require Secure Boot mode, not because they're taking advantage of the security features but as a way to block some cheat apps.
Cheating apps are frequently coded as fake kernel drivers, and VBS has tighter signing requirements for drivers. By forcing everyone to enable Secure Boot (and VBS), life is easier for the game publisher.
Cheating apps are frequently coded as fake kernel drivers, and VBS has tighter signing requirements for drivers. By forcing everyone to enable Secure Boot (and VBS), life is easier for the game publisher.
Hi Hellbovine
I don't know if someone pointed you towards it, but there's a mismatch between the naming in the program and your guide:
Was this updated in the meantime?
Also for step 5, do I need to check "Remove Components" as OneDrive was unchecked to remove it?
Cheers and thanks for your work
Hannes
I don't know if someone pointed you towards it, but there's a mismatch between the naming in the program and your guide:
Was this updated in the meantime?
Also for step 5, do I need to check "Remove Components" as OneDrive was unchecked to remove it?
Cheers and thanks for your work
Hannes
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Also at step 6 I'm wondering if I need to check both, winre and boot?
And further in the process, I run into this problem, that OneDrive cannot be found:
After processing is done, OneDrive isn't removed from this image.
Any ideas, how that's possible? I have the licensed version of ntlite.
And further in the process, I run into this problem, that OneDrive cannot be found:
After processing is done, OneDrive isn't removed from this image.
Any ideas, how that's possible? I have the licensed version of ntlite.
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Hellbovine
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I haven't used the newest NTLite versions since all the interface changes happened, so I don't have any experience with that yet. I've been watching the threads that are discussing issues with the new look and bugs (link1, link2) though, and you may be running into similar issues.
If nuhi and mods could look into this and help him out please, that would be most appreciated. I'm currently in the middle of moving to a new city and getting a new job. It's been arduous trying to find a house/apartment that fits my family and doesn't break the bank here, so I cannot devote any time to this for a while, but I will definitely update things once I get settled.
If nuhi and mods could look into this and help him out please, that would be most appreciated. I'm currently in the middle of moving to a new city and getting a new job. It's been arduous trying to find a house/apartment that fits my family and doesn't break the bank here, so I cannot devote any time to this for a while, but I will definitely update things once I get settled.
Hellbovine
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For Step 6, you don't need to integrate things across all editions again for the registry. That's only in the first processing phase. If you do it again for the second processing phase it probably won't hurt anything, but a lot of settings don't work at all on those extra editions. The reason we do that for the first processing phase is because we're forcing everything to use the high performance power plan, which greatly speeds up installation time in non-virtual installs, and actually does work for WIM, WinRE, PE, Setup. The high performance power plan also fixes a Windows bug that causes older SSD to freeze, hang, and be extraordinarily slow during the Windows Setup phases.
The MS sample scripts for teaching PC vendors about automated installs do enable the High Performance power plan.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...ng-a-single-wim?view=windows-11#sample-script
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...ng-a-single-wim?view=windows-11#sample-script
Thanks Hellbovine for the detailed reply.
Also I realized I made a mistake putting the "\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\" behind the path of the mounted directory.
I used this AS the path which brought me to ta totally wrong location...
nuhi do you have any updates/hints regarding that "OneDrive" Problem?
Also I realized I made a mistake putting the "\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\" behind the path of the mounted directory.
I used this AS the path which brought me to ta totally wrong location...
nuhi do you have any updates/hints regarding that "OneDrive" Problem?
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Hellbovine
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September 9th, 2026:
September 25th, 2026:
This reply is only for nuhi (owner of NTLite), so everyone else is free to get involved if they have something productive to add, but otherwise please don't respond if the intent is to just defend and fanboy. The quotes above are being used as an example to show what I'm referring to as a concept, but my concerns extend well beyond this incident. It is past time the overall issue of NTLite's poor customer service gets addressed.
I sat on making this type of post for over a year, because I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt, as well as time for everyone to overcome the crazy things Microsoft has put us through in recent years. However, the issues with NTLite's public relations remains and it isn't improving. Please, don't view what I'm saying as an attack, since it is entirely constructive criticism. This post also has nothing to do with the volunteer mods and helpers, but has everything to do with NTLite as a business:
THE CUSTOMER SERVICE PROBLEM
HOW NTLITE CAN REMEDY THIS
September 25th, 2026:
This reply is only for nuhi (owner of NTLite), so everyone else is free to get involved if they have something productive to add, but otherwise please don't respond if the intent is to just defend and fanboy. The quotes above are being used as an example to show what I'm referring to as a concept, but my concerns extend well beyond this incident. It is past time the overall issue of NTLite's poor customer service gets addressed.
I sat on making this type of post for over a year, because I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt, as well as time for everyone to overcome the crazy things Microsoft has put us through in recent years. However, the issues with NTLite's public relations remains and it isn't improving. Please, don't view what I'm saying as an attack, since it is entirely constructive criticism. This post also has nothing to do with the volunteer mods and helpers, but has everything to do with NTLite as a business:
THE CUSTOMER SERVICE PROBLEM
I recognize that NTLite is a small business and the owner is doing all the actual programming work on the tool alone, but after 23 years of the product being around and 12 years of it being monetized, the excuses for this customer service behavior are growing very thin at best. The main issues are that far too many customer's issues and suggestions get swept under the rug, misinterpreted, or ignored.
Even if some of these people's problems are being handled behind the scenes, such as by releasing updates to the tool to fix things, or silently helping users via DM or e-mail, those methods are doing a major disservice to everyone else that has the same issue, because of the lack of transparency. It is also highly inefficient for NTLite, because by not explaining what's going on openly, NTLite then has to field a ton of duplicate issues/suggestions, because the resolutions don't appear in forum searches.
I'm not even close to being the only person that has or wants to address this elephant in the room. There are other longtime members, such as AeonX who openly spoke (link1) about this and was publicly ignored, as was tharri in the same (link2) thread. When I originally read AeonX's last few dozen posts or so, I couldn't help but feel just as irritated, because his experience has been mine as well. And what's worse, is that we're power users and significant NTLite contributors, so try to imagine how new members must feel.
For example, I'm still waiting years later for a reply to the e-mails I sent about issues before I joined the forum, as well as numerous bug and suggestion posts I made on the forum. I brought up the frequent issues with the built-in templates (link3) many times over the years as a recent example that is easy to see. The only real way to get direct attention to matters is to make a name for yourself, so that you have enough credibility to be listened to, and then DM, ping, or post enough until it cannot be ignored anymore. That is not a good business model on multiple fronts, and that is pointed out in both AeonX's and tharri's posts too, among numerous others on the forum.
I have read every single post ever put on this forum, since I joined in March of 2022. I have helped countless people and I've watched countless others go unhelped, with confirmed or likely to be confirmed bugs, plus good suggestions that were ignored. I try to use my weight as the highest ranked non-staff member to assist those people and bring attention to things, but it doesn't always work, as shown in the quotes above. I also have a Bachelor's degree with a minor in business administration, so with this combination of experience and education I'm confident that what is being presented here is truly a problem that needs solving.
Again, maybe this user on my thread was helped behind the scenes over the weekend, but how does that help the other 40,066 members currently registered here, or the countless lurkers, web crawlers, and users relying on LLM? Also, this user first asked for help 16 days before they had to follow-up due to hearing nothing back. Either users aren't being helped at all, or they get helped in an indirect manner and everyone else is just expected to know the issue will eventually be noted in changelogs. That is objectively inefficient business practice and poor customer service, while transparency and promptness are the keys to fixing it.
Even if some of these people's problems are being handled behind the scenes, such as by releasing updates to the tool to fix things, or silently helping users via DM or e-mail, those methods are doing a major disservice to everyone else that has the same issue, because of the lack of transparency. It is also highly inefficient for NTLite, because by not explaining what's going on openly, NTLite then has to field a ton of duplicate issues/suggestions, because the resolutions don't appear in forum searches.
I'm not even close to being the only person that has or wants to address this elephant in the room. There are other longtime members, such as AeonX who openly spoke (link1) about this and was publicly ignored, as was tharri in the same (link2) thread. When I originally read AeonX's last few dozen posts or so, I couldn't help but feel just as irritated, because his experience has been mine as well. And what's worse, is that we're power users and significant NTLite contributors, so try to imagine how new members must feel.
For example, I'm still waiting years later for a reply to the e-mails I sent about issues before I joined the forum, as well as numerous bug and suggestion posts I made on the forum. I brought up the frequent issues with the built-in templates (link3) many times over the years as a recent example that is easy to see. The only real way to get direct attention to matters is to make a name for yourself, so that you have enough credibility to be listened to, and then DM, ping, or post enough until it cannot be ignored anymore. That is not a good business model on multiple fronts, and that is pointed out in both AeonX's and tharri's posts too, among numerous others on the forum.
I have read every single post ever put on this forum, since I joined in March of 2022. I have helped countless people and I've watched countless others go unhelped, with confirmed or likely to be confirmed bugs, plus good suggestions that were ignored. I try to use my weight as the highest ranked non-staff member to assist those people and bring attention to things, but it doesn't always work, as shown in the quotes above. I also have a Bachelor's degree with a minor in business administration, so with this combination of experience and education I'm confident that what is being presented here is truly a problem that needs solving.
Again, maybe this user on my thread was helped behind the scenes over the weekend, but how does that help the other 40,066 members currently registered here, or the countless lurkers, web crawlers, and users relying on LLM? Also, this user first asked for help 16 days before they had to follow-up due to hearing nothing back. Either users aren't being helped at all, or they get helped in an indirect manner and everyone else is just expected to know the issue will eventually be noted in changelogs. That is objectively inefficient business practice and poor customer service, while transparency and promptness are the keys to fixing it.
HOW NTLITE CAN REMEDY THIS
I will never complain about something without offering ideas on how to fix the problems too. As such, since we don't know how much profit NTLite is making, I will assume it's low enough that an employee cannot be hired at this time. If that's the case, then do what other agencies do and hire unpaid interns. There are many people that cannot get hired in any kind of IT field due to a lack of professional experience.
We have a sick culture and economy in the United States of America with the catch-22 that you cannot get hired without experience, but you also cannot gain experience without being hired, because entry level jobs have all but vanished due to outsourcing. This is the perfect opportunity for NTLite to hire people that need something to put on a resume.
There are already mods and helpers here giving hundreds, sometimes thousands of hours, of their assistance for free and we aren't asking anything in return except for bugs to be squashed and suggestions to be considered. If we will do that for free, imagine how hard people like that will work knowing they get to put experience on a resume, earn a letter of recommendation, and a professional reference.
You don't even have to limit it to IT hires either, there are plenty of customer service fields that can be hired on to do the public relations that I'm talking about. For example, someone who reads all of the posts, replies on NTLite's behalf, compiles issues into efficient task lists, and then sends them to Nuhi to review/fix. Let me give you an example of how my entire post can be resolved and how things should happen:
1. A user reports a potential bug in NTLite, and maybe a mod/helper pings staff to help confirm it as well.
2. Intern says, "Please explain the steps to reproduce." and/or "I'll reply again when it has been investigated."
3. Someone in the thread confirms the bug with additional reports and/or posts the steps to replicate.
4. Intern likes the post of the replication steps, or duplicates it themselves, then puts it on the task list.
5. After the bug is confirmed by Nuhi, the intern replies to the thread with an estimated fix date.
Repeat steps 1-5 on every forum post that is not being directly resolved by mods or helpers. That does not mean ignore threads that have been replied to, because there are many times where the problem wasn't resolved or a workaround was used, and the bug in NTLite was buried. Also, for efficiency sake, have the intern compile everything and send the task list once per week, that way Nuhi can focus on programming without being pinged daily. It's a win/win for both NTLite and the customers.
Lastly, I've said it many times before, but NTLite needs to shift the focus to gamers for business growth. Look into all the posts I've made about the built-in templates, my guides, and the GamerOS to get started. The root of why half the people here are using this program is to quell the background nonsense of the OS so we can use our computers peacefully and as we intend, which is mostly for gaming. The goals are to reduce DPC latency and 1% frame rate lows (stutter/hitching), background bandwidth (lag/tracking/data mining), and annoyances (pop-ups, ads). I know gamers weren't the original market for NTLite, but if there's a desire to grow beyond 1 employee, I guarantee focusing on customer service and gamers will make that a reality, especially with how bad Windows 11 and beyond is shaping up to be.
Note: I'm happy to discuss this further, but I've made tons of posts about these things over the years that need to be reviewed first, so all I would do right now is open every single one of my previous posts in browser tabs and then go through each of them to compile a list of the suggestions/bugs that were never addressed. I would be willing to do that legwork, but I need to know it won't be another waste of time.
We have a sick culture and economy in the United States of America with the catch-22 that you cannot get hired without experience, but you also cannot gain experience without being hired, because entry level jobs have all but vanished due to outsourcing. This is the perfect opportunity for NTLite to hire people that need something to put on a resume.
There are already mods and helpers here giving hundreds, sometimes thousands of hours, of their assistance for free and we aren't asking anything in return except for bugs to be squashed and suggestions to be considered. If we will do that for free, imagine how hard people like that will work knowing they get to put experience on a resume, earn a letter of recommendation, and a professional reference.
You don't even have to limit it to IT hires either, there are plenty of customer service fields that can be hired on to do the public relations that I'm talking about. For example, someone who reads all of the posts, replies on NTLite's behalf, compiles issues into efficient task lists, and then sends them to Nuhi to review/fix. Let me give you an example of how my entire post can be resolved and how things should happen:
1. A user reports a potential bug in NTLite, and maybe a mod/helper pings staff to help confirm it as well.
2. Intern says, "Please explain the steps to reproduce." and/or "I'll reply again when it has been investigated."
3. Someone in the thread confirms the bug with additional reports and/or posts the steps to replicate.
4. Intern likes the post of the replication steps, or duplicates it themselves, then puts it on the task list.
5. After the bug is confirmed by Nuhi, the intern replies to the thread with an estimated fix date.
Repeat steps 1-5 on every forum post that is not being directly resolved by mods or helpers. That does not mean ignore threads that have been replied to, because there are many times where the problem wasn't resolved or a workaround was used, and the bug in NTLite was buried. Also, for efficiency sake, have the intern compile everything and send the task list once per week, that way Nuhi can focus on programming without being pinged daily. It's a win/win for both NTLite and the customers.
Lastly, I've said it many times before, but NTLite needs to shift the focus to gamers for business growth. Look into all the posts I've made about the built-in templates, my guides, and the GamerOS to get started. The root of why half the people here are using this program is to quell the background nonsense of the OS so we can use our computers peacefully and as we intend, which is mostly for gaming. The goals are to reduce DPC latency and 1% frame rate lows (stutter/hitching), background bandwidth (lag/tracking/data mining), and annoyances (pop-ups, ads). I know gamers weren't the original market for NTLite, but if there's a desire to grow beyond 1 employee, I guarantee focusing on customer service and gamers will make that a reality, especially with how bad Windows 11 and beyond is shaping up to be.
Note: I'm happy to discuss this further, but I've made tons of posts about these things over the years that need to be reviewed first, so all I would do right now is open every single one of my previous posts in browser tabs and then go through each of them to compile a list of the suggestions/bugs that were never addressed. I would be willing to do that legwork, but I need to know it won't be another waste of time.
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