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Recommendation

Situational

Choose “Optimal” or “Best” (for weak PCs); fully disabling effects degrades the look of text.

BoosterX recommends “best performance” for weak PCs and the middle option if you don’t want the system to look worse. “Best” also disables font smoothing: if text readability matters more than FPS, choose “Optimal”.

Main effect
Choice of a visual effects set
FPS and memory
FPS is not affected

What changes

Section titled “What changes”

The setting defines the shell’s visual effects set with a single choice out of three options: “Default”, “Optimal” and “Best”. The option affects familiar effects: window and menu minimize and open animations, taskbar animations, shadows under list items, font smoothing, window thumbnails (preview on hover), showing window contents while dragging and translucent selection.

“Best” cuts most effects for responsiveness, “Optimal” keeps a balance of speed and looks. Shell effects do not affect modern games, which render the picture directly, bypassing these mechanisms.

Exceptions and differences

Section titled “Exceptions and differences”

Font smoothing should not be disabled: without it text is noticeably harder to read, and the “Best” option disables it automatically. After changing the option, check text, window thumbnails, dragging and Remote Desktop. The setting is not hidden in either Windows 10 or Windows 11. Panel transparency is controlled separately by the “Windows transparency” setting, and roughly disabling all effects by the “Reduce visual effects” setting.

How to verify the result

Section titled “How to verify the result”

Minimize and restore a window, drag it across the screen and hover the pointer over a taskbar icon: animations, contents while dragging and thumbnails match the selected option, and text remains readable.

How to change and revert

Section titled “How to change and revert”

Open Optimization → Customization → Visual effects → Appearance and select the desired option. Click “Apply” at the bottom of the page; if “Instant apply” is enabled, a separate button is not required. To revert, select the “Default” option on the same page.

Confirmation

Section titled “Confirmation”

Last checked: 2026-09-20.