Title: Installing Windows 10 on the Asus ROG Ally RC71L Slug: installing-windows-10-on-asus-rog-ally Date: 2023-08-26 21:30:00 Author: Kartones Lang: en Tags: Systems-IT, Videogames og_image: Description: How to replace Windows 10 with Windows 10 on the gaming device and get an amazing performance boost The new [Asus ROG Ally](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus_ROG_Ally) might devour batteries, but it is a portable powerhouse. Featuring a full Windows 10 operating system, you can install any PC game, and most will run quite nicely. I don't own one, but a friend does, and he was tinkering with backing its data up, so I asked him why not try installing Windows 10. He did, and the results are so good that he kindly sent me his notes and Powershell scripts so I could write this blog post and share a small tutorial on how to do it. First of all, I'll address the question of **why?**. The answer is also quite direct (and simple): **Because Windows 10 consumes way fewer resources than Windows 11**. This might sound weird when, internally, Windows 10 is still Windows `10.0.xxx`; it's not even `10.1`, so you might think that it is a big service pack... and while there are some noticeable UI changes, it mostly feels like a bloated Win10. But one thing it does is contain a lot more official Microsoft bloatware and extra services: More apps and services to try to sell you Office 365, pure Ads, Bing search bars... Windows 10 is suitable for gaming, even more so now that Windows 7 has reached end-of-life (Win7 was perfect for a PC gaming system). You can tweak and turn off most annoyances and get it to run reasonably fast. My gaming rig feels blazing fast because it's fine-tuned only for games. Before we go into the tutorial, in case you want to know what you're gaining and some numbers of the actual improvements, here they are: - Some games, like Dark Souls 1, went from needing 20W to deliver 60 FPS to now sustaining those 60 FPS just with 10W - Some Ryujinx titles went from not maintaining 60 FPS at 15W to stable 60 FPS at 10W - Other games, like Elden Ring, still require the performance mode, but you can notice a significant increase in FPS (or bump up the graphic settings) - Diablo IV can be played with medium settings at 15W (this one he didn't measured before, so more for informative purposes) So we're talking about **a 33% to 50% improvement**, either in battery life or performance, depending on what you seek. It is a significant boost. So, let's get on with the steps: ### Pre-requisites - Backup the device's HDD contents you want to preserve. **Everything will be wiped out**. For example, perform a backup of the installed Windows 11 drivers (e.g., via [Driver Magician](http://drivermagician.com/)) - You need [a dock](https://www.xda-developers.com/best-asus-rog-ally-docks/) with USB and ethernet adapters. Mouse and keyboard are also highly recommended - Download the official Windows 11 drivers available at [https://rog.asus.com/gaming-handhelds/rog-ally/rog-ally-2023/helpdesk_download/](https://rog.asus.com/gaming-handhelds/rog-ally/rog-ally-2023/helpdesk_download/) - A USB drive loaded with a **Windows 10 21H1** ISO, setup with e.g. [Rufus](https://rufus.ie/en/). Note the specific Windows 10 version, more details later - Disable Secure Boot in the device BIOS ### Steps With the device turned off and **offline** (don't yet connect the ethernet cable to the dock) #### Setting up the BIOS - Connect the USB ready with the Windows 10 image - Access the BIOS by holding `volume -` and turning on the device. Once in the BIOS you'll notice a vibration and can let go of the button press - Navigate to `boot`→`secureboot` and disable it - At the boot sequence section, choose the USB drive as the first boot device - Save changes & exit BIOS #### Installing Windows - The device will reboot and begin the installation - At Windows setup, choose `custom install` and delete all device HDD partitions (100% free space, in a single empty partition) - Proceed then as usual with the setup #### Installing the drivers - Drivers will be installed manually, by going to Windows Device Manager - For each unknown device, first choose to install the driver from a location, and point to the folder containing the exported drivers from the original install (via Driver Magician or a similar tool) - Some devices will still be unknown. Now install the downloaded drivers from the Asus website - Reboot the machine - Now, we **must disable Windows automatic updates**. Else, it might automatically upgrade you to Windows 11 and screw up this whole process. But we still need some drivers contained in Windows Update, so we need to do a single update sweep. [1] - Run these 3 scripts from an elevated (Administrator) prompt: - [Win 10 Disable Automatic App Updates.bat](https://gist.github.com/Kartones/fde023c0e6af12d4f9977f068835c755) - [Win 10 Disable Automatic Windows Updates.bat](https://gist.github.com/Kartones/83f75d55521744186f62ec76e9da93a3) - [Win 10 Disable Forced Reboot After Update.bat](https://gist.github.com/Kartones/5682924eceb6fbf85b7eea324ac0c0eb) - After running the Powershell script, you can check that updates are "company managed" instead of "automatic" in the Update settings - Now we can plug in the ethernet cable, and click on `search for updates` - Ensure in the list of updates that will appear that the "network adapter" additional update is selected, and check it/include it if was not selected - Proceed to install this updates list, but do not press again the update button #### Installing Asus Crate - Download the software from [https://www.asus.com/supportonly/armoury%20crate/helpdesk_download/](https://www.asus.com/supportonly/armoury%20crate/helpdesk_download/) - Choose the `lite` version, so it downloads and installs only the required components that it will auto-detect during the setup - After installing, in the `personalization` panel, `task bar`, configure the tactile keyboard to activate when there's no physical keyboard connected, or else the on-screen keyboard won't work properly - Once the setup and keyboard config are done, reboot Windows, and you're ready to install your games. Congratulations, now you have a nice Windows 10 powered Asus ROG Ally! #### Extra steps At this point, you can remove the USB Dock if you want. You should remove all unwanted applications and services. You can do it from the `Apps` section in Windows settings, or via Powershell scripts.
[1] We use the Windows 10 `22H1` version image to be able to fetch updates without it installing any Windows 11 upgrade tool, at least on the first update run.