AlienCore   User Manual

Adaptive system optimizer for Windows  ·  v1.0.0

AlienCore is an intelligent, automatic system optimizer built for Windows. It continuously monitors your hardware — CPU, GPU, RAM, thermals, and storage — and applies the right settings for whatever you're doing, whether you're gaming, streaming, working, or idle.

Unlike static tuning tools, AlienCore switches profiles on the fly as it detects what's running. It applies dozens of Windows-level tweaks that Microsoft buries under dozens of menus (or hides entirely), and it does it all automatically in the background.

System Requirements

CPU Feature Matrix (v1)

GPU Vendor Support (v1)

First Run

When you launch AlienCore for the first time, it walks you through a short setup wizard before anything else runs:

1. Login — sign in with your email (see the Login section below).
2. First-run settings — the Settings window opens so you can review defaults before AlienCore starts making changes.
3. Hardware scan — AlienCore fingerprints your CPU, GPU, RAM, and storage so it can tailor its tweaks to your exact hardware.
4. Baseline tweaks — system-wide optimizations are applied (network stack, scheduler, storage, privacy, visual effects).
5. Sensor bar appears — the always-on-top stat strip shows live temperatures and usage.
6. Tray icon appears — AlienCore settles into the background from here on.

On every subsequent launch, steps 2 and 3 are skipped (hardware cache is reused unless you enable Hardware Refresh on Startup in the Service tab).

Login System

AlienCore uses email + one-time PIN authentication. There are no passwords to remember or create.

Signing In

1. Enter your email address in the login window.
2. Click Send PIN. A 6-digit code will be emailed to you within seconds.
3. Enter the PIN in the field that appears.
4. Click Verify & Sign In.

Session Persistence

Once signed in, your session is cached locally. You won't need to log in again unless:

• You manually log out from the Account tab.
• Your session token expires. Each session has a 30-day rolling window, automatically refreshed on each launch, and a 90-day absolute cap from the original sign-in. After 90 days you'll need to sign in again — this is a security feature, not a license expiry.
• The session is moved to a different machine. Sessions are bound to the hardware they were created on; copying session.json to another PC will be rejected at the next license check. The file is also signed so manually editing it (e.g. to flip license fields) breaks the signature and the file is discarded.

Offline Use

If the AlienCore servers are temporarily unreachable (no internet, server maintenance), you can continue using AlienCore for up to 72 hours from your last successful verification. After that, a reconnection is required to continue.

The Account Tab Layout

Settings → Account shows your status as a card: a colored avatar circle (initials drawn from your email), your email address, a tier subtitle, and a row of license badges — green for Base License, purple for Pro Add-on, orange for Trial (with days remaining), or gray for Not signed in. Action buttons (Refresh License, Sign Out, or Sign In) sit at the bottom of the card.

Once you own both the base license and the Pro add-on, the purchase advertising is replaced with a "Your AlienCore Pro Subscription" panel listing what's unlocked. Until then, the Licenses & Add-ons cards described below appear in that space.

Purchasing

All purchases are one-time payments. There are no subscriptions, no monthly fees, and no license renewals. Your license is tied to your email address and covers all future versions of AlienCore forever.

How to Purchase

Sign in to AlienCore first, then open Settings → Account and click the purchase button. PayPal opens in your browser — your AlienCore email is automatically linked to the payment.

License activation is automatic — usually within 30 seconds of payment confirmation. AlienCore polls the server in the background after you click buy and unlocks the features as soon as PayPal confirms.

Sensor Bar

The sensor bar is a thin, always-on-top strip that floats above all other windows and displays live hardware stats. It auto-hides when a full-screen application (game) is active, shows the current profile and a live system clock on the left, and uses a subtle green perimeter animation whose speed tracks CPU load.

Available Sensors

Profile Badge & System Clock

The left-most cell on the bar stacks the current profile name (IDLE, WORKING, GAMING, STREAMING, or any user profile) above a 12-hour system clock with seconds and AM/PM suffix. The clock updates every second at zero cost — a 30 fps animation frame simply skips the repaint until the wall-clock second rolls over. When Turbo Cool is active, the badge swaps to a cyan COOL M:SS readout showing how long the boost has been running.

Resize & Position

Drag the body of the bar with the left mouse button to move it. The bar auto-snaps to screen edges. To resize, hover the bottom edge of a horizontal bar (or the right edge of a vertical bar) until the cursor changes to a double-arrow, then drag — the entire bar scales smoothly between roughly 65 % and 220 % of the default size. All cell fonts, paddings, and chart heights scale together, and the new size persists across restarts. The fixed size presets from earlier builds have been replaced by this continuous drag-to-resize.

Animated Perimeter & Breathing Dot

A thin green comet circles the bar's perimeter. Its speed is modulated by current CPU load — nearly still at idle, briskly moving under sustained load — so the animation itself doubles as an ambient load indicator. A small breathing dot pulses next to the profile name whenever a profile switch has just occurred, then fades back to steady-state.

Temperature Color Coding

Thresholds are adjustable in Settings → Thresholds.

System Tray

AlienCore runs in the system tray (notification area). The tray icon shows an alien-head logo that changes color based on CPU temperature — green when cool, amber when warm, red when hot. The tooltip shows the current active profile and live CPU temp.

Tray Menu Options

Display Tab

Controls the sensor bar appearance and update rate.

CPU Tab

Controls how AlienCore manages the CPU — power states, core scheduling, and adaptive throttling.

GPU Tab

Controls GPU power states, HAGS, and VRAM management.

RAM Tab

Controls memory management tweaks and monitoring features.

Visual Effects Tab

Manages Windows animation and transparency settings to reduce CPU overhead and improve responsiveness.

Network Tab

Applies low-level network stack tweaks to reduce latency and improve throughput. Most of these are Windows registry and netsh changes that aren't exposed in any Windows UI.

Storage Tab

Privacy Tab

Disables Windows telemetry and data collection features that run in the background and consume resources.

Profiles Tab

Controls how AlienCore detects which mode to run in.

Automatic Profiles

AlienCore switches between four built-in profiles automatically. Priority on conflicts: Streaming > Gaming > Working > Idle.

Custom Profiles BASE

The bottom of the Profiles tab — under the heading App-Based Profile Switching — lets you create your own profiles that trigger based on specific applications. Each custom profile maps to one of the four built-in behavior modes (Idle, Working, Gaming, or Streaming) but activates on your chosen process list.

Examples: a "Video Editing" profile that triggers on premiere.exe and uses Streaming behavior; or a "Compile" profile that triggers on cl.exe and runs at full Gaming power.

Adding a Custom Profile

• Profile name: the friendly label you'll see in the tray menu.
• Tray color: a real color swatch + color picker (no need to remember hex codes). The internal slug name and priority moved to an Advanced collapsible — you can usually ignore them.
• Process list: hand-type EXE names, or click Pick… / Pick running app… to choose from a filterable, checkbox list of currently running EXEs. Faster and avoids typos.

Service Tab

Auto-Start at Login

AlienCore registers a silent, elevated Task Scheduler entry on first elevated launch (AlienCoreElevatedStartup) so it starts automatically every time you log in. The sensor bar, tray icon, and adaptive profile engine are running before your desktop finishes drawing — no UAC prompt, no console window.

Windows Services Manager

The Service tab also lists curated Windows services that affect performance, grouped by safety: Managed by AlienCore, Safe to adjust, Adjust with caution, and Leave alone — system critical. Each row shows the service's current state and lets you change its startup type or run/stop it directly.

• Per-row Start / Stop: immediate run-state change. The buttons disable themselves based on current state (no Stop button on a stopped service). Clicks surface a colored status banner — green ✓ on success, red ✗ on failure with a beep — and the affected row briefly flashes.
• Pending changes queue: dropdown changes (Automatic / Manual / Disabled) buffer up rather than committing immediately. A counter button at the top reads Apply Pending Changes (N) — review your edits first, then commit them in one go. Click the dropdown back to its original value to clear that pending change.
• Apply All Safe Recommendations: one-click button that queues AlienCore's recommended startup types for every service marked Safe, then applies them.
• Admin required: changing service startup types or run state needs administrator privileges. If AlienCore wasn't launched elevated, an inline banner warns you and the action buttons no-op.

Thresholds Tab

Adjust the temperature thresholds used for sensor bar color-coding and thermal alerts.

AI Tab PRO

The AI tab requires the Pro add-on. See AI Features below for full documentation of each feature.

Insights Tab BASE

Insights shows a read-only overview of your system's health and optimization state — what AlienCore has done, what it has detected, and any recommendations. No configuration is needed here; it's purely informational.

Drivers Tab BASE

Shows the installed versions of key drivers (GPU, chipset, etc.) and flags any that are known to be outdated or have known issues. Provides direct download links to manufacturer driver pages.

TVB Optimizer PRO

Intel Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB) is a feature found on high-end Intel CPUs (Core i9 Raptor Lake and newer) that grants an extra +200 MHz of boost clock when the CPU package temperature is below 70°C. Once the temperature crosses 70°C, the extra 200 MHz is instantly taken away.

This creates a practical problem: if the CPU is sitting at 70–73°C (common at moderate load), the boost clock oscillates between its normal max and TVB max every few seconds as heat builds and dissipates. This causes erratic performance in workloads that are sensitive to CPU clock consistency.

What the TVB Optimizer Does

When enabled, the TVB Optimizer monitors CPU package temperature in real time. When the CPU is below the TVB threshold (70°C by default), it gently raises the CPU performance ceiling to encourage the extra 200 MHz. When temperature approaches the threshold, it lowers the ceiling slightly to keep the CPU comfortably below 70°C — letting it hold the TVB bonus continuously rather than flickering.

CPU Boost Score PRO

The Boost Score panel shows a real-time quality rating for your CPU's boost behavior over a rolling 60-second window. A high score (green) means the CPU is performing well; a low score (red) indicates the factor you're measuring is the bottleneck.

Three Score Formulas

The Score formula dropdown lets you pick which lens to view boost quality through. Each formula answers a different question:

How To Read The Modes

• Frequency low + Thermal low: Thermally limited. Your cooling is the constraint — improve airflow, repaste, or lower the Idle CPU ceiling.
• Frequency low + Thermal high: Not thermal. Check power limits (PL1/PL2), TDP throttling, or the Throttle Log for the specific reason.
• Core parking low during load: Windows is parking cores when you'd rather it didn't. Enable Core parking (gaming) in the CPU tab to unpark all 32 logical processors during detected workloads.

CPU Topology & Core Roles PRO

Shows a detailed map of your CPU's physical and logical layout. What's shown depends on the silicon:

Intel Hybrid (12th / 13th / 14th Gen, Meteor Lake)

Reports the P-core (Performance) and E-core (Efficiency) split, plus the logical processor IDs belonging to each. Example — i9-14900HX: 8 P-cores (SMT = 16 logical processors) + 16 E-cores (single-threaded = 16 logical processors) = 32 logical processors total.

Why This Matters

On Intel hybrid CPUs, Windows 11 with Thread Director is supposed to route threads correctly (foreground / latency-sensitive → P-cores; background / batch → E-cores). The Topology panel confirms this is configured correctly and shows you exactly which cores AlienCore is targeting.

You can set manual affinity hints per EXE — specify p (prefer P-cores) or e (prefer E-cores).

Interrupt Steering PRO

Hardware interrupts (IRQs) are signals from devices — your NIC, NVMe, USB controller — that wake up a CPU core to handle data. By default, Windows routes these interrupts somewhat randomly. During gaming, an interrupt landing on the same P-core that's running your game thread causes a micro-stutter.

What Interrupt Steering Does

When enabled, AlienCore writes to the Windows interrupt affinity registry (HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class per device) to steer high-frequency interrupts toward specific cores — typically the last P-core or E-cores — keeping your primary game cores free from interrupt handling.

Dynamic Boost Monitor PRO

NVIDIA Dynamic Boost is a feature on RTX mobile GPUs that dynamically reallocates power between the CPU and GPU based on workload. When the GPU is under heavy load and the CPU has headroom, it borrows from the CPU's power budget to give the GPU more wattage.

The Dynamic Boost Monitor in AlienCore shows you exactly how much power is being transferred between CPU and GPU in real time, and logs the history so you can see how it behaved over a session.

VRAM Clock Lock PRO

When the GPU is idle (desktop, media playback), the NVIDIA driver can leave VRAM running at high clocks unnecessarily — which generates heat and power draw for no benefit.

What VRAM Clock Lock Does

When enabled, AlienCore forces the VRAM clock down to an idle-appropriate frequency (default: 405 MHz = P8 power state) when a game is not running. When gaming starts, the lock is released and VRAM clocks freely to its maximum.

GPU Throttle Log PRO

The Throttle Log records every time the GPU was forced to reduce its clock due to a hardware limit. It captures the timestamp, the throttle reason, and the resulting clock reduction.

Throttle Reasons

The log is stored at logs/throttle_events.json and can be cleared from the panel.

GPU Efficiency Curve PRO

Plots GPU performance (clock speed / FPS proxy) against power draw over time. The efficiency curve helps you find the "sweet spot" — the power level where you get the most performance per watt, before returns diminish.

This is particularly useful on power-limited mobile GPUs where running at 100% TDP often yields only 5–8% more performance than 80% TDP, but with significantly more heat. The curve makes this visible.

History is stored at logs/efficiency_history.json.

Driver Feature Flags PRO

Shows the state of key NVIDIA driver features and lets you toggle the ones that AlienCore can control. Includes HAGS, PowerMizer mode, DSR, and other driver-level registry flags.

RAM Composition BASE

Shows a detailed breakdown of how your physical RAM is currently being used — not just "used vs. free" (which Task Manager shows), but the full Windows memory model:

Unified Memory Pressure BASE

A single composite metric that combines multiple Windows memory signals into one pressure score (0–100%). It accounts for page fault rate, modified page list size, available pages, and pagefile activity.

A score under 30% is healthy. 30–60% means the system is working. Over 60% is elevated — the system is paging and performance may be impacted. Over 80% is critical.

The pressure graph updates in real time and keeps a rolling history so you can spot patterns (e.g., pressure spikes when a specific app opens).

Working Set Trimmer PRO

Periodically forces Windows to trim the working sets (active RAM footprint) of background processes. This pushes rarely-accessed memory pages back to the standby list, where they can be instantly reclaimed.

The trimmer runs automatically at idle. It doesn't kill processes or free their data — it just moves pages that haven't been touched recently to a lower-priority pool, freeing space for the foreground application.

Memory Leak Watchdog PRO

Monitors every running process's memory footprint over time. If a process's resident memory grows continuously at a rate exceeding your configured threshold, it gets flagged as a potential memory leak.

DIMM Protection PRO

Monitors DIMM (RAM stick) temperatures via LibreHardwareMonitor. If any DIMM reaches the configured temperature threshold, AlienCore automatically reduces the CPU's performance ceiling to lower memory controller heat — protecting your RAM from sustained high temperatures.

The panel below the settings shows a live animated gauge for each DIMM. Each row has a horizontal track with a two-tone gradient fill that shifts colour as temperature climbs (cool → warm → alert), a dashed line marking the current alert threshold, a faint history trail under the bar showing recent samples, and a softly-pulsing dot at the leading edge. Numeric °C readouts on the right glide toward each new sample rather than snapping, so changes are easy to track at a glance.

Pagefile Advisor PRO

Analyzes your pagefile usage patterns over time and recommends an optimal pagefile size based on your actual peak usage, not Windows defaults (which are often either too small or wasteful).

It tracks peak pagefile consumption per session and, after enough data is collected, provides a specific recommendation: "Your peak pagefile usage over the last 30 sessions was 4.2 GB — a fixed pagefile of 6 GB is recommended."

History is stored at logs/pagefile_sessions.json.

AI Chat PRO

A chat interface that feeds your live system state to a large language model and lets you ask questions about your PC in plain English.

Examples:

• "Why is my CPU running hot right now?"
• "What's using all my RAM?"
• "Should I enable interrupt steering for my setup?"
• "My game is stuttering — what does AlienCore see?"

The AI has access to your current sensor readings, active profile, hardware specs, and recent throttle log — it answers with context, not generic advice.

Agentic Tools & Safety PRO

The AI chat is not just an advisor — it can act on your system when you ask it to. Say "switch to gaming profile," "set my power plan to high performance," "turn on G-Mode," or "show me my voltage options," and the AI will execute the corresponding tool after you confirm.

Available Tools

Risk-Tiered Confirmation

• Read tools run silently — they only read state.
• Soft tools (profile change, Turbo Cool, G-Mode, power plan) show a simple Approve / Cancel prompt explaining what will change.
• High tools (voltage offsets, GPU clock / power / fan writes, any future registry writes) show the full disclaimer dialog, including:
  • The exact scope of the change (plane / core / value)
  • A warning about potential damage (instability, data loss, VRM overheating, hardware damage)
  • An explicit liability waiver — AlienCore and its developer accept no responsibility for damages caused by the action
  • An "I understand the risks and accept full responsibility" checkbox that gates the Proceed button

AI Watchdog PRO

Runs automatically in the background at a configured interval. It feeds current system state (temps, load, throttle events, memory pressure, boost score) to the AI and checks for anything anomalous.

If the AI identifies a problem — sustained thermal throttling, a memory leak, an unusual CPU behavior pattern — it generates an alert that appears as a system notification and is logged in the Insights tab.

AI Advisor PRO

A one-shot analysis mode. Click "Run Advisor" and it performs a comprehensive review of your current settings, hardware state, and historical data, then produces a prioritized list of recommendations specific to your system.

The Advisor looks at:

• Settings that are sub-optimal for your hardware
• Throttle events suggesting a cooling or power issue
• Memory pressure trends indicating insufficient RAM or a leak
• CPU boost consistency issues
• Driver version status

Results are displayed in the AI tab and saved to the Insights tab for reference.

Voltage & Tuning PRO

AlienCore exposes CPU voltage-frequency tuning through the AI chat's agentic tools. Which path is available depends on the silicon and on BIOS policy.

Intel — OC Mailbox (MSR 0x150)

Intel CPUs expose a signed voltage offset per voltage plane via MSR 0x150 ("OC Mailbox"). Five planes are defined:

AlienCore clamps offsets to -150 mV to +100 mV per plane. Users needing more range can edit config.json directly (in %LOCALAPPDATA%\AlienCore\ on installer builds, or in the project root on source builds) — the AI tool will not accept it.

Current Backend Status

GPU Tuning PRO

The AI can apply runtime overclocks, undervolts, power limits, and fan overrides to the primary discrete GPU. NVIDIA-only in v1 — AMD Radeon and Intel Arc tuning are planned for a future release.

NVIDIA GeForce — NVML backend (live)

The NVIDIA path is fully implemented. AlienCore talks directly to the NVML shared library that ships with the GeForce driver — no subprocess, no external tool, no admin-only COM interop required beyond the elevation AlienCore already has.

These are the same knobs MSI Afterburner and GeForce Experience "Automatic Tuning" write to. Offsets survive until reboot or driver restart unless re-applied.

Memory Tuning PRO

AlienCore's memory tuning exists in two layers — what's safely achievable from user-mode Windows, and what can only be done in BIOS.

What Runtime Memory Tuning Does NOT Do

Read-Only: memory_status

The memory_status tool reports:

• Total installed capacity and slot count
• Per-slot capacity, speed, manufacturer, slot label
• Configured DIMM frequency (in MT/s)
• Inferred XMP state — derived by comparing configured speed to the JEDEC cap for the detected generation (DDR4 ≤ 3200, DDR5 ≤ 5600)

Profile System — How It Works

AlienCore evaluates the active profile every 10 seconds. The evaluation order is:

1. Check custom user profiles (lowest priority number first).
2. Check for streaming software in the process list.
3. Check for gaming processes in the process list.
4. Check GPU/CPU load thresholds.
5. Default to Idle.

When the profile changes, AlienCore immediately:

• Adjusts the CPU performance ceiling (throttle or release).
• Updates the GPU power limit targets.
• Adjusts the Windows scheduler quanta (Win32PrioritySeparation).
• Enables or disables EcoQoS on background processes.
• Flushes DNS (if enabled).
• Syncs the AWCC thermal profile (if AWCC integration is enabled).

AWCC Integration

Alienware Command Center (AWCC) manages some hardware controls (fan curves, G-Mode) via a WMI interface that AlienCore can call directly — no AWCC UI interaction required.

About AlienCore

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