Inspection before action — a principle you can apply with nothing but PowerShell. These one-liners are read-only (Get-ItemProperty never writes), and they cover the entire surface a per-user tuning tool is allowed to see.
Startup entries and their approval stamps
terminal / powershell
Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run'
Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartupApproved\Run'Pair them: the first is what exists, the second is what's approved. Match by value name.
Visual performance and privacy
terminal / powershell
Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Control Panel\Desktop' | Select-Object MenuShowDelay, DragFullWindows, MinAnimate, ForegroundFlashCount
Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced' | Select-Object TaskbarAnimations, ListviewAlphaSelect
Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Privacy' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinueTemp size without touching anything
terminal / powershell
(Get-ChildItem $env:TEMP -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -File |
Where-Object LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddHours(-24) |
Measure-Object Length -Sum).Sum / 1MBRuns clean on every stock Win10/11 machine, elevation-free. The discipline behind it is in the cleanup post.
ProofTune ProjectEngineering notes — every claim here names the bytes a real tool touches. Verify first, install second.