This Windows 11 Acer Laptop got me Questioning...

https://store.acer.com/en-gb/acer-swift-edge-ultra-thin-laptop-sfa16-41-blue-nx-kabek-002

I have this 16" Oled, 3840 x 2400, 60Hz, 16:10 Screen Laptop, Specs:

- Windows 11 Home
- AMD Ryzen 6600U CPU (How do I enable Turbo Boost from 2.90GHz to 4.50GHz?)
- AMD Radeon 660M RDNA 2 iGPU (How much Dedicated RAM this has and if its low then how to increase it?)
- 16GB LPDDR5

Which Acer Apps are important to keep for the laptop for it to be up to date with the latest firmware updates and for the health & security & diagnostics of this laptop as well optimising the laptop and which ones are Bloatware for uninstall?:

- Acer Configuration Manager
- Acer Jumpstart
- App Explorer by SweetLabs
- Acer Quick Access
- Acer Care Center
- Any other apps that you guys know that I haven't listed above?

Is it best to update the hardware in this laptop through windows update or from which Acer App?

Where are the settings to enable or which Acer app for this laptop for 'Pixel Refresh/Pixel Shift' to prevent burn in on this Oled screen laptop?

What's the Max TDP in Watts this laptop is capped at and how do I enable Max TDP on this laptop when charger plugged in for max performance when gaming and when the charger is disconnected from the laptop then will it revert back to default balanced power profile TDP automatically?

Can the v2.1 hdmi port via the amd radeon graphics that this laptop has output 4K @ 120hz to a tv screen with FreeSync enabled?

Can I use my phone's charger and its usb type c cable to charge this laptop at a slower pace? Also will laptop run at full TDP performance mode with its fans spinning fast (not battery saving mode) and with HDR on just by using the lower power volt/amp phone charger plugged in or a higher 65W wattage amp plug/100W usb cable is required? If a phone charger is accepted then that means I can charge this laptop at slow pace using usb ports in public places correct?

Finally the main Question... Microsoft Pluton Chip in this laptop, how to use Microsoft Pluton chip to Encrypt the laptop ssd drive in windows 11 home and how to combine it with the fingerprint reader?

very_452001 said:

Which Acer Apps are important to keep for the laptop for it to be up to date with the latest firmware updates

Click to expand...

None. All are simply either duplicating what Windows already does, and/or providing spurious service(s) that are not required. In all cases, they run in the background using up system resources.

Totally unnecessary. Frequently suggested in these forums
- create an image (Macrium Reflect and/or AOMEI Backupper - both freeware) of the new system in OOBE format
- wipe and clean re-install of just Windows (download from Microsoft)

Note you may need to add Ryzen drivers to the boot installation USB drive

idgat said:

Frequently suggested in these forums
- create an image (Macrium Reflect and/or AOMEI Backupper - both freeware) of the new system in OOBE format
- wipe and clean re-install of just Windows (download from Microsoft)

Click to expand...

You mean wipe my hard drive clean in my brand new laptop clean and do the above steps? Will doing this disable security feature like Secure Boot, or TPM and its keys etc.? Because currently Windows is reporting on screen under device security that I have 4 green ticks for 4 security features.

idgat said:

Note you may need to add Ryzen drivers to the boot installation USB drive

Click to expand...

This is for laptops only correct?

Hi,
None of those apps are necessary
Go to support and bios and utilities and you can find all your drivers for touchpad/ sound/ webcam/ mic/....
You can also export your drivers using this tutorials process page 1 and dd.exe as well makes it easy o export and import them back.

ThrashZone said:

Go to support and bios and utilities and you can find all your drivers for touchpad/ sound/ webcam/ mic/....

Click to expand...

Can you show me where do I find this please?

ThrashZone said:

You can also export your drivers using this tutorials process page 1 and dd.exe as well makes it easy o export and import them back.

Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to back up and restore all 3rd party device drivers on your Windows 10 and Windows 11 PC. If you clean install Windows, you will need to install drivers for each device in the system. Some of these device drivers may no longer be available from the manufacturer...

www.elevenforum.com

Download Double Driver - MajorGeeks

Double Driver can view all the drivers installed on your system and backup, restore, save and print all chosen drivers simply and reliably.

www.majorgeeks.com

Click to expand...

Doesn't windows 11 detects devices in the laptop and install device drivers automatically?

Hi,
Well you'd have to look up on asus website
Here's mine

Here's yours I believe

On a good day yes ms will download drivers
Thing is you need all of them not just the ones ms fetches
Then you can just install the relevant apps from acer site.

very_452001 said:

Doesn't windows 11 detects devices in the laptop and install device drivers automatically?

Click to expand...

My Win11 and Win10 do detect my Networked Printers for the basics but so does Linux, needing more functions does require their software.

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Well you'd have to look up on asus website
Here's mine

Product Support - AN17-41 | Acer United States

Product Support - AN17-41 | Acer United States

www.acer.com

Here's yours I believe

Product Support - SFA16-41 | Acer United States

Product Support - SFA16-41 | Acer United States

www.acer.com

Click to expand...

Thanks for providing a link to mine. Okay I see the drivers listed on that link however when I opened windows update why did windows update downloaded duplicate drivers for the same devices in my laptop?

ThrashZone said:

On a good day yes ms will download drivers
Thing is you need all of them not just the ones ms fetches
Then you can just install the relevant apps from acer site.

Click to expand...

Sorry what you mean on a good day MS will download drivers? You mean there's usually a day or time of the week where its best for MS to get drivers? If so what day/time is that?

Hi,
Well yeah you can wing it and see what ms comes up with
If an app doesn't show up install it from acer.

Just stay away from that useless acer store url that place is a mess lol

As far as bios updates go
They are .exe files
Just download the newest if you want to install
Right click the zip folder and select properties
Check the Unblock box and apply and ok.
Right click the zip folder again and select extract all
The folder will open extracted
All you have to do is right click the .exe file and select run as administrator.
Follow the prompts.

ThrashZone said:

Just stay away from that useless acer store url that place is a mess lol

Click to expand...

Yeah, some time ago things started changing when Gateway bought eMachines then ACER bought Gateway.

Hi,
Just as stated I just ran the bio.exe file and all went well on my new lappy.

Those steps I feel are important run as admin makes sure permissions are elevated because this is a delicate process.
One item I did not say is be sure to have the lappy hooked up to the wall outlet
Do not do this on battery.

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Well yeah you can wing it and see what ms comes up with
If an app doesn't show up install it from acer.

Just stay away from that useless acer store url that place is a mess lol

Click to expand...

Sorry what do you mean by wing it, you mean just open windows update and check for new updates?

very_452001 said:

Sorry what do you mean by wing it, you mean just open windows update and check for new updates?

Click to expand...

Yep.
After that just install which ever app you think you need
Also download the manual it can help identify apps needed.

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Just as stated I just ran the bio.exe file and all went well on my new lappy.

Those steps I feel are important run as admin makes sure permissions are elevated because this is a delicate process.
One item I did not say is be sure to have the lappy hooked up to the wall outlet
Do not do this on battery.

Click to expand...

Is it okay for windows update to pick up laptop bios updates? What it is I have no control on choosing which updates to install through windows update.
What happens if I do not select Run as Administrator?

Yes touching upon my post earlier why did windows update download and install duplicate drivers and old drivers and new drivers for the same device? Why download old drivers as well as new drivers? Cant make sense of this. You see the issue I'm describing below or this normal for a new laptop?:

Hi,
I never said to get bios updates from the update system
I said do it yourself and explained how I do it.

In the end it's your choice
Another member said he got bios firmware updates when he also got drivers included and he was surprised that MS included bios firmware updates that way.
Whether that is a good thing or not is up for debate seeing bios updates are tricky to begin with that is why I elevate the firmware updates with run as administrator manually and do this when I want to do it and not as some MS surprise item update.

The drivers that ms brings through the update system are likely not the newest drivers
MS test drivers and that is what they send through the update system but as you point out ms installs what it finds so this is why a lot of people exclude drivers delivered by ms in updates so these conflicts are avoided.

Hope that is clear enough language translations don't seem all that great lol

Insyde is the bios firmware updater.
I didn't notice if it was the newest though.

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
I never said to get bios updates from the update system
I said do it yourself and explained how I do it.

In the end it's your choice
Another member said he got bios firmware updates when he also got drivers included and he was surprised that MS included bios firmware updates that way.
Whether that is a good thing or not is up for debate seeing bios updates are tricky to begin with that is why I elevate the firmware updates with run as administrator manually and do this when I want to do it and not as some MS surprise item update.

The drivers that ms brings through the update system are likely not the newest drivers
MS test drivers and that is what they send through the update system but as you point out ms installs what it finds so this is why a lot of people exclude drivers delivered by ms in updates so these conflicts are avoided.

Hope that is clear enough language translations don't seem all that great lol

Insyde is the bios firmware updater.
I didn't notice if it was the newest though.

Click to expand...

Okay I understand however I need to run windows update to keep windows 11 up to date and as I mentioned earlier I cant choose which updates not to install when running windows update because I have no control over windows update. In Windows 11 Pro do you have more control?

How do I exclude drivers delivered by MS?

Usually which drivers in the laptop is best to update manually by yourself to keep the laptop up to date latest in terms of hardware security devices in the laptop and for gaming & performance. I know its graphics card drivers, apart from that anything else important? Then I let Windows update handle the rest I guess because its going to be tedious and time consuming to update all the drivers for all devices in the laptop manually you know what I mean.

The lazy way to remove pre-installed apps is to let ADWCleaner do all the work

https://adwcleaner.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner?channel=release

In your post #1

Acer Care Center is where you get updates of some Firmware and probably other stuff, so you keep that for sure.

The others in your list depend on what they actually do and whether you find them useful. You can take your time and remove later, very unlikely to measurably impact performance.

Updates you get from Acer Care Centre and Windows updates. i.e. both.
As you can see from your post #15 you get some Acer updates from Windows updates.

There are no issues, you can look up the details of those updates but it is very tedious and time consuming.
An older version maybe required before the latest, obviously on a new Laptop they may appear to be duplicated/older because so many were done on the same date. No need to worry about that.

" AMD Ryzen 6600U CPU (How do I enable Turbo Boost from 2.90GHz to 4.50GHz?)"

You don't, it decides itself, in conjunction with power limits of the Laptop cooling solution.
Max TDP limit is part of that.
If it could run at max Turbo Boost and increased TDP all the time the Laptop CPU would overheat and shut down to protect itself.

"Can I use my phone's charger and its usb type c cable to charge this laptop at a slower pace?"

Possibly if it conforms to PD standards in addition to "proprietary phone standards".

Finally, don't do a so called clean install you will waste oodles of time in doing nothing useful and I don't think you have enough knowledge yet, so take a safe route.