Getting Started

1. Download GPUSelectorSetup.exe from the Releases page
2. Run the installer and follow the prompts
3. Launch GPU Selector from the Start Menu or Desktop shortcut

When you open GPU Selector for the first time, it will automatically scan your system for:

• GPUs: All detected graphics cards (Intel, NVIDIA, AMD)
• Games: Installed games from Steam, Epic Games, GOG, EA App, Ubisoft Connect, Xbox, Battle.net, Amazon Games, and itch.io
• Emulators: Common emulators installed on your system
• Applications: Other detected launchers and tools

GPUs (Tab 1)

Shows all detected graphics cards on your system with hardware details including real EDID monitor names, connection type (HDMI, DisplayPort, etc.), refresh rate with VRR-aware reporting, and HDR capability/status. This is your overview of available GPU hardware.

Games (Tab 2)

Your game library. Each game card has a GPU selector, force method dropdown, and launch button. Right-click a game card for additional options: Game Info, Launch Options, Open Game Folder, Copy Path, Multi-Launch toggle, and Uninstall ReShade.

Emulators (Tab 3)

Manage emulators with ROM folder scanning. Add custom emulators, scan for installed ones, or download popular emulators directly. Each emulator gets its own ROM path, platform, and launch configuration.

Apps (Tab 4)

Two modes: Browse Apps shows non-game applications detected during scanning. Running mode shows currently active windows with borderless gaming features. Make any window borderless fullscreen, pin it on top, move it between monitors, and save window profiles. Right-click the Apps tab to switch modes.

Mods (Tab 5)

Three switchable views: Modding Utilities for built-in tools (ReShade, Depth3D, CShade, DXVK, VKD3D-Proton, dgVoodoo2, WineD3D, Zink), Modding Tools for custom mod cards, and Modding Codex for a curated database of community game projects. See the Modding Tools guide.

Settings (Tab 6)

Configure game artwork, GPU forcing delays, accessibility options, app themes, icon styles, seasonal effects, and more. See Settings Overview below.

1. Go to the Games tab (press 2 or click it)
2. Find your game using the search bar (press / or F to focus it)
3. On the game card, select your preferred GPU from the dropdown
4. Choose a Force Method (see GPU Force Methods for details)
5. Click the Launch button

Click the + button next to the tab title in the Games tab to open the Add Custom Game form:

1. Enter a Name for the game
2. Browse to the game's executable (.exe)
3. Optionally set a custom Icon (or leave blank to auto-extract from the .exe)
4. Optionally set a Working Directory, Launch Arguments, Store/Launcher (Steam, Epic, GOG, Windows Store), and Store App ID
5. Toggle Run as Administrator if needed
6. Click Save

Click directly on the game's icon in the game card to open the Icon Options menu:

• Re-extract from EXE: Re-scan the game executable for its embedded icon
• Browse for EXE: Pick a different .exe file to extract an icon from
• Reset to Default: Return to the auto-detected icon

Right-click any game card for quick access to:

• Game Info: Detailed info panel (see below)
• Launch Options: Per-game settings including CPU priority, GPU selection, pre/post-launch scripts, HDR toggle
• Open Game Folder: Opens the game's directory in File Explorer
• Copy Path: Copies the executable path to clipboard
• Enable/Disable Multi-Launch: Allow running multiple instances of the game
• Set EAC Game Exe: (EAC games only) Select the direct executable to bypass the launcher
• Uninstall ReShade: Remove ReShade from this game (Basic, Standard, Full, or Custom cleanup levels)

Right-click a game card and select Game Info to see a detailed breakdown:

• About: Description, developer, publisher, release date, genre
• Technical: Graphics API, engine, architecture, executable name, middleware, audio engine, physics engine, DRM/anti-cheat
• Ratings: Age ratings (PEGI/ESRB) and Steam review scores
• Resources: Quick links to Nexus Mods, YouTube gameplay, Reddit, Steam Store, and Metacritic
• Popular Mods & Tools: Recommended mods and tools for the game

Click Refresh to reload game data from external sources.

Each tab with a game list has sort dropdowns to organize your library:

• Games tab: Sort custom games and detected games independently
• Emulators tab: Sort by name, platform, or most played. Recently played ROMs appear at the top of the list.
• Apps tab: Sort scanned applications

Play statistics are tracked automatically. The app remembers play counts and last played times.

Adding Emulators

Click the + button next to the tab title in the Emulators tab. Fill in the emulator name, path to executable, ROM/ISO folder, platform, and optionally set an icon and launch arguments.

Loading & Playing ROMs

1. Select an emulator from the list
2. GPU Selector scans the ROM folder and displays available games
3. Select a ROM and click Launch to play
4. Or launch the emulator directly without a ROM selected

Downloading Emulators

Click Download Emulators at the bottom of the Emulators tab to browse direct download links organized by platform:

• Nintendo: Dolphin, Cemu, Ryujinx, Sudachi, Azahar, melonDS, DeSmuME, mGBA, Project64, Snes9x, Mesen, Ares
• Sony: DuckStation, ePSXe, PCSX-Redux, PCSX2, RPCS3, shadPS4, PPSSPP, Vita3K
• Sega: Flycast, Redream
• Xbox: xemu, Xenia
• Arcade/PC: MAME, RetroArch, ScummVM, DOSBox Staging, DOSBox, 86Box

After downloading and installing an emulator, click Scan to auto-detect it.

The Apps tab has a Running mode for controlling active windows. Right-click the Apps tab to switch between Browse Apps and Running mode.

What You Can Do

• Make Borderless: Convert any windowed game or app into a borderless fullscreen window
• Pin on Top: Keep a window always visible above other windows
• Move to Monitor: Send a window to a different display
• Save Profiles: Save window position, size, and state. Enable auto-apply in Settings to restore them automatically.

The Settings tab (press 6) contains these configuration areas:

GPU Forcing

• GPU Re-enable Delay: How long to wait before re-enabling disabled GPUs (0-10 seconds)
• ICD Hide Delay: Wait time after hiding Vulkan ICD files (0-5 seconds)
• Bypass Launcher (Offline Mode): Launch games directly, bypassing EAC/store launchers. Three bypass methods available.

Display & Modding

• Game Artwork: Toggle automatic cover art downloads from Steam and SteamGridDB
• DPI Scaling Fix: Fix oversized windows when using ReShade Inject Mode with mixed-DPI monitors. Includes Electron App DPI scaling.
• Brightness Control: Dual-range slider with separate desktop and game brightness thumbs. Uses GPU vendor accent colors. Supports WMI, IOCTL fallback for internal/portable monitors, and gamma ramp as a universal last resort.
• RE Engine Anti-Tamper Bypass: Enable ReShade on Capcom RE Engine games (see Modding Tools)

Running Windows (Borderless Gaming)

• Auto-refresh: Automatically refresh the window list (2/5/10/30 second intervals)
• Only show scanned apps: Filter to show only detected games and apps
• Auto-apply saved profiles: Restore saved window settings when apps open

UI Preferences

• Show Tab Counts: Display item counts on GPUs, Games, Apps, and Emulators tabs
• Storefront Badges: Show store icons (Steam, Epic, GOG, etc.) on game cards. Choose position and color scheme.
• Button Overflow: Hide or Wrap buttons when the window is resized smaller

Appearance

• App Theme & Icon: Eight color themes (Auto, Purple, Teal, Orange, Pink, NVIDIA, AMD, Intel) plus Chameleon Mode that syncs with your Windows accent color. Choose from multiple icon styles.
• Game Icon Style: Control icon sources (Auto, Forced EXE, Emoji) and fallback styles (Flat, Emoji, Mono, Letter, Controller). Optional color tinting.
• Seasonal Effects: Fun cursor particle effects based on current season or holiday (snowflakes, flowers, leaves, pumpkins, and more). Full App or Mouse Only modes.

Accessibility

• Dyslexia-Friendly Mode: Switches to OpenDyslexic font with increased spacing and softer background
• Color Blind Mode: Protanopia, Deuteranopia, and Tritanopia filters
• Keyboard Shortcuts: Full keyboard reference card (see below)

Storage Management

• Storage Location: View and open the data folders (settings, icons, mods, logs, WebView2 cache). Click any folder to open it in File Explorer.
• Storage Usage: See disk space used by each category with a Refresh button
• Clear Application Data: Delete data per-category (settings, icons, logs, mods, WebView2 cache, REFramework cache) or clear everything. Requires typing "YES" to confirm full wipe.

GPU Selector checks for updates automatically on startup by fetching the latest release from the GitHub API. When an update is available:

• A green pulsing download icon appears next to the minimize button
• Clicking the icon opens the GitHub releases page
• The About dialog shows "v[x] available" or "✓ Up to date"

Right-click the minimize button to choose between minimizing to the Taskbar or the System Tray. When in tray mode, GPU Selector stays running in the background for quick access.

GPU Selector runs under Wine with automatic detection via the wine_get_version export in ntdll.dll. As of v1.2.9, all PowerShell and curl.exe dependencies have been removed, making the app fully functional under Wine/Linux without extra Windows components.

What Changes Under Wine

• Wine indicator: A yellow "Wine" badge appears in the title bar with a tooltip
• Hidden features: GPU forcing dropdowns, force method dropdowns, and DPI scaling settings are automatically hidden since they are Windows-only
• Cursor fix: Cursor is reset after window resize for Wine compatibility
• No external dependencies: All downloads use native WinHTTP, extraction uses Shell32 or bundled 7za.exe. No PowerShell or curl.exe required

Installation on Linux

The installer (GPUSelectorSetup.exe) is a polyglot PE+ZIP file. Linux users can rename it to .zip or extract with 7z, then run the included install.bat under Wine. The batch installer has the same options as the Windows installer (custom path, shortcuts, registry, uninstaller).

Launcher Injection Mode

The default ReShade injection method on Wine/Linux. Generates a launcher.bat that runs inject64.exe alongside the game. This is the recommended method on Wine and is also available on Windows as an opt-in via the Settings card. Credit to tjandra (Stereo-3D/cmd_inject).

ReShade on Wine (DX9-12, OpenGL)

Proxy DLL mode is available and can be toggled freely. The d3dcompiler_47.dll is auto-set as a native override in the Wine registry via EnsureWineDllOverrides. A download and install button for d3dcompiler_47 is available in the Settings card (Wine-only), with a manual install fallback via folder button and download link.

ReShade on Wine (Vulkan)

Uses the Vulkan implicit layer system. GPU Selector auto-sets WINEDLLOVERRIDES=vulkan-1=n so Wine loads the native vulkan-1.dll. Requires VulkanRT 1.4.335+ and native vulkan-1.dll override.

DX8 Games on Wine

GPU Selector auto-sets WINEDLLOVERRIDES=d3d8=n,b so Wine loads the d3d8to9 shim instead of Wine's built-in d3d8 implementation.

If you get stuck, try searching for what you need in Settings. You might be surprised who shows up to lend a hand...

• Check the FAQ for common questions
• Report a bug on GitHub
• Request a feature