UltraIsolator

Local Windows process isolation for smoother competitive-game sessions.
Detect the game, protect critical processes, reduce eligible background interference, and restore Windows when the session ends.

Download for Windows   ·   How it works   ·   Measured results   ·   Safety

_{Windows 10/11 · Administrator access required · Local by design · MIT licensed}

How it works

01 — Detect	02 — Prepare
Watches configured game processes and scans Steam and Epic libraries.	Checks administrator access, CPU topology, configured games, and restore readiness.

03 — Protect	04 — Restore
Applies the selected CPU, priority, timer, and power tuning for the active session.	Returns tracked Windows state when the game closes or you restore manually.

Game detection is independent from process-tuning success. A game remains visible when anti-cheat or Windows access rules block direct tuning.

Why UltraIsolator

• Game-aware. Detection follows the active game before tuning, including access-denied and conservative anti-cheat paths.
• Protected by default. Windows, Steam, FACEIT, anti-cheat, terminals, and configured protected processes stay outside background isolation.
• Local. The desktop UI communicates only with an authenticated loopback API. No cloud account is required.
• Reversible. Process state, timer resolution, IFEO hints, and the original power plan are restored after the session.

Background isolation is optional and defaults to off. When enabled, it runs in batches so maintenance work does not become a new source of frame-time noise.

Real product. Local control.

The Overview keeps the current game, protection state, next required action, and safe-restore status in one place. Settings and CPU Map use the same responsive layout in English and Russian.

See Settings and CPU Map

Measured on CS2

The included Counter-Strike 2 VProf comparison uses the same workload with and without UltraIsolator. The strongest result was lower high-percentile frame-time spikes—not a promise of universal FPS gain.

VProf metric	Without	With UltraIsolator	Change
FrameTotal P95 spike	8.87 ms	6.56 ms	−26.0%
Client Rendering P95 spike	5.29 ms	2.75 ms	−48.0%
Average frame time	1.77 ms	1.61 ms	−9.0%
Average FPS	564.5	619.7	+9.8%

Results are workload- and hardware-specific. Reproduce the test on the target machine before making tuning decisions.

Open the benchmark report · Inspect the structured summary

Install on Windows

1. Open the latest release.
2. Download the NSIS installer and matching SHA256SUMS.txt.
3. Verify the checksum, run the installer, and approve the Windows UAC prompt.
4. Launch UltraIsolator. Monitoring starts automatically and Overview shows the game when it is detected.

Current main produces a per-machine NSIS installer with a private Python runtime. A portable asset on an older release is legacy and should not be used for the current build.

The installer is currently unsigned. Windows may show an unknown-publisher warning; verify the published SHA-256 checksum before continuing.

Safety by design

• Mutating desktop, CLI, benchmark, and recovery paths require Administrator elevation and fail closed without it. --dry-run remains available to standard users.
• UltraIsolator does not inject into game or anti-cheat processes.
• The application does not download or execute remote code at runtime.
• Packaged startup verifies the bundled backend, private Python runtime, resource permissions, and integrity manifest before launching.
• Local logs and recovery files can contain process names and local paths. Review them before sharing.

Packaging and anti-cheat details

• Production is NSIS-only and installs per-machine under Program Files. The installer currently appears as Esports Isolator PRO to preserve the existing Windows package identity.
• End users do not install Python separately. The package includes Python 3.12 and psutil.
• Startup fails closed when the runtime, backend, or manifest is missing, modified, or standard-user writable.
• Production ignores arbitrary inherited Python paths. Developer overrides are restricted to non-production diagnostics.
• Use anti_cheat_mode: "conservative" for stricter anti-cheat stacks.

Configuration

Copy config.json.example to config.json. The most important controls are:

Key	Default	Purpose
games	[...]	Executable names treated as games
auto_detect_steam_games	true	Scan configured and discovered Steam libraries
auto_detect_epic_games	true	Read Epic manifests and configured library paths
enable_background_jailing	false	Limit eligible background processes while a game is active
disable_power_scheme_switch	false	Set true to leave the current power plan untouched
disable_timer_resolution_tweak	false	Set true to skip the low-latency timer
disable_game_priority_boost	false	Set true to skip game priority and IFEO tuning
anti_cheat_mode	"aggressive"	Use "conservative" for stricter anti-cheat stacks
game_close_debounce_s	3	Confirm game exit before restoring the session

See config.json.example for the complete reference.

Build and contribute

Build from source

Requirements: Windows 10/11, Python 3.12+, Node.js, and an Administrator terminal for mutating runs.

git clone https://github.com/chezzof/ultraisolator.git
cd ultraisolator
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
copy config.json.example config.json
python best_isolator.py --dry-run
python best_isolator.py

The dry run validates configuration without requiring elevation or changing the system. See BUILDING.md for production packaging.

Desktop UI

The Electron + React desktop app runs the same Python engine, keeps monitoring available from the tray, and exposes the backend only through an allowlisted IPC bridge.

Desktop UI development

python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
npm --prefix ui install
npm --prefix ui run dev

npm --prefix ui run build:renderer
npm --prefix ui run test:ui-quality
npm --prefix ui run smoke
npm --prefix ui run build
npm --prefix ui run verify:packaged-runtime

CLI and architecture

python best_isolator.py
python best_isolator.py --config myconfig.json
python best_isolator.py --dry-run
python best_isolator.py --recover
python best_isolator.py --benchmark --benchmark-duration-sec 30

Electron + React renderer
        │ allowlisted IPC
        ▼
Electron main process ── authenticated 127.0.0.1 API
        │
        ▼
Bundled Python engine
  ├─ game discovery: config + Steam + Epic
  ├─ CPU topology and partitions
  ├─ reversible process, timer, IFEO, and power tuning
  └─ protected-process and anti-cheat boundaries

Verification

python -m unittest discover -s tests -p "test_*.py" -v
npm --prefix ui run test:unit
npm --prefix ui run test:ui-quality

Full Windows release gate:

powershell -File scripts/release-check.ps1

Contributions should be reproducible, anti-cheat-aware, and reversible. Read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request. Report vulnerabilities privately through GitHub Security Advisories as described in SECURITY.md.

License

MIT