Guide

Close All Apps Before OBS (Pre-Stream)

OBS encodes whatever you leave lying around. Closing apps before you open OBS is the cheapest quality and privacy upgrade you can make.

  1. Save work in every editor.
  2. Quit (not minimize) browsers, chat, launchers, and utilities.
  3. Open only game + OBS + required chat.
  4. Preview every scene — especially display capture.

Full ritual: close all apps before going live. Windows deep dive: kill all programs on Windows.