YOUR TIME. BACK IN VIEW.
Gaming Reset for Windows measures how long you really play, across Steam, the Epic Games Launcher and the Riot Client, and brings your daily target to the moment a game opens. Then it gives you a better option before the next match starts.
Free on the Microsoft Store ↗ · Windows 10 22H2 or Windows 11 · 64-bit PC · Internet and a Gaming Reset account required
LESS AUTOPILOT
It times every session from Steam, the Epic Games Launcher and the Riot Client, plus any game you add yourself, and keeps one daily total for your account. A day the app was not running shows as not tracked, never as zero.
When a launcher or game starts, a small window shows how long you have played today and offers your own mission first, then something to watch and more ideas. Take one and the app closes the game for you.
Your target comes from your own starting point, not a universal one-hour rule. It only changes when you accept a new one, a new target always starts on a Monday, and the app tells you before it does.
Every hour of a session, a Windows notification measures the day against your target. Hover over the tray icon during a session to see how long it has run.
Start a block for one to twelve hours and supported launchers close as soon as they open. Ending a block early takes fifteen minutes to kick in, and you get one early end a day.
Past your target, you can ask the app to close a game one hour later, with warnings at five minutes and at one. Reaching a number on its own never closes a game.
THE LAUNCH MOMENT
Most gaming limits live in a settings page you filled in last month. The decision itself happens when the launcher opens, so that is where the app steps in.
The full walkthrough, with the research behind it, is in our guide to how to limit gaming time on PC.
The window appears at the launcher, before any game can take over the screen. Once a game runs in exclusive full screen, no ordinary window can show on top of it.
How long you have played today, and how many days in a row you have shown up for your routine. Never how much time is left, because that reads like permission.
Then something to watch, with a first step small enough to start, then ideas written from your setup answers and the games you open most.
The app closes the launcher or the game for you, and tells you it will before you click.
Moving on waits a few seconds on every card, seven by default, and you can set it anywhere from zero to sixty. Taking a suggestion is always instant.
The last screen asks you to choose your stopping point before the first match, while you are still the one deciding.
MEASURED, NOT REMEMBERED
Want the hours your launchers have already counted? See how to check hours played on PC, launcher by launcher, and the privacy policy for what is kept and for how long.
THE OPTIONS
Steam and Epic show lifetime hours per game, one launcher at a time. Nothing adds them up by day, and nothing happens when you open the next match.
They close games on a schedule you set earlier: useful on the nights you planned for, silent at the moment you are actually choosing. The Windows app has blocks too.
Microsoft Family Safety and Steam Families are built for one person to set limits for another. When the limit is for you, the person who can lift it is also you.
Measured daily totals across launchers, a target you agreed to, a window at the moment a game opens, and a weekly settlement that costs $0 inside your target.
GETTING STARTED
Answer a few questions about how you play and what you want more time for. Your daily target and a draft routine of missions come from your answers, and you review them before anything starts.
Get it free from the Microsoft Store and sign in with the same account. It runs from the Windows tray. Installed it first? Sign in, and it sends you to the website to finish setting up.
Card setup happens on the website through Paddle and costs $0. Tracking and the launch window switch on once it is done.
It detects games from Steam, the Epic Games Launcher and the Riot Client automatically, and you can add any other Windows game in its settings. Detection is best effort: some launchers, protected processes or unusual setups may not be picked up. Console and phone play are not tracked; a console app is in development.
The download is free on the Microsoft Store, and there is no subscription fee. Saving a card costs $0, and a week inside your daily target with no confirmed tray exits costs $0. Play above your target is charged at the hourly rate you choose during setup, with $4 suggested, and a confirmed exit from the tray is $4. Charges are settled once a week. See the full pricing.
Only when you ask it to: by taking a suggestion when a game opens, by switching on the one-hour auto-close after your target, or during a block you started. Reaching your target never closes a game on its own. Closing a game can lose unsaved progress, so the app warns you first.
It works from outside the game. It reads the names of running programs and never injects code, installs a driver, looks inside a game or pauses a game process. The only thing it ever does to a game is close it, and only when you have asked it to.
Daily totals, session times, confirmed tray exits and the choices you make at launch sync to your account. A game's name is sent only when the app steps in on it, to personalise the suggestions, and those records are deleted after 60 days. It never records your screen or keystrokes. Read the privacy policy.
It needs the internet to sign in and to sync. If your connection drops, it keeps working on its last confirmed access for up to three days, and sends what it measured once you are back online.
Yes. Install it on each Windows PC you play on and sign in with the same account. The daily total and the last seven days cover every PC signed in to that account.
No. It runs on Windows 10 22H2 and Windows 11 on a 64-bit PC, and there is no Mac version. Console and phone play are not tracked. A console app is in development.
Yes. Choose whether it starts with Windows in Windows Settings, and uninstall it from Installed apps. Uninstalling does not cancel your billing agreement or clear anything you owe, so manage those in your account on the website.
START WITH UNDERSTANDING
Estimate your playtime with the free gaming time calculator, or read our guide to playing games in moderation.
Gaming Reset supports habit change. It is not medical treatment or a guarantee that every game can be detected or blocked.
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