Revised 27 October 2026. Tracker step: "Add a VBS section to the main XTU guide; point internal links at it." Note on the board: "Som 22 Oct: publish the section and repoint the /guides card by 27 Oct."
Background: Bobby (7 October) asked to keep both Intel XTU guides live with no redirect. Austin and Kamil add a canonical on https://hypertune.gg/guides/xtu-bios-vbs pointing to https://hypertune.gg/guides/xtu-bios (T5-1). This file is Som's section copy and link map for that publish.
Status on 27 October 2026:
/guides/xtu-bios-vbs (checked 27 Oct)Both pages were fetched on 22 October 2026 with curl and a Chrome browser User-Agent, and rechecked on 27 October 2026. Both loaded with HTTP 200. The step text for all four motherboard brands was taken from the page data, because only the ASUS tab is visible in the HTML until a visitor picks another brand.
The tracker brief assumed the VBS guide covers turning VBS off. It does not. The VBS guide has no Windows steps at all. It is the same BIOS walkthrough as the main guide, intended for people who keep VBS on, and it differs in one setting per brand: Undervolt Protection is turned on instead of off. Every other step, key, menu name and value is identical.
Because the brief says not to add steps that are not in the source, the section below does not include instructions for turning VBS or Memory Integrity off. The H2 is phrased around what the source actually covers. If Hypertune wants a "How do I turn off VBS" section, a technician has to supply and approve those steps first (see the technician items at the end). Tag any unknown Windows path as [UI path needed] or [Austin to confirm]. Do not invent Windows UI steps.
Main guide /guides/xtu-bios | VBS guide /guides/xtu-bios-vbs | |
|---|---|---|
| Title and H1 | Intel XTU Guide | Intel XTU Guide with VBS |
| Meta description | Prepare UEFI for Intel XTU: enable XMP, loosen power and undervolt locks, then save. Pick your motherboard brand and follow each step. | Prepare UEFI for Intel XTU: enable XMP, loosen power, then save. Pick your motherboard brand and follow each step. |
| Canonical (today) | Self | Self (Austin and Kamil to change to the main guide) |
| Robots | index, follow | index, follow |
| Other headings | H3 "Select your motherboard brand", H3 "Steps", then numbered step cards | Same |
| H2 headings | None | None |
Shared page text on both: "~12 min", "6 steps" (ASUS), "Keyboard only (UEFI)", and the warning "Proceed with caution. Voltage and power changes can cause instability or hardware stress if cooling or the VRM is insufficient. Change settings gradually and monitor temperatures." The sidebar reads "On this page:" followed by the step labels, then "Need help? Contact Support".
Steps marked DIFFERS are the only differences between the two guides.
ASRock (5 steps)
ASUS (6 steps)
GIGABYTE (10 steps)
MSI (7 steps)
Suggested anchor: #xtu-with-vbs (set as the id on the H2).
Publish the block under "Publish now" on the first pass. Hold the "Austin to confirm" paragraph until Austin clears the tags, then add it in a follow-up if he wants it.
If you keep VBS turned on in Windows, follow every step above exactly as written except one: turn Undervolt Protection on instead of off.
What VBS is. Virtualization-based Security (VBS) is a Windows security feature that uses your processor's hardware virtualization to run protected parts of Windows in an isolated area of memory that other software cannot reach.
What Memory Integrity and Core Isolation are. Memory Integrity is a VBS feature that blocks drivers and other low-level code from running unless Windows has verified them. On current Windows builds it sits under Core Isolation in the Windows Security app. [Austin to confirm: still the right path on Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2]
All other steps for your brand stay the same: enter Advanced mode, apply your XMP profile, raise the CPU power or current limits, then save with F10 and restart.
Keeping VBS and Memory Integrity on keeps Windows protected against malicious or tampered drivers, which is the safer choice for most people. With Undervolt Protection turned on, your motherboard blocks lowering CPU voltage from inside Windows, so voltage offset (undervolt) controls in Intel XTU will not take effect.
Turning VBS off restores those undervolt controls on supported CPUs, and it also removes that layer of Windows protection. Only do it if you understand and accept that risk. [Austin to confirm]
Do not add Windows steps for turning VBS or Memory Integrity off unless Austin supplies and approves the exact UI path. Until then leave that path tagged [UI path needed].
Add "Using VBS" to the "On this page:" sidebar list, after "Save & exit", linking to #xtu-with-vbs.
The main guide has no H2 headings today. Its structure is: H1 "Intel XTU Guide", the intro and warning, H3 "Select your motherboard brand", H3 "Steps", then the numbered step cards, then "Need help? Contact Support".
Place the new H2 directly after the final step card ("Save settings and reboot") under the H3 "Steps", and before the "Need help? Contact Support" block. It must sit outside the brand tabs so that it shows for every brand, because it references step numbers for all four.
Two related changes the developers may want to make at the same time (not required by this step):
Method: fetched every URL in https://hypertune.gg/sitemap.xml (14 URLs, all HTTP 200) on 22 October 2026 and searched both the HTML anchor tags and the Next.js page data for xtu-bios-vbs. Rechecked the /guides card on 27 October 2026. This covers the homepage, /technology, /guides, the main guide, and every other sitemap page. Pages behind login (for example /client-portal) and links inside the desktop app were not checked.
| Page | Link | Anchor text | Replace with |
|---|---|---|---|
| https://hypertune.gg/guides | /guides/xtu-bios-vbs (fourth guide card) | Card title "Intel XTU Guide with VBS", card description "Beginner walkthrough for Intel XTU with VBS, BIOS settings, tuning, and stability checks" (the live card uses a dash before "BIOS") | /guides/xtu-bios#xtu-with-vbs |
No links to the VBS guide were found on any other page:
| Page | Links to /guides/xtu-bios-vbs |
|---|---|
| https://hypertune.gg (homepage) | None |
| https://hypertune.gg/technology | None |
| https://hypertune.gg/guides/xtu-bios (main guide) | None |
| /expert-tuning, /tutorial, /pricing, /cookies, /policy, /terms-of-service | None |
| /guides/amd-bios, /guides/bios-update, /guides/xmp-bios | None |
Other places the VBS URL appears, which are not internal links but are related:
/guides/xtu-bios-vbs (lastmod 2026-08-26). Once its canonical points to the main guide, Austin and Kamil should decide whether to drop it from the sitemap, since Google treats sitemap URLs as canonical candidates. That work sits on T5-1.og:url and image paths use /guides/xtu-bios-vbs. These belong to the canonical work Austin and Kamil are doing.Decision for the team: after repointing, the /guides index will have two cards ("Intel XTU Guide" and "Intel XTU Guide with VBS") that both open the main guide. Either keep both cards with the second one jumping to the new section, or retitle the second card to something like "Intel XTU with VBS turned on" so visitors know it opens a section of the main guide.