Clear answers. Safety, pricing & compatibility.

That's the whole point. Tempered never changes anything without your explicit approval, every change it makes to your PC is recorded (display preferences and notification switches you flip yourself are the exceptions), and every reversible change has a one-click revert in the Undo Center. It does no registry "cleaning," installs no drivers, and labels the one-way actions (a junk clean, an ended process, an uninstall) it can't put back. The app and its installer are code-signed. The certificate is currently issued to the owner of Tempered Software LLC as an individual, so that person's name, rather than the company's, is what Windows shows as the verified publisher when you install. Download Tempered only from tempered.to or the Microsoft Store. To confirm the name you see, email support@tempered.to.

Tempered only claims what it can measure. Every change it makes to your PC is recorded with its old and new value (display preferences such as theme and font, and notification switches you flip yourself, are not), and a junk clean reports the exact space it freed. It never promises a speed-up it can't measure. If there's nothing worth changing, it tells you so rather than inventing "issues found." That honesty is the product.

When you run a scan or ask the advisor a question, Tempered sends a telemetry snapshot: your hardware models, live readings, and the names of running programs and startup entries. It holds no file contents or file paths. Ask's snapshot is wider: it lists up to 60 programs where a scan lists 20, and adds a short summary of Tempered's own state (its version, your plan, whether it has administrator rights, which of its settings and schedules are on, which programs are suspended or on your safe list, and which Windows tweaks are applied). Ask also sends your recent conversation, and the Security & malware scan adds Defender status, threat names, signer names, and firewall and UAC state. Each of these requests carries your sign-in token, which contains your account email and is how your plan and limits are checked, plus the app's version and your language. Claude, made by Anthropic, writes the answer. The Scans and Ask screens can show you the snapshot first. A scan reads a fresh copy when it runs, and Ask reuses one for up to 15 minutes, so the numbers sent differ a little from the preview. Separately, the app's update check sends a random ID that its update library created. Full detail is in the Privacy Policy.

No. Tempered runs the AI through our own service, so there's nothing to paste. Using the app does require a free account (email/password or Google) so your plan and usage stay in sync — Tempered never sees your password, and the free tier includes a set number of scans; paid plans lift the limits.

Sometimes — and when it can't, it says so instead of showing a number. Windows gives a normal application no live CPU temperature; reading the CPU's own sensor takes a kernel driver, which Tempered will never install. So there are two honest paths to a reading.

If you already run LibreHardwareMonitor or OpenHardwareMonitor, Tempered reads the sensor those tools publish and labels the number with where it came from. Otherwise it checks whether your motherboard exposes a thermal zone — but it will not display that zone until it has watched the value actually move as your CPU load changes. Many desktops report a zone that never budges: on the machine Tempered is developed on it sat at exactly 27.9 °C through a full load sweep from 15% to 95%, and read the same value nineteen days apart. That is a fixed number from the firmware, not a sensor, and printing it as your CPU temperature would be a lie told to three significant figures.

GPU temperature is different — nvidia-smi reads a real sensor, so that one is shown as a number.

Only for the specific actions that genuinely require them — like machine-wide startup entries. Everything else works as a standard user, and Tempered clearly tells you when something needs elevation instead of demanding it up front.

Only on Torque and Torque Max, and only if you turn on "Let the advisor run commands" in Settings — off by default even then, plus a warning to confirm each time you enable it. When it's on, the Ask advisor can propose a single read-only PowerShell command to check something the usual telemetry doesn't cover, like a specific service's status. You always see the exact command text and have to approve it yourself before anything runs, the same as every other action it proposes, and Tempered refuses anything that looks like it would change your PC rather than just check it. Leave it off, or on the free plan, and the advisor simply can't run commands at all — it'll tell you so if you ask it to. A related Torque setting, "Let the advisor batch-apply fixes," lets it propose several fixes at once (instead of one at a time) for review — you still approve every one, just together.

Commands are only one of the things the advisor can do. Through the same approval cards, it can also change Tempered's own settings and notification switches, set automatic scans, a scheduled clean and Process Watch's schedule, mark or unmark a program as safe to suspend, suspend or resume programs, turn Game Mode on or off, apply or revert any of the Windows tweaks, and change how Tempered looks (theme, accent palette, font, language). Inside Task Manager (Tempered) it can also change one process's priority, CPU cores or efficiency mode, end a process together with the programs it started, and start, stop or restart a Windows service. Every change needs your click on its card, and anything that is a Torque feature on its own screen is a Torque feature here too. Tweaks, startup entries, suspends, safe-to-suspend marks and the on/off settings Ask changes are listed in the Undo Center and revert there. Scheduled scans and cleans, Process Watch's schedule, ended processes and Task Manager's per-process changes are recorded there as one-way. Look-and-feel changes are not recorded, and neither are notification switches you flip by hand, so you change those back the same way you set them.

A short list stays with you. The advisor has no tool for administrator mode, the three advisor permissions above, the Developer Hub, the confirmation prompts, your account, plan or billing, or for restarting your PC or installing an update. If you ask for one of those, it tells you where to switch it yourself: administrator mode and the three advisor permissions in Settings (General tab), the Developer Hub on its own screen, your account, plan and billing in Settings (Account tab), and the confirmation prompts on the Processes screen ("Skip confirmation before ending a process") and on Task Manager's own Settings page ("Ask before applying Efficiency mode", plus Task Manager's own administrator switch). The one free-form route is "Let the advisor run commands": it is off by default, you see the exact command before it runs, and the blocklist that filters its commands is a safety net, not a guarantee.

Yes. Anti-cheat safety is non-negotiable in Tempered's design. It uses no kernel drivers, no process injection, and no game-memory access. Any game-related changes are limited to documented Windows settings. Game Mode simply suspends safe background apps and restores them after — nothing that anti-cheat software objects to.

Windows 10 and Windows 11, 64-bit.

Like any Windows app — Settings → Apps → Tempered → Uninstall, which runs Tempered's own uninstaller. That removes the program but leaves its local data. To clear the local database by hand, delete the %APPDATA%/Tempered folder.

When you uninstall, Tempered's uninstaller opens one short page on this site asking why you are leaving. Opening it carries the version you removed in the link, like any other web address. Past that the page is optional and anonymous: no answer is sent unless you pick a reason and press send, closing the tab sends none, and a submission carries no email, account or machine identifier. It only opens on a real uninstall, never when the app updates itself.

The free tier gives you the full core app, 5 Quick scans a day — Tempered's fast, no-cost triage — 2 Safe-list reviews a day (an AI pass that proposes which of your unknown background processes could be marked safe to suspend, every mark your click), and 3 each of the Startup & boot and Security & malware deep scans a month. Torque ($5.99/mo billed annually, $7.99 monthly) unlocks every deep scan (startup, background, gaming, privacy, storage, security & malware) with generous limits, plus Task Manager (Tempered) — a full task-manager window with its own taskbar identity and desktop shortcut, per-process detail Windows' own Task Manager hides, its own AI assistant that sees exactly what the window shows, and its own quick and security scans — premium accent palettes, the Process Watch live monitor, a few advanced Windows tweaks — unlocking the hidden Ultimate Performance power plan, network latency tuning, GPU interrupt mode, and keeping network adapters from sleeping mid-game — the Developer Hub (a strictly read-only, local-only API that lets AI tools on your own PC read Tempered's measurements), and three opt-in Ask advisor powers, off by default: letting it run read-only diagnostic commands (with your approval every time), letting it read crash and reliability records back from Windows' own diagnostic tools, and letting it batch-propose several fixes at once for one-screen review. Torque Max ($12.99/mo billed annually, $17.99 monthly) raises the limits high enough that you never think about them. Torque's monthly plan also has a 7-day free trial — card required, started from inside the app, nothing charged until day 7 — explained in the trial questions below. Every core optimization feature (dashboard, process manager, startup manager, the standard tweaks, Undo Center, junk cleaning) works on the free tier — the plans add deeper AI analysis and a few specialist tweaks.

Because the AI is a real, per-question cost — not a marketing label. Every Ask question and every scan runs on a large AI model that Tempered pays for by the query; you never bring your own API key, and your data is never sold to offset it. The free tier is genuinely free because we cover those costs up to its limits. Torque covers the cost of regular use, Torque Max covers heavy use, and both have stated caps instead of an “unlimited” promise that would quietly throttle — capped and honest is the whole brand. Everything that doesn't cost us per use (the dashboard, process manager, startup manager, standard tweaks, junk cleaning, Undo Center) stays free, forever, with no upsell nags.

The Feedback screen inside the app — pick support, feature, or bug, write what happened, and send. Bug reports can optionally include a diagnostic snapshot, which you can preview before sending; the copy attached is read when you press send. A human reads every submission; nothing there is auto-answered. Email (support@tempered.to) works differently: our AI support agent sends the first reply — signed as an agent, never pretending to be a person — and a human also reads every message and follows up where needed. The contact page form goes straight to a human. All of these reach Tempered Software LLC, the company behind Tempered.

Free tools cover basic cleaning. Tempered is for people who want AI-assisted analysis, per-change approval, and a record of what changed, with settings and startup entries reversible in one click. If a free tool does what you need, use it. Tempered is for when you want to understand what changed and why — and the free tier of Tempered is the full core app too, so the comparison costs nothing to run yourself. Full comparisons: Tempered vs CCleaner, Tempered vs Winhance, and Tempered vs Microsoft PC Manager.

Yes. Tempered is certified and listed on the Microsoft Store (Store ID XP9K3Z8QDLVQH6), so you can install it there instead of downloading the installer from this site. Both are the same app with the same free tier, and the Store copy updates itself from Tempered's own feed. The direct download is the faster route to the newest build, because each Store release has to pass certification first.

A card is required to start the trial, but nothing is charged at signup. On day 7 the trial converts to Torque at $7.99 a month unless you cancel before then — that date and price are shown before you enter a card, and Stripe's confirmation email repeats them. When the trial starts, Tempered emails you a confirmation with the terms, the conversion date, and a cancel link. On day 4 Tempered sends one reminder email with a cancel link; the link opens a page that asks for one confirming click (automated link scanners follow plain links, so the page confirms first). Cancelling is two clicks from Settings → Account in the app, which opens Stripe's Customer Portal. If you cancel, the trial stays on until day 7 and then your account returns to the free tier, which keeps working. One trial per person, ever — anyone who has or had a subscription is not eligible. The free tier itself is not a trial; it is the full core app for as long as you want it.

Yes, on your first charge. The first charge of any subscription — a trial that converted, a direct monthly or annual purchase, or the first charge after upgrading to a higher plan — is covered by a 14-day, no-questions-asked full refund, worldwide. Email support@tempered.to within 14 days of that first charge and you get it back in full; the refund ends the subscription at once. Later renewals are not refunded: cancelling stops future renewals, and you keep the plan until the end of the period you already paid for. Cancel from Settings → Account in the app. If you are in the EU or UK, your statutory right of withdrawal is unaffected.