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I spent hours at the weekend making a windows 10 image with as much bloat disabled as possible. It looks like after just a few days, Microsoft have given me mor

I spent hours at the weekend making a windows 10 image with as much bloat disabled as possible. It looks like after just a few days, Microsoft have given me more stuff to remove. I only use it for gaming, so maybe my efforts would be better spent on getting games to work on Linux?

inetknght 6y ago
Most games work! Notably, if the game you're playing doesn't have an anti-cheat that's deeply tied to the kernel then there's a good chance it will work with Wine (or Steam Play's version of it) out of the box. The anti-cheats that are deeply tied to the Windows kernel are usually dumpster fires of remote code execution so I don't think there's much of a loss there.
- krapht 6y ago
  Things I never liked - spending hours debugging WINE issues or browsing the wine compatibility website trying to get things to work to play a video game, which I'm already using to get away from doing tedious work.
  - andrewzah 6y ago
    These days, most games run fine out of the box with proton. As the parent comment stated, it's mostly games that rely on invasive anti-cheats that don't work. For example, PUBG, Due Process, Valorant, etc... aka competitive multiplayer games. If one really wants to they can dual-boot with windows, but I've found the better option is to just play games that do run well on linux, like tf2, etc.
- d1zzy 6y ago
  Having to use something like Steam (Internet based DRM) to play games effortlessly on Linux seems to beat the purpose. At that point I'd rather just have a separate Windows 10 install where all I do is just gaming.
  - inetknght 6y ago
    You don't have to use Steam. I just use it as a one-stop shop for updates and launching. Some games work in native Linux and most of the rest work fine in plain Wine. If you don't like Steam as a launcher then there's also Lutris and GOG.
gruez 6y ago
>It looks like after just a few days, Microsoft have given me more stuff to remove. use LTSC. it only has security updates so you're not forced to constantly decrapify your OS.
- fl0wenol 6y ago
  It's a little tricky to buy, but anyone can do it. I also like that it gives you multiple activation keys out of the box. Unfortunately it's a little pricey compared to OEM; it's about $300.
stinos 6y ago
By now there are plenty of tools out there which turn hours (I hope we don't have to take that literally? Unless you're not used to Windows and/or there's even more bloat than I know of) into a couple of minutes though. Check e.g. O&O ShutUp 10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10. Or else use an IOT or LTSC release or so.
- jonatron 6y ago
  Installing, updating, running debloat scripts, running ShutUp10, manually uninstalling things, changing settings, disabling services from safe mode. Each step isn't too long, but it adds up.
  - encryptluks2 6y ago
    Not only that but that point people are just running things they don't even know what they are doing and not all or them are open source. I started working on a DSC to actually changed the LGPO instead of just changing a bunch of registry keys so people can at least see what was changed from gpedit.
Beached 6y ago
what version are you running. I reinstall my os every year, and I only disable start menu bing suggestions. I have no adds or default bloatware in my win10 pro and I've been doing this for years.

inetknght 6y ago

Most games work! Notably, if the game you're playing doesn't have an anti-cheat that's deeply tied to the kernel then there's a good chance it will work with Wine (or Steam Play's version of it) out of the box. The anti-cheats that are deeply tied to the Windows kernel are usually dumpster fires of remote code execution so I don't think there's much of a loss there.

krapht 6y ago
Things I never liked - spending hours debugging WINE issues or browsing the wine compatibility website trying to get things to work to play a video game, which I'm already using to get away from doing tedious work.
- andrewzah 6y ago
  These days, most games run fine out of the box with proton. As the parent comment stated, it's mostly games that rely on invasive anti-cheats that don't work. For example, PUBG, Due Process, Valorant, etc... aka competitive multiplayer games. If one really wants to they can dual-boot with windows, but I've found the better option is to just play games that do run well on linux, like tf2, etc.
d1zzy 6y ago
Having to use something like Steam (Internet based DRM) to play games effortlessly on Linux seems to beat the purpose. At that point I'd rather just have a separate Windows 10 install where all I do is just gaming.
- inetknght 6y ago
  You don't have to use Steam. I just use it as a one-stop shop for updates and launching. Some games work in native Linux and most of the rest work fine in plain Wine. If you don't like Steam as a launcher then there's also Lutris and GOG.

gruez 6y ago

>It looks like after just a few days, Microsoft have given me more stuff to remove. use LTSC. it only has security updates so you're not forced to constantly decrapify your OS.

fl0wenol 6y ago
It's a little tricky to buy, but anyone can do it. I also like that it gives you multiple activation keys out of the box. Unfortunately it's a little pricey compared to OEM; it's about $300.

stinos 6y ago

By now there are plenty of tools out there which turn hours (I hope we don't have to take that literally? Unless you're not used to Windows and/or there's even more bloat than I know of) into a couple of minutes though. Check e.g. O&O ShutUp 10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10. Or else use an IOT or LTSC release or so.

jonatron 6y ago
Installing, updating, running debloat scripts, running ShutUp10, manually uninstalling things, changing settings, disabling services from safe mode. Each step isn't too long, but it adds up.
- encryptluks2 6y ago
  Not only that but that point people are just running things they don't even know what they are doing and not all or them are open source. I started working on a DSC to actually changed the LGPO instead of just changing a bunch of registry keys so people can at least see what was changed from gpedit.

Beached 6y ago

what version are you running. I reinstall my os every year, and I only disable start menu bing suggestions. I have no adds or default bloatware in my win10 pro and I've been doing this for years.