21 ms·

Reclaim Windows10

178 points by manjana 5y ago

pizza234 5y ago
(Not so) fun stuff about the Linux services shovelling. Having the snapd daemon running is not necessary (it may actually be undesirable). At least on Ubuntu though, snapd can't be regularly prevented from starting at boot (`systemctl disable`) - it needs to be masked (`systemctl`, essentially, a forced disable). But if one masks it, the Ubuntu daily update will hang. Well, one can't say that Ubuntu isn't catching up with the times :) /s
- hughrr 5y ago
  You can fix Ubuntu by using Debian 10. Worked for me :)
- yabones 5y ago
  Not sure I entirely agree with this. The whole point of Ubuntu is that it's essentially turn-key. I installed 20.04 LTS on my old XPS13 and my girlfriend used it for months before realizing it was any different from a Mac. That's a good thing. That's one fewer user of MS or Apple. For people like us, there are so many other distributions that align more with our use cases. Manjaro or Fedora are just as good as Ubuntu, but for potentially more savvy users. Or if you really really need complete control nobody is stopping anybody from running Gentoo with OpenRC. Or, the most sensible option, just use Debian. The whole point is to give the user choices, that's the entire purpose of the Gnu/Linux universe.
userbinator 5y ago
I started using Windows in the 3.x days, and the amount of crap I have to "fix" every time I make a new install increases with each successive version... and to think I used to be mildly annoyed at having to enable file extensions and showing full paths back in the 9x/2k days.
- sshagent 5y ago
  showing hidden files and extensions still annoys me now :) but defo agree
- unionpivo 5y ago
  To be fair, you sometimes had to open the machines and fiddle with irq's and other things I already forgot about. I remember one machine, where I couldn't get sound blaster mouse, printer and modem to work at the same time. I do agree that nowadays software companies expect to just own you if you use their products. The sad part is that what Microsoft is doing is "normal" or even minimal compared to what Apple or Google are doing. And it's getting worse all the time. Fortunately Linux desktop is good enough this days for most tasks.
  - phonethrowaway 5y ago
    this is still a problem (irq conflicts) especially with thunderbolt enclosures...
    - vetinari 5y ago
      At least with APIC/MSI we have way more IRQs than in during the i8259 times.
  - p_j_w 5y ago
    I think problems like IRQ conflicts and DMA address issues are completely orthogonal the the things mentioned in that other post.
- marcodiego 5y ago
  It is interesting to think how the incentives grew to make developers create applications which are more attention grabbing with time. In the msdos days, an app was installed to a directory. In the win 3.x days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group OR shortcut on the desktop. In the win95 days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group AND shortcut on the desktop. In the win98 days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop and quicklaunch bar. In the win98se days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar and systemtray when run. In the winme days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar and systemtray when the system started. In the winxp days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar, systemtray when the system started and changed your default homepage. In the winvista days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar, systemtray when the system started, changed your default homepage and added toolbars on ie. In the win7 days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar, systemtray when the system started, changed your default homepage, added toolbars on ie and showed ads when run. In the win8 days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar, systemtray when the system started, changed your default homepage, added toolbars on ie and showed ads when the system starts. In the win10 days, an app is installed to a directory, creates a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar, systemtray when the system started, changes your default homepage, adds toolbars on ie/edge, shows ads when the system starts and constantly tries to convince you to use this program or install others. I actually don't know if ie/edge still have default homepage or toolbars, but you get the idea.
anaisbetts 5y ago
Nearly all of these "clean up" scripts are a horrendous idea to run on your machine, I see right at the top that this script disables SmartScreen, a service that absolutely should not be disabled unless you want your machine to get owned. It then proceeds to set your current network as Private (aka "open all the ports") regardless of which network you're connected to - hope you're at home! Other changes are completely superfluous, like disabling "3D Objects" which has already been disabled in the latest Windows version Just don't run this stuff.
- hughrr 5y ago
  Totally agree with this. I’ve not seen one of these things that isn’t seriously dangerous to run. As with all these things, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, apparently by tinfoil hatted nut jobs who don’t understand the problem domain well enough to be making decisions for people who know even less than they do.
- 2ion 5y ago
  Just not this stuff, any stuff without review. A lot of Windows advice has sadly always been the equivalent of curl | sudo bash - and the culture proliferates this practice. But it also highlights that Windows 10 is unusable without Group Policy, which is an almost sane interface for Windows "tweaks". Windows editions without full group policy support are essentially garbage.
- camgunz 5y ago
  Thanks for the info; I've been concerned enough about Windows 10 telemetry (etc.) to avoid it, and when I saw this script I thought "ohhh maybe I can just do this?"--so you saved me. Do you have a rec or a resource? I haven't looked seriously at this so if it's just like "google it" mea culpa, but it seems like there's a lot of misinformation and what not out there. I saw "O&O ShutUp10" in a sibling thread?
  - anaisbetts 5y ago
    I think I would think about specific Windows Telemetry that you want to disable and more importantly, why (i.e. "What's the Threat Model around Microsoft knowing this"). Because the vast majority of the telemetry collected by Windows is simply to make Windows work better - things like "Upgrade failed because $REASON" or "$DRIVER is causing performance problems". You can see a lot of the kinds of telemetry that Windows is interested in if you go to Event Viewer => Application Logs => Microsoft => Windows, if you read it you see that it's like, Google Lighthouse style stuff, to make Windows faster and more reliable Use these scripts to figure out the kinds of things you don't want to run, then make really targeted "Disable This" choices
arkitaip 5y ago
One alternative is O&O ShutUp10 (free) that does the same things using a GUI: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
- AlexandrB 5y ago
  This is a great tool, but remember to re-run it periodically (especially after updates) as Windows 10 will "helpfully" re-enable stuff you have disabled.
  - Daho0n 5y ago
    Yes, it should have an option of monitoring if changes have been made (not just show changes at launch). Maybe as a paid option.
- squarefoot 5y ago
  Isn't ironic that the software house that created ShutUp10 is a Gold Microsoft Partner?
jonatron 5y ago
I switched to dual booting Linux mint and Windows 10 on my home desktop. Work laptop has been linux only for years. I've only used windows a couple of times, because these days I'm mostly just using a browser. By the time you've "reclaimed" Windows 10, there'll be an update that undoes your work, so it doesn't seem worth the effort.
- Haga 5y ago
  I just boxed win10 into a vm with firewall. Add some restore points and networkshared disk and it's usable.
trinovantes 5y ago
I don't think anyone has the time to audit every line to ensure there's nothing malicious in there. On a side note, this also made me realize my desktop barely has any non-mainstream "low-trust" applications anymore. Back in the early 2000s, I remember my computer is filled with random win32 apps. The most fringe app I have now is "Bulk Rename Utility".
- ToFab123 5y ago
  There is a Bulk Rename Utility included in Windows 10 Power Toys that you might want to check out. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/powerrename https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/powerrena...
- op00to 5y ago
  Ham Radio and video game modding - my computers are doomed!
emsy 5y ago
I’ve read some criticism towards this script and/or these kind of scripts in the comments. The criticism should instead be directed towards Microsoft, which decided to treat their customers (even alleged „Pro“ customers!) like babies and force useless bloatware, ads, telemetry and the absolute worst update system of any OS ever upon their users, thus making these kind of scripts necessary to begin with.
- hughrr 5y ago
  Oh yes completely. But even if the house is made of poo, shooting holes in the wall is not the way to fix it. There really aren’t any winning moves other than not to play at all. Which may be an insane self sacrificing position.
- natex 5y ago
  > The criticism should instead be directed towards Microsoft, Totally agree that MS deserves criticism as you correctly point out. However, criticism towards the script and similar is equally valid (and important).
  - pessimizer 5y ago
    Specific criticism is very important and would lead to improvements in the script. However, all I'm seeing so far is general nay-saying.
    - haswell 5y ago
      So far, most of the criticism I've seen has been specific, and examples been provided that explain why the specific settings are problematic.
      - vetinari 5y ago
        > examples been provided that explain why the specific settings are problematic. I've seen some opinions, but none could be objectively evaluated as really pointing out problematic settings. They were more in the area of subjective preferences.
marcodiego 5y ago
You can keep windows on a VM for tools or services that only work on windows. For higher performance, just keep a separate partition and dual boot it for the cases you need.
timvisee 5y ago
It is insane to me that a 2432 line script is required to achieve this.
- viraptor 5y ago
  You get the options to both enable and disable the steps so that's half the lines. Then there's lots of things like "DisableLockScreen" which are not really related to the goals at the top. It's definitely not 2.4k lines to disable telemetry.
- mattowen_uk 5y ago
  At least 70% of what's in the script can also be done via the UI, and I'd say another 10% is stuff you really shouldn't do anyway (disabling SmartScreen etc.)... The telemetry bit is about 20 or lines, if that.
  - bserge 5y ago
    SmartScreen is not Windows Defender, the latter is the antivirus with its own regularly updated database, firewall, etc. SmartScreen basically sends your files to Microsoft, for "enhanced security" or something. FWIW I put Defender on notification only mode because Microsoft ever so helpfully removed the actual quarantine directory and now files dumped into quarantine are basically unrecoverable. I just use the firewall with a third party interactive GUI and block anything that I can't identify.
    - mattowen_uk 5y ago
      I know what SmartScreen is. It's also useful to keep on as it's a cloud anti-malware service. It does not send your personal files to MS. Stop with the lies, please. No they haven't removed the quarantine restoration option. You can mark any file it quarantines as safe, and it gets restored and never flagged again.
      - blibble 5y ago
        > It does not send your personal files to MS. Stop with the lies, please. what does this option do then? https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/img_599de3a3e07e2.png https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/img_599... and of course: it's enabled by default
aspartate 5y ago
This kind of black box solution gives you nothing but a false sense of privacy and/or security. I've come to a conclusion that either you want an OS that respects your privacy, or you want Windows. These two are fundamentally incompatible and at most, you're going to end up doing damage control.
muu-g 5y ago
I think this is on topic but would something like https://ameliorated.info/index.html https://ameliorated.info/index.html be a better idea to get rid of any bloatware and help address any privacy issues? I haven't personally used it but a friend of recommended it to me. Anyone else have any experience with AME Windows?
- pixelbath 5y ago
  I do; I installed on both my personal laptop (2012-ish Alienware 17) and my wife's laptop (2020 Asus Vivobook). The first thing to note is that Windows Update is completely removed, so unless you have fairly-current Windows 10 drivers, you'll never automatically download drivers. Asus doesn't provide an up-to-date ACPI driver, so my wife's laptop was always running at full throttle (which means constant fans) and couldn't sleep or hibernate, and several devices went unrecognized the entire time. Ultimately, I ended up reinstalling the retail version of Windows 10 that was included with the machine and after a few updates it's back to its initial state. Of note, I also tried Windows 8.1 (no drivers available) and Windows 10 LTSB (no ACPI drivers again). For myself, I've had absolutely no issues with it. All my devices were recognized and it boots extremely quickly (~8 seconds from cold boot on a SATA SSD). Most of the stuff I didn't like about Windows 10 is ripped out. If you're a fairly technical user who's cautious about what they download and run, it might be ideal. I have no problem wiping my machine occasionally, so running without security updates isn't something I'm too bothered about.
- ______- 5y ago
  > would something like https://ameliorated.info/index.html https://ameliorated.info/index.html I installed this to test it out (in a VM) and got a login prompt asking for a password. I went to their site and found no documentation about this at all, so I just never touched it again. It could be changed and no such prompt appears. I might have to try it again.
  - kuroguro 5y ago
    It's user/malte. Yeah, the docs are lacking. AME/AME Guides Telegram groups have been a good source of info for common problems.
ape4 5y ago
It should be just one service to disable
Ecstatify 5y ago
People need to speak with their wallet otherwise nothing will change.
- SadWebDeveloper 5y ago
  People have spoked with their wallets, they are starting to buy Apple because "its better, more easy than windows and has resale value" but the reality is that apple does the same or even worse than microsoft, the main difference is that in Windows there are still ways to disable this functionalities in Apple they are tightly integrated on the macOS and can't even disabled without crippling your user experience.
- teddyh 5y ago
  Can you name a few consumer-level boycotts in, say, the last 50 years, which actually accomplished their goals?
  - fsflover 5y ago
    In this case, at least something will change for you.
  - Ecstatify 5y ago
    Off the top of my head (Nestlé boycott) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott (Nike boycott) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2012/jul/06/activism-nike https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/20... (South Africa boycott) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunnes_Stores_strike https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunnes_Stores_strike Going into the registry is madness, especially when you're purchasing a license for the OS. Personally I'm going to get a new mac when they get the ram up to 64GB with the new processors.
    - teddyh 5y ago
      The last one of those was a strike, not a boycott. (Also, I don’t think that Irish government altered their import policy because of eleven striking workers at one store.) Concerning the other two, the Nestlé boycott does not seem to have had much, if any, impact, and it’s at least debatable if the Nike one did much, and if it did, then the impact is not due to informed individuals “speaking with their wallet”, but the wide publicity. This is why I specified “consumer-level”; a boycott which includes continuous publicity from major media is no longer consumer-level.
nicomeemes 5y ago
I would recommend https://winaero.com/download-winaero-tweaker/ https://winaero.com/download-winaero-tweaker/ which handles everything in a nice GUI, lets you export settings for use on new machines, etc.
whocanfly 5y ago
Bloatbox is an open source alternative with a GUI: https://github.com/builtbybel/bloatbox https://github.com/builtbybel/bloatbox They have also made a privacy and security related app https://github.com/builtbybel/privatezilla https://github.com/builtbybel/privatezilla
thrower123 5y ago
If you have access to it, through partner or MSDN or corporate licensing or otherwise, it is really worth installing the Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB/LTSC versions. It has most of the annoying things that plague consumer versions of Windows 10 stripped out, and it gets a very different cadence of updates, restricted to security and quality fixes. No Cortana, no Edge installed by default, no built-in Store universal apps. It's rock solid; I have never gotten a bad update pushed to any of my boxes running LTSC over the past five years. If you want a Windows workstation that just works, and will continue to work without fiddling, this is it.
- mattowen_uk 5y ago
  To be honest, Windows 10 Pro is 'good enough'. It's the 'Home' variant that is stuffed full of the third party games and apps.
  - blibble 5y ago
    pro comes with the same mountain of bullshit as home, including Candy Crush, solitaire with subscription (and/or ads) and xbox gaming
    - mattowen_uk 5y ago
      And it's a 2 second job to remove the tiles, and they don't come back. Windows comes with a lot of things I personally don't use, but I don't feel that I have to obsessively remove them all.
- e17 5y ago
  I used LTSB/C for ages but when WSL2 came along I had to ditch it for the Pro version. Is WSL2 working on LTSC now?
- josephcsible 5y ago
  > no Edge installed by default Are you sure this is a good thing? As much as I don't like Edge, aren't the alternatives either IE or no browser? It's not like they'll ship Firefox preinstalled instead.
fsflover 5y ago
> This Windows 10 Setup Script turns off a bunch of unnecessary Windows 10 telemetery, bloatware, & privacy things Aren't people tired of fighting with their own computers? I abandoned Windows, installed Linux and can't be happier now.
- criddell 5y ago
  Who cares about operating systems any more? That seems like a solved problem and frankly all the major ones are fine these days. Computers are chosen based on applications. If you want to play games, you are probably buying a Windows PC. Developing iOS apps? You want a Mac. If you just need a browser, then a Chrome Book or iPad is probably a good choice. I'd bet a lot of people here use three or more operating systems every day on different computers doing different things.
  - fragileone 5y ago
    > all the major ones are fine these days. I think the very point of this thread is that is not the case and many users are very unhappy with Windows telemetry.
    - criddell 5y ago
      Many users? I'd be surprised if it's even 1%.
      - gnulinux 5y ago
        I have never met a single person in my entire life who likes using Windows. Everyone I know claims "yeah it's crap but this CAD/Industry standard software works only in Windows". I would guess they exist but I'd bet money they don't make up 99% of users.
        criddell 5y ago
        You're kind of making the same point I was. People don't choose an OS for the sake of the OS, it's for the application support. I like using Windows as much as macOS or Linux. For different parts of my day I'll be using Windows or Linux or Android or iOS and at on each system the OS is there to support the applications I want to use.
intricatedetail 5y ago
We need a regulator to step in and ensure that any telemetry is opt in and that the user will get compensated for use of their data if they opt in.
Haga 5y ago
Can't wait for that final adware, installing linux and just wrapping the original system in a vm. Windows is as good as done. All that confines the users is ui-knowledge
SadWebDeveloper 5y ago
I like this one mostly clean code (a little repetitive with those disableXXX/enableXXX functions but not a mess of regedit commands), obviously not for the default choices with are kinda weird and old becase wifi sense has been removed since 1803 (afaicr) but its definitely a lot nicer.
e17 5y ago
If MS wants Windows to become a developer platform, as they seem to (WSL, VS Code, GitHub), they need to offer a version of the OS without all the safety guardrails bullshit. Treat me like an adult please.
craftoman 5y ago
I remember this script was a must back in 2017, didn't know they maintained it until today!
alberth 5y ago
Doesn't running Windows 10 LTSC [0] solve like 90% of what these scripts try to accomplish but do so in an officially supported way. [0] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/ltsc/ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/ltsc/
- ZFH 5y ago
  This, a thousand times this. It's strange it's still somewhat under the radar, it should be much more widely known. They call it LTSC, but it's really Windows As It Should Be.
  - hestefisk 5y ago
    True. But it’s hard for home users to buy an enterprise license.
    - alberth 5y ago
      I presume that Microsoft has found that home users value having a cheaper PC with ads, over a more expensive PC without ads. Similar to Gmail and the likes of numerous SaaS companies. There's a freemium version with ads (or some type of limitation) or a paid version without ads (or said limitation). Just playing devils advocate here.
    - fl0wenol 5y ago
      You can do it, you just have to know how. Basically, tell an ISV (like Connection.com) that you want a small business relationship w.r.t. Microsoft Licensing and they'll set you up. You might have to buy a few random CALs to qualify, but it's totally possible and a godsend.
  - stinos 5y ago
    Just asked this a day ago but got no reply, so here it goes again: it looks like there could be strings attached, possibly due to my ignorance though - can this be licensed to a single user? Recently I was working on a machine with an LTSC release (not mine, acquired by another company) and it didn't seem possible to apply updates, just saying 'contact your system administrator to update'. So I told the company they'd need to sort that out eventually but they also had no clue, and they called the shop wehere they got it but there also no sane response. This is just one data point of course, but does make me wonder: if you as a normal non-enterprise customer get this problem, what's the way to deal with this issue?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
encryptluks2 5y ago
Isn't this better suited for PowerShell DSC and disabling these settings using the LGPO DSC resource?
gigel82 5y ago
Generally, I don't think Windows 10's telemetry features are privacy-violating. Most of the telemetry (especially if you choose the "required only" option in setup) is just for crashes and basic usage data (they won't use it for advertising for example, like Google or Facebook); that said, I use pi-hole as my DNS which blocks a lot of the Microsoft URLs used by telemetry. However, my biggest issue is simply bloat. With every major update on Windows 10 we get more and more crap running on the OS. A fresh install of Windows 10 21H1 uses 3Gb+ of RAM and that is insane. There are things like "YourPhone" which is an app that starts at boot and cannot be uninstalled which is supposed to help integrate your Android phone - I have an iPhone and couldn't use it even if I wanted to, but I still pay 4Mb of RAM for having it running. I can probably disable half the services that are set to start automatically and still have a working OS. Tried using something like winreducer to actually strip out the binaries instead of just turning stuff off via registry, but it's tedious; nowadays I just do a regular install then go into task scheduler and remove 1/2 of the needless crap then manually disable 1/4th of the services and use some PowerShell scripts for removing un-removable apps. I miss the good-old days of Windows 2000 where we booted the OS with < 90Mb RAM and a couple dozen processes.
- desktopninja 5y ago
  Miss Win2k Pro period.
- Joeri 5y ago
  Windows 2000 was bloatware compared to NT4, which ran comfortably in 32 MB of RAM and had basically no limits on 128 MB. (All of office, photoshop and visual basic multi tasking at the same time smoothly.) I don’t understand why modern OS’s need multiple gigabytes of RAM just to boot. I get that they do more than NT4 and windows 2000 did, but still, why isn’t a gigabyte enough? I would like to read an OS engineer’s take on it.
  - vort3 5y ago
    Everything is bloated. You need 3GB RAM to open some web pages in your browser nowadays and that's insane.
tlynchpin 5y ago
I have had good results with the decrapifier script by CSAND on spiceworks [0]. It's been getting maintained for a while now and it's on spiceworks so while I'm not a windows nerd enough to judge it, I'm pretty sure it's good if not great. I used this tutorial [1] when installing a new machine, you run it in "audit" mode before the out of box experience. I used -appaccess and -xbox. In my case I'm giving this PC to a friend so she'll get the new PC experience without the start menu garbage. [0]: https://community.spiceworks.com/scripts/show/4378-windows-10-decrapifier-18xx-19xx-2xxx https://community.spiceworks.com/scripts/show/4378-windows-1... [1]: https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/148624-how-to-clean-up-a-single-windows-10-machine-image-using-decrapifier https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/148624-how-to-clean-...
nicholashead 5y ago
Just use https://privacy.sexy/ https://privacy.sexy/ or ShutUp10: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 to do this, probably much safer - and in Privacy.Sexy's case, you get the exact script (and undo script) for each specific tweak you wanna apply.
brutal_chaos_ 5y ago
"Reclaim"? It was never yours to begin with. Microsoft does not sell copies. They sell licenses to use/seats. Given that, still a great script!
jiggawatts 5y ago
You get really good at this kind of thing when you're building large scale virtual desktop systems. Suddenly, the random updates, scans, or whatever translate to a million IOPS on the SAN and a widespread outage of unrelated systems. In my experience, most editions of Windows 10 are simply unredeemable. You have to start with an LTSC edition, which behaves more like XP used to: Very little bloat, no forced patching, everything except what you actually need turned off by default. Meanwhile, Microsoft recommends that you don't use LTSC. Prefer the normal editions. Use LTSC only if required. Please don't use LTSC. Don't disable Telemetry! LTSC is for special customers only. Use the Current Version for the latest features. The Current Version has many benefits that users enjoy! Consume Soylent Green! Eat it. Eat it.

178 points by manjana 5y ago

(Not so) fun stuff about the Linux services shovelling. Having the snapd daemon running is not necessary (it may actually be undesirable). At least on Ubuntu though, snapd can't be regularly prevented from starting at boot (`systemctl disable`) - it needs to be masked (`systemctl`, essentially, a forced disable). But if one masks it, the Ubuntu daily update will hang. Well, one can't say that Ubuntu isn't catching up with the times :) /s

hughrr 5y ago
You can fix Ubuntu by using Debian 10. Worked for me :)
yabones 5y ago
Not sure I entirely agree with this. The whole point of Ubuntu is that it's essentially turn-key. I installed 20.04 LTS on my old XPS13 and my girlfriend used it for months before realizing it was any different from a Mac. That's a good thing. That's one fewer user of MS or Apple. For people like us, there are so many other distributions that align more with our use cases. Manjaro or Fedora are just as good as Ubuntu, but for potentially more savvy users. Or if you really really need complete control nobody is stopping anybody from running Gentoo with OpenRC. Or, the most sensible option, just use Debian. The whole point is to give the user choices, that's the entire purpose of the Gnu/Linux universe.

userbinator 5y ago

I started using Windows in the 3.x days, and the amount of crap I have to "fix" every time I make a new install increases with each successive version... and to think I used to be mildly annoyed at having to enable file extensions and showing full paths back in the 9x/2k days.

sshagent 5y ago
showing hidden files and extensions still annoys me now :) but defo agree
unionpivo 5y ago
To be fair, you sometimes had to open the machines and fiddle with irq's and other things I already forgot about. I remember one machine, where I couldn't get sound blaster mouse, printer and modem to work at the same time. I do agree that nowadays software companies expect to just own you if you use their products. The sad part is that what Microsoft is doing is "normal" or even minimal compared to what Apple or Google are doing. And it's getting worse all the time. Fortunately Linux desktop is good enough this days for most tasks.
- phonethrowaway 5y ago
  this is still a problem (irq conflicts) especially with thunderbolt enclosures...
  - vetinari 5y ago
    At least with APIC/MSI we have way more IRQs than in during the i8259 times.
- p_j_w 5y ago
  I think problems like IRQ conflicts and DMA address issues are completely orthogonal the the things mentioned in that other post.
marcodiego 5y ago
It is interesting to think how the incentives grew to make developers create applications which are more attention grabbing with time. In the msdos days, an app was installed to a directory. In the win 3.x days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group OR shortcut on the desktop. In the win95 days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group AND shortcut on the desktop. In the win98 days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop and quicklaunch bar. In the win98se days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar and systemtray when run. In the winme days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar and systemtray when the system started. In the winxp days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar, systemtray when the system started and changed your default homepage. In the winvista days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar, systemtray when the system started, changed your default homepage and added toolbars on ie. In the win7 days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar, systemtray when the system started, changed your default homepage, added toolbars on ie and showed ads when run. In the win8 days, an app was installed to a directory, created a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar, systemtray when the system started, changed your default homepage, added toolbars on ie and showed ads when the system starts. In the win10 days, an app is installed to a directory, creates a program group, shortcut on the desktop, quicklaunch bar, systemtray when the system started, changes your default homepage, adds toolbars on ie/edge, shows ads when the system starts and constantly tries to convince you to use this program or install others. I actually don't know if ie/edge still have default homepage or toolbars, but you get the idea.

anaisbetts 5y ago

Nearly all of these "clean up" scripts are a horrendous idea to run on your machine, I see right at the top that this script disables SmartScreen, a service that absolutely should not be disabled unless you want your machine to get owned. It then proceeds to set your current network as Private (aka "open all the ports") regardless of which network you're connected to - hope you're at home! Other changes are completely superfluous, like disabling "3D Objects" which has already been disabled in the latest Windows version Just don't run this stuff.

hughrr 5y ago
Totally agree with this. I’ve not seen one of these things that isn’t seriously dangerous to run. As with all these things, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, apparently by tinfoil hatted nut jobs who don’t understand the problem domain well enough to be making decisions for people who know even less than they do.
2ion 5y ago
Just not this stuff, any stuff without review. A lot of Windows advice has sadly always been the equivalent of curl | sudo bash - and the culture proliferates this practice. But it also highlights that Windows 10 is unusable without Group Policy, which is an almost sane interface for Windows "tweaks". Windows editions without full group policy support are essentially garbage.
camgunz 5y ago
Thanks for the info; I've been concerned enough about Windows 10 telemetry (etc.) to avoid it, and when I saw this script I thought "ohhh maybe I can just do this?"--so you saved me. Do you have a rec or a resource? I haven't looked seriously at this so if it's just like "google it" mea culpa, but it seems like there's a lot of misinformation and what not out there. I saw "O&O ShutUp10" in a sibling thread?
- anaisbetts 5y ago
  I think I would think about specific Windows Telemetry that you want to disable and more importantly, why (i.e. "What's the Threat Model around Microsoft knowing this"). Because the vast majority of the telemetry collected by Windows is simply to make Windows work better - things like "Upgrade failed because $REASON" or "$DRIVER is causing performance problems". You can see a lot of the kinds of telemetry that Windows is interested in if you go to Event Viewer => Application Logs => Microsoft => Windows, if you read it you see that it's like, Google Lighthouse style stuff, to make Windows faster and more reliable Use these scripts to figure out the kinds of things you don't want to run, then make really targeted "Disable This" choices

arkitaip 5y ago

One alternative is O&O ShutUp10 (free) that does the same things using a GUI: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

AlexandrB 5y ago
This is a great tool, but remember to re-run it periodically (especially after updates) as Windows 10 will "helpfully" re-enable stuff you have disabled.
- Daho0n 5y ago
  Yes, it should have an option of monitoring if changes have been made (not just show changes at launch). Maybe as a paid option.
squarefoot 5y ago
Isn't ironic that the software house that created ShutUp10 is a Gold Microsoft Partner?

jonatron 5y ago

I switched to dual booting Linux mint and Windows 10 on my home desktop. Work laptop has been linux only for years. I've only used windows a couple of times, because these days I'm mostly just using a browser. By the time you've "reclaimed" Windows 10, there'll be an update that undoes your work, so it doesn't seem worth the effort.

Haga 5y ago
I just boxed win10 into a vm with firewall. Add some restore points and networkshared disk and it's usable.

trinovantes 5y ago

I don't think anyone has the time to audit every line to ensure there's nothing malicious in there. On a side note, this also made me realize my desktop barely has any non-mainstream "low-trust" applications anymore. Back in the early 2000s, I remember my computer is filled with random win32 apps. The most fringe app I have now is "Bulk Rename Utility".

ToFab123 5y ago
There is a Bulk Rename Utility included in Windows 10 Power Toys that you might want to check out. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/powerrename https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/powerrena...
op00to 5y ago
Ham Radio and video game modding - my computers are doomed!

emsy 5y ago

I’ve read some criticism towards this script and/or these kind of scripts in the comments. The criticism should instead be directed towards Microsoft, which decided to treat their customers (even alleged „Pro“ customers!) like babies and force useless bloatware, ads, telemetry and the absolute worst update system of any OS ever upon their users, thus making these kind of scripts necessary to begin with.

hughrr 5y ago
Oh yes completely. But even if the house is made of poo, shooting holes in the wall is not the way to fix it. There really aren’t any winning moves other than not to play at all. Which may be an insane self sacrificing position.
natex 5y ago
> The criticism should instead be directed towards Microsoft, Totally agree that MS deserves criticism as you correctly point out. However, criticism towards the script and similar is equally valid (and important).
- pessimizer 5y ago
  Specific criticism is very important and would lead to improvements in the script. However, all I'm seeing so far is general nay-saying.
  - haswell 5y ago
    So far, most of the criticism I've seen has been specific, and examples been provided that explain why the specific settings are problematic.
    - vetinari 5y ago
      > examples been provided that explain why the specific settings are problematic. I've seen some opinions, but none could be objectively evaluated as really pointing out problematic settings. They were more in the area of subjective preferences.

marcodiego 5y ago

You can keep windows on a VM for tools or services that only work on windows. For higher performance, just keep a separate partition and dual boot it for the cases you need.

timvisee 5y ago

It is insane to me that a 2432 line script is required to achieve this.

viraptor 5y ago
You get the options to both enable and disable the steps so that's half the lines. Then there's lots of things like "DisableLockScreen" which are not really related to the goals at the top. It's definitely not 2.4k lines to disable telemetry.
mattowen_uk 5y ago
At least 70% of what's in the script can also be done via the UI, and I'd say another 10% is stuff you really shouldn't do anyway (disabling SmartScreen etc.)... The telemetry bit is about 20 or lines, if that.
- bserge 5y ago
  SmartScreen is not Windows Defender, the latter is the antivirus with its own regularly updated database, firewall, etc. SmartScreen basically sends your files to Microsoft, for "enhanced security" or something. FWIW I put Defender on notification only mode because Microsoft ever so helpfully removed the actual quarantine directory and now files dumped into quarantine are basically unrecoverable. I just use the firewall with a third party interactive GUI and block anything that I can't identify.
  - mattowen_uk 5y ago
    I know what SmartScreen is. It's also useful to keep on as it's a cloud anti-malware service. It does not send your personal files to MS. Stop with the lies, please. No they haven't removed the quarantine restoration option. You can mark any file it quarantines as safe, and it gets restored and never flagged again.
    - blibble 5y ago
      > It does not send your personal files to MS. Stop with the lies, please. what does this option do then? https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/img_599de3a3e07e2.png https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/img_599... and of course: it's enabled by default

aspartate 5y ago

This kind of black box solution gives you nothing but a false sense of privacy and/or security. I've come to a conclusion that either you want an OS that respects your privacy, or you want Windows. These two are fundamentally incompatible and at most, you're going to end up doing damage control.

muu-g 5y ago

I think this is on topic but would something like https://ameliorated.info/index.html https://ameliorated.info/index.html be a better idea to get rid of any bloatware and help address any privacy issues? I haven't personally used it but a friend of recommended it to me. Anyone else have any experience with AME Windows?

pixelbath 5y ago
I do; I installed on both my personal laptop (2012-ish Alienware 17) and my wife's laptop (2020 Asus Vivobook). The first thing to note is that Windows Update is completely removed, so unless you have fairly-current Windows 10 drivers, you'll never automatically download drivers. Asus doesn't provide an up-to-date ACPI driver, so my wife's laptop was always running at full throttle (which means constant fans) and couldn't sleep or hibernate, and several devices went unrecognized the entire time. Ultimately, I ended up reinstalling the retail version of Windows 10 that was included with the machine and after a few updates it's back to its initial state. Of note, I also tried Windows 8.1 (no drivers available) and Windows 10 LTSB (no ACPI drivers again). For myself, I've had absolutely no issues with it. All my devices were recognized and it boots extremely quickly (~8 seconds from cold boot on a SATA SSD). Most of the stuff I didn't like about Windows 10 is ripped out. If you're a fairly technical user who's cautious about what they download and run, it might be ideal. I have no problem wiping my machine occasionally, so running without security updates isn't something I'm too bothered about.
______- 5y ago
> would something like https://ameliorated.info/index.html https://ameliorated.info/index.html I installed this to test it out (in a VM) and got a login prompt asking for a password. I went to their site and found no documentation about this at all, so I just never touched it again. It could be changed and no such prompt appears. I might have to try it again.
- kuroguro 5y ago
  It's user/malte. Yeah, the docs are lacking. AME/AME Guides Telegram groups have been a good source of info for common problems.

ape4 5y ago

It should be just one service to disable

Ecstatify 5y ago

People need to speak with their wallet otherwise nothing will change.

SadWebDeveloper 5y ago
People have spoked with their wallets, they are starting to buy Apple because "its better, more easy than windows and has resale value" but the reality is that apple does the same or even worse than microsoft, the main difference is that in Windows there are still ways to disable this functionalities in Apple they are tightly integrated on the macOS and can't even disabled without crippling your user experience.
teddyh 5y ago
Can you name a few consumer-level boycotts in, say, the last 50 years, which actually accomplished their goals?
- fsflover 5y ago
  In this case, at least something will change for you.
- Ecstatify 5y ago
  Off the top of my head (Nestlé boycott) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott (Nike boycott) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2012/jul/06/activism-nike https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/20... (South Africa boycott) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunnes_Stores_strike https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunnes_Stores_strike Going into the registry is madness, especially when you're purchasing a license for the OS. Personally I'm going to get a new mac when they get the ram up to 64GB with the new processors.
  - teddyh 5y ago
    The last one of those was a strike, not a boycott. (Also, I don’t think that Irish government altered their import policy because of eleven striking workers at one store.) Concerning the other two, the Nestlé boycott does not seem to have had much, if any, impact, and it’s at least debatable if the Nike one did much, and if it did, then the impact is not due to informed individuals “speaking with their wallet”, but the wide publicity. This is why I specified “consumer-level”; a boycott which includes continuous publicity from major media is no longer consumer-level.

nicomeemes 5y ago

I would recommend https://winaero.com/download-winaero-tweaker/ https://winaero.com/download-winaero-tweaker/ which handles everything in a nice GUI, lets you export settings for use on new machines, etc.

whocanfly 5y ago

Bloatbox is an open source alternative with a GUI: https://github.com/builtbybel/bloatbox https://github.com/builtbybel/bloatbox They have also made a privacy and security related app https://github.com/builtbybel/privatezilla https://github.com/builtbybel/privatezilla

thrower123 5y ago

If you have access to it, through partner or MSDN or corporate licensing or otherwise, it is really worth installing the Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB/LTSC versions. It has most of the annoying things that plague consumer versions of Windows 10 stripped out, and it gets a very different cadence of updates, restricted to security and quality fixes. No Cortana, no Edge installed by default, no built-in Store universal apps. It's rock solid; I have never gotten a bad update pushed to any of my boxes running LTSC over the past five years. If you want a Windows workstation that just works, and will continue to work without fiddling, this is it.

mattowen_uk 5y ago
To be honest, Windows 10 Pro is 'good enough'. It's the 'Home' variant that is stuffed full of the third party games and apps.
- blibble 5y ago
  pro comes with the same mountain of bullshit as home, including Candy Crush, solitaire with subscription (and/or ads) and xbox gaming
  - mattowen_uk 5y ago
    And it's a 2 second job to remove the tiles, and they don't come back. Windows comes with a lot of things I personally don't use, but I don't feel that I have to obsessively remove them all.
e17 5y ago
I used LTSB/C for ages but when WSL2 came along I had to ditch it for the Pro version. Is WSL2 working on LTSC now?
josephcsible 5y ago
> no Edge installed by default Are you sure this is a good thing? As much as I don't like Edge, aren't the alternatives either IE or no browser? It's not like they'll ship Firefox preinstalled instead.

fsflover 5y ago

> This Windows 10 Setup Script turns off a bunch of unnecessary Windows 10 telemetery, bloatware, & privacy things Aren't people tired of fighting with their own computers? I abandoned Windows, installed Linux and can't be happier now.

criddell 5y ago
Who cares about operating systems any more? That seems like a solved problem and frankly all the major ones are fine these days. Computers are chosen based on applications. If you want to play games, you are probably buying a Windows PC. Developing iOS apps? You want a Mac. If you just need a browser, then a Chrome Book or iPad is probably a good choice. I'd bet a lot of people here use three or more operating systems every day on different computers doing different things.
- fragileone 5y ago
  > all the major ones are fine these days. I think the very point of this thread is that is not the case and many users are very unhappy with Windows telemetry.
  - criddell 5y ago
    Many users? I'd be surprised if it's even 1%.
    - gnulinux 5y ago
      I have never met a single person in my entire life who likes using Windows. Everyone I know claims "yeah it's crap but this CAD/Industry standard software works only in Windows". I would guess they exist but I'd bet money they don't make up 99% of users.
      - criddell 5y ago
        You're kind of making the same point I was. People don't choose an OS for the sake of the OS, it's for the application support. I like using Windows as much as macOS or Linux. For different parts of my day I'll be using Windows or Linux or Android or iOS and at on each system the OS is there to support the applications I want to use.

intricatedetail 5y ago

We need a regulator to step in and ensure that any telemetry is opt in and that the user will get compensated for use of their data if they opt in.

Haga 5y ago

Can't wait for that final adware, installing linux and just wrapping the original system in a vm. Windows is as good as done. All that confines the users is ui-knowledge

SadWebDeveloper 5y ago

I like this one mostly clean code (a little repetitive with those disableXXX/enableXXX functions but not a mess of regedit commands), obviously not for the default choices with are kinda weird and old becase wifi sense has been removed since 1803 (afaicr) but its definitely a lot nicer.

e17 5y ago

If MS wants Windows to become a developer platform, as they seem to (WSL, VS Code, GitHub), they need to offer a version of the OS without all the safety guardrails bullshit. Treat me like an adult please.

craftoman 5y ago

I remember this script was a must back in 2017, didn't know they maintained it until today!

alberth 5y ago

Doesn't running Windows 10 LTSC [0] solve like 90% of what these scripts try to accomplish but do so in an officially supported way. [0] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/ltsc/ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/ltsc/

ZFH 5y ago
This, a thousand times this. It's strange it's still somewhat under the radar, it should be much more widely known. They call it LTSC, but it's really Windows As It Should Be.
- hestefisk 5y ago
  True. But it’s hard for home users to buy an enterprise license.
  - alberth 5y ago
    I presume that Microsoft has found that home users value having a cheaper PC with ads, over a more expensive PC without ads. Similar to Gmail and the likes of numerous SaaS companies. There's a freemium version with ads (or some type of limitation) or a paid version without ads (or said limitation). Just playing devils advocate here.
  - fl0wenol 5y ago
    You can do it, you just have to know how. Basically, tell an ISV (like Connection.com) that you want a small business relationship w.r.t. Microsoft Licensing and they'll set you up. You might have to buy a few random CALs to qualify, but it's totally possible and a godsend.
- stinos 5y ago
  Just asked this a day ago but got no reply, so here it goes again: it looks like there could be strings attached, possibly due to my ignorance though - can this be licensed to a single user? Recently I was working on a machine with an LTSC release (not mine, acquired by another company) and it didn't seem possible to apply updates, just saying 'contact your system administrator to update'. So I told the company they'd need to sort that out eventually but they also had no clue, and they called the shop wehere they got it but there also no sane response. This is just one data point of course, but does make me wonder: if you as a normal non-enterprise customer get this problem, what's the way to deal with this issue?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

encryptluks2 5y ago

Isn't this better suited for PowerShell DSC and disabling these settings using the LGPO DSC resource?

gigel82 5y ago

Generally, I don't think Windows 10's telemetry features are privacy-violating. Most of the telemetry (especially if you choose the "required only" option in setup) is just for crashes and basic usage data (they won't use it for advertising for example, like Google or Facebook); that said, I use pi-hole as my DNS which blocks a lot of the Microsoft URLs used by telemetry. However, my biggest issue is simply bloat. With every major update on Windows 10 we get more and more crap running on the OS. A fresh install of Windows 10 21H1 uses 3Gb+ of RAM and that is insane. There are things like "YourPhone" which is an app that starts at boot and cannot be uninstalled which is supposed to help integrate your Android phone - I have an iPhone and couldn't use it even if I wanted to, but I still pay 4Mb of RAM for having it running. I can probably disable half the services that are set to start automatically and still have a working OS. Tried using something like winreducer to actually strip out the binaries instead of just turning stuff off via registry, but it's tedious; nowadays I just do a regular install then go into task scheduler and remove 1/2 of the needless crap then manually disable 1/4th of the services and use some PowerShell scripts for removing un-removable apps. I miss the good-old days of Windows 2000 where we booted the OS with < 90Mb RAM and a couple dozen processes.

desktopninja 5y ago
Miss Win2k Pro period.
Joeri 5y ago
Windows 2000 was bloatware compared to NT4, which ran comfortably in 32 MB of RAM and had basically no limits on 128 MB. (All of office, photoshop and visual basic multi tasking at the same time smoothly.) I don’t understand why modern OS’s need multiple gigabytes of RAM just to boot. I get that they do more than NT4 and windows 2000 did, but still, why isn’t a gigabyte enough? I would like to read an OS engineer’s take on it.
- vort3 5y ago
  Everything is bloated. You need 3GB RAM to open some web pages in your browser nowadays and that's insane.

tlynchpin 5y ago

I have had good results with the decrapifier script by CSAND on spiceworks [0]. It's been getting maintained for a while now and it's on spiceworks so while I'm not a windows nerd enough to judge it, I'm pretty sure it's good if not great. I used this tutorial [1] when installing a new machine, you run it in "audit" mode before the out of box experience. I used -appaccess and -xbox. In my case I'm giving this PC to a friend so she'll get the new PC experience without the start menu garbage. [0]: https://community.spiceworks.com/scripts/show/4378-windows-10-decrapifier-18xx-19xx-2xxx https://community.spiceworks.com/scripts/show/4378-windows-1... [1]: https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/148624-how-to-clean-up-a-single-windows-10-machine-image-using-decrapifier https://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/148624-how-to-clean-...

nicholashead 5y ago

Just use https://privacy.sexy/ https://privacy.sexy/ or ShutUp10: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 to do this, probably much safer - and in Privacy.Sexy's case, you get the exact script (and undo script) for each specific tweak you wanna apply.

brutal_chaos_ 5y ago

"Reclaim"? It was never yours to begin with. Microsoft does not sell copies. They sell licenses to use/seats. Given that, still a great script!

jiggawatts 5y ago

You get really good at this kind of thing when you're building large scale virtual desktop systems. Suddenly, the random updates, scans, or whatever translate to a million IOPS on the SAN and a widespread outage of unrelated systems. In my experience, most editions of Windows 10 are simply unredeemable. You have to start with an LTSC edition, which behaves more like XP used to: Very little bloat, no forced patching, everything except what you actually need turned off by default. Meanwhile, Microsoft recommends that you don't use LTSC. Prefer the normal editions. Use LTSC only if required. Please don't use LTSC. Don't disable Telemetry! LTSC is for special customers only. Use the Current Version for the latest features. The Current Version has many benefits that users enjoy! Consume Soylent Green! Eat it. Eat it.