7 ms·

Windows 11 tweaks and usability improvements

77 points by zdw 2y ago

Saris 2y ago
A lot of these can be done with O&O ShutUp10 with a GUI and toggles if that's more your thing too. I think only the file explorer tweaks aren't in it.
- dspillett 2y ago
  For explorer tweaks, I've been using https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/wiki https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/wiki for a while. Though it hacks around a bit so has been known to break after Windows Updates until a new release goes out (which was PDQ the only time things broke for me).
- WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
  > lot of these can be done with O&O O&O AppBuster is good stuff. I used it all the time. I only transitioned to my own lists because of how often I decrapify customer machines.
  - WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
    > because of how often I decrapify customer machines. In the last month or so, one of the recent crap-loaded Win10 updates reinstalled the crapware after a reboot. Usually twice. As in: WU, clean, reboot. Login and the apps are back. Clean again, reboot. After 5 minutes the apps reinstall again. Clean, reboot. I had this happen on about 8 systems - about half of the ones I updated. These were clean installs and established systems. I discovered this by accident. I normally don't reboot.
    - Saris 2y ago
      ShutUp10 does have a toggle to prevent automated app installs, sometimes on a major windows feature update I'll see 1-2 new apps show up, but overall it stops a lot of the crud.
metadat 2y ago
Or.. just switch to a more user friendly operating system like Debian or Pop_OS. I know I'm not installing Windows again on my machines anytime soon.
- PinkMilkshake 2y ago
  The very first line is "Sometimes using Windows is inevitable."
- rfoo 2y ago
  The one that just turns my screen black on "sleep" and leave backlight on? The one that shows my desktop for 0.5s before going into lock screen after I close and reopen lids? That's what I get from a Debian install on a 2017 (!) ThinkPad. Sorry, 2024 is still not the year of Linux desktop.
  - akimbostrawman 2y ago
    ThinkPad != Desktop There also isn't such a thing as the linux lockscreen
    - jazzyjackson 2y ago
      Debian != Linux
  - ggus 2y ago
    macOS also does show desktop and apps for half a second when I reopen the lid, before falling back to showing the login prompt. super annoying. (M3 MacBook Pro, so reasonably new)
  - groestl 2y ago
    > The one that shows my desktop for 0.5s before going into lock screen after I close and reopen lids? It's 2024, and it's still not even the year of the Linux lock screen... loginctl unlock-session 5 I'm using Linux exclusively since two decades, but I think I've never had a fully working lock screen setup.
  - 2y ago
finger 2y ago
How many of these tweeks can be done without editing the Registry? And if they are all registry modifications can’t you just backup the registry before applying the changes?
- pjc50 2y ago
  This is what "System Restore" is for: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/use-system-restore-a5ae3ed9-07c4-fd56-45ee-096777ecd14e https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/use-system-resto... It looks like they're all registry modifications, yes.
  - httpsterio 2y ago
    I have had issues where a restore point didn't revert certain registry settings and have had to do a full reinstall.
    - thunderbong 2y ago
      Can you give some more info? Which version of Windows? Because I've never had a system restore go crazy unless a hard drive has gotten corrupted.
- luluthefirst 2y ago
  I haven't tried Windows 11 but on 10, a lot of these tweaks and opt-outs are available in the system settings now. You can backup the registry or create restore points but I don't think that you can selectively revert these changes like a commit. If you don't intend to reinstall Windows often, I would just take the time to go through these settings manually instead to be on the safe side...
- Wowfunhappy 2y ago
  Wouldn't doing it through a UI still result in the changes being saved to the registry?
plaguuuuuu 2y ago
I'm now forever calling Control Panel "Systemsteuerung".
in_a_hole 2y ago
Is it worth upgrading from 10 to 11 yet? I downgraded back to 10 after I had to change default programs by individual file associations rather than having a 1-click option for default audio player etc.
- jazzyjackson 2y ago
  There's really nothing new IMO to make it worth while I routinely get automatic system updates that kill my wifi on a Thinkpad requiring a system restore rollback
- BuyMyBitcoins 2y ago
  I will cling to Windows 10 for as long as I possibly can.
- criddell 2y ago
  I switched at the start of 2023 and it’s been fine. It doesn’t seem all that different. It probably took me a week to adjust my muscle memory after configuring things the way I like them. But then I don’t spend all that much time just dealing with Windows. I start Visual Studio, a browser, and a few other applications and that’s where I spend 99% of my time and Windows 10 vs 11 doesn’t really affect that. But then I like to change things once in a while enjoy learning new things.
nerdjon 2y ago
I will need to take a look at this list later. I just run Windows 11 LTSC and it’s great (previously ran 10 LTSC), curious how many of these are still relevant. Honestly LTSC has been great for gaming. Highly recommend if you don’t want any compatibility issues and are running a dedicated gaming machine (so no need for any other crap on there)
- speckx 2y ago
  Are you referring to this? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-11-iot-enterprise-ltsc https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-...
  - nerdjon 2y ago
    Yup Don't fall for Microsoft's marketing that it is somehow a Windows that can't do normal things, that it is only suitable for Kiosks, or whatever other tactic they seem determined to use to discourage its use. It is a perfectly capable Windows installation just without a lot of bloat. Any missing features (like the Windows Store) are easily installable. I got better gaming performance compared to normal Windows 11.
    - nothercastle 2y ago
      Does a normal windows 11 key work on this or do you need a special license
      - nerdjon 2y ago
        Unfortunately no, Microsoft really does not want normal users using this since it removes a lot of the features they are pushing (like Copilot) and a lot of the telemetry is removed. Especially since it really shows how well Windows can actually run when all of the crap isn't there. So there is not a way for a normal user to get a key. My personal ethical opinion, I have a license key for Windows 11 already. Microsoft does not give me the ability to get a key for LTSC, so I don't have any qualms about using a script to activate it.
jazzyjackson 2y ago
I don't know if I have a unique configuration on my Windows 11 machine besides having several OneDrive and SharePoint folders mapped to various places on disk (with every folder always downloading everything so it's available offline) but the Windows 11 file explorer has a completely borked search function which: A: will reset the text content of the search bar as I'm typing when it finishes a search from 3 keystrokes ago and B: doesn't show exact string matches, "no results found", but when I delete a few letters from the query, the exact match suddenly appears So my favorite tweak and usability improvement is that you can pull up Control Panel and type "Desktop" into the address bar and it will transmogrify into the classic windows 7 file explorer that doesn't have a broken search box. Wish I had a way to map this to be my default file explorer.
- muststopmyths 2y ago
  I gather that File Explorer in Windows 11 was re-written from scratch and that's why it was missing basic features and UI patterns from previous versions when it launched. Not to mention abysmal file copy performance. They claim to be adding things back over time but it probably depends on the college timetables of the Mac-native interns that apparently work on the Shell team these days. edit: some ways to get back to the old explorer. I haven't tried doing this myself. https://www.elevenforum.com/t/restore-classic-file-explorer-with-ribbon-in-windows-11.620/ https://www.elevenforum.com/t/restore-classic-file-explorer-...
- Saris 2y ago
  Have you tried Search Everything? It's much better and searches instantly without indexing.
  - dspillett 2y ago
    > searches instantly without indexing Though note that this is only on local NTFS volumes, as it does it by scanning the MFT instead of walking the directory tree long-hand. It can still search everything else (network connected filesystems, FAT/exFAT volumes) of course, just not with the extra speed.
- 2y ago
klauserc 2y ago
Oh my! That's an amazing list. I used to perform many of these changes by hand on every new windows installation. It's such a slog. And while some of my systems now run linux, as the post says: "Sometimes using Windows is inevitable." In defense of the much maligned Windows registry, I'll say: isn't it amazing that you can make such a wide array of changes via a single tool (regedit)? If you had to automate such changes on Linux, you would probably need a whole suite of tools. In some cases, you'd write a file into a `.d` directory. In other cases, you can `echo '...' >> subsystem.cfg`. In yet other cases, you'll need `sed -i`. Maybe `awk` gets the job done where `sed` is too simple. Maybe there are more complex cases, where you'd need the power of `perl` (or python or ...) to make the edit. And some subsystems come with their own suite of manipulation tools (ZFS, systemd, etc.) where editing text files would be the more difficult option.
- Filligree 2y ago
  > In defense of the much maligned Windows registry, I'll say: isn't it amazing that you can make such a wide array of changes via a single tool (regedit)? If you had to automate such changes on Linux, you would probably need a whole suite of tools. Or NixOS, in which case it's a single file you have to load. :)
- Squarex 2y ago
  Well yes and no. Windows registry almost always become unmantainable mess. For simple dotfiles there are plenty tools to manage them on linux [0]. For more complex scenarios with multiple tools there is NixOS which can manage everything. [1] [0] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dotfiles https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dotfiles [1] https://nixos.org https://nixos.org
- RiverCrochet 2y ago
  > isn't it amazing that you can make such a wide array of changes via a single tool (regedit)? I mean with a basic text editor you can completely configure and control most Linux systems, and even add comments in the files to track changes or provide help where you need it. Many UNIX/Linux apps where automating settings would matter have the ability to have smaller config files that override main config files. > If you had to automate such changes on Linux, you would probably need a whole suite of tools. So this is because basic utility applications in Linux tend to be more independent of Linux as an operating system. I cannot remove Explorer, OneDrive, Windows Defender and a bunch of other stuff from Windows that isn't really actually Windows itself without other stuff breaking or worrying about what M$ will do on the next update. It's all weirdly and forcibly integrated, whereas in Linux, for example maybe nautilus has it's own config files in its own places, but if I want to remove it and use rox-filer or something else, it will be possible. And Linux minds its own business with antivirus and does not force me to send files to a third party for review at any time unless I want to. We do have convergence happening around systemd so you may still get what you want here (systemd-confregistryd?). > where editing text files would be the more difficult option Sifting through rows and rows of CLSID GUIDs for file extensions just to change programs associated with file extensions is much more unpleasant.
juujian 2y ago
It's like trying to make a cupcake out of a turd.
resource_waste 2y ago
Windows takes wayy more work than Fedora to make it usable. The tables have turned.
nothercastle 2y ago
Bookmarking for when I get forced into windows 11
- criddell 2y ago
  You can click on the “favorite” link at the top of the page and it will be saved in your profile making it very easy to find in the future.
  - WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
    I was here a long time before I noticed that. Something I recently realized: I may packet-sniff, dev tool, download the site for examination but I don't think to look for features until I have to. I suspect I'm incurious about what's on offer due to built-up mistrust (the present paying for past sins).
WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
She's fairly thorough. I see some good additions to my set. I'd guess she has a different list of powershell commands to uninstall apps. (My lists are on a home IIS/text files/NAS. Edit over VPN. I use them every week to clean client machines.)
nanoxide 2y ago
This broke Wifi on my PC because it disables WinHttpAutoProxy service.
netol 2y ago
There is also https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil, which works for Windows 10 too

77 points by zdw 2y ago

A lot of these can be done with O&O ShutUp10 with a GUI and toggles if that's more your thing too. I think only the file explorer tweaks aren't in it.

dspillett 2y ago
For explorer tweaks, I've been using https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/wiki https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/wiki for a while. Though it hacks around a bit so has been known to break after Windows Updates until a new release goes out (which was PDQ the only time things broke for me).
WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
> lot of these can be done with O&O O&O AppBuster is good stuff. I used it all the time. I only transitioned to my own lists because of how often I decrapify customer machines.
- WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
  > because of how often I decrapify customer machines. In the last month or so, one of the recent crap-loaded Win10 updates reinstalled the crapware after a reboot. Usually twice. As in: WU, clean, reboot. Login and the apps are back. Clean again, reboot. After 5 minutes the apps reinstall again. Clean, reboot. I had this happen on about 8 systems - about half of the ones I updated. These were clean installs and established systems. I discovered this by accident. I normally don't reboot.
  - Saris 2y ago
    ShutUp10 does have a toggle to prevent automated app installs, sometimes on a major windows feature update I'll see 1-2 new apps show up, but overall it stops a lot of the crud.

metadat 2y ago

Or.. just switch to a more user friendly operating system like Debian or Pop_OS. I know I'm not installing Windows again on my machines anytime soon.

PinkMilkshake 2y ago
The very first line is "Sometimes using Windows is inevitable."
rfoo 2y ago
The one that just turns my screen black on "sleep" and leave backlight on? The one that shows my desktop for 0.5s before going into lock screen after I close and reopen lids? That's what I get from a Debian install on a 2017 (!) ThinkPad. Sorry, 2024 is still not the year of Linux desktop.
- akimbostrawman 2y ago
  ThinkPad != Desktop There also isn't such a thing as the linux lockscreen
  - jazzyjackson 2y ago
    Debian != Linux
- ggus 2y ago
  macOS also does show desktop and apps for half a second when I reopen the lid, before falling back to showing the login prompt. super annoying. (M3 MacBook Pro, so reasonably new)
- groestl 2y ago
  > The one that shows my desktop for 0.5s before going into lock screen after I close and reopen lids? It's 2024, and it's still not even the year of the Linux lock screen... loginctl unlock-session 5 I'm using Linux exclusively since two decades, but I think I've never had a fully working lock screen setup.
- 2y ago

finger 2y ago

How many of these tweeks can be done without editing the Registry? And if they are all registry modifications can’t you just backup the registry before applying the changes?

pjc50 2y ago
This is what "System Restore" is for: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/use-system-restore-a5ae3ed9-07c4-fd56-45ee-096777ecd14e https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/use-system-resto... It looks like they're all registry modifications, yes.
- httpsterio 2y ago
  I have had issues where a restore point didn't revert certain registry settings and have had to do a full reinstall.
  - thunderbong 2y ago
    Can you give some more info? Which version of Windows? Because I've never had a system restore go crazy unless a hard drive has gotten corrupted.
luluthefirst 2y ago
I haven't tried Windows 11 but on 10, a lot of these tweaks and opt-outs are available in the system settings now. You can backup the registry or create restore points but I don't think that you can selectively revert these changes like a commit. If you don't intend to reinstall Windows often, I would just take the time to go through these settings manually instead to be on the safe side...
Wowfunhappy 2y ago
Wouldn't doing it through a UI still result in the changes being saved to the registry?

plaguuuuuu 2y ago

I'm now forever calling Control Panel "Systemsteuerung".

in_a_hole 2y ago

Is it worth upgrading from 10 to 11 yet? I downgraded back to 10 after I had to change default programs by individual file associations rather than having a 1-click option for default audio player etc.

jazzyjackson 2y ago
There's really nothing new IMO to make it worth while I routinely get automatic system updates that kill my wifi on a Thinkpad requiring a system restore rollback
BuyMyBitcoins 2y ago
I will cling to Windows 10 for as long as I possibly can.
criddell 2y ago
I switched at the start of 2023 and it’s been fine. It doesn’t seem all that different. It probably took me a week to adjust my muscle memory after configuring things the way I like them. But then I don’t spend all that much time just dealing with Windows. I start Visual Studio, a browser, and a few other applications and that’s where I spend 99% of my time and Windows 10 vs 11 doesn’t really affect that. But then I like to change things once in a while enjoy learning new things.

nerdjon 2y ago

I will need to take a look at this list later. I just run Windows 11 LTSC and it’s great (previously ran 10 LTSC), curious how many of these are still relevant. Honestly LTSC has been great for gaming. Highly recommend if you don’t want any compatibility issues and are running a dedicated gaming machine (so no need for any other crap on there)

speckx 2y ago
Are you referring to this? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-11-iot-enterprise-ltsc https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-...
- nerdjon 2y ago
  Yup Don't fall for Microsoft's marketing that it is somehow a Windows that can't do normal things, that it is only suitable for Kiosks, or whatever other tactic they seem determined to use to discourage its use. It is a perfectly capable Windows installation just without a lot of bloat. Any missing features (like the Windows Store) are easily installable. I got better gaming performance compared to normal Windows 11.
  - nothercastle 2y ago
    Does a normal windows 11 key work on this or do you need a special license
    - nerdjon 2y ago
      Unfortunately no, Microsoft really does not want normal users using this since it removes a lot of the features they are pushing (like Copilot) and a lot of the telemetry is removed. Especially since it really shows how well Windows can actually run when all of the crap isn't there. So there is not a way for a normal user to get a key. My personal ethical opinion, I have a license key for Windows 11 already. Microsoft does not give me the ability to get a key for LTSC, so I don't have any qualms about using a script to activate it.

jazzyjackson 2y ago

I don't know if I have a unique configuration on my Windows 11 machine besides having several OneDrive and SharePoint folders mapped to various places on disk (with every folder always downloading everything so it's available offline) but the Windows 11 file explorer has a completely borked search function which: A: will reset the text content of the search bar as I'm typing when it finishes a search from 3 keystrokes ago and B: doesn't show exact string matches, "no results found", but when I delete a few letters from the query, the exact match suddenly appears So my favorite tweak and usability improvement is that you can pull up Control Panel and type "Desktop" into the address bar and it will transmogrify into the classic windows 7 file explorer that doesn't have a broken search box. Wish I had a way to map this to be my default file explorer.

muststopmyths 2y ago
I gather that File Explorer in Windows 11 was re-written from scratch and that's why it was missing basic features and UI patterns from previous versions when it launched. Not to mention abysmal file copy performance. They claim to be adding things back over time but it probably depends on the college timetables of the Mac-native interns that apparently work on the Shell team these days. edit: some ways to get back to the old explorer. I haven't tried doing this myself. https://www.elevenforum.com/t/restore-classic-file-explorer-with-ribbon-in-windows-11.620/ https://www.elevenforum.com/t/restore-classic-file-explorer-...
Saris 2y ago
Have you tried Search Everything? It's much better and searches instantly without indexing.
- dspillett 2y ago
  > searches instantly without indexing Though note that this is only on local NTFS volumes, as it does it by scanning the MFT instead of walking the directory tree long-hand. It can still search everything else (network connected filesystems, FAT/exFAT volumes) of course, just not with the extra speed.
2y ago

klauserc 2y ago

Oh my! That's an amazing list. I used to perform many of these changes by hand on every new windows installation. It's such a slog. And while some of my systems now run linux, as the post says: "Sometimes using Windows is inevitable." In defense of the much maligned Windows registry, I'll say: isn't it amazing that you can make such a wide array of changes via a single tool (regedit)? If you had to automate such changes on Linux, you would probably need a whole suite of tools. In some cases, you'd write a file into a `.d` directory. In other cases, you can `echo '...' >> subsystem.cfg`. In yet other cases, you'll need `sed -i`. Maybe `awk` gets the job done where `sed` is too simple. Maybe there are more complex cases, where you'd need the power of `perl` (or python or ...) to make the edit. And some subsystems come with their own suite of manipulation tools (ZFS, systemd, etc.) where editing text files would be the more difficult option.

Filligree 2y ago
> In defense of the much maligned Windows registry, I'll say: isn't it amazing that you can make such a wide array of changes via a single tool (regedit)? If you had to automate such changes on Linux, you would probably need a whole suite of tools. Or NixOS, in which case it's a single file you have to load. :)
Squarex 2y ago
Well yes and no. Windows registry almost always become unmantainable mess. For simple dotfiles there are plenty tools to manage them on linux [0]. For more complex scenarios with multiple tools there is NixOS which can manage everything. [1] [0] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dotfiles https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dotfiles [1] https://nixos.org https://nixos.org
RiverCrochet 2y ago
> isn't it amazing that you can make such a wide array of changes via a single tool (regedit)? I mean with a basic text editor you can completely configure and control most Linux systems, and even add comments in the files to track changes or provide help where you need it. Many UNIX/Linux apps where automating settings would matter have the ability to have smaller config files that override main config files. > If you had to automate such changes on Linux, you would probably need a whole suite of tools. So this is because basic utility applications in Linux tend to be more independent of Linux as an operating system. I cannot remove Explorer, OneDrive, Windows Defender and a bunch of other stuff from Windows that isn't really actually Windows itself without other stuff breaking or worrying about what M$ will do on the next update. It's all weirdly and forcibly integrated, whereas in Linux, for example maybe nautilus has it's own config files in its own places, but if I want to remove it and use rox-filer or something else, it will be possible. And Linux minds its own business with antivirus and does not force me to send files to a third party for review at any time unless I want to. We do have convergence happening around systemd so you may still get what you want here (systemd-confregistryd?). > where editing text files would be the more difficult option Sifting through rows and rows of CLSID GUIDs for file extensions just to change programs associated with file extensions is much more unpleasant.

juujian 2y ago

It's like trying to make a cupcake out of a turd.

resource_waste 2y ago

Windows takes wayy more work than Fedora to make it usable. The tables have turned.

nothercastle 2y ago

Bookmarking for when I get forced into windows 11

criddell 2y ago
You can click on the “favorite” link at the top of the page and it will be saved in your profile making it very easy to find in the future.
- WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
  I was here a long time before I noticed that. Something I recently realized: I may packet-sniff, dev tool, download the site for examination but I don't think to look for features until I have to. I suspect I'm incurious about what's on offer due to built-up mistrust (the present paying for past sins).

WarOnPrivacy 2y ago

She's fairly thorough. I see some good additions to my set. I'd guess she has a different list of powershell commands to uninstall apps. (My lists are on a home IIS/text files/NAS. Edit over VPN. I use them every week to clean client machines.)

nanoxide 2y ago

This broke Wifi on my PC because it disables WinHttpAutoProxy service.

netol 2y ago

There is also https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil, which works for Windows 10 too