6 ms·

O&O ShutUp10 – The antispy tool for Windows 10 and 11

TheAceOfHearts 1mo ago
When your OS is pure spyware, maybe it's time to look into switch to a less abusive option. The more people that switch, the stronger signal it sends. This tool is equivalent to dating an alcoholic that beats you whenever they're drunk, so you keep trying to take away all the alcohol instead of dumping them and finding a new partner. The signs were always there and they just keep getting worse, it's time to move on.
- real0mar 1mo ago
  Too many games are Windows only
  - bigfishrunning 1mo ago
    This is why I own a playstation
    - technothrasher 1mo ago
      Because your PlayStation couldn't possibly be spying on you?
      - bigfishrunning 1mo ago
        Because my playstation spies on my games, not my whole life. It's limitation of scope.
        celsoazevedo 1mo ago
        I guess for that you could have a Windows machine just for gaming. No need to deal with the trade-offs of that come with using a console (if that matters to you).
        dspillett 1mo ago
        Though that would likely be a bit more expensive, or if cheaper it might be by compromising on GPU performance.
        bigfishrunning 1mo ago
        Not having a windows machine is one of the benefits of not having a windows machine! Using a console for gaming is cheaper, more secure, and more reliable then using a windows machine. The only downside is i don't have access to the wide ocean of steam and gog releases, but it's a fair trade as far as I'm concerned.
  - arcfour 1mo ago
    Very few are these days with the enormous amount of resources Valve has been pouring into Proton. The only truly Windows-only games I have encountered were online multiplayer with anticheat and that was almost always because the developer chose not to support Linux (e.g. EAC, Rust) and not for lack of support for Linux. Perhaps that wouldn't happen if more people switched...
    - r_lee 1mo ago
      those are the vast majority of games that people play and people won't switch if there is no way to switch, it's like asking people to go on a hunger strike
      - arcfour 1mo ago
        Speak for yourself, there are hundreds of thousands of people playing games that do not fall into this category on Steam right now.
  - GreenVulpine 1mo ago
    This hasn't been the case for at least half a decade. Most games run perfectly fine if not better on Linux. The only exceptions are purposely broken remote rootkit "anticheat" gsmes which no sane person would want on their system anyway.
  - fabian2k 1mo ago
    With the exception of multiplayer games with invasive anti-cheat measures, a very large number of games works very well on Linux now with Wine/Proton. When using Steam this mostly works just out of the box without fiddling.
- LetMeLogin 1mo ago
  Not everybody has a possibility. Each system has pros and cons. I'm daily driving both Windows and Linux, and each has its own issues unfortunately, so using tools like OO is a necessity of making my(and others) life bit less miserable. For Linux I have bunch of custom repair scripts because of certain bugs I encounter(which are tracked too but not solved). Unfortunately this is the game no one will ever win, unless you will move, drop tech, and start breeding dogs, but then you need to sell them, and where would you advertise? :)
  - callc 1mo ago
    IMHO: I like the issues faced on Linux more, since I can solve them. I too have a handful of repair scripts. I feel like an adult to be given access all the internals. I don’t feel that way on Windows (and any other locked down OS). We should put in the volunteer hours to upstream these fixes to make it nicer for normies :^)
- embedding-shape 1mo ago
  Well, when this alcoholic is the only one that works properly for the sort of audio and 3D/VFX work I do, and a bunch of tools are only able to run (well) on Windows (Yes, I've tried WINE and everything else under the sun, for a decade), so dual booting is really the only option here, unless I wanna throw out a bunch of licenses I've paid thousands for and stop accepting that sort of work. Ableton is probably the biggest reason I still have a Windows installation, and the one I try to get working (properly and well) with Wine/Proton maybe once a month or so. Cascadeur, Unreal Engine Editor, rekordbox are some of the other software I can't get to run well enough on Linux (yet) to fully migrate. But, on the other hand, lots of other software I use professionally works amazingly on Linux, better than Windows in fact, like Houdini, Unreal Engine (the runtime, not the Editor), DaVinci Resolve and Blender. I'm not worried though, eventually it'll be runnable on Linux no doubt, but personally we're not quite there yet, sadly.
  - SV_BubbleTime 1mo ago
    >when this alcoholic is the only one that works properly for the sort of audio and 3D/VFX work I mean, that seems universally truer than not.
  - belthesar 1mo ago
    I know this doesn't address all your concerns, but I switched from Ableton Live to Bitwig Studio for unrelated reasons to my leaving Windows behind, and I was thoroughly pleased with how easy the transition was between the two DAWs (I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise given how many ex-Ableton devs work on Bitwig), and how well the Linux build of Bitwig worked. Bitwig on Linux, with Pipewire as the audio engine for low latency operation, is essentially an identical operating experience for me. Getting your plugins working is a different story. A small but growing number of mainstream audio plugins have native Linux builds available, a wide swath of them work quite well with yabridge (https://yabridge.org/ https://yabridge.org/ - so shim to expose Windows audio plugins running in WINE prefixes to Linux audio plugin hosts), and a few required alternatives to be found. I found the workflow decent enough to use, but as one might expect, some plugins not working well via yabridge/WINE made things a little janky, and once I picked up a Mac device again, that became my production machine. That said, WINE's come a long say since I last tried this out a few years ago, and I'd be interested to see if things work better. My point, I suppose, is to share a reasonably good success story (though perhaps still not of a grade that you'd be comfortable switching to for paid work), and perhaps to encourage you to consider some alternatives to the tools you use. Tool changes are expensive, sure in cost, but moreso in time, so I don't suggest it lightly. That being said, I think that it might be worth it to grab a Bitwig trial and see how you like it. I'd grab it both on Windows and Linux, so you can try it "how it should work" when your plugins and the DAW are working in harmony while also getting the Linux toolchain working. And from the cost perspective, Bitwig does not have crossgrade licenses, so you can buy Studio once, and run it on any supported platform.
- jeanmichelselli 1mo ago
  I completely agree with this comment! If your OS does not behave like an OS anymore, better to switch to a real OS at that point. That's it. I've always been disappointed by Windows "OS" in the past but now it's really too much..
- AmazingTurtle 1mo ago
  I use cachyos as my daily driver for a long time now. I play quite a few games. Only league of legends forces me to dual boot into windows every once in a week or so - fuck the anticheat cartel
  - rdudek 1mo ago
    I'm approaching a year now on CachyOS and it has been a wonderful experience. All the games that I play run just fine, maybe a few FPS drop compared to Windows, but it's not a big deal for me. I also don't play any competitive online games that require 3rd party anti-cheat spyware. Biggest positives, I got very comfortable with terminal and CLI work. My development work has definitely improved.
- trinsic2 1mo ago
  That's exactly the way I framed the relationship between Microsoft and its victim in a companion article[0] I wrote in 2025 looking back on my switch to Linux. Since then I started realizing how parasitic the proprietary software industry really is. [0]: https://www.scottrlarson.com/blog/publication-looking-back-windows-to-linux// https://www.scottrlarson.com/blog/publication-looking-back-w...
- nilslindemann 1mo ago
  Fine, I will switch when your OS has Autohotkey, Total Commander, and allows me to log in as Administrator.
  - nilslindemann 1mo ago
    Oh, I also need a way to compile CodeBrowser 4.9 [1] [1] https://github.com/nilslindemann/Code_Browser_49 https://github.com/nilslindemann/Code_Browser_49
  - vablings 1mo ago
    If you need Autohotkey you can still run that under wine (if you are ahk on windows applications), you can run total commander under wine. You can log in as admin I think its time to make the switch
    - Der_Einzige 1mo ago
      If they’re running auto hotkey they’re also likely gamers, likely needing to run games that either can’t emulate or lose performance when running via proton or wine. AKA, this advice, like most “switch to Linux” advice, is tone deaf.
      - orbital-decay 1mo ago
        Not sure why you think it's gaming related but fine, I just don't think AHK can do anything special. OP sounds rather like he's trying to find gotchas and justify staying on Windows, not genuinely find the replacement, which is also a thing in these discussions (see his adjacent post with a vague dismissal, I personally used a heavy TC setup under Wine and it was indistinguishable even 15 years ago). All these features are either readily available or the apps themselves are Wine-ified with no performance loss, I have tried that and I don't think you have. All you need to switch to Linux or Mac is overcoming some friction which is of course inevitable, but utility software like this is definitely not a hard blocker.
        1mo ago
- tgv 1mo ago
  I have a PC mainly for Hauptwerk, which uses ilok, which doesn't run under Linux and probably never will. I've got an MBP, but getting one with 128GB of RAM was terribly expensive, and is probably unaffordable now. Hauptwerk doesn't even run natively on the arm. The End.
segfaltnh 1mo ago
My favorite anti-spyware tool for Windows is Linux.
- smt88 1mo ago
  This isn’t helpful to the fairly large percentage of people who are forced to use Windows by their employers
  - ptx 1mo ago
    They could still switch to using a Linux machine for most things (that don't belong to the employer), segregating the Windows machine off as much as possible and never letting Microsoft near any of their own data.
  - McAtNite 1mo ago
    It’s about on par with these tools no? Running a closed source configurator that heavily alters the core OS isn’t really something I would expect a responsible IT team to do. Doubly so if you are in any sort of regulated industry.
    - smt88 1mo ago
      Many IT teams are irresponsible though. I have a client now that has revenue of $1B and has no legal review process and doesn’t require IT vendors to submit SOC 2 certifications or any other security attestations.
majorchord 1mo ago
Ah yes, the closed-source proprietary black box antispy tool.
- voidfunc 1mo ago
  Right? Im not touching that thing with a 10ft pole.
  - speed_spread 1mo ago
    I get the sentiment. But for the record, O&O has been around for a long time, they were known for their excellent defragmentation tool, which isn't so much required nowadays. Their business model was never close to Adware (to my knowledge). ShutUp has also been around for a while and always seemed to me like a O&O side project by someone who got really pissed at Windows taking the spyware tangent. The distribution model is still that of shareware / freeware (no source), because that's what O&O does. But as far as closed software goes, that's _probably_ as clean as it gets.
    - encom 1mo ago
      >defragmentation Windows has had built in defrag since at least WinXP. I can't remember if Win2000 had it - I think it did. It runs in the background and you don't have to worry about it. 3rd party defrag tools are snake oil, like registry cleaners and so on.
      - keyringlight 1mo ago
        I'm pretty sure some versions of DOS had a defrag tool, or at least windows 9x had a DOS mode equivalent where you could see the block map getting moved around.
      - speed_spread 1mo ago
        IIRC W2K didn't have one. Defragmentation can use different strategies which may impact the time it takes and additional perf gains if the right files are next to each other. The builtin defrag tool doesn't give any option. So "snake oil" I'm not so sure. Also, a watching a proper defragmenter run was an OCD soothing experience before we had stray kitten and powerwashing videos galore. I know I'm not alone with this experience.
ChoosesBarbecue 1mo ago
Huge fan of this. I run it once on a fresh format, and then I never have to worry about Windows annoying me again. (And no, I simply do not like Linux or even macOS enough to switch over, despite being perfectly competent. That, and I play video games that will never be compatible.)
- celsoazevedo 1mo ago
  You should check your settings (or run this again) after each major update, because Microsoft loves to reset some settings to default.
afpx 1mo ago
No source code? No thanks but no thanks. There also seems to be a lot of ‘privacy’ tools popping up on github lately. It’s a good time to be wary of any if you don’t trust the author 100%. It’s like when HIV emerged in the 80s - the disco days of free love are over. Be wary of who you’re sleeping with, and always wear a condom.
- nerdsniper 1mo ago
  > There also seems to be a lot of ‘privacy’ tools popping up on github lately. FWIW, O&O ShutUp10 dates back to 2015, with the launch of Windows 10. This isn't v10, it's "Shut Up, [Windows] 10!". O&O Defrag has been a trusted tool since 1998. That said, I largely agree with "No source code? No thanks." as I don't want to worry about a private equity group buying O&O Software and doing with it what they will.
  - deleted 1mo ago
    [deleted]
- mschuster91 1mo ago
  O&O has been around for decades, they're among the OGs of third party functionality providers for Windows.
  - afpx 1mo ago
    I understand. Different people have different thresholds for trust. Unfortunately, I have lived in DC for a long time. Long enough to know the basics of how espionage works. And, appealing to authority is very effective. Humans love authorities. Write a few papers. Give a few conference talks. Get a few magazines to report on your expertise. That's pretty much all it takes to get entry. Otto and Olaf are probably great guys. I'm just extra cautious.
  - orbital-decay 1mo ago
    I remember that time very well, and not in a good way. We were all running dubious janky obfuscated software without giving it a second thought. These days trust is not enough, you need at least some way to verify (but also a lot more). Plenty of trusted software has been sold, hijacked, or otherwise has turned on its users over the decades. To be frank we're still running dubious and janky software, but at least it tends to be a bit more transparent.
flaburgan 1mo ago
I removed my dual boot in 2009, so the last windows I used on a personal computer was Vista. I switched my close family (parents and even my grand mother) to Linux years ago, nevertheless I still am the tech-savyy go-to person for other people and I am completely disconnected from what's going on the Windows world. Is an antivirus still needed there? Are there some good tools that should always be installed on a computer? The only thing I usually do is to put as many free software as I can (Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, VLC, Gimp...) But then what ?
- collabs 1mo ago
  Yes, antivirus is still required but as long as you have decent common sense, the built in antivirus and antimalware on Windows (sometimes known as Windows Defender or Windows Security) is good enough for most users (the only use case where I can see commercial AV solution being of any use is for compliance checklists). Chocolatey, Winget, and Scoop are all good options for installing software. Oh and you will love Powershell 7 on Windows Terminal. It is a delight and a breath of fresh air if you ask me.
nosioptar 1mo ago
I can't read the page. There's a giant fucking sticky navigation panel that blocks over half the screen.
VCFundedGenYer 1mo ago
FYI this seems to be an AI slop copy of Win11Debloat which is the original (+has all the same options). Support the original, not the copy: https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat
- swordd 1mo ago
  shutUp10 was originally released on September 28, 2015
- uncognic 1mo ago
  Huh? OOSU10 is from 2015. If anything Win11Debloat is the copy
- liljacob 1mo ago
  This was released half a decade before Windows 11 was even out.
- celsoazevedo 1mo ago
  Been using this for a few years, since I moved to Windows 10, so I don't think it's a copy. But thanks for the link, wasn't aware about that open source project.
- jamesnorden 1mo ago
  Nice hallucination.
- smt88 1mo ago
  Upvote for bringing up a FOSS alternative, but the rest of your comment is wrong
xyst 1mo ago
An even better solution — don’t use windows.
celsoazevedo 1mo ago
This is more a decrapifier than an "anti-spy tool". Yes, it also lets you easily block things like microphone access and disable AI features, but it's not a firewall. I started using it with Windows 10 because I could disable most of the crap Microsoft was using with a few clicks. When I reinstalled Windows 11, this was one of the first things I ran because of how much shit there's now (weather, news, recommended apps, ai, etc). I have almost everything disabled. We can do the same by following some guides, setting up system policies and go to 20 different menus, but this does the same in 1 or 2 minutes. Unfortunately, over the years, ShutUp10 has also suffered from some enshittification itself. Now there's a message tell you to buy the premium version, more branding, etc. I understand why, and considering it still does the job and still runs without having to install it, perhaps I shouldn't complain too much especially when it's free, but it used to be more "bare-bones"... something that I prefer on these tools.
taspeotis 1mo ago
I'm always hesitant to trust these things after one of them turned off CRL checking because external connectivity = bad!!1
nilslindemann 1mo ago
You may also check out https://github.com/flick9000/winscript https://github.com/flick9000/winscript. It has a GUI, but generates a powershell script. https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk is also worth mentioning, I use it to unfuck the Taskbar.
pentagrama 1mo ago
Open-source alternatives that offer similar functionality: - WinScript: https://winscript.cc/ https://winscript.cc/ - Winhance: https://winhance.net/ https://winhance.net/ I find O&O ShutUp10 easier to use and understand.
vivzkestrel 1mo ago
- imagine a version of windows made from the ground up with 0 spyware, 0 adware, 0 bloatware - 100% minimal designed for absolute performance coded ground up in rust - backward compatibility by required drivers on the fly instead of bloating the OS with 30 yrs of support for all the. 456257963423512 hardware device types - Its called "Windows Maximal" priced 4x the cost of Windows Home - when are we getting this version of windows?
- Gud 1mo ago
  We had it, it was called Windows 2000, and it was awesome. FreeBSD on the server and Windows 2000 on the desktop, a match made in heaven. It was a beautiful year. Since then, computing has only deteriorated.
- nerdsniper 1mo ago
  Windows LTSC / IoT comes pretty damned close. It's the only version I install. I'm always shocked by the <20 processes running in Task Manager on a clean install.
  - kasabali 1mo ago
    It may be 20 less but still hundreds. I'll never understand the LTSC advocacy, it is still the same thing except they mopped up the most disgusting looking liquid seeping out to the floor but didn't touch the huge turd sitting in the middle.
    - nerdsniper 1mo ago
      No in my case it was literally just 20 processes or so. It didnt fill the default window size.
- kasabali 1mo ago
  > - 100% minimal designed for absolute performance coded ground up in rust Rust didn't exist in 90s yet Windows' performance was pretty good speed, consumption or bloat-wise.
eahm 1mo ago
https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator made all those tools obsolete and useless for the most part, "debloating" after it's installed is always bad business. https://wpd.app https://wpd.app works well too for extra telemetry and https://github.com/builtbybel/privatezilla https://github.com/builtbybel/privatezilla still works with Windows 11 but again autounattend.xml works magic.
- kasabali 1mo ago
  > https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator made all those tools obsolete and useless for the most part, "debloating" after it's installed is always bad business. Unattended is no "magic". Go ahead and inspect the xml file created by that utility, all the customization and debloating is practically same as running a script post install. If you really want to debloat before it's installed you want this: https://ntlite.com/ https://ntlite.com/
  - eahm 1mo ago
    Some run post install, most during, NTLite is good as well but too much work since unattended.xml just works so well. There was another one too at some point called MSMG Toolkit (IIRC) that worked wonders but who knows what happened to that. After 30+ years of using every OS I just don't want to deal with an OS that constantly fights with you just to try to make it usable, unattended.xml is MY path of least resistance, configure once, check/update every now and then, no need to learn new tricks.
glub103011 1mo ago
[dead]
isolay 1mo ago
This is highly welcome. MS practically forces you to use something like this. It's like an ad blocker.
rasz 1mo ago
>80MB WTF happened? I have some old versions. 1.9 from 2024 1.8MB 1.3 from 2016 480KB Did they start bunding web browser with debloat scripts?
yunaflox 29d ago
Unless I am doing something wrong, you should also use WPD and Winaero Tweaker, and preferably Windows 8.1 or lower, although that can be debated down to 98.

When your OS is pure spyware, maybe it's time to look into switch to a less abusive option. The more people that switch, the stronger signal it sends. This tool is equivalent to dating an alcoholic that beats you whenever they're drunk, so you keep trying to take away all the alcohol instead of dumping them and finding a new partner. The signs were always there and they just keep getting worse, it's time to move on.

real0mar 1mo ago
Too many games are Windows only
- bigfishrunning 1mo ago
  This is why I own a playstation
  - technothrasher 1mo ago
    Because your PlayStation couldn't possibly be spying on you?
    - bigfishrunning 1mo ago
      Because my playstation spies on my games, not my whole life. It's limitation of scope.
      - celsoazevedo 1mo ago
        I guess for that you could have a Windows machine just for gaming. No need to deal with the trade-offs of that come with using a console (if that matters to you).
        dspillett 1mo ago
        Though that would likely be a bit more expensive, or if cheaper it might be by compromising on GPU performance.
        bigfishrunning 1mo ago
        Not having a windows machine is one of the benefits of not having a windows machine! Using a console for gaming is cheaper, more secure, and more reliable then using a windows machine. The only downside is i don't have access to the wide ocean of steam and gog releases, but it's a fair trade as far as I'm concerned.
- arcfour 1mo ago
  Very few are these days with the enormous amount of resources Valve has been pouring into Proton. The only truly Windows-only games I have encountered were online multiplayer with anticheat and that was almost always because the developer chose not to support Linux (e.g. EAC, Rust) and not for lack of support for Linux. Perhaps that wouldn't happen if more people switched...
  - r_lee 1mo ago
    those are the vast majority of games that people play and people won't switch if there is no way to switch, it's like asking people to go on a hunger strike
    - arcfour 1mo ago
      Speak for yourself, there are hundreds of thousands of people playing games that do not fall into this category on Steam right now.
- GreenVulpine 1mo ago
  This hasn't been the case for at least half a decade. Most games run perfectly fine if not better on Linux. The only exceptions are purposely broken remote rootkit "anticheat" gsmes which no sane person would want on their system anyway.
- fabian2k 1mo ago
  With the exception of multiplayer games with invasive anti-cheat measures, a very large number of games works very well on Linux now with Wine/Proton. When using Steam this mostly works just out of the box without fiddling.
LetMeLogin 1mo ago
Not everybody has a possibility. Each system has pros and cons. I'm daily driving both Windows and Linux, and each has its own issues unfortunately, so using tools like OO is a necessity of making my(and others) life bit less miserable. For Linux I have bunch of custom repair scripts because of certain bugs I encounter(which are tracked too but not solved). Unfortunately this is the game no one will ever win, unless you will move, drop tech, and start breeding dogs, but then you need to sell them, and where would you advertise? :)
- callc 1mo ago
  IMHO: I like the issues faced on Linux more, since I can solve them. I too have a handful of repair scripts. I feel like an adult to be given access all the internals. I don’t feel that way on Windows (and any other locked down OS). We should put in the volunteer hours to upstream these fixes to make it nicer for normies :^)
embedding-shape 1mo ago
Well, when this alcoholic is the only one that works properly for the sort of audio and 3D/VFX work I do, and a bunch of tools are only able to run (well) on Windows (Yes, I've tried WINE and everything else under the sun, for a decade), so dual booting is really the only option here, unless I wanna throw out a bunch of licenses I've paid thousands for and stop accepting that sort of work. Ableton is probably the biggest reason I still have a Windows installation, and the one I try to get working (properly and well) with Wine/Proton maybe once a month or so. Cascadeur, Unreal Engine Editor, rekordbox are some of the other software I can't get to run well enough on Linux (yet) to fully migrate. But, on the other hand, lots of other software I use professionally works amazingly on Linux, better than Windows in fact, like Houdini, Unreal Engine (the runtime, not the Editor), DaVinci Resolve and Blender. I'm not worried though, eventually it'll be runnable on Linux no doubt, but personally we're not quite there yet, sadly.
- SV_BubbleTime 1mo ago
  >when this alcoholic is the only one that works properly for the sort of audio and 3D/VFX work I mean, that seems universally truer than not.
- belthesar 1mo ago
  I know this doesn't address all your concerns, but I switched from Ableton Live to Bitwig Studio for unrelated reasons to my leaving Windows behind, and I was thoroughly pleased with how easy the transition was between the two DAWs (I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise given how many ex-Ableton devs work on Bitwig), and how well the Linux build of Bitwig worked. Bitwig on Linux, with Pipewire as the audio engine for low latency operation, is essentially an identical operating experience for me. Getting your plugins working is a different story. A small but growing number of mainstream audio plugins have native Linux builds available, a wide swath of them work quite well with yabridge (https://yabridge.org/ https://yabridge.org/ - so shim to expose Windows audio plugins running in WINE prefixes to Linux audio plugin hosts), and a few required alternatives to be found. I found the workflow decent enough to use, but as one might expect, some plugins not working well via yabridge/WINE made things a little janky, and once I picked up a Mac device again, that became my production machine. That said, WINE's come a long say since I last tried this out a few years ago, and I'd be interested to see if things work better. My point, I suppose, is to share a reasonably good success story (though perhaps still not of a grade that you'd be comfortable switching to for paid work), and perhaps to encourage you to consider some alternatives to the tools you use. Tool changes are expensive, sure in cost, but moreso in time, so I don't suggest it lightly. That being said, I think that it might be worth it to grab a Bitwig trial and see how you like it. I'd grab it both on Windows and Linux, so you can try it "how it should work" when your plugins and the DAW are working in harmony while also getting the Linux toolchain working. And from the cost perspective, Bitwig does not have crossgrade licenses, so you can buy Studio once, and run it on any supported platform.
jeanmichelselli 1mo ago
I completely agree with this comment! If your OS does not behave like an OS anymore, better to switch to a real OS at that point. That's it. I've always been disappointed by Windows "OS" in the past but now it's really too much..
AmazingTurtle 1mo ago
I use cachyos as my daily driver for a long time now. I play quite a few games. Only league of legends forces me to dual boot into windows every once in a week or so - fuck the anticheat cartel
- rdudek 1mo ago
  I'm approaching a year now on CachyOS and it has been a wonderful experience. All the games that I play run just fine, maybe a few FPS drop compared to Windows, but it's not a big deal for me. I also don't play any competitive online games that require 3rd party anti-cheat spyware. Biggest positives, I got very comfortable with terminal and CLI work. My development work has definitely improved.
trinsic2 1mo ago
That's exactly the way I framed the relationship between Microsoft and its victim in a companion article[0] I wrote in 2025 looking back on my switch to Linux. Since then I started realizing how parasitic the proprietary software industry really is. [0]: https://www.scottrlarson.com/blog/publication-looking-back-windows-to-linux// https://www.scottrlarson.com/blog/publication-looking-back-w...
nilslindemann 1mo ago
Fine, I will switch when your OS has Autohotkey, Total Commander, and allows me to log in as Administrator.
- nilslindemann 1mo ago
  Oh, I also need a way to compile CodeBrowser 4.9 [1] [1] https://github.com/nilslindemann/Code_Browser_49 https://github.com/nilslindemann/Code_Browser_49
- vablings 1mo ago
  If you need Autohotkey you can still run that under wine (if you are ahk on windows applications), you can run total commander under wine. You can log in as admin I think its time to make the switch
  - Der_Einzige 1mo ago
    If they’re running auto hotkey they’re also likely gamers, likely needing to run games that either can’t emulate or lose performance when running via proton or wine. AKA, this advice, like most “switch to Linux” advice, is tone deaf.
    - orbital-decay 1mo ago
      Not sure why you think it's gaming related but fine, I just don't think AHK can do anything special. OP sounds rather like he's trying to find gotchas and justify staying on Windows, not genuinely find the replacement, which is also a thing in these discussions (see his adjacent post with a vague dismissal, I personally used a heavy TC setup under Wine and it was indistinguishable even 15 years ago). All these features are either readily available or the apps themselves are Wine-ified with no performance loss, I have tried that and I don't think you have. All you need to switch to Linux or Mac is overcoming some friction which is of course inevitable, but utility software like this is definitely not a hard blocker.
      - 1mo ago
tgv 1mo ago
I have a PC mainly for Hauptwerk, which uses ilok, which doesn't run under Linux and probably never will. I've got an MBP, but getting one with 128GB of RAM was terribly expensive, and is probably unaffordable now. Hauptwerk doesn't even run natively on the arm. The End.

segfaltnh 1mo ago

My favorite anti-spyware tool for Windows is Linux.

smt88 1mo ago
This isn’t helpful to the fairly large percentage of people who are forced to use Windows by their employers
- ptx 1mo ago
  They could still switch to using a Linux machine for most things (that don't belong to the employer), segregating the Windows machine off as much as possible and never letting Microsoft near any of their own data.
- McAtNite 1mo ago
  It’s about on par with these tools no? Running a closed source configurator that heavily alters the core OS isn’t really something I would expect a responsible IT team to do. Doubly so if you are in any sort of regulated industry.
  - smt88 1mo ago
    Many IT teams are irresponsible though. I have a client now that has revenue of $1B and has no legal review process and doesn’t require IT vendors to submit SOC 2 certifications or any other security attestations.

majorchord 1mo ago

Ah yes, the closed-source proprietary black box antispy tool.

voidfunc 1mo ago
Right? Im not touching that thing with a 10ft pole.
- speed_spread 1mo ago
  I get the sentiment. But for the record, O&O has been around for a long time, they were known for their excellent defragmentation tool, which isn't so much required nowadays. Their business model was never close to Adware (to my knowledge). ShutUp has also been around for a while and always seemed to me like a O&O side project by someone who got really pissed at Windows taking the spyware tangent. The distribution model is still that of shareware / freeware (no source), because that's what O&O does. But as far as closed software goes, that's _probably_ as clean as it gets.
  - encom 1mo ago
    >defragmentation Windows has had built in defrag since at least WinXP. I can't remember if Win2000 had it - I think it did. It runs in the background and you don't have to worry about it. 3rd party defrag tools are snake oil, like registry cleaners and so on.
    - keyringlight 1mo ago
      I'm pretty sure some versions of DOS had a defrag tool, or at least windows 9x had a DOS mode equivalent where you could see the block map getting moved around.
    - speed_spread 1mo ago
      IIRC W2K didn't have one. Defragmentation can use different strategies which may impact the time it takes and additional perf gains if the right files are next to each other. The builtin defrag tool doesn't give any option. So "snake oil" I'm not so sure. Also, a watching a proper defragmenter run was an OCD soothing experience before we had stray kitten and powerwashing videos galore. I know I'm not alone with this experience.

ChoosesBarbecue 1mo ago

Huge fan of this. I run it once on a fresh format, and then I never have to worry about Windows annoying me again. (And no, I simply do not like Linux or even macOS enough to switch over, despite being perfectly competent. That, and I play video games that will never be compatible.)

celsoazevedo 1mo ago
You should check your settings (or run this again) after each major update, because Microsoft loves to reset some settings to default.

afpx 1mo ago

No source code? No thanks but no thanks. There also seems to be a lot of ‘privacy’ tools popping up on github lately. It’s a good time to be wary of any if you don’t trust the author 100%. It’s like when HIV emerged in the 80s - the disco days of free love are over. Be wary of who you’re sleeping with, and always wear a condom.

nerdsniper 1mo ago
> There also seems to be a lot of ‘privacy’ tools popping up on github lately. FWIW, O&O ShutUp10 dates back to 2015, with the launch of Windows 10. This isn't v10, it's "Shut Up, [Windows] 10!". O&O Defrag has been a trusted tool since 1998. That said, I largely agree with "No source code? No thanks." as I don't want to worry about a private equity group buying O&O Software and doing with it what they will.
- deleted 1mo ago
  [deleted]
mschuster91 1mo ago
O&O has been around for decades, they're among the OGs of third party functionality providers for Windows.
- afpx 1mo ago
  I understand. Different people have different thresholds for trust. Unfortunately, I have lived in DC for a long time. Long enough to know the basics of how espionage works. And, appealing to authority is very effective. Humans love authorities. Write a few papers. Give a few conference talks. Get a few magazines to report on your expertise. That's pretty much all it takes to get entry. Otto and Olaf are probably great guys. I'm just extra cautious.
- orbital-decay 1mo ago
  I remember that time very well, and not in a good way. We were all running dubious janky obfuscated software without giving it a second thought. These days trust is not enough, you need at least some way to verify (but also a lot more). Plenty of trusted software has been sold, hijacked, or otherwise has turned on its users over the decades. To be frank we're still running dubious and janky software, but at least it tends to be a bit more transparent.

flaburgan 1mo ago

I removed my dual boot in 2009, so the last windows I used on a personal computer was Vista. I switched my close family (parents and even my grand mother) to Linux years ago, nevertheless I still am the tech-savyy go-to person for other people and I am completely disconnected from what's going on the Windows world. Is an antivirus still needed there? Are there some good tools that should always be installed on a computer? The only thing I usually do is to put as many free software as I can (Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, VLC, Gimp...) But then what ?

collabs 1mo ago
Yes, antivirus is still required but as long as you have decent common sense, the built in antivirus and antimalware on Windows (sometimes known as Windows Defender or Windows Security) is good enough for most users (the only use case where I can see commercial AV solution being of any use is for compliance checklists). Chocolatey, Winget, and Scoop are all good options for installing software. Oh and you will love Powershell 7 on Windows Terminal. It is a delight and a breath of fresh air if you ask me.

nosioptar 1mo ago

I can't read the page. There's a giant fucking sticky navigation panel that blocks over half the screen.

VCFundedGenYer 1mo ago

FYI this seems to be an AI slop copy of Win11Debloat which is the original (+has all the same options). Support the original, not the copy: https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat

swordd 1mo ago
shutUp10 was originally released on September 28, 2015
uncognic 1mo ago
Huh? OOSU10 is from 2015. If anything Win11Debloat is the copy
liljacob 1mo ago
This was released half a decade before Windows 11 was even out.
celsoazevedo 1mo ago
Been using this for a few years, since I moved to Windows 10, so I don't think it's a copy. But thanks for the link, wasn't aware about that open source project.
jamesnorden 1mo ago
Nice hallucination.
smt88 1mo ago
Upvote for bringing up a FOSS alternative, but the rest of your comment is wrong

xyst 1mo ago

An even better solution — don’t use windows.

celsoazevedo 1mo ago

This is more a decrapifier than an "anti-spy tool". Yes, it also lets you easily block things like microphone access and disable AI features, but it's not a firewall. I started using it with Windows 10 because I could disable most of the crap Microsoft was using with a few clicks. When I reinstalled Windows 11, this was one of the first things I ran because of how much shit there's now (weather, news, recommended apps, ai, etc). I have almost everything disabled. We can do the same by following some guides, setting up system policies and go to 20 different menus, but this does the same in 1 or 2 minutes. Unfortunately, over the years, ShutUp10 has also suffered from some enshittification itself. Now there's a message tell you to buy the premium version, more branding, etc. I understand why, and considering it still does the job and still runs without having to install it, perhaps I shouldn't complain too much especially when it's free, but it used to be more "bare-bones"... something that I prefer on these tools.

taspeotis 1mo ago

I'm always hesitant to trust these things after one of them turned off CRL checking because external connectivity = bad!!1

nilslindemann 1mo ago

You may also check out https://github.com/flick9000/winscript https://github.com/flick9000/winscript. It has a GUI, but generates a powershell script. https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk is also worth mentioning, I use it to unfuck the Taskbar.

pentagrama 1mo ago

Open-source alternatives that offer similar functionality: - WinScript: https://winscript.cc/ https://winscript.cc/ - Winhance: https://winhance.net/ https://winhance.net/ I find O&O ShutUp10 easier to use and understand.

vivzkestrel 1mo ago

- imagine a version of windows made from the ground up with 0 spyware, 0 adware, 0 bloatware - 100% minimal designed for absolute performance coded ground up in rust - backward compatibility by required drivers on the fly instead of bloating the OS with 30 yrs of support for all the. 456257963423512 hardware device types - Its called "Windows Maximal" priced 4x the cost of Windows Home - when are we getting this version of windows?

Gud 1mo ago
We had it, it was called Windows 2000, and it was awesome. FreeBSD on the server and Windows 2000 on the desktop, a match made in heaven. It was a beautiful year. Since then, computing has only deteriorated.
nerdsniper 1mo ago
Windows LTSC / IoT comes pretty damned close. It's the only version I install. I'm always shocked by the <20 processes running in Task Manager on a clean install.
- kasabali 1mo ago
  It may be 20 less but still hundreds. I'll never understand the LTSC advocacy, it is still the same thing except they mopped up the most disgusting looking liquid seeping out to the floor but didn't touch the huge turd sitting in the middle.
  - nerdsniper 1mo ago
    No in my case it was literally just 20 processes or so. It didnt fill the default window size.
kasabali 1mo ago
> - 100% minimal designed for absolute performance coded ground up in rust Rust didn't exist in 90s yet Windows' performance was pretty good speed, consumption or bloat-wise.

eahm 1mo ago

https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator made all those tools obsolete and useless for the most part, "debloating" after it's installed is always bad business. https://wpd.app https://wpd.app works well too for extra telemetry and https://github.com/builtbybel/privatezilla https://github.com/builtbybel/privatezilla still works with Windows 11 but again autounattend.xml works magic.

kasabali 1mo ago
> https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator made all those tools obsolete and useless for the most part, "debloating" after it's installed is always bad business. Unattended is no "magic". Go ahead and inspect the xml file created by that utility, all the customization and debloating is practically same as running a script post install. If you really want to debloat before it's installed you want this: https://ntlite.com/ https://ntlite.com/
- eahm 1mo ago
  Some run post install, most during, NTLite is good as well but too much work since unattended.xml just works so well. There was another one too at some point called MSMG Toolkit (IIRC) that worked wonders but who knows what happened to that. After 30+ years of using every OS I just don't want to deal with an OS that constantly fights with you just to try to make it usable, unattended.xml is MY path of least resistance, configure once, check/update every now and then, no need to learn new tricks.

glub103011 1mo ago

[dead]

isolay 1mo ago

This is highly welcome. MS practically forces you to use something like this. It's like an ad blocker.

rasz 1mo ago

>80MB WTF happened? I have some old versions. 1.9 from 2024 1.8MB 1.3 from 2016 480KB Did they start bunding web browser with debloat scripts?

yunaflox 29d ago

Unless I am doing something wrong, you should also use WPD and Winaero Tweaker, and preferably Windows 8.1 or lower, although that can be debated down to 98.