Defining the Problem
Windows 10/11 is a radical shift from earlier versions. 10 and 11 are essentially the same product, but
there are numerous small differences between them. Also, Microsoft have increasingly been pushing
their idea of "Windows as a Service". In addition to forced updates, Microsoft are pushing a Microsoft "account", a
Windows Store account, etc. They want to control your computer, collect data, track your movements and show you ads.
In short, Microsoft are trying to train Windows customers to see their own computers as services kiosks, like ATMs, that
don't belong to them. You log into Microsoft, use their apps, use Copilot to shop, and let Microsoft call the shots,
changing the operating system at their whim.
It's feasible to tame Win10/11, but with Microsoft being so intrusive, it won't work unless you block MS out of your system.
Microsoft have designed 10/11 to be very bloated and brittle. Once you start tweaking, updates are almost certain to break the system.
That's by design. They don't want you controlling your own computer.
Blocking updates is reasonable and not the security nightmare that they want you to think it is. Most of their
updates are for Microsoft software or for dangerous remote execution functions, like Remote Desktop. Anyone
who cares about security should not be using MS Office, Edge, Remote Desktop, etc. in the first place.
If you are unwilling to stop updates and block Microsoft out of your system then you may as well stop reading here.
Microsoft no longer supports tweaking. If you tweak and clean up while also allowing Windows Update, things will almost certainly break. The only realistic choices are to block them out completely or let them take over your computer.
Blocking them means also not using MS "Cloud", Store, and so on.
If you don't want to take control or don't feel that you understand enough to manage your own computer then it's probably
best to let Microsoft manage it. Or you can buy a Mac. Apple invented the idea of leashing, tracking and locking out their
customers from their own devices. Microsoft are just catching up. Apple products are more expensive, but they're very stable
and cater to people who don't understand tech.
Topics
Cleanup
Basics
Clean Redundant Backup
Hiberfil and Pagefile
Weird Bloat
Obscure Bloat
Prefetch Idiocy and Startup Junk
Keeping it Clean
Various Tweaks
Shutting Out Microsoft from Your Computer
Eliminating MS Accounts and Store
Blocking Windows Update
General Privacy and Security
Basics
Cleanup is a good place to start with Win10/11. It's a stunningly bloated product. Microsoft have taken the approach
of dumping every imaginable driver, system file and app onto the system, whether you need them or not, in order
to make Windows appear more stable. They also back up updates, in case you want to reverse them. It can get way out of hand.
So, assuming you've done any updating you want to do and locked out Microsoft, here goes...
A simple thing to do, to make sure there are no glaring problems, is to open a command window
(C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe) and enter the following to run System File Checker, then press Enter:
sfc /scannow
Next, enter browser settings and delete the cache. That could be very big
and it's virtually useless. Browser cache is an idea left over from earlier times, when Internet speeds were slow and
webpages rarely changed.
The third basic cleanup is TEMP files and such.
Win10: Open Computer, right-click C Drive, click Properties,
General tab, click Disk Cleanup. All items there should be safe to delete.
Win11: Open PC Settings, System, Storage, Temporary Files
and click "Remove Files".
Another great way to save a lot of space is to disable System Restore and instead use
your own backup. If you make disk images of C drive then you can always put the image back if things
go wrong. If you then also back up your app data folders and Desktop then you're all set.
System Restore is a limited option for people who don't understand backup.
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Clean Redundant Backup
Windows saves copies of every update. In case you want to reverse an update,
these backups theoretically allow you to, even though it usually doesn't work. If an update cooks your
system then you're usually out of luck. Always do disk image backup before allowing an update.
If your system is currently stable then you don't need those bloated backups. Open
cmd.exe and paste the following, then hit Enter:
Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase
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Hibernation and Pagefile Bloat
Do you use Hibernate? Hibernate is not the same as Sleep. Hibernate writes the current state
of Windows to disk. Sleep leaves it in memory. If you don't use Hibernate you can save maybe 6GB of bloat.
Open cmd.exe and type the following, then hit Enter:
powercfg -h off
Next time you reboot, C:\hiberfil.sys will be gone.
Pagefile: Pagefile.sys is the Windows swap file, used for extra memory when needed.
If you have extra disk partitions other than C, you can put pagefile.sys on one of those. Open Control Panel, System,
Advanced System Settings, Advanced tab, Performance tab, Advanced tab, "Change" button under "Virtual Memory".
For C drive select No paging file. On D, E, or whatever partition you choose, select a static size of maybe 5GB.
Then save all that. The method is the same on both Win10 and Win11.
Complicating matters, if you move pagefile.sys you will find another pagefile.sys or swapfile.sys created on C:\.
Windows does that without asking, but it shouldn't exceed about 250 MB.
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Weird Bloat
This one is downright strange. Windows is designed to hide up to 7 GB of
space, just in case it's needed later for an update on a stuffed disk! It's called Windows Reserve Storage.
Disable it and you'll find 6-7 GB less space being used. To disable in PowerShell, open a PowerShell window
(C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe) and paste the following, then hit Enter:
Set-WindowsReservedStorageState -State Disabled
For good measure this can also be disabled in the Registry:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ReserveManager\ShippedWithReserves
If the value doesn't exist, create it as a DWORD value and set it to 0 to disable hiding space on disk.
Set to 1 if you want to re-enable hiding space.
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Obscure Bloat
In addition to routine bloat and various options listed above,
there are some less obvious forms of bloat. Windows 10/11, with software installed,
can easily be reduced to about 15 GB in most cases. One of the most obvious problems is the winsxs folder, which is
basically the entire Windows install disk, with thousands of drivers you'll never use, and you're not asked whether
you want to save it. Winsxs is unstable and not safe to delete, but there may be temp files that can be deleted, and
winsxs itself can be compressed.
Temp files: C:\Windows\winsxs\Temp should be nearly empty.
If not, anything in the PendingDeletes subfolder should be safe to eliminate. Also,
delete the C:\Windows\winsxs\TEMP\InFlight folder if it exists. You may need to take ownership
and give yourself permission to do that.
Compressing Winsxs (Win10 only): This website
has a script available to carry out the compression. Expect it to take a few minutes.
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Prefetch Idiocy and Startup Junk
This is a classic example of how Microsoft creates a bloated mess in order to make Windows
seem more efficient. Some of this has actually gone on for many years. Microsoft have set MS Office to load
at startup since the 90s, because it's always been a bloated mess and they want it to seem snappy. Ditto for Internet Explorer. Other software like Firefox and Libre Office
offer similar options.
Prefetch takes that logic a step further. It simply guesses, willy nilly,
at what program you might open next, or later, and preloads it. A typical computer today can perform many billions of operations per second.
Yet the bloat is so bad that Microsoft wants to load software in the background to make it look faster. To disable this waste, open Regedit
and adjust the following:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher
If the value is not present, create it as a DWORD value. Set it to 0. Also disable SysMain service.
Other programs set to load at startup might include printer utilities, browsers,
and so on. To manage those, download
Autoruns from Sysinternals.com (owned by Microsoft)
and use that to disable anything that has no good reason to load at boot.
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Keeping it Clean
Some of these operations, such as cleaning TEMP files, should be done regularly. Though
if you don't enable updates there will not be much bloat. You might also consider updating Windows Defender
definitions periodically. Those can be downloaded without needing to allow Microsoft to access your computer.
Beyond that, any unused "apps" can be deleted, as well as Microsoft Edge, assuming
you don't use it and don't need it for Microsoft websites. Some programs may use Webview, the Edge browser window,
for their interface,
but in general no program should need it. If you want to remove Edge with or without Webview,
see here: https://github.com/ShadowWhisperer/Remove-MS-Edge
Do you use any of Microsoft's "apps" trinket software?
If not you can remove all removable apps with a single line in Powershell:
Get-AppxPackage -allusers | Remove-AppxPackage
Note that this often won't remove all of the unwanted bloat that goes with these apps. If you want to remove that it will
require careful weeding inside the C:\Program Files\WindowsApps folder. In most cases you'll probably have to take ownership
of the subfolders in order to delete their content.
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Various Tweaks
This is a partial list of some of the more useful tweaks to help make Windows 10/11 more usable.
Start Menu - Classic or Open Shell
Use
Open Shell on Windows 11.
Windows Start Menu has turned into a massive pile of ads and suggestions taking up 1/4 of the screen. It's so bad that "experts" recommend using Windows search to
find an item on the Start Menu. Open Shell brings back simple sanity and lets you pick which items to show. You can return to a simple menu, like on WinXP/7. And you can edit the menu via the folders
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu and C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu.
Block Windows from Rolling Back or Replacing Drivers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DriverSearching\
Create that key if necessary. Then find or a add DWORD value named DriverUpdateWizardWuSearchEnabled and set it to 0.
Winaero Tweaker - A simple, usable tweaking program that provides options
for things like cleaning crap off of browsing windows and folder trees. (Do you really want "3D Objects"?)
Disable Limited User Account
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Find or add a dword value EnableLUA and set it to 0.
This is a hidden setting that's the real UAC. If you don't like being nagged by UAC then set it to its
lowest level, then set this Registry value. Then be careful with UAC settings. Opening the UAC settings window can cause this setting to be deleted.
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Eliminating MS Accounts and Store
Windows 11, especially, has been getting increasingly pushy about creating a "Microsoft account", with
the idea that to turn on your computer is to log into Microsoft, as though you were their employee. Microsoft
keep changing how account setup works, so that currently the average person will never know that there are options.
This webpage
provides a clear list of options. If you have a new computer, the easiest approach is probably to use Rufus and create a bootable USB installer without
the signup requirement. Rufus is a free program. You'll need to download the offline installer from Microsoft first. Before you do that, you might
want to also download the drivers for your new computer and store those for installation after install.
Take care of install and driver setup before connecting online. Then allow it to update if you like.
Then proceed to block out Microsoft. Then begin cleanup.
If you have already set up with a Microsoft account, go to PC Settings, Accounts, Your Info, "Sign in with Local Account Instead".
Create a local account. Delete the Microsoft account if necessary.
Note that without a Microsoft account there's no OneDrive storage, XBox, Microsoft Store, or synced settings.
You also won't be able to use Microsoft "cloud" software. If you've read this far, presumably you want to be rid of all that, anyway.
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Blocking Windows Update and Using a Firewall
As noted above, Windows 10/11 is a bloated and brittle system by design. Faulty updates have been
a common problem. Updates are also likely to go badly if you tweak your system. Microsoft no longer support tweaking.
So if you want to control your computer and keep it stable (not to mention avoiding crap like Copilot spying) then
once you set up your computer you should block all updates.
Block Windows Update using something like
Windows Update Blocker, a free program to toggle off updates.
Install a software firewall, such as
Simplewall. Use that to block unrequested incoming contact and uninitiated outgoing communication.
That will block additional Microsoft spyware after you've already selected any standard options to block Windows calling home. Be aware that Microsoft lies, to put it simply. Choosing not
to allow spyware doesn't mean Microsoft won't keep spying. You have to block them. Remember, they want to pretend that your computer belongs to them. Establishing their alleged right to come and go as they please is a big part of that.
Avoid Microsoft software and NEVER use Edge. Consider uninstalling Edge.
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General Privacy and Security on Windows
Privacy and security on computers are closely link. Anything digital is a risk
in both categories. See the
Privacy and Security page
for details about those topics. Blocking out Microsoft, eliminating self-updating software and using a firewall program
is a good start toward blocking spyware on your computer. But actually optimizing privacy and security is more involved. You'll
want to do that if you're going to block further Windows updates.
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