Tron script for Windows

fatryan

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 19, 2004
Messages
1,402
Is anyone here familiar with Tron script?

https://old.reddit.com/r/TronScript/

I came across this about 9 or so months ago when trying to figure out how to completely disable Windows update. I ran it on a fresh install of Windows, and for the most part its been fine. It did definitely block Windows update as well as Cortana (which has a an issue with excessive resource usage on this build of Windows 10).

Unfortunately it seems to have created some other problems that I didn't foresee. I need .NET 3.5 framework for a few different software packages I use, and it is not currently installed on my machine. I cannot manually install it, because it needs to be downloaded via Windows update...apparently. So I cannot use any of these programs at all right now. I also cannot access the Microsoft app store, as that was removed in part of the de-bloat process of Tron script. However, the Nvidia Control Panel appears to only be available as a Microsoft app, so I'm kind of stuck there too. I've tried to manually override the registry entries modified by Tron script to allow Windows update to run, but it doesn't work. The registry entries just revert back to their previous values. I'm not very savvy with all this stuff, so that's about as much as I know how to do.

I was wondering if any of you have any experience with Tron script and might know how to reverse some or all of it's changes? Or perhaps you aren't familiar with Tron, but you still know how to revert some of these things to stock? The fallback would be to reinstall Windows completely, but rebuilding windows and installing/configuring all my programs again is a massive amount of work that I really really want to avoid!
 
I would just reinstall, and use something less rigid, like WPD or ShutUp10 to block telemetry, and disable auto updates with GPE (Win10pro). You can delay feature updates for up to a year. You can get the NV control panel through the full driver DL at TechpowerUp, choose standard driver...
https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-geforce-graphics-drivers/
A full wipe and reinstall is going to take at long time to do, and I'm currently using this system as a work from home workstation so it can't be down.

Prior to the pandemic, this system just served as a surveillance PC-NVR and Plex server. I needed to fully disable all updates that would interrupt normal operation and cut down the bloat that hogs critical resources for my surveillance system. The Plex server is less critical, but repeated interruptions in client access to the server would get old fast. For these two purposes, I have a number of different software packages installed, including Blue Iris, DW Spectrum, Movie Studio, DVD architect, full Cyberlink suite, DvdFab, MakeMKV, Handbrake, etc. The full list is much longer, so that's just a few.

Now I'm using the system as a workstation, mostly via RDC. So I'm not having to run all my design and CADD software locally, but I do need a few programs for work like Office, Bluebeam Revu, Spacedesk, and by company's VPN service, as well as my rigged webcam setup with an old cellphone and mic on ManyCam.

I've rebuilt windows 3 times this year, and each time it takes a considerable amount of time to reinstall and reconfigure everything. My current setup is the bulkiest to date, so I'd only expect it to take longer. So again, given that I need this machine for work, I'd really really like to avoid having to rebuild. It'll take me all weekend, day and night, just to get it back to where I'm at now. If it's my only option, then so be it. But I want to make certain that it's my only option first before committing to an undertaking of that magnitude. I'd rather first try to find a way to reverse individual changes, such as getting .NET 3.5 framework installed, before resorting to a complete rebuild.

Regarding other utilities for Win10, how would i know that any of those wouldn't simply give me the same problems I'm having currently? Or give me entirely new problems?

Is there something unique about that driver package you linked? Because the latest RTX 2060 driver that I installed 2 days ago when I installed my card didn't come with Nvidia control panel. It only came with GeForce experience, which doesn't have any of the settings i need.
 
You can get the NV control panel through the full driver DL at TechpowerUp, choose standard driver...

It's possible to get the the "standard" drivers directly from NVIDIA. It's a bit of a convoluted path, but when you're at nvidia.com, select the Drivers link then "All Drivers". On the lower half of the screen select "Beta and Older Drivers". Fill out product data then under "Windows Driver Type" select standard. There you will get a list of the latest drivers with the control panel incorporated. That will eliminate the need to use the Microsoft Store or GeForce Experience to install it.

I actually ~have~ to get my GeForce drivers that way because I'm using LTSC 2019 which is a stripped down enterprise verison of Windows 10. Among other things it lacks the Microsoft Store (which is fine for me since I have no use for it). I also prefer not to install the GeForce Experience spyware.

This UWP control panel business does give me a headache with the Video and Audio drivers. I don't need the Realtek UWP control panel since the legacy controls are still there and cover me. However I do need the control panel for the graphics driver. I'll be stuck If NVIDIA decides to stop putting out these standard drivers, which I expect will happen sooner than later. At that point I'll probably have to install GeForce Experience, install the CP, then remove GeForce Experience. Or maybe I can find a way to install UWP apps through Powershell or something without the store. I don't know, I'll worry about that when it happens.

My general feeling about Windows is it's frustrating how it seems to be going so many directions at the same time. It's like the shotgun approach, throw it all at the wall and see what sticks. Windows 10 is a stew of many different methods of dealing with programs, controls, and drivers. It's like the scatterbrain operating system. This is the polar opposite of Windows XP which had a wholly homogeneous approach. If you knew how to do one thing, you knew how to do everything. With win10 every next task is handled differently.
 
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It's possible to get the the "standard" drivers directly from NVIDIA. It's a bit of a convoluted path, but when you're at nvidia.com, select the Drivers link then "All Drivers". On the lower half of the screen select "Beta and Older Drivers". Fill out product data then under "Windows Driver Type" select standard. There you will get a list of the latest drivers with the control panel incorporated. That will eliminate the need to use the Microsoft Store or GeForce Experience to install it.

I actually ~have~ to get my GeForce drivers that way because I'm using LTSC 2019 which is a stripped down enterprise verison of Windows 10. Among other things it lacks the Microsoft Store (which is fine for me since I have no use for it). I also prefer not to install the GeForce Experience spyware.

This UWP control panel business does give me a headache with the Video and Audio drivers. I don't need the Realtek UWP control panel since the legacy controls are still there and cover me. However I do need the control panel for the graphics driver. I'll be stuck If NVIDIA decides to stop putting out these standard drivers, which I expect will happen sooner than later. At that point I'll probably have to install GeForce Experience, install the CP, then remove GeForce Experience. Or maybe I can find a way to install UWP apps through Powershell or something without the store. I don't know, I'll worry about that when it happens.

My general feeling about Windows is it's frustrating how it seems to be going so many directions at the same time. It's like the shotgun approach, throw it all at the wall and see what sticks. Windows 10 is a stew of many different methods of dealing with programs, controls, and drivers. It's like the scatterbrain operating system. This is the polar opposite of Windows XP which had a wholly homogeneous approach. If you knew how to do one thing, you knew how to do everything. With win10 every next task is handled differently.
Man I could go on for hours about Windows too. I actually liked Win7, but Win10 drives me up the wall. They try to cram everything down your throat, and they really step over the boundary a lot now.

As far as the Nvidia issue is concerned, are you saying the control panel is no longer available? My card (in sig) is brand new; just installed 2 days ago with latest Nvidia drivers. I don't want to go installing some old legacy graphics drivers just so I can get a program that might not even work with my card anyway.
 
My last attempt, I tried to used Chocolatey to install all my software. That got me a good chunk of the way with zero effort, then I just used ShutUp 10 to turn some of the horse shit off.

Be a bit smoother yet once WinGet matures.
 
My last attempt, I tried to used Chocolatey to install all my software. That got me a good chunk of the way with zero effort, then I just used ShutUp 10 to turn some of the horse shit off.

Be a bit smoother yet once WinGet matures.
I wasn't even aware such a program existed. So why did it only get you a "good chunk of the way there"? Are there certain packages it cannot install? Or does it have limited installation options or something?
 
Uhh, there was something not in the repository. I think it was a sound driver or something dumb that wasn't a big deal.

Installed a browser, Steam, Nvidia drivers, 7zip, Visual Studio, so on and so forth... you get the point. Worked well and basically turned that into a fire and forget process that took like 10 minutes.
 
Uhh, there was something not in the repository. I think it was a sound driver or something dumb that wasn't a big deal.

Installed a browser, Steam, Nvidia drivers, 7zip, Visual Studio, so on and so forth... you get the point. Worked well and basically turned that into a fire and forget process that took like 10 minutes.
I assume it can't save the individual problems settings and configurations right?
 
As far as the Nvidia issue is concerned, are you saying the control panel is no longer available?

If you download the so called DCH drivers which appear on the front of the NVIDIA downloads page, the control panel is a UWP app. At some point during the driver install it will transparently connect to the Microsoft Store and grab the control panel. You won't notice as it will happen in the background. The option is to use the standard drivers which carry the control panel as a normal program as it has always been done. A normal program in the sense it runs without the need for the UWP environment or access to the Microsoft Store.

Normally this UWP business is not an issue, but if you have the Microsoft servers blocked or like me run a version of Windows without the store, you don't get the control panel with the DHC drivers. That's a big problem obviously. The solution is to use the standard drivers, but Microsoft is trying to remove these types of controls from driver packages and put them in UWP space. That makes them available only through the Microsoft Store. Not sure the motivation on that, but it may have something to do with making Windows a rented service rather than an installation. Or maybe it's a way to force people to use the store. Either way it's another asshole Microsoft policy I have a problem with.
 
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A full wipe and reinstall is going to take at long time to do, and I'm currently using this system as a work from home workstation so it can't be down.

Prior to the pandemic, this system just served as a surveillance PC-NVR and Plex server. I needed to fully disable all updates that would interrupt normal operation and cut down the bloat that hogs critical resources for my surveillance system. The Plex server is less critical, but repeated interruptions in client access to the server would get old fast. For these two purposes, I have a number of different software packages installed, including Blue Iris, DW Spectrum, Movie Studio, DVD architect, full Cyberlink suite, DvdFab, MakeMKV, Handbrake, etc. The full list is much longer, so that's just a few.
You could have solved that problem simply by using linux instead of Windows. And having an unpatched Windows as your workstation... tsk tsk.
 
I somehow managed to figure it all out eventually without having to reinstall.

Ultimately it appears that 'Start' keys for several WU-related registry entries were set to 4 (disabled). I was not able to change them from 4, which I eventually learned was due to write permissions being revoked on them for User, Admin, and System. After getting that sorted out, I was able to get WU to populate the available updates, but it still failed to download any of them. I tried to no avail to force the services to start, tweaking and rebooting several times, but some of the necessary services refused to start despite the keys allegedly being set correctly. As odd as it may seem, I eventually got them to start simply by using the task manager. They would not start when I tried to manually start them directly in the Services app, but they all started right up when doing it in Task Manager. After that I was able to update to Build 1909 and install .NET 3.5 framework.

The other issue I was trying to resolve with accessing Microsoft Store was not resolved with the OS update. I kept trying to click the link to get the Nvidia Control Panel app to download from the online store on the browser, tried adding to cart and checking out, tried creating a MS account and signing in, nothing was working. I tried downloading the App Installer, which is – itself – an app...so I couldn't install or use it (geniuses over at MS, I swear!). Rebooting did nothing. The App Installer app was showing that it was installed, but I couldn't find any way to launch it. Eventually I tried hitting 'Repair' and 'Reset' in the App Store Troubleshooting settings, which got the App Installer app to finally show up in the Start menu. And just a few short seconds later the Nvidia Control Panel popped up in there too. Success!

If you offered me $100,000 to repeat this process, I don't even think I could do it lol
 
You could have solved that problem simply by using linux instead of Windows. And having an unpatched Windows as your workstation... tsk tsk.
I literally know nothing about Linux, so that would have been waaaaay more work!
 
Sounds like a lot of trouble just to reduce downtime from patching. Just get a faster machine
 
Sounds like a lot of trouble just to reduce downtime from patching. Just get a faster machine
How do my computer specs come into play at all in this situation? I could be running an X-series processor, titan rx, and 128GB ddr4, but that doesn't mean a damn thing if the system updates itself and starts going haywire because Microsoft engineers botched another build. Not to mention, I couldn't configure a titan rx any more than i can configure my 2060 KO without Nvidia control panel. These were necessary fixes. My setup is otherwise more than adequate for my purposes.
 
You might get surprised how easy it is. Probably way easier to set up than on windows.
I lightly dabbled in Ubuntu many years ago. And while i liked how much smoother and more efficient it was than Windows, it just isn't that practical considering a lot of the software i need to run is not available for Linux. I'm not completely unfamiliar with command line, but I would need to learn all Linux commands...i know none. I don't even know Windows nearly as well as probably the majority of the people on this board, so I think attempting Linux as a replacement would be a big mistake even if it would work with my system.
 
I lightly dabbled in Ubuntu many years ago. And while i liked how much smoother and more efficient it was than Windows, it just isn't that practical considering a lot of the software i need to run is not available for Linux. I'm not completely unfamiliar with command line, but I would need to learn all Linux commands...i know none. I don't even know Windows nearly as well as probably the majority of the people on this board, so I think attempting Linux as a replacement would be a big mistake even if it would work with my system.
You could set up a Pi4 to run your Plex for example very easy and leave windows for games.
 
...considering a lot of the software i need to run is not available for Linux.

I've wanted to ditch Windows ever since win7, but have not pulled the trigger. I think if I can ever manage to ditch Windows, I'll feel freedom like getting out of a bad marriage.

The answer to software only available to Windows is WINE. It's not perfect, but can run most Windows software well enough. It's been a long twisty road for WINE and it's been improved bit by bit over the years.

Still GNU/Linux is not a silver bullet, you'll have your share of headaches with that too. I actually prefer FreeBSD, but that's even more headaches. The main thing is hugely more control over your computer, no forced crapware, no forced updates, and no telemetry spyware. You can actually shut off all the update and telemetry stuff in Windows, easiest when running enterprise versions, but it takes some doing.
 
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I've wanted to ditch Windows ever since win7, but have not pulled the trigger. I think if I can ever manage to ditch Windows, I'll feel freedom like getting out of a bad marriage.

The answer to software only available to Windows is WINE. It's not perfect, but can run most Windows software well enough. It's been a long twisty road for WINE and it's been improved bit by bit over the years.

Still GNU/Linux is not a silver bullet, you'll have your share of headaches with that too. I actually prefer FreeBSD, but that's even more headaches. The main thing is hugely more control over your computer, no forced crapware, no forced updates, and no telemetry spyware. You can actually shut off all the update and telemetry stuff in Windows, easiest when running enterprise versions, but it takes some doing.
Yeah, see I just don't want to deal with anymore headaches than I need to. Under normal circumstances, I'm rarely ever even using this computer directly. It just runs on it's own. Windows is sufficient for that.
 
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