Bloatware-free Windows 10 at Major Geeks

[FrgMstr]

While I can very much get into the spirit of having something like this downloadable Windows 10 Creators Update Bloatware Free Edition Read at Major Geeks, there are certainly more than few dangers that go along with it even if it is does allow "legal" activation of the operating system. I would not suggest downloading this. That said, the team that put it together gives you total insight and instruction into building your own bloat-free version of Windows 10 that you can make at home.

Check out the video

MSMG ToolKit creates a slimmed down, or bloat free Windows by customizing, adding or removing features and components as well as enabling or disabling features to Microsoft Windows 7, 8 and 10. Everything is done through a DOS command prompt but done with typing in letters to get where you want meaning no complicated DOS commands or DOS knowledge is needed. The entire goal here is something we have always loved here at MajorGeeks; creating a lightweight, bloat-free version of Windows. Expect to spend a small amount of time getting everything you want the way you want it. You can also restore most things that you remove, should you change your mind later.

While this document is a bit old, it is still one of the go-to procedures that we use after installing a virgin Win10 OS for hardware testing. Some things have changed in terms of the overall steps, but the bones of the document are still good. And of course, when Windows gives you the chance to turn off all that crap right before the install finishes, make sure you do that.

 

[That_Sound_Guy]

It's my hope videos like this make Microsoft wake up and give us the option to install these separate apps on our own versus hacking it apart to bring out the most in our system and/or privacy.

 

[EdKiefer]

Ok, can't you do most of that removing after Win10 install ?

With windows now saying its going to update 2x a yrs, I wouldn't trust WU not adding back some of these things.
That said, I guess its cleaner doing it to ISO before installing.

 

[DeathFromBelow]

I wouldn't trust WU not adding back some of these things.

Exactly. Every 6 months there's going to be another 'major update' that reinstalls the OS in place. Your software will break, your privacy settings will get reset without your permission, and Candy Crush will be back.

The best option is simply to avoid using this dumpster fire of an OS altogether. I moved the whole house from 7 to Linux Mint back in October, including my gaming rig. If you really can't switch to Linux at least use 7 or 8.

 

[grtitan]

MS just doesn't get it or really dont give a crap about what we request.

The fact that I cant turn off things that I don't want to use, just because they said so, is very irritating (like to completely turn cortana off without hacks).

 

[Master_shake_]

it's their operating system. it's their sandbox.

and by extension your data are belong to them.

 

[TorxT3D]

Im downloading it before it gets taken down, and examine it later.
Will like to see a more thorough examination of this by more legit people before we all start installing it.

 

[ButchCassidy]

Ok, can't you do most of that removing after Win10 install ?

With windows now saying its going to update 2x a yrs, I wouldn't trust WU not adding back some of these things.
That said, I guess its cleaner doing it to ISO before installing.

I have about 8-10 computers throughout my house and altered the image manually until I found out that Nlite supports Windows 10. It's a time saver in the long run.


I can't for the services but the apps are not install again with the creators update. I had a customized install with a lot of the metro apps removed and they were not install again like previous updates.

 

[Cataulin]

so does anything improve gaming wise?

 

[THUMPer]

Awesome. Chachi approves.

 

[MavericK]

I did notice that more "games" seem to show up after each update... Easy to uninstall but still unwanted crap.

 

[jardows]

Hmm... I'm a bit ambivalent about this. I mean, do I really need card games, a word processor, a calculator, media player, drawing program, etc., with the OS? Yet these have been included in every version of Windows since 3.1, and is included in almost every major distribution of other OS's. So what if Microsoft chooses to include more programs that I don't need, I don't see the need for all the hate, unless you are just looking for a reason to hate.

 

[exiled350]

Oh, Hell no, MSDN hash or gtfo.

 

[daglesj]

I would if if wasn't for the before mentioned update in 6 months that breaks it all and you have to do it all over again. Bad enough having to clone your machine every 6-8 months before the big update goes on in case it never wakes up after.

 

[schoolslave]

The only bloatware-free windows is no windows.

 

[sadsteve]

Eh, I only boot Windows when I'm gaming so the bloat doesn't really bother me.

 

[MixManSC]

I've concluded that Enterprise LTSB is the only viable Windows 10 OS version myself. Nice to see Windows 10 finish installing and there are no tiles, no store, no Cortana, no Edge, no bloat, and none of that will automagically just install itself either.

 

[BloodyIron]

I game, and work, in Linux. I got fed up with having to put up with this Windows 10 bullshit. Microsoft is in total control. If they don't like this shit, they can change it and you can't stop them. They've already removed features without giving you the option to add them back if you want. There's no guarantee they'll not do it more in the future.

If you're truly fed up with this shit, switch to an OS that YOU control. Have you even tried Linux?

 

[D4rkn3ss]

hah love majorgeeks, i discovered that site around 2003 i think, still have the same look, a big hug to those guys

yeah its reliable, no worries guys, cant say the same about MS though

 

[iNViSiGOD]

Exactly. Every 6 months there's going to be another 'major update' that reinstalls the OS in place. Your software will break, your privacy settings will get reset without your permission, and Candy Crush will be back.

The best option is simply to avoid using this dumpster fire of an OS altogether. I moved the whole house from 7 to Linux Mint back in October, including my gaming rig. If you really can't switch to Linux at least use 7 or 8.

Exactly. I still have a Windows 10 drive for the light gaming I do, but my daily driver is Arch Linux because it does everything I want out of it with easy of mind knowing I don't have to worry about things such as Telemetry. I just feel more secured with Linux.

 

[Derangel]

Have you even tried Linux?

Yes. And after 5-6 months of it on my laptop I switched back to Windows 10. If I still had a lot of interest in tinkering with things and occasionally fighting to make something work right I would probably have left it on there. However, I don't. I just want something that works well. I would have gone back to 7 on the laptop except 7 runs like shit on it so 10 it is, it runs about on par with Linux Mint.

 

[Pieter3dnow]

It's my hope videos like this make Microsoft wake up and give us the option to install these separate apps on our own versus hacking it apart to bring out the most in our system and/or privacy.

Were all waiting for the day that MS comes out of their deep deep coma...

 

[-PK-]

Granted system restore is broken when big updates, which are the most likely to cause major problems, delete all of your restore points, but why the hell would you remove that as a windows component.

 

[snowcrash]

Growing old (does being middle age count as old?) means I really don't give a shit about any of this anymore. Overclocking? Don't care. Buy an Intel i7 and be done with it. Need FPS? Buy Nvidia gtx *70 or *80 and be done with it. Need an OS that just works and run Office? Windows 10 Pro and be done with it. All I care about is the PC working without causing any problems. That means no tinkering under the hood and trust my 25+ years of experience in buying hardware and building PCs myself and for my relatives.

 

[Semantics]

I think my modern 4 core cpu with 32 gigs of ram and 6gigs of vram with TBs of ssds could handle a little bloat.

 

[That_Sound_Guy]

Granted system restore is broken when big updates, which are the most likely to cause major problems, delete all of your restore points, but why the hell would you remove that as a windows component.

I turn this off the instant I install a fresh instance. My thought process is if that machine is so broke it needs a previous instance to operate it should be reimaged from when you built it in the first place. That previous restore could be equally as infected, compromised or flawed and just wasn't found yet. If I build a machine from scratch and the computer leaves my control I give them a DVD with their "ghost" image on it. Also a stern warning not to only save their files on the hard drive but also external or other backup.

 

[KarsusTG]

It is my hope that soon I will have a microATX Ryzen system for my cad station so my only interaction with windows is work related.

But this is a great thing and I really applaud them for it.

 

[tetris42]

It's my hope videos like this make Microsoft wake up and give us the option to install these separate apps on our own versus hacking it apart to bring out the most in our system and/or privacy.

Funny guy.

Growing old (does being middle age count as old?) means I really don't give a shit about any of this anymore. Overclocking? Don't care. Buy an Intel i7 and be done with it. Need FPS? Buy Nvidia gtx *70 or *80 and be done with it. Need an OS that just works and run Office? Windows 10 Pro and be done with it. All I care about is the PC working without causing any problems. That means no tinkering under the hood and trust my 25+ years of experience in buying hardware and building PCs myself and for my relatives.

I have a similar mentality, which ironically is why I'm staying OFF Windows 10. Nothing about it strikes me as "and be done with it" as long as they have mandatory updating where I can't control what's being added. It's only "and be done with it" until they break something.

 

[odditory]

I think my modern 4 core cpu with 32 gigs of ram and 6gigs of vram with TBs of ssds could handle a little bloat.

This obviously goes beyond a disk space or system resources savings issue. It's about removing intrusive services that add no value for many users, and should have been opt in.

The fact they're nonremovable without resorting to major hacks just creates a userbase that will never use them out of spite. It's Microsoft shooting themselves in the foot again.

 

[c_porter]

Funny guy.

I have a similar mentality, which ironically is why I'm staying OFF Windows 10. Nothing about it strikes me as "and be done with it" as long as they have mandatory updating where I can't control what's being added. It's only "and be done with it" until they break something.

That's exactly where I'm at. I have a lot of machines at home, and time spent making them work is time I could spend doing something else or logging billable hours. No Win10 because I have no confidence that it won't be a recurring maintenance headache.

 

[Shaten]

I have installed Windows 10 on 12 work computers and 3 home computers and I really haven't had any major issues.

Here are all my major issues with windows 10)
- Candy crush reinstalls
- My computer will not boot with a PS3 controller plugged in.
- ATI video drivers in crossfire mode clip audio when vsync enabled.

Things that have been great
- Recovery mode to refresh the os leaving files in place, has solved some issues.

In reality - stable even on old hardware.

 

[dandirk]

Growing old (does being middle age count as old?) means I really don't give a shit about any of this anymore. Overclocking? Don't care. Buy an Intel i7 and be done with it. Need FPS? Buy Nvidia gtx *70 or *80 and be done with it. Need an OS that just works and run Office? Windows 10 Pro and be done with it. All I care about is the PC working without causing any problems. That means no tinkering under the hood and trust my 25+ years of experience in buying hardware and building PCs myself and for my relatives.

Same here...

We went through similar rage 2000->XP "Bubblegum UI"... Had lists of 20 services to disable, settings to turn back to good old Win2000, regedits etc.

Some of the tweaks were useful back then since software used a larger % of resources available, but a lot of it was similar UI and app complaints.

Well after rebuilding and fixing friends computers, rebuilding my own I literally got tired of supporting my own customizations. Hardware got better so the tweaks just weren't needed anymore.

I think what actually happened is I had to build my machine in a hurry for something and never got around to "de-XP-fiying" my machine and after a week I found out it wasn't that bad. At the end of the day, you had your common apps on your desktop usually anyways. The same is true here imo.

The only customization on Win10 I do is hide/remove cortana from the taskbar, show file extensions and hidden files and set control panel back to old/small icons (relic of the old days never learned what items were in what section lol).

I do pin items to start and task... I haven't really had a problem with Win10 too much.

I fully agree that they should allow app the UWP apps to be listed and uninstallable like a "pre-installed" app rather than "baked in" where you need powershell to remove them. Not only the principle but I have had to reset Edge which would have been a lot easier if it wasn't "under the hood".

Adds for apps in the start menu is over the top, and people should be upset about that as well.

While I don't hate telemetry, they could improve defaults and provided benefits to increase and allow decrease in data gathered.

 

[Dullard]

I have three W10 computers now and I have never seen "Candy Crush". I gather it's a game, but where is it located?

 

[horse]

Excellent!

 

[Bankie]

I game, and work, in Linux. I got fed up with having to put up with this Windows 10 bullshit. Microsoft is in total control. If they don't like this shit, they can change it and you can't stop them. They've already removed features without giving you the option to add them back if you want. There's no guarantee they'll not do it more in the future.

If you're truly fed up with this shit, switch to an OS that YOU control. Have you even tried Linux?

Yes, I'm currently dual booting W10 and Arch. Linux is still crap for gaming. Most new games won't run at all in Wine and most older games don't run as well as they do in W10 (League of Legends, the most played game in existence, runs "ok" but at about 1/3 the fps that it does in Windows while still feeling stuttery at 100+ fps whereas on Windows it's silky smooth at a frame rate limited 144fps).

I thought I'd spend most of my time in Arch but I find that since all I'm doing is gaming and internetting that I just boot straight into Windows so I have access to what I want.

 

[sadsteve]

I game, and work, in Linux. I got fed up with having to put up with this Windows 10 bullshit. Microsoft is in total control. If they don't like this shit, they can change it and you can't stop them. They've already removed features without giving you the option to add them back if you want. There's no guarantee they'll not do it more in the future.

If you're truly fed up with this shit, switch to an OS that YOU control. Have you even tried Linux?

Yep, but I dual boot. Linux for all my general purpose computing/programming needs and Windows for the Steam games that haven't gotten to Linux yet. I've had way fewer issues with Mint Linux than I've had with Windows 10.

 

[Bankie]

Yep, but I dual boot. Linux for all my general purpose computing/programming needs and Windows for the Steam games that haven't gotten to Linux yet. I've had way fewer issues with Mint Linux than I've had with Windows 10.

I haven't had any issues with W10 on any of my systems. Even my atom tablet with 2gb of RAM runs it damn near flawlessly. I don't really notice any difference in general use performance or stability. I'm running XFCE which is one of the lightest WMs and it's about as fast as a stock full-featured W10 desktop.

Linux is still pretty awful for games and anyone that says you can get by on a Linux-only install is stretching the truth. I wish it would finally catch up but there are still more DX11/12 games announced than Vulkan so I don't think it's going to change that much in the near future.

 

[DukenukemX]

Yes, I'm currently dual booting W10 and Arch. Linux is still crap for gaming. Most new games won't run at all in Wine and most older games don't run as well as they do in W10 (League of Legends, the most played game in existence, runs "ok" but at about 1/3 the fps that it does in Windows while still feeling stuttery at 100+ fps whereas on Windows it's silky smooth at a frame rate limited 144fps).

I have 3 types of computer systems at home. Gaming PC which runs Windows 10, HTPCs which run Linux Mint, and laptops which run Linux Mint. While I certainly do have games on my laptops and HTPCs, they aren't a priority at the moment. The hardware isn't the best for gaming either but I do have Tomb Raider, MineCraft, and a bunch of emulators. Dolphin works fine, RetroArch works fine, and I have these games working with the Xbox 360 gamepad. The frame rates would be higher in Windows, but that's the fault mostly in the games port and not Linux itself. Only Valve games seem to be proper ports to Linux, and a handful of other games.

I do have Wine for Windows compatibility but it obviously sucks. I particularly use Wine-Staging cause fuck the Wine developers. You get a performance boost using CSMT which the wine devs refuse to implement into their official Wine, but yet CrossOver has had it for years. Anyway, Wine isn't something I'd like to continue to use besides for legacy Windows apps. There's no reason for League of Legends to not have a proper Linux port, or World of Warcraft, or OverWatch, and etc.

At this point nobody should blame Linux for poor gaming performance or lack of compatibility. Blame the studios for not spending a little money to make a Linux port.

I thought I'd spend most of my time in Arch but I find that since all I'm doing is gaming and internetting that I just boot straight into Windows so I have access to what I want.

This is the problem with dual booting in that why waste time doing something with both OS's when you could do it with one OS. Also, dual booting isn't the best for Linux and Windows 10 has been know to accidentally break dual booting with Linux. If you're going to Linux, you should do it by itself, and definitely not your gaming PC.

Also you could run Windows within Linux and still get nearly the same performance in games while keeping Windows isolated. Given that you have 2 graphic cards in your system, you can play Windows games at full speed within Linux.

 

[jlbenedict]

I currently run Windows 10 N, 2016 LTSB ; wondering if this MSMG Toolkit can clean that up more in addition to how "bare" that is

 

[The other Paul in a GTR]

I get that the final spreadsheet in this post is a "hardware testing" setup, but how many folks reading here might think that would be a great setup for their daily driver gaming rig? If there are kids out there reading this news post and disabling every windows protection to try and get 3 more FPS out of their system, that's some bad juju. That list should definitely have a disclaimer to not be used as a daily system config. Those settings do half the work for the malware and open you up for a potential world of hurt.