That's a pretty big understatement to be honest. I don't use Windows anymore, but I still occasionally set up Windows for other people and there's so many annoyances that it's difficult to even enumerate all of them.
Off the top of my head:
- MSEdgeRedirect to stop Windows from opening Edge even when it's not your defualt browser.
- Shutup10++ to quickly disable a bunch of crapware/unwanted features. (Some of these break things, too, so there is literally no way to make things "perfect".)
- Have to remove a horde of advertising-ridden crapware too. Groove Music, Maps, etc.
- Stopping the start menu from sending everything you type to Bing seems to be hard, too. I'm pretty sure there are multiple group policy items that sound like they would impact this, but I never seem to get the right one first try. It's kind of hard to find on Google too because it changes.
- I do not know what the current best way to get Windows to stop trying to wake up computers for Windows Update at random hours (and often failing to do so.) I think there is a group policy option, but I think there's also a power options configuration (also in the registry obviously) that you need to change to maximally disable wakelocks. This one isn't necessarily Windows 11 specific, but it seems to have gotten worse over time.
- A number of things are really hard to change: There are third party mods for the start menu and task bar, but they are not perfect at all; hacks that load the actual old start menu and task bar are limited and break with updates, unsurprisingly. You need to patch DWM to remove the window rounding behavior.
And honestly, that still doesn't duplicate Windows 7 for me, and worse, the further you stray away the more likely things are to break during updates. The best I've found is Windows 10 LTSC but 1. I don't think consumers can legally license it (lol) 2. It doesn't work with a lot of software, e.g. Creative Suite has stopped supporting it I believe. So this solution sounds good on paper but it's also not always applicable.
Lest you think paying extra for Windows 11 Pro for Workstations, just don't. It's nearly as heavy in crapware last I checked. It's kind of unbelievable that they still do that pre-installed app crap even if you pay them over $300 for the OS as if I fucking want it, but that's modern software for you. They literally won't sell you what you want at any price.
(I also strongly believe that you should try to install Windows Firewall Control or some similar firewall before allowing the machine to reach the Internet. There's an amazing amount of non-sense that gets sent to the Internet regardless of whether you consent to it. Not sure that all of it is actually a huge privacy concern, but I don't really care anymore; at this point it's out of spite.)
The randomly waking up at night part was one of the biggest annoyances for me before I switched over to the Mac.
I'm a screen reader user, and I would regularly unplug my headphones when not using the computer, especially if it was stored in a bag. Of course, that meant everybody around me could hear my screen reader when Windows decided to do its thing. This woke me up at night multiple times and disrupted a few activities I was a part of. There was nothing to be done.
I agree MS is moving in the wrong direction here. Hopefully with the telemetry data on people disabling these features, they will consider better transparency and control over the online features like personalization, content in start menu, edge , etc.
MS needs to make a profit on Windows. Apple can give away MacOS for free and make up the costs on hardware margins.
Windows can make money by charging consumers, by licensing to OEMs, by upselling other MS products, or by selling ads & content.
The only way MS will stop ads would be if consumers pay for Windows directly.
I appreciate the link, I might try this sometime. For something like a test VM where I don't necessarily care if its able to survive a lot of updates or whatever, I kind of want something like this, and there are a lot of options...
I've tried a number of these solutions, but if it needs constant babying it's not really useful for daily driving IMO. Still might be good for test VMs, but I want something that feels like it's actually supported if I'm going to run an actual desktop machine. "Just rerun this powershell script after shit breaks and hopefully the person maintaining it doesn't stop because it will need to be updated periodically to keep up with changes." That's not a solution. It's a collection of workarounds in a solution-shaped trenchcoat, and it's ready to tumble over at any moment.
Another big problem with a lot of these things is you run them, then later Photoshop or Winget or VS isn't working suddenly and you have to try to figure out what service or component needs to be re-enabled. At one point I just re-installed over this...
That's too bad. I only use Windows for games. Have not had issues with the script there. If you're forced to use Windows for work then it's worth finding the minimum set of crap you can remove while keeping things stable.
Fair enough. For me, I don't play enough video games to warrant using Windows, so I am mainly venting the frustrations of trying to help other people who I know are not going to want to use Linux or macOS. The video games I do play are on emulators, have native ports or run under Proton, so I'm covered personally. Absolutely would not work for people who are playing many of the latest AAA titles I know, but I suppose if you only boot into Windows for just that you probably don't have to worry too much about some other things breaking.
This is great, although my use-case is a bit different to your original use case. I would love a group policy version (xml or something) of this that can be centrally setup for any PCs we unbox. I think InTune itself can actually do most of this stuff if you can track down the right settings ...
The trouble is keeping it up to date between Windows updates because they auto-install the bloatware.
> The trouble is keeping it up to date between Windows updates
Just run the script again after a major update. Only takes a minute. And don't let Windows update automatically. I have used this script and it works well.
Atlas OS default setup seems a lot like Windows Server out of the box. Server 2022 (with gui) comes with Windows 10 look and feel and is very lightweight in terms of features, no search, no background tasks, etc. Most desktop apps are compatible with it.
By paying 300 bucks, but not having a sysadmin do the legwork, you send a strong signal that you’re an individual with a lot of disposable income. Guess what advertisers make of that…
That's a pretty big understatement to be honest. I don't use Windows anymore, but I still occasionally set up Windows for other people and there's so many annoyances that it's difficult to even enumerate all of them.
Off the top of my head:
- MSEdgeRedirect to stop Windows from opening Edge even when it's not your defualt browser.
- Shutup10++ to quickly disable a bunch of crapware/unwanted features. (Some of these break things, too, so there is literally no way to make things "perfect".)
- Have to remove a horde of advertising-ridden crapware too. Groove Music, Maps, etc.
- Stopping the start menu from sending everything you type to Bing seems to be hard, too. I'm pretty sure there are multiple group policy items that sound like they would impact this, but I never seem to get the right one first try. It's kind of hard to find on Google too because it changes.
- I do not know what the current best way to get Windows to stop trying to wake up computers for Windows Update at random hours (and often failing to do so.) I think there is a group policy option, but I think there's also a power options configuration (also in the registry obviously) that you need to change to maximally disable wakelocks. This one isn't necessarily Windows 11 specific, but it seems to have gotten worse over time.
- A number of things are really hard to change: There are third party mods for the start menu and task bar, but they are not perfect at all; hacks that load the actual old start menu and task bar are limited and break with updates, unsurprisingly. You need to patch DWM to remove the window rounding behavior.
And honestly, that still doesn't duplicate Windows 7 for me, and worse, the further you stray away the more likely things are to break during updates. The best I've found is Windows 10 LTSC but 1. I don't think consumers can legally license it (lol) 2. It doesn't work with a lot of software, e.g. Creative Suite has stopped supporting it I believe. So this solution sounds good on paper but it's also not always applicable.
Lest you think paying extra for Windows 11 Pro for Workstations, just don't. It's nearly as heavy in crapware last I checked. It's kind of unbelievable that they still do that pre-installed app crap even if you pay them over $300 for the OS as if I fucking want it, but that's modern software for you. They literally won't sell you what you want at any price.
(I also strongly believe that you should try to install Windows Firewall Control or some similar firewall before allowing the machine to reach the Internet. There's an amazing amount of non-sense that gets sent to the Internet regardless of whether you consent to it. Not sure that all of it is actually a huge privacy concern, but I don't really care anymore; at this point it's out of spite.)