New Win 10 install, any good tips please ?

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Going to be freshly installing Windows 10 in the next week, so I'm looking for some advice or hints and tips on things to do once installed but before I get too comfy sitting in a game and checking my emails etc. I've a plenty of experience installing Windows 7 and older, just not Windows 10.

Ideally I hope to strip away as much 'bloat-ware' as I can, turn off all the unnecessary 'send data back to MS' and 'do things without your permission' settings, secure it as best I can and make it more visually appealing for me to use.

But like new things the interfaces are convoluted and full of hidden doors (installing Unix is easier than navigating some of the new menu systems in phones and windows!), I know there are often hidden tweaks that get missed.

Has anyone any helpful advice on installing Windows 10 fresh please, be it disk partitions, basic options, order of driver installations, tweaks, quality of life features or hidden gems that might save me losing all my data or privacy?

Thank you!
 
First and foremost, don't use a Microsoft account. During installation you will be goaded into using an MS account, but just an offline account instead - look at the bottom left when you're asked to create an account. If you don't see the option, unplug your network cable or disable the wi-fi and try again.

I use these PowerShell commands to strip out most of the "bloatware", such as Candy Crush and 3D tripe:
Code:
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage

Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online
For fun, after you hit Enter for each command, click on the Start menu and watch in delight as the bloat disappears before your eyes. That never bores me! :D

My advice is to take your time and go through each setting in Settings. It won't take too long to explore the options and what they do. If you don't know, ask or Google it.
 
For installing all those utilities quickly and easily, go to ninite.com

Very interesting thank you! Though it's not my usual thing, I am quite particular about knowing what and how something is installed (ie all the options), but definitely something I will look into more.


First and foremost, don't use a Microsoft account. During installation you will be goaded into using an MS account, but just an offline account instead - look at the bottom left when you're asked to create an account. If you don't see the option, unplug your network cable or disable the wi-fi and try again.

I use these PowerShell commands to strip out most of the "bloatware", such as Candy Crush and 3D tripe:
Code:
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage

Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online
For fun, after you hit Enter for each command, click on the Start menu and watch in delight as the bloat disappears before your eyes. That never bores me! :D

Great info on the account heads up, yeah this was something I hoped to avoid so good spot thank you!

Ooh Power Shell for Windows 10 where I can remove stuff via cmd line... I'm gonna like that! :D Just run the two commands as written, do they give prompts for each bit of software or is it the entire non-essential list?


Wonderful info thank you both, please keep the hints coming, stuff like this brings back the computer geek in me and definitely helps :)
 
Great info on the account heads up, yeah this was something I hoped to avoid so good spot thank you!

Ooh Power Shell for Windows 10 where I can remove stuff via cmd line... I'm gonna like that! :D Just run the two commands as written, do they give prompts for each bit of software or is it the entire non-essential list?
Those PowerShell commands will remove most of the metro apps. If you know how to use a virtual machine, try them in a VM to see the effects. Are there any particular apps you want to keep? I do recall seeing a way of excluding apps posted on these forums, but I can't find it yet.
 
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