Recommendations for a lightweight fast clean windows 11 install

Gershy13

Gershy13

Gershy13

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After being on windows 10 for the past however long, my old system is starting to slow down a bit.

I am upgrading from am4 to am5 so i thought why not do a clean install. What is everyone's preferred methods for a good windows install? I see many options include custom windows ISOs (which i dont trust), debloated windows iso modification using tools like MicroWin (Chris Titus Tech's Windows Util) to extreme solutions such as using windows IOT LTSC.

Or just using a standard windows 11 install and then using answers files (unattend.xml). I am leaning towards this method as it seems to remove some of the crap from windows, without that much effort and looks pretty trustworthy.

Interested to hear what everyone does here when they do a fresh install.
 
The only ISO I would trust is the 1 from Microsoft.

I think the best option is to use the Chris Titus tool or something similar and run it after installing Windows 11.

Other option is to use the MSMG tool kit but this will take a fair bit of time and would need to watch YT videos to understand what your doing.
 
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ED209 said:
The only ISO I would trust is the 1 from Microsoft.

I think the best option is to use the Chris Titus tool or something similar and run it after installing Windows 11.

Other option is to use the MSMG tool kit but this will take a fair bit of time and would need to watch YT videos to understand what your doing.
Click to expand...
I agree, i trust the Chris Titus tool, so an iso cleaned by it i would probably trust too. Never heard of MSMG, only NTLite, but they seem pretty complex to use.

Offical ISO and answers file (https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/) is the method i am leaning towards.
 
Gershy13 said:
I agree, i trust the Chris Titus tool, so an iso cleaned by it i would probably trust too. Never heard of MSMG, only NTLite, but they seem pretty complex to use.

Offical ISO and answers file (https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/) is the method i am leaning towards.
Click to expand...
Be aware the obbebypassnro command may not work anymore as Microsoft have removed it.

I have heard that some have had no joy with this command.

This has been posted under the Windows 11 section which may work of the other option does not but not tested it myself.

www.windowscentral.com

An even better Microsoft Account bypass for Windows 11 has already been discovered

Microsoft has announced that it's removing a popular command line that made it easy to skip signing into a Microsoft Account during Windows 11 setup — now a better bypass has been discovered.
www.windowscentral.com www.windowscentral.com
 
ED209 said:
Be aware the obbebypassnro command may not work anymore as Microsoft have removed it.

I have heard that some have had no joy with this command.

This has been posted under the Windows 11 section which may work of the other option does not but not tested it myself.

www.windowscentral.com

An even better Microsoft Account bypass for Windows 11 has already been discovered

Microsoft has announced that it's removing a popular command line that made it easy to skip signing into a Microsoft Account during Windows 11 setup — now a better bypass has been discovered.
www.windowscentral.com www.windowscentral.com
Click to expand...
I wonder if the answers file workaround is affected by this or if it directly executes the command/registry tweak
 
ED209 said:
Be aware the obbebypassnro command may not work anymore as Microsoft have removed it.

I have heard that some have had no joy with this command.

This has been posted under the Windows 11 section which may work of the other option does not but not tested it myself.

www.windowscentral.com

An even better Microsoft Account bypass for Windows 11 has already been discovered

Microsoft has announced that it's removing a popular command line that made it easy to skip signing into a Microsoft Account during Windows 11 setup — now a better bypass has been discovered.
www.windowscentral.com www.windowscentral.com
Click to expand...

Rufus has an option in there - not sure which option it uses (i.e. the bypass or answer file) but as it does other options it looks more towards an answer file. Worth looking into if you need it. As others have said I'd only use the official MS ISO and then remove stuff in Windows if you don't like it. It's hardly a massively bloated system as is and just has a few annoyances (Cortana for example) rather than massively bloated stuff.



M.
 
Gershy13 said:
After being on windows 10 for the past however long, my old system is starting to slow down a bit.

I am upgrading from am4 to am5 so i thought why not do a clean install. What is everyone's preferred methods for a good windows install? I see many options include custom windows ISOs (which i dont trust), debloated windows iso modification using tools like MicroWin (Chris Titus Tech's Windows Util) to extreme solutions such as using windows IOT LTSC.

Or just using a standard windows 11 install and then using answers files (unattend.xml). I am leaning towards this method as it seems to remove some of the crap from windows, without that much effort and looks pretty trustworthy.

Interested to hear what everyone does here when they do a fresh install.
Click to expand...

I use a certain ISO available, really cut down. Doesn't take long to install either.

Even calculator is removed :D
 
There's already a workaround
For Microsoft removed the bypassnro method
Uses a version of windows that this doesn't apply to
Possibly windows server version?
For first part of set up
Then still loads the actual version you want
Forgot where I saw that though

Debloated windows there's always a risk
Something you need has been removed which you
May not notice until you later need it

There's a tool that applies christitus and other tools
For you
Talon by ravendev think it's called
 
I will probably end up using answers files or MicroWin from the Chris Titus Tech tool which looks pretty promising. He confirmed that it does not use BypassNRO but another direct method to bypass the OOBE, so it is not affected by the new windows changes.
 
I think i'm going to create a VM with both methods as they seem like the best options and see if there are any downsides of each. My initial thoughts are MicroWin might have too many things stripped out of it. At the same time it removes bloat from the ISO directly, compared to answers which just uninstalls it after windows setup. So MicroWin might be the champ for install speed.
 
Gershy13 said:
I think i'm going to create a VM with both methods as they seem like the best options and see if there are any downsides of each. My initial thoughts are MicroWin might have too many things stripped out of it. At the same time it removes bloat from the ISO directly, compared to answers which just uninstalls it after windows setup. So MicroWin might be the champ for install speed.
Click to expand...

No issues with my ISO. About 86 services running..instead of the 180 of standard Windows.
 
hornetstinger said:
No issues with my ISO. About 86 services running..instead of the 180 of standard Windows.
Click to expand...
Interested in which ISO. I did some tests and this is what i got. My custom answers file had already set up windows in a way i liked too, so im probably going to go with that method.
I will probably try and create an iso using the microsoft tool rather than downloading from the website so it has the latest updates. or inject them through DISM.

Windows 11 Pro 24H2
STOCK:
1% usage, 146 processes
did updates on first boot

MicroWin:
1% usage, 117 processes

Answers with original iso:
1% usage, 114 processes
did updates on first boot
 
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Gershy13 said:
Interested in which ISO. I did some tests and this is what i got. My custom answers file had already set up windows in a way i liked too, so im probably going to go with that method.
I will probably try and create an iso using the microsoft tool rather than downloading from the website so it has the latest updates. or inject them through DISM.

STOCK:
1% usage, 146 processes
did updates on first boot

MicroWin:
1% usage, 117 processes

Answers with original iso:
1% usage, 114 processes
did updates on first boot
Click to expand...

Not bad. Still not as low processes as my ISO though. It has latest "service pack" and allows updates.
 
hornetstinger said:
Not bad. Still not as low processes as my ISO though. It has latest "service pack" and allows updates.
Click to expand...
The ease of setup and flexibility in choosing what i want to keep outweighs that imo. Most of the personalisation options i would usually do after installing is already done for me. And my local user account is already created. I also trust the official ISO more. I think i will go with just an answers file and then run the Chris Titus Tech WinUtil tool and O&O shutup. Simple and easy...
 
Gershy13 said:
The ease of setup and flexibility in choosing what i want to keep outweighs that imo. Most of the personalisation options i would usually do after installing is already done for me. And my local user account is already created. I also trust the official ISO more. I think i will go with just an answers file and then run the Chris Titus Tech WinUtil tool and O&O shutup. Simple and easy...
Click to expand...

yeah understand you can build it to that specific system, ie chipset, cpu, soundcard, GPU drivers etc also install third party applications like photoshop, libre office etc. Also preset with outlook email account, imported firefox account/cookies as well.
 
hornetstinger said:
yeah understand you can build it to that specific system, ie chipset, cpu, soundcard, GPU drivers etc also install third party applications like photoshop, libre office etc. Also preset with outlook email account, imported firefox account/cookies as well.
Click to expand...
Yeah for sure. I have also just found a new tool which i will be definitely using on my upgrade. It is called UniGetUi and is a package manager, but you can export a package from your old system and then redownload everything (or choose what you want) to install on the new system.

Will be doing this as this will speed up initial setup significantly. I will choose what i want to keep on the new system and batch install everything that i can (im sure there will be some niche programs that cant be installed or need to be done manually)
 
Gershy13 said:
Yeah for sure. I have also just found a new tool which i will be definitely using on my upgrade. It is called UniGetUi and is a package manager, but you can export a package from your old system and then redownload everything (or choose what you want) to install on the new system.

Will be doing this as this will speed up initial setup significantly. I will choose what i want to keep on the new system and batch install everything that i can (im sure there will be some niche programs that cant be installed or need to be done manually)
Click to expand...

Task manager

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Used Atlas OS on a few PCs. Seems to run well and cuts out a lot of bloat (customisable)

The only problem I've done across is not being able to run one game in the EA launcher. Just keeps telling me it needs a product key. Very odd.
 
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