Slimed down fresh install of W11?

BS Dave · 23 Jan 2026 at 11:30

I've just swapped over to a 9070xt from a RTX3080 and it's working fine, but it's made me look at the amount of **** on my computer and the amount of random stuff I've installed over the years, and it's made me think a fresh install might be a good idea.

I mainly play games on my PC - I have a mac for video editing - so am looking for a v.slim install - debloated, though not to the point stuff is going to stop working. Now when I open task manager there are about a million processes doing they're thing and I'd like that to stop. Are there any video guides people would recommend or ISO builds people trust?

Thanks

Dave

randal · 23 Jan 2026 at 11:38

GitHub - ntdevlabs/tiny11builder: Scripts to build a trimmed-down Windows 11 image.

Scripts to build a trimmed-down Windows 11 image. Contribute to ntdevlabs/tiny11builder development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

I'm running this as a secondary boot option on my laptop and it's great, just built an image using the latest ISO from MS. The Windows side of my laptop is used purely for software to interface with things and stuff (car diags etc) so it doesn't need all the guff and this fits the bill nicely.

I use the image with Ventoy, then on the Ventoy drive I have a files folder with installers for Firefox, etc. as you get no browser on a tiny11 build. Slap any drivers you might need, or any other software and you're away. Going to rebuild my Battlefield 6 partition on my main PC with it later this year.

Mcnumpty2323 · 23 Jan 2026 at 18:04

"Not to the point Where stuff is going to
Stop working "

That's always the issue when
Slimming down windows
You may remove something that something else
Has dependancies on

And you dont find out
Until you go to do something and
It won't work

Theres tools like Chris Titus utility
I used that
Then used rufus afterwards to bypass
All the Microsoft make an online account blah blah

Ended up with a nice iso that had very little
Background processes and ####
Though I have multiple drives with different windows installed
On them
I wouldn't risk a modified/slimmed windows
As my only OS

And yeah ventoy is great
Just throw all your isos on there
It will even put ventoy on fixed disks too
So I have a m2 with ventoy and all my isos on it
Faster than me hunting for the right USB flash drive
And loads faster too

Can use something like ninite too
Or winget
To automatically install browsers etc after installed windows

Scort · 23 Jan 2026 at 18:40

Tiny11 works perfectly fine, though guff often comes back through updates

BS Dave · 24 Jan 2026 at 22:23

Hmm. Any opinions on AtlasOS?

Mcnumpty2323 · 25 Jan 2026 at 06:22

BS Dave said:
Hmm. Any opinions on AtlasOS?

Messed around with atlasos
And revios a while back
Last I looked there weren't anymore playbooks
Don't recall issues with them

Though again tested not as
A main OS
So not trying everything possible on them
To see if something didn't work

ED209 · 25 Jan 2026 at 12:17

I used to use the MSMGG toolkit to make my own ISOs but the developer has not been around for over a year and its not been updated in some time which is a shame.

Mcnumpty2323 · 25 Jan 2026 at 12:35

Have also made custom wim files
In the past
Though if you want the simplest option
Its probably not that

MarcLister · 28 Jan 2026 at 20:04

Could always give NTLite a go. Remove features you don't need, add updates/drivers and configure your Windows installation.

NTLite

Official NTLite website

www.ntlite.com

ED209 · 28 Jan 2026 at 20:20

MarcLister said:
Could always give NTLite a go. Remove features you don't need, add updates/drivers and configure your Windows installation.

NTLite

Official NTLite website

www.ntlite.com

Last time I checked this some features where locked behind a paywall as the free version does not do everything (Which is fair enough)

MarcLister · 28 Jan 2026 at 20:52

ED209 said:
Last time I checked this some features where locked behind a paywall as the free version does not do everything (Which is fair enough)

That's still the case. 40 Euros for the personal version.

j.col · 1 Feb 2026 at 09:21

A little late, but i created a stripped down Win 11 usb following Chris Titus guide on YT.

adidan · 1 Feb 2026 at 09:28

May want to change your thread title @BS Dave , I'm presuming you're not after a 'slimed' down fresh install or is that a Freudian slip?

ED209 · 1 Feb 2026 at 14:05

j.col said:
A little late, but i created a stripped down Win 11 usb following Chris Titus guide on YT.

What video did you follow or did you use his tool to create the Windows ISO?

hornetstinger · 1 Feb 2026 at 14:05

ED209 said:
What video did you follow or did you use his tool to create the Windows ISO?

Chris Titus, checkout youtube.

ED209 · 1 Feb 2026 at 14:08

hornetstinger said:
Chris Titus, checkout youtube.

I've seen his videos and subbed to his channel as well.

I've used his tool to remove stuff from Windows and know it has a feature at the end to create an ISO from the original 1.

hornetstinger · 1 Feb 2026 at 14:09

ED209 said:
I've seen his videos and subbed to his channel as well.

I've used his tool to remove stuff from Windows and know it has a feature at the end to create an ISO from the original 1.

yeah. I use a premade ISO image.

I used to use N Lite on older versions of windows as you could slipstream service packs.

ED209 · 1 Feb 2026 at 14:22

hornetstinger said:
yeah. I use a premade ISO image.

I used to use N Lite on older versions of windows as you could slipstream service packs.

i'll take another look at this and how it goes.

j.col · 3 Feb 2026 at 08:22

ED209 said:
What video did you follow or did you use his tool to create the Windows ISO?

I think its this one

He sells an easy to use .exe but also does it free, if you watch the guide and use the github link in the comments.

Django x2 · 3 Feb 2026 at 11:54

I have a solid repo here for the which I use for the ASUS XBAX. You can tweak the apps, buts it's far more succinct than Chris Ts "live" version. The only way you can truly remove Windows bloat is by modifying the WIM, or doing it during WinPE/OOBE (which is what my script does).

Provides full logging to event viewer and outputs a text file too. Just follow the readme, but also feel free to ask if you have any questions.

As an aside, this will work well with for any PC, but particularly gaming rigs where I see on average 20 to 40 FPS up over a vanilla W11 build.

GitHub - you-are-on-mute/unattend-ally: An Unattended Windows 11 deployment for the ASUS ROG XBOX ALLY and ALLY X

An Unattended Windows 11 deployment for the ASUS ROG XBOX ALLY and ALLY X - you-are-on-mute/unattend-ally

github.com