Stripped down Windows 10 for gaming?

Django x2 · 23 Oct 2019 at 19:11

I do this a lot:

1. PS Script (I can share) that will whitelist the important things and give you the option to remove the rest
2. Cortana can be managed by local policy
3. Do it to an offline image and the bloat will never re-appear
4. Don't use LTSB if you rely on updates and having the latest and greatest W10 version.

wiiija · 23 Oct 2019 at 19:29

Code:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage

I always run that, it permanently removes all the apps. Run in powershell. Removes the store too though so beware if you use it.

willhub · 24 Oct 2019 at 10:42

LTSB would be viable for my laptop wouldn't it ? With a GTX1070 and a 7820HK it's not going to have any hardware changes that would be incompatible.

Django x2 said:
I do this a lot:

1. PS Script (I can share) that will whitelist the important things and give you the option to remove the rest
2. Cortana can be managed by local policy
3. Do it to an offline image and the bloat will never re-appear
4. Don't use LTSB if you rely on updates and having the latest and greatest W10 version.

So what in total has been removed from your Windows 10 install?

ChrisD. · 24 Oct 2019 at 10:44

I don't understand why on earth people would want to run LTSB on personal computers?

AHarvey · 24 Oct 2019 at 13:14

willhub said:
So what in total has been removed from your Windows 10 install?

When I used to run my script on the call centre Win10 machines it would remove all games, the store, Cortana and any other unwanted apps that it came with.

Used to target them with specific names instead of a general one.

Deleted member 77746 · 24 Oct 2019 at 16:02

Django x2 said:
PS Script (I can share) that will whitelist the important things and give you the option to remove the rest

Go on then.

wesley · 24 Oct 2019 at 16:25

Do ltsb get security updates?

ChrisD. · 24 Oct 2019 at 16:29

wesley said:
Do ltsb get security updates?

Yes but no feature. As I said before it's designed for hospital equipment, machinery etc.

wesley · 24 Oct 2019 at 18:11

ChrisD. said:
Yes but no feature. As I said before it's designed for hospital equipment, machinery etc.

As long it's getting the security updates. I don't see the problem with it on personal computers.

Deleted member 77746 · 24 Oct 2019 at 18:15

You can add things like the app store back on if you want it all depends what things you want too add. Probably easier to add than it is to take away.

Django x2 · 24 Oct 2019 at 19:26

wiiija said:
Code:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage

I always run that, it permanently removes all the apps. Run in powershell. Removes the store too though so beware if you use it.

No it doesn't. The next time you get a feature update or large cumulative update, they'll all drop back in. You need to remove them from an offline WIM to fully remove them.

Django x2 · 24 Oct 2019 at 19:32

mrbell1984 said:
Go on then.

Here you go. Name this removeapps.ps1 and run using the example:

Code:

    .\removeapps.ps1 -pathtowim c:\10\install.wim -selectapps $true -index 2

That will run the script against that location, allow you to select apps that aren't in the allowlist (whitelistedapps) and pull out Index 2 of the WIM (Win10 Pro of a W10 Business Edition ISO).

You can remove others from the whitelistedapps if you like, all that will do is ask you if you want to remove them. Be careful, some are required for W10 to work properly. In addition, others are needed if you want to use the store (such as DesktopAppInstaller).

You might prefer to extract the Index first, then run this script, which is actually my preferred method.

Code:

<#
.SYNOPSIS
    Removing Built-in apps from Windows 10
.DESCRIPTION
    Removing Built-in apps from Windows 10
.PARAMETER
    PathtoWim - Full path to .wim file.
    selectapps - activates the selection function
    index - allows the selection of an index. Default value is 1.
.EXAMPLE
    .\removeapps.ps1 -pathtowim c:\10\install.wim
    .\removeapps.ps1 -pathtowim c:\10\install.wim -selectapps $true
    .\removeapps.ps1 -pathtowim c:\10\install.wim -selectapps $true -index 2
.NOTES
    Script name: removeapps.ps1
    Version:     1.3
    Author:      Django x2
    Contact:     Dev
    DateCreated: 2018-07-22
    LastUpdate:  2019-01-20
    #>

param (
    [string]$pathtowim,
    [string]$selectapps,
    [string]$index="1"
    )
$Host.UI.RawUI.BackgroundColor = "DarkBlue"; Clear-Host
$startdate = (Get-Date).ToString()
$ProgressPreference=’SilentlyContinue’
$WhiteListedApps = @(
    "Microsoft.BingWeather",
    "Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller",
    "Microsoft.StorePurchaseApp",
    "Microsoft.Office.OneNote",
    "Microsoft.WindowsCalculator",
    "Microsoft.WindowsStore",
    "Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes",
    "Microsoft.HEIFImageExtension",
    "Microsoft.ScreenSketch",
    "Microsoft.VP9VideoExtensions",
    "Microsoft.Windows.Photos",
    "Microsoft.WebMediaExtensions",
    "Microsoft.WebpImageExtension",
    "Microsoft.WindowsMaps",
    "Microsoft.WindowsSoundRecorder"
    "Microsoft.MSPaint"
)
function CreateTempDirectory {
   $tmpDir = [System.IO.Path]::GetTempPath()
   $tmpDir = [System.IO.Path]::Combine($tmpDir, [System.IO.Path]::GetRandomFileName())
   [System.IO.Directory]::CreateDirectory($tmpDir) | Out-Null
   $tmpDir
   }

try {
    $pathworkfolder = CreateTempDirectory
    Write-Host "Start:" $startdate -ForegroundColor White
    Write-Host "Create temporary directory..." -ForegroundColor Green
    Write-Host "Temporary directory:" $pathworkfolder -ForegroundColor Green
    }

catch [Exception] {
    Write-Host "Error:" $_.Exception.Message -ForegroundColor Red; break
    }

try {
    Write-Host "Mounting Windows-Image..." $pathtowim -ForegroundColor Green
    Write-Host "Please wait..." -ForegroundColor White
    Mount-WindowsImage -Path $pathworkfolder -ImagePath $pathtowim -Index $index | Out-Null
    }

catch [Exception] {
    Write-Host "Mounting Windows-Image failed..." -ForegroundColor Red;
    Write-Host "Error:" $_.Exception.Message -ForegroundColor Red; break
    }

catch [Exception] {
    Write-Host "Removing Built-in apps failed..." -ForegroundColor Red;
    Write-Host "Error:" $_.Exception.Message -ForegroundColor Red; break
    }

try {
    Write-Host "Dismount-WindowsImage..." -ForegroundColor Green
    Write-Host "Please wait..." -ForegroundColor White
    Dismount-WindowsImage -Path $pathworkfolder  -Save -CheckIntegrity | Out-Null
    Write-Host "Remove temporary directory..." -ForegroundColor Green
    Remove-Item $pathworkfolder -Recurse -Force | Out-Null
    Write-Host "Complete:" (Get-Date).ToString() -ForegroundColor White
    }

catch [Exception] {
    Write-Host "Error:" $_.Exception.Message -ForegroundColor Red; break
    }

wiiija · 24 Oct 2019 at 21:01

Django x2 said:
No it doesn't. The next time you get a feature update or large cumulative update, they'll all drop back in. You need to remove them from an offline WIM to fully remove them.

They have never come back for me, even after numerous feature and cumulative updates.

Django x2 · 24 Oct 2019 at 21:58

wiiija said:
They have never come back for me, even after numerous feature and cumulative updates.

Trust me, they're then, ready to be fully re-enabled by MS whenever they are required (and some are to actually manage the updates in the first place)

AHarvey · 28 Oct 2019 at 10:05

I had this on our call centre desktops, they did drop back in. I set it as an automatic scheduled job to run every other night just in case

stockhausen · 2 Nov 2019 at 14:15

I'm not entirely convinced that no matter how well-intentioned they are the recommendations here are all that helpful to anyone not very familiar with Windows 10

I believe that there are two issues that impact on the migration from one release of Windows to the next:

The presence of pointless bloatware
The inferior applications that are present - e.g. Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup-vs- BleachBit or CCleaner

I suggest that to address the former, one might try putting "remove bloatware from windows 10" into Google.

Deleted member 77746 · 2 Nov 2019 at 14:18

stockhausen said:
I suggest that to address the former, one might try putting "remove bloatware from windows 10" into Google.

or even better use a system that doesn't come with it in the first place maybe?

if one can do that though.

Scort · 6 Nov 2019 at 15:50

ChrisD. said:
I don't understand why on earth people would want to run LTSB on personal computers?

An LTSB version of Windows 10, is a lot like Windows 7 - it's cut down and contains pretty much everything you need and none of the junk. I can see the draw to LTSB for gaming machines, as there is a lot of junk cut form it - junk that will/may end up pinching valuable resources, and/or providing another area of instability.

Windows 10, regardless of how well it does actually perform, is still filled with a lot of rubbish that people may not need - like the Store, the People thing, Mail, Calendar, OneDrive and so on and so forth. Certainly for Enterprise use, there is a heck load of junk that I will remove from the image, and none of it impacts the operating system - so it's just like the pre-loaded tat on a PC World special.

I personally see LTSB as a viable alternative for the performance user/gamer.

Deleted member 77746 · 6 Nov 2019 at 15:52

If anything it's the cost for a legit version it's pretty expensive.

Rroff · 6 Nov 2019 at 16:06

mrbell1984 said:
If anything it's the cost for a legit version it's pretty expensive.

Not trivial to get either unless you are a big organisation.

Stripped down Windows 10 for gaming?

Capodecina