Best windows debloater/annoyance fixer??

katie279 · 2 Feb 2024 at 06:50

Hi all,

Find myself installing new PCs not too uncommonly at home and I find more and more it's less about installing the software I need (ie Windows, Adobe, Steam etc etc) which is all pretty slick/driverless installs these days and more about picking through registry/pc settings to remove all the stupid MS 'innovations' - this is what really takes the time up.

Examples being the total ad-ridden, bing-riddled mess that is the start menu - I want to just see my applications, not silly search results.

Likewise I'm faffing around with the doubling of clicks in the windows explorer right click as they've hidden all the useful options (eg 7zip options are hidden under 'more options')

I know there's a few, but what's the wisdom on the best software to fix these things in one go??

Philtor · 2 Feb 2024 at 07:57

Have a look at Windows 11 debloater

ED209 · 2 Feb 2024 at 08:55

You could try this tool - command is ran using PowerShell with elevated permissions (Ran as admin)

iwr -useb https://christitus.com/win | iex

Video from the creator on YT

One Utility for Everything

BIG UPDATE: New programs, export/import feature, cleaner interface and MORE! .►► Digital Downloads ➜ https://www.cttstore.com►► Reddit ➜ https://www.reddit.c...

youtu.be

Github links, all open source as well.

GitHub - ChrisTitusTech/winutil: Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility - Install Programs, Tweaks, Fixes, and Updates

Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility - Install Programs, Tweaks, Fixes, and Updates - ChrisTitusTech/winutil

github.com

Windows update scripts

winutil/functions/public/Invoke-WPFUpdatessecurity.ps1 at main · ChrisTitusTech/winutil

Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility - Install Programs, Tweaks, Fixes, and Updates - ChrisTitusTech/winutil

github.com

winutil/functions/public/Invoke-WPFUpdatesdisable.ps1 at main · ChrisTitusTech/winutil

Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility - Install Programs, Tweaks, Fixes, and Updates - ChrisTitusTech/winutil

github.com

I did post this under the Windows 11 section on here as well.

Murphy · 2 Feb 2024 at 09:09

Personally I'd advise using a combination of O&O ShutUp and AppBuster for someone who isn't too sure of what does what as from all my experimentation they were about the only one that did both a good job of explaining what each option does but also having the least placebo settings (changing things that either don't apply to a particular version of Windows, changing superseded settings, etc, etc).

That's not to say what others have posted so far are bad it's just I've tended to find some of the more 'hobbyist' programs can be a bit outdated or simply wrong when it comes to the correct registry setting that they change. That's no slight on them as i know people can for some reason get rather defensive over their favourite software and it's damn hard to keep track of the multiple of thousands of registry settings and whether MS have changed or depreciated certain ones so it's to be expected that these sorts of programs will have settings in them that either don't work any more or are simply not doing what they claim.

Mcnumpty2323 · 2 Feb 2024 at 09:37

I like winaero tweaker
Got some very useful things in it

And for installing the software you need
I use a custom winget script
Can do similar here

https://winstall.app/

Either upload your own script for later use/share with others
Or download pre made app packages
Or pick individual apps and make your own package
It's a bit like ninite but has far more apps available

ED209 · 2 Feb 2024 at 13:49

Nice to see a list of software\apps that people use.

Ill take a look at the others to see what they are like as well as you can never have too many

Mcnumpty2323 · 2 Feb 2024 at 14:14

And if you are doing it regularly
Why not do 1
And once you set everything up as you want it
Make an image of that
Then just deploy that image every time
Shouldn't really matter if you deploy it
To slightly different hardware
Windows is pretty resilient to that nowadays

When I have to install from an external drive
I use a Samsung t7 1TB USB drive
Doesn't take very long using usb c connection
Approximately 1GBs
Might be slower if using usb c to usb A
Not tried the slower method
But probably would be 5GBs so 500MBs Approximately
Still plenty fast enough

katie279 · 2 Feb 2024 at 21:35

This is amazing folks! Way cooler than I thought there'd be! Run the Titus script today and fixed almost all the annoyances.

Also didn't know about winstall.app - knew ninite but exactly as you say it lacked lots of the apps I use. Definitely gonna create my own install set, this'll be great!