Things you can do to clean up a fresh install of Windows 11 24H2 and Edge

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/what-i-do-to-clean-up-a-clean-install-of-windows-11-23h2-and-edge/

by mastazi • 1 year ago

32 18 1 year ago

arstechnica.com

1970-01-013• 1 year ago

Fresh install? Hit it with Blackbird and enjoy.

https://www.getblackbird.net/screenshots/

blackeyeblitzar2• 1 year ago

The documentation page of that website is pretty interesting. Can disabling all those things break Windows in some way, like making updates not work or something like that?

1970-01-013• 1 year ago

Of course, that's the entire point of having 'admin' power over the OS..

     blackbird -d = Enable/Disable Windows Defender.
     blackbird -u = Enable/Disable auto-installation of Windows updates / Sets to manual download and install only.
     blackbird -m = Enable/Disable auto-installation of Malicious Removal Tool updates.

exceptione• 1 year ago

That looks daring! But any update can undo privacy measures.

I think the safest option is to not allow windows any network access. But that can be a pain in a dev vm, something like visual studio needs to talk with a trillion domains for installing. An MS does not provide static ip-lists for anything azure.

The whole Windows ecosystem experience is such a backwardness, each time I can shut down a win vm I feel relief.

out-of-ideas2• 1 year ago

last updated 2022 though; i'd assume it is outdated for win11 though im unsure if it syncs its actions against something more recently maintained

andy800• 1 year ago

Install StartAllBack and choose the Windows 7 theme. Even if you dont care about the other UI improvements like the older Start Menu, it's worth it just for the improvements to the clock and calendar - the analog clock especially.

codedokode• 1 year ago

I don't understand how cloud Windows accounts work. Will you be able to log into your computer if Microsoft bans you or you end up in the US sanction list?

Also those who are willing to go to great lengths tuning Windows should consider using Linux - not only it has more opportunities for "tuning", but as a bonus you'll be able to fix the errors in the source code.

anotherhue• 1 year ago

This is a sign of an abusive relationship.

If you have the stomach for this, you have the stomach for Ubuntu and a Looking Glass VM for whatever software won't run under wine (which is a lot).

mastazi• 1 year ago

Link to Looking Glass for anyone interested https://looking-glass.io/

vagab0nd• 1 year ago

My use for Windows has been shrinking rapidly over the years. The last holdout seems to be HDR gaming, which, unfortunately, Looking Glass doesn't seem to support yet.

sitkack• 1 year ago

There is a whole subreddit devoted to "fixing" windows. https://old.reddit.com/r/TronScript/

ankurdhama• 1 year ago

What kind of bubble the "product managers" of Windows are living in? Does anyone of them actually tries a new install of Windows or are they entirely focused on just incrementing some stats counter on some telemetry based dashboard?

TowerTall• 1 year ago

They all run Windows 11 Enterprise configured by Microsoft's IT department, so no.

Things you can do to clean up a fresh install of Windows 11 24H2 and Edge

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