I’ll be honest… the last Windows release that I’ve actually used was Windows XP. I’ve ran Linux and turned my PC into a hackintosh. Moved from hackintosh to actual Macs and so on. I’ve installed Windows 8.1 in a viritual machine to check it out and it was a nightmare. I didn’t even know how to shut it down. I just forced shut down the VM and deleted it.
But recently, I had to install Windows 10 on a friend’s machine. I tried to explain that Windows 10 is a privacy nightmare and there’s better OS choices out there, but he insisted so I didn’t push.
Long story short here’s how to debloat, stop telemetry and automatic updates on Windows 10. There’s a shitload more to do, which I won’t go into becasue I refuse to promote Windows ( even though I respect people’s OS choices as long as they know the risks/benefits ). Just know that at the end of the day there’s no silver bullet when it comes to closed-source, proprietary OS’ ( macOS included ).
ALSO READ Chocolatey: The Missing Package Manager for Windows
1. Right click on the start menu and choose Windows PowerShell (Admin)
2. Click Yes
3. Copy-paste this, into PowerShell iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://git.io/debloat')) . Learn more about the script here.
4. This will bring up the Windows10Debloater app. Go ahead and click on Remove All Bloatware.
4.1 Check out the progess in the PowerShell. When the process is done you will see the script outputs Finish all tasks.
4.2 Next I would suggest taking advantage of the other options like stopping Edge PDF takeover and uninstalling OneDrive if you don’t use it. You can even disable Cortana ( recommended ). If you don’t want to do that make sure you Disable Telemetry/Tasks and Remove Bloatware Regkeys.
That’s it, you’re pretty much done. However, I’d like to show you how to take care of those awfull Windows updates.
1. First go to Start>Settings>Update & Security and check if you have any updates. Once you’re up to date, click on Advanced Options
2. Go to Delivery Optimization
3. Turn OFF Allow downloads from other PCs
4. Download Windows Update Blocker
5. Run WUB, select Disable Updates and Protect Services Settings and click Apply Now. When you want to update Windows, run WUB > Enable Updates, update Windows and disable the updates again.
That’s pretty much it. Word to the wise: if you don’t absolutely need to run Windows, I suggest you take a look at a few Linux distros. Linux today isn’t what it used to be a few years ago.
It’s light and fast, don’t need to thinker with it out of the box as much as you used to ( if at all ), gaming on Linux gets better and better etc etc etc. But yes, Adobe programs are still an issue. You can get around it, but it’s not the most up to date and pretty solution.
However, don’t get fooled by the “Linux works on everything” mantra. No, it doesen’t. Reasearch your components before you install Linux to avoid headaches or, better yet just install a few distros in VirtualBox or boot from the live image and make sure WiFi works, sound works and so on.
