De-crapping windows 10

[Roland]

Hi Y'all, Roland here from the netherlands.

A while ago I heard steve talking about making the move to windows 10 and i remember him saying that he would tweak his win10 install to get rid of all the useless stuff. I have searched old episodes to see if that ever was a topic during a security now episode but i cannot find it.

Does anyone else know it this was ever discussed ?

P.s. this is my first post here so be gentle

 

[Barry Wallis]

Hi Y'all, Roland here from the netherlands.

A while ago I heard steve talking about making the move to windows 10 and i remember him saying that he would tweak his win10 install to get rid of all the useless stuff. I have searched old episodes to see if that ever was a topic during a security now episode but i cannot find it.

Does anyone else know it this was ever discussed ?

P.s. this is my first post here so be gentle

Steve uses an MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) subscription to get the Long Term Servicing Branch version of Windows 10. This is the one businesses who don't want to update frequently use. Check out Security Now! 710 and search for Long Term Service Channel.

Gentle enough?

 

[AlanD]

A lot of people use ShutUp10 as a starting point.

O&O ShutUp10++ - O&O Software GmbH

www.oo-software.com

 

[Steve]

O&O AppBuster: https://www.oo-software.com/en/ooappbuster

 

[AlexC]

I've been using Windows 10 Education (free key through my university) on my main desktop for years and I prefer it to Windows 10 Pro. Less crap, gives more control and I think it has more features too. It certainly doesn't have candy crush or any advertising.

Windows 10 editions - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Simon Zerafa]

Hi,

I've been informed that installing the Windows 10 N versions may be worth trying. The N versions apparently don't include much of the additional stuff that is basically filler or unnecessary for Windows to work. You can add back the specific features that the N version deliberatly omits if you need them.

I've not had the opertunity to test this but I will once the opertunity arrises.

Licence keys for N and non-N versions are common so activation shouldn't be an issue.

Kind Regards

Simon

 

[Fritz Hurst]

O&O AppBuster: https://www.oo-software.com/en/ooappbuster

I've used AppBuster. Get mixed results. If I run it for myself it does get rid of a lot of the stuff. But has left some on that I know I clicked.

I have tried to run it as Admin and selected remove for all. It doesn't seem to do anything.

So, I've just taken to running it a few times. That usually does the trick.

 

[PHolder]

I prefer it to Windows 10 Pro. Less crap, gives more control and I think it has more features too. It certainly doesn't have candy crush or any advertising.

Pro does give a little more control, yes, but the rest of what you describe is not attributable to Pro, but to the fact that you're getting a volume licensed version of Windows. Companies and Universities get treated differently (better) than consumers. I have Windows 10 Pro licenses as a consumer and I get all the crap that I have to disable and remove.

 

[Barry Wallis]

Hi,

I've been informed that installing the Windows 10 N versions may be worth trying. The N versions apparently don't include much of the additional stuff that is basically filler or unnecessary for Windows to work. You can add back the specific features that the N version deliberatly omits if you need them.

I've not had the opertunity to test this but I will once the opertunity arrises.

Licence keys for N and non-N versions are common so activation shouldn't be an issue.

Kind Regards

Simon

Do you have a link for this?

 

[Simon Zerafa]

Hi @Barry Wallis

Not sure what you mean by a link? Do you need the install Media for Windows 10 N?

If so, I use the free Windows ISO Download App by heidoc.net via:

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/techn...icrosoft-windows-and-office-iso-download-tool

This will let you download the install Media for lots of different Microsoft apps (all legally) quite easily. Download the Windows 10 N media as an ISO and creare a USB install media from it and give it a go!

Please let us know how you get on if you try this.

Kind Regards

Simon Zerafa

 

[Roland]

Thanks everyone, i will check out all the links and info.

 

[drwtsn32]

Windows 10 LTSC is nice, but beware: there are some software applications that don't officially support it. We don't use it at my work because Office 365 desktop apps and Autodesk products are not supported, among others.

 

[micsaund]

Windows 10 LTSC is nice, but beware: there are some software applications that don't officially support it. We don't use it at my work because Office 365 desktop apps and Autodesk products are not supported, among others.

Not nit-picking, but I'm curious -- do they not work or are they just unsupported?

The latest Win10 update appears to have blown-up access to my network printer (it pings from the Win10 machine, it prints from my Linux machine, but Win10 now thinks it's turned-off...) As such, I've contemplated moving to LTSC on my machine machine as I'm just tired of crap randomly stopping working after updates. But, I do use Office 365, hence my curiosity.

As a home user, the idea of 'support' for Office 365 is not something I am really bothered by, as long as it actually works.

Thanks!

 

[Vela Nanashi]

Of course brave souls might try out libreoffice as a replacement for office 365, and gimp, inkscape and others as replacement for various CS applications, of course I know once you learn a tool you want to keep using it

 

[drwtsn32]

Not nit-picking, but I'm curious -- do they not work or are they just unsupported?

I don't really know to be honest. It is possible for manufacturers to block installation on certain Windows versions, but I kind of doubt they'd do that.

My guess is the applications would probably work, as the "current" LTSC is basically Windows 10 1809.

 

[drwtsn32]

Of course brave souls might try out libreoffice as a replacement for office 365

Maybe Excel and Word, but what about Outlook? I really like Outlook and haven't seen alternatives that come close and support native protocols for Exchange (or Office 365) mailboxes.

 

[Vela Nanashi]

I use thunderbird for email, I replaced outlook with that, I can't say I know if it can do all the things outlook can and talk to microsoft's protocols, so someone else would have to figure that out.

 

[Vela Nanashi]

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1176527 <-- this says no, but there may be a solution, depending on the company/admin of the exchange/office 365...

 

[ggerke]

While it technically doesn't remove the junk from the default Win10 Start menu I guess I took a different path. Stardock has a product called Start10 that replaces the Win10 Start menu with something that looks like what came with Win7. There's an option for flipping back to the Win10 Start menu should you need it but so far I haven't found a reason to.

I've used Libreoffice for years; I'm not enough of a power MS Office user to need the full/overblown MS Office.

obligatory disclaimer: Not connected to Stardock other than as a customer

 

[PHolder]

Stardock has a product called Start10

Great tool, but not free is it? I have used the free one formerly Classic Shell, since abandoned then refreshed as open source, and now called Open Shell, and it worked great also.

Welcome to Open-Shell

Classic Shell Reborn.

open-shell.github.io