I’m generally skeptical of Windows optimization tools because they tend to change a lot of low-level settings and make troubleshooting harder later on. When someone already has a broken system, it’s often difficult to figure out what’s wrong once a tool like this has touched everything.
This one looks more like a PowerShell automation and debloating script for power users than a classic one-click optimizer, but it still requires knowing exactly what each tweak does. Used without that understanding, tools like this can easily create confusing problems.
Is there any info on the impact of such tools, like do they have any specific performance improvements (startup time, memory use)? How much Gb of bloat is actually removed?
I would instead suggest two things for power users: installing Windows using autounattend.xml[1], and secondly visiting the mass graves to turn your Windows install into Enterprise (or, if you can wrangle it, get an Education licence from your academic institution/alma mater), which completely gets rid of all consumer-oriented stuff.
To be honest, I don't mind the Windows games. In fact I believe the ones shipped with XP, Vista, and 7 were top-notch. What I mind is games with annoying advertisements in them. I mind when my Weather program is not native and is a glorified web app, also ridden with advertisements.
Be careful with the "debloat" features in scripts like this.
In my experience, aggressively stripping out AppX packages and disabling services often breaks windows update or the Microsoft store in subtle ways that don't manifest until 3-6 months down the line. You'll eventually try to install a feature update, it will fail with a cryptic error code, and you'll realize it's because you removed a dependency that the new update expects to be present.
If you really want a clean windows environment, you are better off getting an IoT enterprise LTSC license. It is boring, stable, has zero bloat and doesn't require hacking the registry to stop candy crush from reinstalling itself.
That said, it feels like a constant arms race. Microsoft introduces a new user-hostile pattern (like making local accounts harder to create), the community builds a workaround and then Microsoft patches the workaround. I am tired of fighting my own OS.
I setup both a Windows and Linux VM and give them both the EXACT config from the hypervisor, including GPU passthrough and CPU Host.
The Linux VM runs faster in some games designed for Windows, running on Proton.
I read somewhere that Microsoft admitted Windows is bloated. Which surprised me since I didn't think anyone in the top 150 of Microsoft even knew Windows still existed, but it's a step in the right direction.
This was the first time in 10 years using Windows again, I wanted to play nice and pulled the MS Windows license key from my laptops firmware and used that to get a legitimate copy going. It worked!
Then Windows hit me in the face: because I went the legitimate way they downgraded me to Windows Home and I can't use Remote Desktop.
This got a good laugh out of me. God this software is so hostile to you.
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[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 35.1 ms ] thread(Asking as I don't have a Windows box of any kind around to test, as I'm not a masochist and therefore all of my machines run Linux or macOS)
This one looks more like a PowerShell automation and debloating script for power users than a classic one-click optimizer, but it still requires knowing exactly what each tweak does. Used without that understanding, tools like this can easily create confusing problems.
It seems to work OK: it didn’t break anything, and disabled some Windows annoyances but not all.
It’s closed source so I don’t fully trust it, but I’m not keeping anything sensitive.
To be honest, I don't mind the Windows games. In fact I believe the ones shipped with XP, Vista, and 7 were top-notch. What I mind is games with annoying advertisements in them. I mind when my Weather program is not native and is a glorified web app, also ridden with advertisements.
[1]: https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/
If you really want a clean windows environment, you are better off getting an IoT enterprise LTSC license. It is boring, stable, has zero bloat and doesn't require hacking the registry to stop candy crush from reinstalling itself.
That said, it feels like a constant arms race. Microsoft introduces a new user-hostile pattern (like making local accounts harder to create), the community builds a workaround and then Microsoft patches the workaround. I am tired of fighting my own OS.
I setup both a Windows and Linux VM and give them both the EXACT config from the hypervisor, including GPU passthrough and CPU Host.
The Linux VM runs faster in some games designed for Windows, running on Proton.
I read somewhere that Microsoft admitted Windows is bloated. Which surprised me since I didn't think anyone in the top 150 of Microsoft even knew Windows still existed, but it's a step in the right direction.
This was the first time in 10 years using Windows again, I wanted to play nice and pulled the MS Windows license key from my laptops firmware and used that to get a legitimate copy going. It worked!
Then Windows hit me in the face: because I went the legitimate way they downgraded me to Windows Home and I can't use Remote Desktop.
This got a good laugh out of me. God this software is so hostile to you.
shutdown ? /s