The Secrets to Un-Bloating Windows 10 64

[xInfaRedx]

Hi. I am 100% totally new to PC's. For 1-2 months now I've had mine (purchased for and used for 100% gaming only) all is well, running fine.

 

Being who I am during this time, I also wanted to make sure to turn everything I don't use or need of, disable all stuff un-needed, de-bloat, etc.. And biggest thing - **Make sure all auto updates are turned off permanently, not just temporarily**.

 

So I am pretty sure I did most things. Watching tutorials, etc.. I even disabled my WiFi on it cause I will never use it and I felt it was getting in the way sometimes of a super quick ethernet connection. (just to let you know how I am). lol

 

But I need any advanced advice and help, tips and pointers on any and all advanced level settings, tweaks and optimization I can do to have my system 100% focused on gaming alone. Everything else disabled, off, etc.. The main thing concern I have now is my auto Updating still seems to be doing some things even though I totally disabled it the advanced way via GPE on some tutorial I seen.

 

I feel this thread could also help others, so thanks for helping if you can !

Edited July 23, 2020 by xInfaRedx

[RitualBlack]

Most computers have such an abundance of resources to spare the best thing you can do is disable as many of the more invasive Windows 10 features as you can since few tweaks will give you a tangible benefit. I wouldn't start doing all the GPO and registry tweaks 'youtube gurus' suggest unless you are aware of exactly what they do as you could potentially run into some minor error down the road and not remember what all you messed with to fix it. You're unlikely to ever notice a difference from their tweaks unless the PC is fighting for resources with your applications anyways. As far as bloat goes, if you use a RGB keyboard and/or system lighting the software that runs them will likely have more 'bloat' in terms of memory usage than all of the windows features you have actively disabled combined. Likewise, many software OC utilities are quite bloated also so if you are doing CPU/memory overclocking I would highly recommend using the BIOS to do it. For example, my PC idle uses between 0-1% of it's 5 year old CPU, about 5% of its memory and ~0% of the disc/network. Launching a game like Dota 2 @ 4K ultra I will only use maybe 40% of the CPU and 10-15% of my memory total. Realistically the best thing you can do is be sure your running things on speedy SSDs and disable any startup tasks you don't actually need. I don't even disable regular auto-updates as they carry security patches, just set them to download and update when you're not usually active on your PC. For example I have my Windows 10 active hours set between 5:00pm and 1:00pm to not update. Just be careful about feature updates as early adopters can run into issues, often putting those updates off until it is recommended to move to them is not an awful decision.

 

We live in a bit of a strange time where everyone is so concerned about squeezing every last byte of memory they can out of things and then go and use cosmetic manufacturer lighting software and a VPN tunnel (while at the same time they go and sign into google and facebook so why even reduce your web browsing experience with a VPN at all?). When operating systems were 32 bit or lower and there were memory restrictions that we could easily hit it made a lot of sense to get your OS down to like only like 100MB of ram used (that low is not really possible on 64 bit Windows) since that would leave you like 1.8GB and then your say 512MB vram pool. Today we can be incredibly resource-wasteful and not even notice the effects of it.

[xInfaRedx]

Thanks for chiming in with input to help BeyondTom !

 

So I might have come off like I am doing this for resources, etc.. But I agree with you. As my computer specs are also ridiculous dope ! And its not really about that for me. Though I will tell you, when I disabled wifi and removed all networks except "Network 1" - my internet speed jumped up from 600mb/s to 940 mb/s. (I pay for 1gb/s) - So seriously, windows is a mess. Believe it. Its things like that, tips like that that Im looking for as a side note. (less important)

 

Most important is -its more of a issue with auto updates. Them things are invasive and more times than not completely ruin a system once it set up for something, cause the something might not be compatible with a piece of the update. One rule of thumb I know is, if you got a computer running perfect, and don't add or update any of your regularly used apps/games/etc.., then NEVER let it update, as what you got is all perfectly compatible. So until I update something else, I do not want my Windows system updating any of itself. (figured this was common knowledge by now). The driver epidemic thanks to windows updates is famous. Look it up. Updates can ruin everything, just like not updating *when needed* can ruin things. So you want to control it manually when it does update, cause only you know when is best.

 

Anyway, just curious if anyone got them advanced tips on how I can get in deep and stop this thing from updating. So any advice for those that are savvy at that, please let me know the secret.

[HeyYou]

So far as I know, it simply isn't possible to completely turn off updates on win 10. You don't really want to anyway. You can dramatically reduce which updates you get, by setting the internet connection up as "metered", windows will only do necessary security updates that way.

 

Biggest thing you want to do for network speeds, is turn off all the telemetry that win 10 comes with. There is a script out there in the world that will do most of it. It's called "Reclaim Windows 10." You can also set up 'active hours', so windows won't update/restart during those hours.

[xInfaRedx]

Thanks for responding with some info HeyYou ! So with all due humble respect, why would I not want to completely turn off updates ? To my knowledge updates cause problems if you update 1 thing, but not another that then may need to be once you did the other update, lol The ol catch 22 all the time.. Especially with PC's. I'm new to PC's but been around the tech world long enough to know and see this as gospel. I'd like to hear where youre coming from on this. Much appreciated !

 

That said - how do you set the metering ? I believe I tried that from a tutorial, as by default its set to 80% windows updates, 20% user. Which is ridiculous and the guy said to make it 100% user 0 windows. But when I went in to try that, my choices looked different than his, and which (left side/right side) means what ? Every way I tried made my internet slower, so I put it back to default. But I would like to get to the bottom of that setting.

 

What is "telemetry" ? And yes I will do that, can you please walk me through the procedures ?

[RitualBlack]

The reason to maintain updates is for system security and stability. In my games library I have played from late release windows xp through 10 (skipped vista and 8.0) I have only came across one patch which has had a significant negative performance impact. It was on Windows 7 and it only applied to Resident Evil 5 (which I uninstalled the specific update and was fine). It is extremely unlikely that a general security update for example would cause you system instability. Feature updates as I mentioned are a good idea to wait on until they have thoroughly tested it. I can't even recall a single blue screen or system crash on my current PC in the 4-5 years it has been operational.

 

The telementry information is what your PC sends back to Microsoft which in general I always set to as little as possible. A metered connection can be found in your network settings. This will allow you to further restrict data usage within windows.

[xInfaRedx]

Cool, thanks for the info BT. So I guess I have no real issues then and am doing best I can, because that was the thing that happened. Even though I got all updates turned off on a GPE level, it auto updated a system security thing. And I had a worry that it meant it wasn't working and the next OS update that comes along with a slew of incompatible drivers lol would wreak havoc on my Nvidia card, etc.. like the stories I've heard of recently. Windows is so invasive its not even funny.

 

But it sounds lie from what you guys are saying is, even if you go to a root level to turn them things off, system security/stability updates will happen regardless ? If so, then hopefully I am fine. And good to know you've had no issues.

 

Ok them telementry (such a funny word isn't it?) things I believe that was the first thing I did on my own. As they were not too hard to come across. And I am a severe and diehard privacy advocate so them type of things are the first things I disable. I didn't need a tutorial for those. BUT if you guys are saying there is some advanced deeper settings of those to get into (this Reclaim Windows 10 thing), then please share ! Walk me through it. But the "metered connection" things I found were completely the opposite, as they were to limit my data usage ! But HeyYou was making it seem like there is a metered place that limits windows updates ? Please clarify guys.

[Thandal]

Also, there's a built-in Windows utility called "Disk Cleanup" that will allow you to remove those temp and "roll-back" files that result from the updates. Once you're sure everything is working properly after an update, click "Start", type "Disk Cleanup" and select how thorough a cleaning you want to do. :thumbsup:

[RitualBlack]

I just do regular driver updates for my GPU every 1-2 months or when a big title comes out. I use a GTX 1080 FE which has served me very well since the launch of the card back in 2016, updates have not broke drivers once. Possibly if you do an OS upgrade and were to use Windows 7 drivers with 10 there would be some errors but don't worry about general windows quality/definition updates ruining things for you. That being said, with Windows 10 there are 'feature updates' so I usually hold off on those unless there is a new feature I need. Then about a month or two before the exiting version is nearing 'end of life support' I will update. I still do the regular security and stability updates often though, just not the overhauls until I need them or my existing version is losing support.

 

People are very paranoid (and rightly so) when it comes to Windows. I always manually disable a lot whenever I do a Windows install. I feel the fear of updating was likely rooted back in the xp days. I always disabled updates even before the OS was decommissioned. Things like drivers and such were an absolute mess with xp and if you happened to installed a new service pack you would potentially be risking some incompatibility with older or legacy drivers from what I remember. That was a larger issue for enterprise companies as specialized software often is build for one OS and if it happens to control a hundred thousand dollar+ instrument you can't lose functionality of it. I haven't used the 'reclaim windows 10' scripts users have made but that could be an effective way to speed up the process, especially if you're not 100% sure what to do on your own. Just be sure the script is from a very safe source and the person posting has a lot of reputation. For example, it is on github I would verify that the user is an active account and there are a lot of people following the project.

 

As for metered connections, years ago I would always use them when the area I lived at the time offered extremely slow internet and even a family member opening a youtube video could cause unresponsiveness. Running a metered connection will not impact active applications, just limit background usages. I don't use it anymore but it can definitely be a way to further control the updates if that is a concern for you.

[xInfaRedx]

Also, there's a built-in Windows utility called "Disk Cleanup" that will allow you to remove those temp and "roll-back" files that result from the updates. Once you're sure everything is working properly after an update, click "Start", type "Disk Cleanup" and select how thorough a cleaning you want to do. :thumbsup:

 

Absolutely awesome info. Thanks ! I will try this.