Been a Windows 7 user and this is the first time where I will be using Windows 10, so I want to know how to ensure my Windows 10 installation is tweaked and bloat-free.
First install Windows 10, activate it, learn how to use it and only then start look what and how to disable... For example, I have not banned anything other than Cortana and background processes and I don't see any need to disable or remove anything else. There is no need to start inventing problems that do not really exist and all kinds of phobias are completely useless.
one must 1. remove all bloated win10 apps 2. ms-settingsrivacy disable every tab 3. disable all hidden scheduled Tasks 4. disable services used for telemetery
One man's trash is another man's treasure. Disabling privacy settings will break some Windows apps, like Location for Weather or Maps. Disabling push services will cripple notifications. Does not some of your software work after the upgrade, well when you disable compatibility tasks, it will not, because compatibility updates will be disabled. Good luck getting it to work. Windows is moving towards app like interface, so avoiding store apps is no longer an option. Removing Cortana might break Start, interacting with taskbar, like pinning shortcuts, etc. I was always trying to disable/remove anything I could find, but it was causing more trouble than it was worth, lately installing chipset drivers crippled Windows, so I take it easy now.
I apologize in advance for being off-topic, and I know you're not a n00b at this, so I'm slightly confused as to why you would say that. So far, with LTSB/C I've managed to avoid the MS store completely. My gaming pc's motherboard supposedly requires a Nahimic audio store app but I use the default MS driver with Breakaway Audio Enhancer instead which makes audio sound better than anything I've ever tried. I have a Lenovo laptop that requires the Lenovo Vantage app for certain settings and I manually installed it. I'm not trying to be confrontational here, just wondering why you said that.
I am not sure, how to word it correctly, they are not store apps per say, but Cortana, Search, Start, Settings and some parts of Windows are already app based, like they require runtimebroker or aplicationframework to work correctly. Windows File Explorer is next. In the first Windows 10 version, store, cortana, apps, all could be easily uninstalled/removed, but that is not the case lately, because it would a break lot. I have been battling it within every upgrade and I have to admit, that I lost. I have even installed AV, I do not need/want, just to disable Windows Defender, because if I disable WD completely, it also breaks something. It is all interconnected and I am tired of looking how to get everything working again every 6 months.
People should first check the MDL MRP project, it handles most of the popular settings/tweaks and many can be reversed when needed.
It is MDL policy, not to post third party ISO and I have the same policy about using third party tools. If I can not do it myself, like by mimicking tweaks from blackbird, I will pass.
The script is „open-source“, because it’s a script. You can extract the registry entries and all other things from the script, if you take a look at the script(s) The tool has its home on MDL and if it wouldn’t be trustworthy, it wouldn’t be here for that long time.
With that thought process ALL MDL projects are considered third party, MRP can't be compared to sharing/advising to use homebrew ISOs, it's a branding project and evolved in a tweaking project that utilizes tweaks and settings during windows installation, which for the larger part simply can be reversed, all warnings are inside the info balloons when hovering over the options inside the configcreator.