I have to admit that I have already lost interest in the "playbook" debloat scheme. Since we are calling it "de-poop", these playbooks are like getting a bad case of diarrhea at a friend's house. You ask the friend where the restroom is, and the friend replies: It's all good, just drop trow right here, aim it at the ceiling fan. I'll put the ceiling fan on high. Just let all that poop fly! We'll clean it up later!
On second thought, I am curious on the Z Lag OS playbook. I will try that one to quench that curiousity. But all-in-all, I am really really REALLY not a fan of any "install first, debloat after-the-fact" philosophy.
Sadly, I must report that I am quite disappointed in Z Lag OS. Handles went from my 27,600 to 21,900, so that was good. Process count went UP (from 60 to 70). To each their own, as always, but this forced forced FORCED me to keep Windows Defender enabled. Sorry, but that's a show-stopper for my preferences. And this is a deep thorn in my side, I really HATE when themes like desktop and icons are ADDED to my OS when I am trying to DEBLOAT the OS. At least it didn't change folder and recycle bin icons, another very deep thorn in my side.
@jagoanku Re: Optimize-Offline You might want to mention the update provided here on MDL by @KedarWolf Optimize-Offline (gdeliana 7.3) - Windows 11 26H2 update These scripts were updated with Claude Code (Anthropic's AI coding assistant) to work with Windows 11 26H2 ISOs.
I have to view through my own "lens". I will visit the Optimize-Offline at some point, it's not going to be "fair" to compare my frame of reference debloat with any of these "playbook" approaches. For reference, my current debloat runs under 12,000 handles and only 35 processes. And it gets there in under 3 minutes of uptime instead of the 10+ minutes that these playbooks settle at. Granted, in full disclosure, I have only tested two of the playbooks. Letting the sh#t hit the fan FIRST and cleaning it up LATER is not the best route if one is "serious" about debloating. Spoiler: proof of my current debloat Bear in mind that this is LTSC 21H2 and 22H2 will not be as great, I could run 22H2 through my debloat process if requested.
@jagoanku, I am using the MDL Classic theme. @jagoanku, as you can see from the image - absolutely nothing that is highlighted is legible, because the chosen color is unsuitable in all the tables you posted. Perhaps a blue, dark blue or red color would be visible.
Not to mislead. Reminder that those numbers are inside a VM with only 2 GB RAM allocated. Hardware drivers on real machines will always bump those numbers some. The same EXACT iso installed onto my Dell XPS 8700 with four monitors runs at - 39 processes 466 threads 13,983 handles 1.3 GB RAM [16 GB installed] (note that Windows dynamically allocates RAM as a function of how much is available to begin with!) Disconnect three of the monitors (not a huge difference, but a difference nonetheless) - 37 processes 416 threads 12,681 handles 1.1 GB RAM
But you must state which version of Windows those are! There are gigantic process count differences between LTSC 2016 and LTSC 2019 and LTSC 21H2. Many of those dependencies are *EASY* to get around. Not all, but many. For example, I prefer to keep the "Network Location Awareness Service" running (NlaVsc). I wouldn't define it as "required" but since my wireless will drop out once a month or so, that's enough for me to want to keep the icon in the systray. By default, that NlaVsc service "depends" on the stupid Event Log. BUT... all it takes is to REMOVE the Event Log entry in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NlaSvc\DependOnService And whoala, now the Network Location Awareness *works* even though its claimed "dependency" (ie, Event Log) is not running!
Could you please provide your List of Eleven? Especially since you cite this often but I've never seen any list.