Scripts to build a trimmed-down Windows 11 image | Hacker News Reader

Scripts to build a trimmed-down Windows 11 image

github.com

29 pointsadif_sgaid21 comments

Does something similar exist for Windows 10? After being on 11 at home, I see zero benefits over W10.

The benefit is you will still get security updates next year.

Windows 10 LTSC IOT will get security updates for the next 8 years.

And it's already slimmed down enough to be a decent daily driver, without having to bother with 3rd party scripts.

I had problems trying to run prior LTSC builds. They get security updates, but not feature updates. After a few years, some consumer software (games in particular) often start having problems because they are built assuming you run a consumer edition that is never more than a year or so behind.

> They get security updates, but not feature updates.

Well, obviously that's a feature, not a bug. Seeing as how 95% of "new" MS features seem to be some kind of spyware or advertising.

> After a few years, some consumer software (games in particular) often start having problems because they are built assuming you run a consumer edition that is never more than a year or so behind.

Any games in particular? I've been running IOT LTSC for about 1.5 years now and have had 0 issues, including gaming. Any issues were related to having to update Nvidia/AMD drivers or C++/.NET runtime updates and not the OS itself.

LTSC IOT is pretty new still, I wouldn't be surprised that an 18 month old build isn't quite having problems yet.

But by the end of 2020, there were a number of games that just wouldn't work on 1809, which was the most recent LTSC build available at the time. Even things like Gamepass flat out did not work.

It's all moot to me though, the WSL2 improvements in Windows 11 are enough to not want to go back.

Use Windows 10 LTSC IOT. It's already fairly slimmed down so it's good enough to be a daily driver. It's also supported until at least 2028 if memory serves, possibly longer?

If you want to go further, something like https://www.ntlite.com can be used to remove unnecessary services.

https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater

Development stopped in 2021 tho.

I haven't reviewed this particular repo, but I've seen a bunch of these "de-bloat" scripts that do sketchy things, including from people calling themselves "ntdev labs" before. Removing annoying built-in apps (malware?) is one thing. But removing it by bypassing ACLs on system files is another. You don't want to leave your Windows image in a non-supported state which might compromise future Windows security updates from working.

Honestly I think a better answer is to not use Windows, but I'm aware that's not an option for some.

Yesterday, I was trying to delete bunch of crap from my windows 10 setup, because windows is just chewing through HD space like nothing. Gigs of space are eaten by temp files, caches, backups....in most circumstances you can't even delete them. Windows is taking ~6GB and I don't even use them, apart from calculator.

Reduce and patch it until it becomes POSIX compliant

IIRC the NT kernel used to be POSIX compliant but... y'know.

POSIX is an api, not kernel interface, and the MS CRT still supports much of it. And there's stuff on top, like cygwin and mingw, if you need more.

Well, at least this one is open source. The last couple of times scripts like this have popped up it's been just "trust me, bro!".

As Windows has started to integrate more of its own services together, I'm curious what this will end up breaking. Obviously everything xbox related until you reinstall it.

Which scripts were those? The Windows Ameliorated scripts are open source: https://git.ameliorated.info/explore/repos

"Slim down windows 10/11" scripts have existed since each OS's release. Made by a variety of people over a variety of years. Most of them weren't open source and documented, many were just raw executables thrown around through MediaFire links or so on.

I only know of two, both open source.

This is just what I could find in a few minutes. Some are more privacy-focused, some are more de-bloat focused. Some add new features or enable new tweaks. Some are flexible, some are one-and-done. They're everywhere since Win 10 released.

https://www.ntlite.com/

https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater

https://github.com/Disassembler0/Win10-Initial-Setup-Script/

https://github.com/builtbybel/debotnet

https://github.com/W4RH4WK/Debloat-Windows-10

https://github.com/crazy-max/WindowsSpyBlocker

https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

https://www.w10privacy.de/english-home/

https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat

https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil

https://www.revi.cc/revios/download/?method=playbook

Was hoping classic paint would be restored too ha