Ads in the start menu, telemetry and general horror of Windows - how to get rid of it

Operating Systems & Open Source Windows
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Unnecessarily long introduction:

Being closer to 20 than 30 years old, I grew up only knowing Windows - the first version I can remember being Win XP, maaaybe Vista; the first PC I got to use regularly was running Win7. And though I get to work and play with Linux more and more every day, I still willingly use Windows for everyday tasks and gaming (also I play games that get you an instaban when you start them from Linux, but thats another thing of its own). Of course though, I also see Windows getting worse all the time at essential tasks - working with Windows 7 machines nowerdays I’m amazed how fast the search is still. But being a human and sticking to what I know as much as I can, I tried to (any imo. succeeded in) making Windows 11 usable enough to never be bothered by it and actually prefer it over Windows 10 LTS, which I also still get to use.
Im pretty confused why I have never seen a video on how to properly debloat Windows, especially the new versions, as they come with such intrusive ads baked right into the user interface. Actually, for me Wendell is the most prominent voice (last mention in the Level1 Show last week), when it comes to ads in and the horribleness of the Windows start menu, there is even a dedicated video on the topic. Therefore, I would have thought, that Level1Techs had a tutorial or something on this topic, but if my meory and YTs search algorithm serve me correctly, there is no such video.

Actual content

So with that out of the way, lets get to what I use to make Windows less horrible:

  1. (Why I wrote this post) By far the most important, but I have barely seen it mentioned online: Shutup10 great name btw.
    • Gets rid of Ads and a lot of predatory behaviour (regarding telemetry) from Windows
    • Portable
    • Active development
    • Freeware (also for commercial), NOT open-source
    • Company based in Germany
    • Run from commandline with a config file: OOSU10.exe ooshutup10.cfg /quiet
    • Usable in a GPO
  2. Most people probably know this one: winaero tweaker
    • Focuses on tuning Windows to your liking
    • Portable
    • Freeware
    • Active development
    • Has an accompanying Blog with very extensive information on specific aspects of/problems with/intricacies of Windows, such as ads in Windows 11
  3. Something that I have also already seen on this forum alreay: winutil by ChrisTitusTech

    • meant to streamline installs, debloat with tweaks, troubleshoot with config, and fix Windows updates

    • Just a PowerShell script (thats a good thing imo :slight_smile: )
    • Active development
  4. More software that most people here should already know: PowerToys
    • Niceties endorsed and partly developed by Microsoft
    • PowerToys Run, like spotlight in MacOS, bascially makes standard Windows search obsolete (you can tune this tool to your liking, e.g. turn off web search)
    • How is this not part of Windows, oh wait its actually useful software and not full of ads (also its open-source, so could be a license issue on some part?)
    • Also, however, getting kinda bloated these days (buuuut you can turn off individual features so its fine)
    • Active development
  5. Some registry key edits that I use (they are probably terrible to use for some reason, never looked at them close enough though, so please tell me if thats the case):
    • Auto End Task for all users
      • Computer\HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
        • New->StringValue->AutoEndTasks->Value:1
    • Auto End Hung Application for all users
      • Computer\HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
        • New->StringValue->HungAppTimeout->Value:5000 (=5seconds)
    • Wait to kill service timeout (shutdown timer)
      • Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
        • WaitToKillAppTimeOut->Value:2000 (=2seconds)
        • New->StringValue->HungAppTimeout->Value:2000
    • Disable Lockscreen, go straight into login:
      • Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Personalization
        • New->Key->Personalization-> New->DWORD 32-bit->Value name: NoLockScreen Value:1 (HEX)

One final note

I currently do not have the time to research in depth regarding this topic, but really wanted to get it out there, therefore this is very much not and exhaustive post. So please share your own ways to deal with Windows, and if one Wendell, or anyone else, want(s) to make an in depth video about this topic then please go ahead, as I feel this is something that should be talked about more!

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I use Ntlite for.my garbage removals. Best investment for my computer that keeps on giving. It allows you to become god and remove whatever you want while.modifing it as well. Takes time to learn but once you get the hang of it you will never go back to vanilla windows.

However you can brick your machine too. I am not hear to advertise it just give you a good option in keeping your sanity in check lol

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If you trust them, give the ameliorated.io project a try. I have used it to create a modified windows to go installation that I use on the very rare occasion that I need windows-only software

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Ive read elsewhere that the “recommended” way to “debloat” windows is to buy and use the enterprise edition and do some group policy to completely disable telemetry in Windows. AFAIK this is only partially “disabled” in the Pro and Home edition.

If you are stuck in Pro/Home, another way to block telemetry is to block it on the side of the network and only allow it to connect to a small list of certain sites (Steam, Spotify, etc)

But that approach requires a lot of firewall know how and a lot of fiddling with settings. Also Windows will oftentimes appear to hang, waiting for a reply that will never come (because of the blocks).

Some of the ways telemetry is disabled, like in Windows Ameliorated Edition also involves disabling Windows Defender and that is a very bad idea because the OS entirely relies on this for protection. Running without the Defender is asking for trouble.

Also, Windows is addicted to telemetry and ads now and that sucks.

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With Windows11 you could get rid of allot of the bloat in the start menu,
by one single setting during the initial setup.
If you change the regional setting during setup to English world,
then most of the start menu bloat won´t be present.
Because most of the additional adware and bloatware is actually region dependant.
The only downside will be that the MS store won´t work either.
However the regional settings can be changed after the setup to get that working again.

Additional good tool the use is the Chris Titus de-bloading script / tool.
There are probably also other good tools you could use.
However that is a matter of trust in the developer of those said tools.
Because there are probably also some really bad ones out there.

If you want a clean custom iso there are several guides to be found on the internet.
Chris Titus, Tech Yes City and a few others made some guides.
My recommendation if you want to go custom iso is to create it yourself,
with tools like NT Lite or MSG Toolkit.
And i highly NOT recommend downloading a custom iso from some bloke on the interwebs.

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The better option in my opinion to get rid of ads / spyware from windows start menu is to install Linux.

Problem solved!!!

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so, this is overkill for this exact issue but a benefit of running a SAMBA4 DC on your home network and joining your windows computers to it is that windows will actually think you are a organization customer and stop sending 95% of the start menu junk to your computers.

this really would be a lot of work if you ONLY wanted to get rid of ads on 1 or 2 computers. but if you are a homelabber and looking into computer management anyway, here is another tick on the checklist.

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Now that is some revelation…hilarious. I’d keep that in mind. Pissing of average joe is fine, but don’t mess with business customers :wink:

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