Hey there lvl1 community. Totally forgot I had an account and then realized I was late to the frostpunk giveaway. Since I’m here, I want to feel out if there is any interest about a de-bloated and de-microsoft’ed windows OS.
I wasn’t happy about the current ways/tools to de-bloat windows since the OS is still communicating with microsoft. Some tools offer roundabout ways to cut communication with microsoft (ex. with firewalls), but doesn’t turnoff the service that is doing the communication. So I decided to make my own version of windows.
De-microsoft’ed windows to me means the OS no longer sends or receives telemetry data to microsoft, with the exception of windows time and network connection. Yes, network connection service needs to ping microsoft servers to tell you that you have internet. Packet inspection of that ping reveals a tiny text file saying ‘hello windows’ or something like that. De-microsoft’ed also means there is no windows update or windows defender. Most of the services are turned off, at least the ones don’t clog up event viewer saying there is a problem every hour. Made my own windows activation file that uses the official offline activation method.
Unfortunately I’ve lost the build instructions. So I only have 3 different iso versions I’ve built for myself and instructions/ramblings of a lunatic (me) in text form of my journey. If there is interest I can release my notes, but I am not sure I can do the same with the iso.
Already learned how to do this myself with Ntlite. Also alot of users might not want to download someone’s iso online due to unknowns that could be included.
I am a huge fan of cleaning out windows OS’s but I believe(let’s see in the comments) I don’t think It has a huge following here.
Cool project! I always do my best to do a version of this after a fresh regular install(disable services, registry hacks, etc. based on de-bloat/privacy powershell scripts), but unfortunately without Windows update you can’t really use such a system on the internet for long(unless you want to re-enable windows update or re-install), and with windows update some of those tweaks will inevitably be disabled/circumvented by Microsoft.
Best I can do is to allow Windows update and use Windows as little as possible, sadly. I love Linux, but the Windows desktop is very nice as well, sad that they make me not want to use it.
There are several projects which use the preboot environment or recovery mode to create a Windows environment without Microsoft services. There are some disadvantages: - the OS shuts down every 24h, there are no time saving (which might interfere with certificates)
Phoenix PE
OrBakery
The German magazine c‘t uses a modified version loaded with preinstalled drivers and tools (unfortunately paywalled):