Hellbovine

Well-Known Member
This guide discusses the default resource usage of a clean install of Windows 10 Home 21H2. This information is needed by people tweaking the operating system so they can compare their installation to the defaults and see if they are making progress on reducing overhead. There are many different aspects of Windows that can affect these benchmarks, and all of that is discussed below.

TASK MANAGER
Windows 10 21H2 Normal Mode:
CPU Processes: 108
CPU Threads: 985
CPU Handles: 35561
Memory: 1296 (In use)
Memory: 2 (In use compressed)
Memory: 75 (modified)
Memory: 527 (standby)
Memory: 14460 (free)

Windows 10 21H2 Normal Mode (Services):
The services list is attached as a PDF for download, named Services_Default_Normal.

Windows 10 21H2 Safe Mode With Networking:
CPU Processes: 51
CPU Threads: 673
CPU Handles: 19124
Memory: 965 (In use)
Memory: 0 (In use compressed)
Memory: 51 (modified)
Memory: 228 (standby)
Memory: 15108 (free)

Windows 10 21H2 Safe Mode With Networking (Services):
The services list is attached as a PDF for download, named Services_Default_Safe.

Note: In the PDF attachments some of the services have an underscore with a number at the end ( _2b09d), and it is important to know that these numbers change randomly, but if you were to tweak these via a registry key or with NTLite the numbers are not needed.

FILE EXPLORER
This version of Windows had an install size on the disk of 26.0 gigabytes, when installed on a 128 gigabyte SSD, with 16 gigabytes of RAM. In modern operating systems there is a substantial amount of space used by certain features, other than system files, and those are noted below.

- The pagefile uses 2.89 gigabytes at a minimum, and will grow as needed.
- The swapfile is a companion to the pagefile and uses a few hundred megabytes.
- Hibernation uses 6.38 gigabytes (it changes based on installed RAM).
- Reserved Storage is a Windows Update feature that uses 7.67 gigabytes.

Disabling all these features reduces the used disk space by over 18 gigabytes, resulting in a total install size of just under 9 gigabytes. It should be noted that the swapfile is linked to the pagefile and if the pagefile is disabled then it will eliminate the swapfile too. The swapfile is used by the new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps as a special type of pagefile.

TEST METHODOLOGY
The benchmarks presented here should be considered a best case scenario, and it is likely that many users will see much higher resource usage, due to a number of factors. I explain what I did to achieve these numbers below, and why they may be lower than yours.

- This test computer has 16 gigabytes of memory installed. The memory consumption of Windows will automatically adjust itself and increase in computers with more installed memory, and decrease in those with less.

- The BIOS settings on this machine are highly optimized for performance/gaming, and all settings which could add more resource usage to Windows have been disabled, such as virtualization.

- The install was done with internet unplugged, which means a local account was created, rather than a Microsoft account that adds extra overhead due to the syncing/online aspect. In addition to that, without internet during the installation process, Windows is unable to retrieve updates and apply them, which would also increase overhead and disk space used, since updates and new features add more overhead.

- I turned off all the privacy options during Windows Setup, including Cortana.

- When I reached the desktop I entered "rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks & pause" into a command prompt. This is a command used for benchmarking purposes, and it forces the computer to work through the entire scheduled tasks list, plus the miscellaneous queues in the background, telling them to finish their jobs immediately. This dramatically reduces the processes, threads, and handles in the Task Manager, after the command is finished and the computer is rebooted. This step takes about 15-30 minutes to complete, depending on how fast your hardware is.

- No drivers were installed, except for the necessary ones that Windows automatically applies, such as the basic display driver.

- Before recording this data I waited 5 minutes after a reboot, which is about how long it takes for activity in the Task Manager to cease.

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Attachments

  • Services_Default_Normal.pdf
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  • Services_Default_Safe.pdf
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To give you an idea of some of the things that happen in the background during this time, it will finish installing Microsoft OneDrive, it adjusts a few thousand registry entries, it runs the Ngen queue cleanup for .NET framework, and then every Microsoft bloatware that has background activity waiting, such as the Microsoft Store, tries to go online and perform their tasks, like downloading Candy Crush and other useless stuff.
This is expected behavior for post-setup Windows.

Ngen is doing the needful. You can disable the service, or run commands to immediately force .NET cache regeneration.
WU is updating all UWP (Store) apps in the background, and installing OneDrive & Teams.

All these conditions are tweakable, and discussed in other threads. There's a lot of onion layers to peel away.
 
it was exported using the default tab-separated view
If you Remove Columns and just leave Name and Startup type it will be easier to read.
I usually do either of these, Startup type and arrange type then Name, or Name in alphabeticcal order then Startup type.
Much clearer when you export as a list(.txt).

01.JPG

02.JPG
 
Thank you ia_100000060.gif

In return for that here is a little contribution.
dism /online /Get-Features /Format:Table /English >"%userprofile%\Desktop\Features.txt"
dism /online /Get-Capabilities /Format:Table /English >"%userprofile%\Desktop\Capabilities.txt"
dism /online /Get-Packages /Format:Table /English >"%userprofile%\Desktop\Packages.txt"
 
Windows 10 21H2 Normal Mode (Task Manager):
CPU Handles: 35458

Windows 10 21H2 Safe Mode With Networking (Task Manager):
CPU Handles: 19124

With no drivers other than whats in a default iso then updated i have seen Handles over 40,000 ia_100000303.gif
W7 and 8.1 are 7-9xxx and 12xxx respectively. Although 8.1 is higher than 7 it can be tweaked down to comparable numbers.
 
My scenario Win10 VM 2004 Latest 1682 Build After 10 minutes of System Idle State without any app in process :
CPU handles : 17K
they increase to almost 25K if i continuesly work with multi apps same time including FF browser too.

Edit : Win10 21H2 Second Tuesday Patch May 2022;)
May 2022 Win10 21H2 Updates
 
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I dont care what the usage is when im running stuff, i care what the os is doing on its own.
On a highly tweaked 1809 i dont even get close to the default numbers when im running stuff, wayyyyy below.
Firefox is a resource hog :mad:
 
LTSC 1809 can be brought down to 12xxx handles fairly easily. LTSC 2021 is comparable to 1809, i did compare the two some time back and its here somewhere.

Problem is Windows 10 is a family of operating systems, while you might get 2 consecutive builds like 1809 and 1903 and can use the same tweaks on both 1809 and 2021 might be different enough to class them as different os's.
 
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I researched how to buy legit LTSC licenses, and it's a mess. Basically, the official and legal method is to have a small business, call Microsoft's business licensing agents, and if you buy 3 miscellaneous licenses it makes you eligible for the 4th one to be the purchase of an LTSC license, which is much more expensive than a typical Windows, and in total you are looking at around $400 to do it how Microsoft intended.
 
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I ended up going with Home edition for myself, simply because all my family members are using Home. I plan on sending them all my tweaked ISO once I'm finished, and I figured it would save me some headache by working with the same edition they all have. Plus it's the most common version in general, so things like drivers and such prioritize Home over others. Nowadays it's not really an issue, but at one time with older Windows it was a thing, you'd have drivers for XP Home, but missing an updated one for Pro or some other problem.

I'd totally pay $400 though if Microsoft would release an official gaming edition for general consumption, just a Windows without all the bloat. They don't even need to tweak anything for me, just remove all the baked in crap and telemetry.
 
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Hehe, I ended up going with Home edition for myself, simply because all my family members are using Home. I plan on sending them all my tweaked ISO once I'm finished, and I figured it would save me some headache by working with the same edition they all have.
If you are "the" family tech guy that makes complete sense.
 
I'd totally pay like $400 bucks though if Microsoft would release an official gaming edition for general consumption, just a Windows without all the bloat. They don't even need to tweak anything for me, just remove all the baked in crap and telemetry.
They wont so you cant so you are FoL.
I want a basic desktop os without all the glitz and schmitz, im FoL too.
 
The best option in the US is find a willing SMB (Small/Medium Business) reseller partner. They're willing to work with a handful of licenses.
I will PM you one I used two years ago when ESU pricing got started.
 
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