windows

The following data may help people in their decision making when it comes to questions, such as which Windows to use or what hardware to build a computer with. None of these stats are perfect since Microsoft doesn't release this information, so we're relying on third party sources, but it is...

This guide is designed to eliminate the background activity of Cortana and tame it, without breaking anything in the operating system, while still leaving the app available for people that want to use it. This is an alternative method to removing the component, since uninstalling Cortana can...

Update: August 23rd, 2023 (Unresolved) Summary: Creating an image using only a few edits makes the disk space grow substantially, when it should be shrinking. MORE INFORMATION

This is a place to explore the Windows pagefile, and I am opening up the conversation with a poll. Please discuss the reasons behind your choice, benchmarks, testing, white papers, and other data, but refrain from linking to regurgitated articles or disreputable sources, and be prepared to...

This guide is a work in progress that I have not been able to fully figure out yet. I have researched and tested everything I could think of regarding these cache files, and wanted to share what I came up with, to see if anyone else can find information on the parts I am missing. This main post...

This guide contains information about how to efficiently pursue Windows and NTLite tweaking, resulting in a much higher quality image, free of bugs and quirks, saving you a ton of time and headache in the long run. These tips apply to all Windows operating systems. PROCESSING ORDER TESTING IN...

Update (December 1st, 2023): This thread has been completely revamped, as well as the contents of all the links here. The one exception, is that the guides have not yet been updated for the newest Windows builds, now that 23H2 released recently, but that will be the primary focus going forward...

Update (December 29th, 2023): I am actively working on revising this guide and all others for the latest Windows builds. See the following reply (link1) for detailed information about why there was delays on progressing things further. This guide walks users through the creation of an optimized...

This guide walks users through the process of how to install Windows, as well as drivers, firmware, and other important aspects. It was created using Windows 10, but applies to others too. There are going to be a few places where the reader will need to do a little bit of their own research due...

The following is a beginner's guide on using NTLite. It is designed to take inexperienced users through the entire process, step-by-step, so there is nothing for them to interpret. If you follow these directions you will end up with a simple base image that you can use to install a clean version...

I'm trying to figure out which registry key is responsible for a scenario when I install Windows 10 without internet. At the desktop if you plug in the ethernet cable it will suddenly give you a very finicky pop-up that asks about network discovery and quickly disappears if you click somewhere...

In the registry under the power plans, the "Attributes"=dword:00000001 will hide a setting from appearing inside the control panel power options in the advanced settings page, but I cannot find official documentation on the values, and this could matter for the reasons listed below. 1)...

This guide explains how to pause Windows Update for any amount of time, and prevent the operating system from performing other related automatic updating without consent. The benefit of this guide's approach, is that it does not break anything and is a safe and official method, how Microsoft...

I'll eventually figure this out on my own as I make my way through the pile of registry tweaks I'm testing, but to help speed this up I'm hoping someone knows the answer to this one, since it's quite the annoyance. Anyone that uses registry comparison tools will likely be familiar with the...

I was researching how to disable the SleepStudy feature in Windows 10, which creates a bunch of .etl files, and runs on my computer although it has all forms of power savings disabled. I found an article by the Microsoft Defrag Tools team (link) and e-mailed them, asking how to disable it. I got...

I tried to boot to my USB stick to install Windows and it acts like it's about to boot into the USB drive to load Windows Setup, but the screen boots back into Windows and brings me to the desktop instead. I thought my tweaks were the problem, except I then tried an unmodified Windows 10 21H2...

Does anyone know of a way to have the disk properties option of "Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties" default to unchecked on a clean Windows install? Reading through another thread (link1) gave some good insights to investigate, but it seems that it...

For all you coders out there, when I was working with LPC I had to learn to convert all my code files into Linux LF rather than using the default Windows CRLF, or else in rare scenarios it can cause issues. I have a few questions related to this in NTLite. 1) Should .bat and .reg files use...

The following is a guide on how to remove the default links, shortcuts, pins, tiles, and apps from the start menu and taskbar in Windows 10, giving you a blank slate, for all users on the computer. The benefit of this solution is that it will not break anything in the operating system, and is a...

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...