GamerOS Windows 10 & 11 DIY Preset

I tried your GamerOS 10 preset (with Windows 11) and I could not complete the installation. There was an error during the setup phase that was unrelated to the TPM check.

I'm still in testing here, but I seemed to narrow down the dependency for Backup and Restore to something inside Components -> Networking and/or Remoting & Privacy. PhsMu may be on to something when they mentioned a possible relation to SMB dependencies...
LanmanWorkstation service to be precise, which detects and mounts SMB shares. Server doesn't need to be on. I do know its a fallback and only needed if something else (which was introduced after windows 7) is removed, I just don't know who/what the other one is. I know because if its relying on LanmanWorkstation, it only shows the legacy Backup and Restoration link, not the File History.
 
awe yes catslobber, I discovered this awhile after I posted the preset I had error in there, but it is fixed now, and the issue during install should not occur anymore all should be good now
 
See my above post.

Components -> Windows Error Reporting Service -> Problem Reports and Solutions Control Panel Support must be kept for Windows 7 Backup and Restore to remain working. Now that I believe I've found the root cause, I will go ahead with the GamerOS preset and continue testing.

Maybe this is worthy of a bug report or something?

edit:
I tested these changes with the GamerOS 10 Final and original GamerOS 11 presets, but still no luck. Aside from Windows Error Reporting and Volume Shadow Copy, there's something else that's being removed which is causing the failure with Windows Backup. However, the behaviour of when the failure happens is different. While the backup is attempting to interact with the Volume Shadow Copy, it seems to stall out instead of fail immediately. I will try out PhsMu's attached preset and see what's what. My guess at this point is that another unrelated component is causing the failure.

edit 2:
Some combination of components in Networking, Remoting & Privacy, and System are required for Windows Backup. I've tried fulling enabling each category on their own to test, and it's only when all three are checked off that Windows Backup will function. I don't know if I have the patience to figure this out... I've already reinstalled Win11 upwards of 20 times.

And just an FYI: I did find an alternative solution in Cobian Reflector as a free, reliable, feature-rich, and easy incremental backup software.

final edit:
There is some unholy combination of components for Windows Backup to function. It also seems to involve Internet Connection Sharing in addition to my previous findings. I can't do anymore. I was able to still remove and disable the biggest annoyances from Windows, which I'm still happy with. Thank you Txmmy for the base preset and garlin and PhsMu for the help.
 
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Just putting these out there for anyone wanting the bare minimum tweaks and stuff removed, to do some experimenting themselves, this is minimal stuff removed, not needed drivers and windows default programs, basically a base OS without all the other stuff removed just the basic stuff alike apps, features just a nice clean basic image, which i use for testing, everything thats removed has no effect on the actual windows system and for those who dont want extremely stripped images these are for you
 

Attachments

  • GamerOS 10 Minimal.xml
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  • GamerOS 11 Minimal.xml
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Just putting these out there for anyone wanting the bare minimum tweaks and stuff removed, to do some experimenting themselves, this is minimal stuff removed, not needed drivers and windows default programs, basically a base OS without all the other stuff removed just the basic stuff alike apps, features just a nice clean basic image, which i use for testing, everything thats removed has no effect on the actual windows system and for those who dont want extremely stripped images these are for you
This Windows 10 min file was actually pretty good. Added back a few that I wanted such as the store and other small ones.

Thanks
 
Hi all. I'm testing this preset but I am having a problem running some exe files. When I open them Windows doesn't know how to open them and shows the window to select a program to do it with.Here, however, there is only the option to search on the Store, which once opened indicates that it filters a search with the "res" key (as if it were the file extension that Windows is unable to open).
One example is Adobe Acrobat installer (download manager, not offline package).
I haven't removed any components from the preset, just changed some theoretically irrelevant settings.
 
Hi all. I'm testing this preset but I am having a problem running some exe files. When I open them Windows doesn't know how to open them and shows the window to select a program to do it with.Here, however, there is only the option to search on the Store, which once opened indicates that it filters a search with the "res" key (as if it were the file extension that Windows is unable to open).

What's the actual file name, using DIR (not File Explorer if you've hidden file extensions)?
 
This is a sample of the latest gameros preset, im working on services for this exact reason, i get disabled system restore, but without the 100 services set system restore still works its only when I change services does system restore break, I will take some time and figure out the services so that i can still disable some with system restore still working let me know what you think, and yes yes I know ive cut it into sections and havent set the suggested stuff for public presets, easier for you to see where I got most of the tweaks, I tried to do it other peoples way and winded up super confused after doing it one way for so long, so I will just put these things out with out claims, ntlite is truly for your own preference and these presets are just whats good for me, I put them out there to aid people and see if they have any inputs and suggestions of what else to remove
there is an error installing epic games, the installation fails.
 
I managed to make a really stripped down epic games / steam compatible preset with everything working fine. Be carefull to change the region to your wishes because it's on the azerty layount and french input since i'm french. You will have .exe error messages but they work just fine. Managed to get over 1250 fps stable on fortnite, performance mode, with a r7 5800x an a 3060 ti. Hope it is usefull

Consider installing classic shell as windows search is broke aswell (win+r still work fine)
 

Attachments

  • LaynW10preset.xml
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Super stripping the os has very little affect on the system running. It just starts to break things and really in the long term not providing any benefit.

Just an honest opinion and no offense
 
Super stripping the os has very little affect on the system running. It just starts to break things and really in the long term not providing any benefit.

Just an honest opinion and no offense
You're mostly right though but it's not really about the most performance i'm after since 1200fps+ is really usefull it the latency in online fps, especially fortnite where input lag matters the most. You'll get more out of a good cpu/ram oc but the os nontheless manages your games and having it running 20 processes in the background sure impact on how quicky your game input is managed by your system. I can assure you i'm very sensitive to input lag and if you have ever played fortnite on a semi-pro level you would understand the intricacy of input lag and how much the outcomes differ with or without it.
Anyway , what you say is best advice for begginers and people than aren't ready to dig a little deeper in the os without beeing scared to maybe reset the cmos and resinstall the os 50 times before getting it right.
I learnt the most doing mistakes and i keep getting better :) have a nice one
 
Its literally the difference between never being able to stop in cs go and constantly moving when spamming movement keys, I find no matter what I do, default os Im like gliding and never truly stopping whenever I would like, when trying to counter strafe and because of just that ms of latency I cant seem to stop when just tapping the opposite movement key, but with stripped windows, its amazing I can increase the chance that I get that perfect counter strafe and stop on a dime and send that first bullet right into the enemies face, basically I do it for the same reason those ms seem to match up great with my keyboard and everything and I can consistently stop on a dime

basically its the difference between sliding around on ice and never really being able to time a stop all movement, to feeling like Im walking thru water moving normally but it seems slow and more accurate
 
I swear a crispy, well optimised windows will make you feel a 100% more in control in your game. When you experience close to no lag on a 240hz and top of the line peripherals you juste can't beleive what it would be an os fully tailored for gaming. And not this nonsensical monstruosity of an os windows has become trying to fit the world into a single os, beeing compatible to you bluetooth/5g microwave apple pay and at the same time running old 32 bit sausage factory sorting program with 20 incompatibilty issues and countless bugs. I hate it but linux hasn't come to a point where it's effortless to adapt to a new environmement/sofware logic plus there are financial arrangements between game launchers and MS because there is no way developper wouldn't simple enable compatibility of their anticheat software and linux, if so i would be gone for long. I'll give an in dept look to absolutly all W10 components and making a flawless stripped version for most games. Any contribution is appreciated as ntlite forum isn't really providing a public preset library
 
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Consider installing classic shell as windows search is broke aswell (win+r still work fine)
Window Search and Search app are hungry for resources but at least Search app cannot be removed or disabled without breaking the search in file explorer. Until 1903 this was possible but from 1909 microsoft incorporated the infamous UWP Search app into file explorer as well.

One way to get around this would be to keep Search app and use StartIsBack with these options enabled:
2021-12-20 21_46_54-StartIsBack configuration.png

This will prevent Search app from starting and running in the background but when you use search in file explorer the app will run momentarily during the search then it will close again :)
 
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For me, removing components is not about increasing performance. In fact, I doubt there's much of a tangible difference in doing so unless a person is using old hardware. It's to remove major annoyances that have been baked into the OS, such as the Windows Store and many of the telemetry services that gather information for no benefit to the end user.

My hope for the future is that there will be more documentation for component removal and compatibility with other Windows features.
 
If the higher resource usage was due to useful features it would be acceptable but we know that most of Windows 10/11 is bloatware. Third party programs can do much more using much less resources, are much faster and more efficient (Everything by voidtools, StartIsBack, Open-Shell).

If a company offers better services for much less will you choose the most expensive and with worse services just for convenience? Nobody does this in real life but it strangely does when it comes to Windows/Microsoft.

Most Microsoft telemetry is anonymous if you don't use a Microsoft account. If you log in with any account be it Microsoft, Google, etc you are automatically agreeing to share your data as there is no free lunch and when you don't pay for something you are the product so if you don't like that better stop log in to the web :p

I only care about telemetry as this is an additional processing cost using cpu and ram and network bandwidth. About Store I agree this is annoying and invasive :mad:
 
I looked at this start is back, and its just like openshell, it is free and has many more customization settings, is there a specific reason using startisback would be better? like this turnoff search until needed bit?
 
like this turnoff search until needed bit?
That would be the main reason since everything else can be done with Open-Shell. But I like the look of StartIsBack too and the glyph icons. I don't really like the Open-Shell look and I don't really care about customizations. I know there are themes but none of them really appealed to me. What I liked the most was the one that imitates StartIsBack :p but doesn't have the glyph icons.

But I'm thinking about removing Search and start menu apps for good as that way StartIsBack wouldn't be necessary. and I could try to adapt to Open-Shell. After all the difference would be basically just aesthetic.
 
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