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 task manager to the defaults and see if they are making progress on reducing overhead.
TASK MANAGER
FILE EXPLORER
TEST METHODOLOGY
Note: in the PDF attachments some of the services have an underscore and 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.
For more guides like this one, visit the following link:
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/gaming-lounge.2999/
TASK MANAGER
Windows 10 21H2 Normal Mode:
CPU Processes: 107
CPU Threads: 979
CPU Handles: 35458
Memory: 1366 (In use)
Memory: 15 (In use compressed)
Memory: 31 (modified)
Memory: 319 (standby)
Memory: 14675 (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.
CPU Processes: 107
CPU Threads: 979
CPU Handles: 35458
Memory: 1366 (In use)
Memory: 15 (In use compressed)
Memory: 31 (modified)
Memory: 319 (standby)
Memory: 14675 (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.
FILE EXPLORER
This version of Windows had an install size on the disk of 26.9 gigabytes.
In modern operating systems there is a substantial amount of space used up by certain features, and all of this space is not necessarily system files. The three biggest culprits of used disk space come from the following:
- The pagefile uses a few gigabytes at a minimum, and will grow as needed.
- Hibernation uses a huge amount, based on installed RAM (more memory means a bigger file).
- Windows reserves about 8 gigabytes for use as a cache.
Removing all three of the listed items reduces the size by 18.04 gigabytes, resulting in a total install size of 8.86 gigabytes.
In modern operating systems there is a substantial amount of space used up by certain features, and all of this space is not necessarily system files. The three biggest culprits of used disk space come from the following:
- The pagefile uses a few gigabytes at a minimum, and will grow as needed.
- Hibernation uses a huge amount, based on installed RAM (more memory means a bigger file).
- Windows reserves about 8 gigabytes for use as a cache.
Removing all three of the listed items reduces the size by 18.04 gigabytes, resulting in a total install size of 8.86 gigabytes.
TEST METHODOLOGY
This benchmark 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 other factors. I will explain what I did to achieve these numbers and why they may be lower than yours:
- The install was done with internet unplugged, which means a local account was created, rather than a Microsoft account which 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 to the installation, which would also increase overhead, since updates and new features tend to add more bloat.
- No drivers were installed, except for the necessary ones that Windows automatically applies during install, such as the basic display driver.
- This test computer has 16 GB 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 also highly optimized for performance/gaming, and all settings which could add more resource usage to Windows have been disabled, such as Virtualization.
- To capture this information I turned off all of the privacy features during Windows Setup, including Cortana, and I waited until I reached the desktop and then I entered rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks into a command prompt. This is a documented Microsoft command that was meant to be used for benchmarking purposes. Basically, it forces the computer to work through the entire scheduled tasks list, plus all of the things waiting in the background, and this has a dramatic effect on reducing the amount of processes/threads/handles shown in the Task Manager after it is finished, and the computer is rebooted. This command takes about 30 minutes (give or take 15 minutes) to finish, depending on how fast your hardware is.
- The install was done with internet unplugged, which means a local account was created, rather than a Microsoft account which 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 to the installation, which would also increase overhead, since updates and new features tend to add more bloat.
- No drivers were installed, except for the necessary ones that Windows automatically applies during install, such as the basic display driver.
- This test computer has 16 GB 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 also highly optimized for performance/gaming, and all settings which could add more resource usage to Windows have been disabled, such as Virtualization.
- To capture this information I turned off all of the privacy features during Windows Setup, including Cortana, and I waited until I reached the desktop and then I entered rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks into a command prompt. This is a documented Microsoft command that was meant to be used for benchmarking purposes. Basically, it forces the computer to work through the entire scheduled tasks list, plus all of the things waiting in the background, and this has a dramatic effect on reducing the amount of processes/threads/handles shown in the Task Manager after it is finished, and the computer is rebooted. This command takes about 30 minutes (give or take 15 minutes) to finish, depending on how fast your hardware is.
Note: in the PDF attachments some of the services have an underscore and 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.
For more guides like this one, visit the following link:
https://www.ntlite.com/community/index.php?threads/gaming-lounge.2999/
Last edited:
.
