Guide: Optimized Image

Perhaps I said I don't know as much about booing Windows as I should or would like to.
But I've been trying to learn the ins and outs of Windows with sometimes more, sometimes less success. I have extracted a few things from the reg files, with a bit of intuition and a bit of experience. I can tell you that Windows 11 (21H2-22000.xxxx) works and works very well. I only told you because I saw people here looking at me a bit strangely as ignorant. But, let's not answer that no one is born with this knowledge. What I learned I learned on my own, not in school. Thank you.

I also have an NVidia card. I have been using this brand for over 20 years now, I love it. I use TechPowerUp NVCleanstall for this, very good.
I can recommend it there you can adjust the latency problem too.
 
Hello, does anyone know where i can find old versions of win10 specifically win10 21H2. I want to follow the guide for GamerOS and optimized guide together but it says you need win10 21H2. The only ISO i can find on Microsoft website says its for 22H2 and i was reading in the guide that 22H2 breaks somethings? or do i just follow the guide with a version of win10 22H2?
 
In "Step 2" of the guide it has information about using the Rufus tool (link) to download ISOs. Make sure updates are enabled in Rufus, and then you can click "Download" and select which ISO you want. It will download from the Microsoft servers. Microsoft themselves only ever post the most recent version as soon as it releases, and remove the old ones.
 
To clarify on versions since it comes up a lot, you can use 22H2 if you really want, or even W11. I'm just not going to guarantee that everything will work on those as I intended, because I haven't specifically tested the guide for those scenarios. I'm huge on quality control, and putting my name on something means it has to be in perfect working order or I won't approve it.

Probably 95% or more of the guide will still work properly on a version that is within 2-3 years of 21H2, and the same for W11. The rest of the guide's tweaks will be added to the image, but just won't do anything (good or bad), except consume a few lines of space in the registry.

This topic of "versions" matters because as Microsoft patches things or adds/removes various features over the years, they sometimes change registry keys and the requirements to modify something. For example, the new start menu and taskbar in W11 causes some tweaks to no longer work. In this case it's because Windows 10 uses an XML file to customize the start menu, but on Windows 11 it now uses a JSON file. The same kind of scenario can happen with registry keys. This is even an issue with traditional NTLite presets too, since components will change over time, and also a customized preset built for W10 will be a little different than one built for W11 directly.

I also don't like 22H2 because it added a lot of bugs to Windows, and some of them have been performance-reducing bugs. I've always wanted to keep all of my different guides updated with each new Microsoft release, so hopefully 23H2 at the end of this year is stable, then I can remove all these bits about versions and Rufus from the guides, which will really streamline things.
 
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Hellbovine said:
To clarify on versions since it comes up a lot, you can use 22H2 if you really want, or even W11. I'm just not going to guarantee that everything will work on those as I intended, because I haven't specifically tested the guide for those scenarios. I'm huge on quality control, and putting my name on something means it has to be in perfect working order or I won't approve it.

Probably 95% or more of the guide will still work properly on a version that is within 2-3 years of 21H2, and the same for W11. The rest of the guide's tweaks will be added to the image, but just won't do anything (good or bad), except consume a few lines of space in the registry.

This topic of "versions" matters because as Microsoft patches things or adds/removes various features over the years, they sometimes change registry keys and the requirements to modify something. For example, the new start menu and taskbar in W11 causes some tweaks to no longer work. In this case it's because Windows 10 uses an XML file to customize the start menu, but on Windows 11 it now uses a JSON file. The same kind of scenario can happen with registry keys. This is even an issue with traditional NTLite presets too, since components will change over time, and also a customized preset built for W10 will be a little different than one built for W11 directly.

I also don't like 22H2 because it added a lot of bugs to Windows, and some of them have been performance-reducing bugs. I've always wanted to keep all of my different guides updated with each new Microsoft release, so hopefully 23H2 at the end of this year is stable, then I can remove all these bits about versions and Rufus from the guides, which will really streamline things.
Click to expand...
Thank you!
also does running christitus debloat tool break things with optimized image guide?
 

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SCRAPpPpY said:
Thank you!
also does running christitus debloat tool break things with optimized image guide?
Click to expand...
there is only one way to find out........ make a copy of your image and try it. Personally i don't know what has been put in that utility, so i honestly cannot say whether it will or not. I would doubt it, but, you never know until you try
 
What Taosd and Garlin just said is all accurate. The thing I want to add is that my optimized image guide is extremely safe because everything I do is the official way that Microsoft would make these changes, and all of it can be reversed on a live install. If something breaks my optimized image guide then it would also break a stock install of Windows too, since the values I change are legitimate functions of the operating system, and any problems encountered will be bugs in Windows or in the 3rd party tools/drivers that are running on it. There's obviously the chance of me making a mistake, but so far there haven't been any issues discovered.

In general, many people's problems on this forum end up not being related to NTLite or the guides, but are caused by all the other tools and tweaks people add, or the method in which they build the image. In one case I saw someone with literally thousands of registry tweaks, most of which were duplicates, deprecated, bad tweaks, or extraneous. That's when people get into trouble, because zero testing takes place, they just blindly apply tons of scripts/tools they found on the internet, and when something breaks they place the blame randomly, without any troubleshooting done to verify.

Lastly, many tools and scripts you find will do the same things that are already included in this guide. For example, it's pointless to use Chris Titus' disable hibernation tweak because I already disable hibernation here.
 
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Is there a specific version of an Nvidia driver to install for this optimized setup? I guess if you go back enough the problems stop but then you lose performance in other games.
 
Traast said:
Is there a specific version of an Nvidia driver to install for this optimized setup? I guess if you go back enough the problems stop but then you lose performance in other games.
Click to expand...
In most situations, regardless of using a default or customized Windows, the latest driver (for any hardware) is best. The exception to this is if there happens to be a known issue in the latest release that is causing a problem, and in that scenario use the one right before it.

On the topic of the Nvidia DPC bug, I would still follow the idea of using the latest driver because if you go backwards it doesn't fix the DPC issue, and if you go back too far it will also cause Windows to misbehave. Microsoft made some changes over the years which don't play nice when using a new Windows version with a really old graphics driver. I tested that during the Nvidia bug thread and saw error screens and other issues. I don't want to delve into the Nvidia topic too much though, since it's finally on their known issues list and all we can do now is wait for it to be fixed.
 
Hi
I am a new using of NTLite (paid version) and I am getting use to it. (love-it)
I found that opening the Reg_5_Apps.reg to read-it, gave me a 'There was a problem opening the file “Reg_5_Apps.reg”.'

At the end of the file I found this :
; Start > Settings > Apps > Apps & features > Mixed Reality Portal > Advanced options > Background apps > Off
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\BackgroundAccessApplications\Microsoft.MixedReality.Portal_8wekyb3d8bbwe]
"Disabled"=dword:00000001
"DisabledByUser"=dword:00000001
਍㬀 匀琀愀爀琀 㸀 匀攀琀琀椀渀最猀 㸀 䄀瀀瀀猀 㸀 䄀瀀瀀猀 ☀ 昀攀愀琀甀爀攀猀 㸀 堀戀漀砀 䰀椀瘀攀 㸀 䄀搀瘀愀渀挀攀搀 漀瀀琀椀漀渀猀 
Click to expand...

Is there supose to be more key after that one ?

I did re-download the file 'Tweaks.reg' again and still have the same result.

All the other files are ok.

Gilbert
 
I downloaded Tweaks.zip just now, and Reg_5_Apps.reg extracted with no errors.
Code: 
C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads>certutil -hashfile Tweaks.zip MD5
MD5 hash of file Tweaks.zip:
98 cb c1 c7 90 6e e0 d8 4b 31 fe f0 b9 6a 3d 1f
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

; Start > Settings > Apps > Apps & features > Mixed Reality Portal > Advanced options > Background apps > Off
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\BackgroundAccessApplications\Microsoft.MixedReality.Portal_8wekyb3d8bbwe]
"Disabled"=dword:00000001
"DisabledByUser"=dword:00000001

; Start > Settings > Apps > Apps & features > Xbox Live > Advanced options > Background apps > Off
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\BackgroundAccessApplications\Microsoft.Xbox.TCUI_8wekyb3d8bbwe]
"Disabled"=dword:00000001
"DisabledByUser"=dword:00000001

; Start > Settings > Apps > Startup > Microsoft OneDrive > Off
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartupApproved\Run]
"OneDrive"=hex(3):03,00,00,00,00,F8,77,D1,BF,8D,D8,01

; Start > Settings > Apps > Startup > Windows Security notification icon > Off
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartupApproved\Run]
"SecurityHealth"=hex(3):07,00,00,00,00,F8,77,D1,BF,8D,D8,01
Click to expand...
 
Thank garlin

ps: I was under linux
I did check the md5, same as you.
But still have that corruption ?

Loaded on a window machine, everything is OK there.

Strange that under linux I have that corruption from a valid zip file ?

Thanks again, I'm all good now.
Gilbert
 
I'm not sure why that would happen on Linux. Nobody has had any issues like this to date, and I opened these files on my Chromebook too, which is a Linux-based operating system, with no issues. All I can think of is that it's an issue with your Linux install or the program used to open it? If anyone has any further insights I'm certainly curious to know what's up.
 
i have had issues transfering files from debian to windows before. i have to zip multiple files on debian then extract them on windows.
 
Clanger said:
i have had issues transfering files from debian to windows before. i have to zip multiple files on debian then extract them on windows.
Click to expand...
Probably.

If you save the "Chinese text" as UTF, and run cat file.txt -> "; Start > Settings > Apps > Apps & features > Xbox Live > Advanced options"
unix2dos & dos2unix will fix these types of issues.
 
Hi
I am using Pop_OS! - up to date

I tested different applications:
Gedit = corrupt - did a reinstall = same result
Geany = OK
Libre Office Writer = OK
nano = OK

Tested with GHex = OK - found nothing, no strange data in the last line before where I see corruption.

So it seam there is something that Gedit don't like ???

In Gedit;
Test 1: Modified the file, removing the corupted data, saving, reload, same problem.
Test 2: Modified the file, removing the corupted data, adding this text ';Lastline' plus multiple enter, saving, reload, now it ok.



Gilbert
 
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