Power Mode and Battery tracking

[Darkblue]

Hello

During few weeks I have been building a W11 image (from W11 Education 23H2) with the aim to eliminate (reduce as possible) telemetry and also debloat somewhat (not too extreme). I have almost finished -thanks to these forums- but I find few things that I can't solve... Maybe you could point me to a solution, so I wanted to comment here about these. I have the purchased (Home) version of NTLite:

1- Battery tracking under Energy & Battery. I have activated Notifications and Push Notifications, but still it shows always zero (I left a couple of hours, for testing, and nothing). Maybe I have to activate Sleep Study?

2- Under Energy & Battery, there is no Power Mode option to select the plan (?). How can I make it appear?

3- I have not disabled Windows Security Center / Defender, but although it it active, I keep receiving notifications to activate it...

If you could help me with these I would be grateful, I don't know what more to test, and it takes quite a lot of time. I attach here my current configuration file.

Thanks a lot

 

[Darkblue]

Yesterday I did more testing...

Battery tracking seems to come alive when Diagnostics & Troubleshoot is enabled, although not sure about the "Screen on time" (whatever is called in english), "Screen off time", "Suspended time", they show still a slash...

For the Windows Security Center Service (it is the notification that says the Service wscsv is in "Manual" start), I wonder if I could enable it with no "risk" for telemetry. If so, then I'd enable it. Do you know if it is telemetry related/used?

And for the missing Power Mode option/dropdown, it is still missing. I do not have any idea how to make it show up in settings, or which NTLite setting made it disappear...I have seen in control panel, that I have only the balanced plan (so no possible to choose). That's strange, maybe it is related. I tried to add/restore the plans with powercfg, but nothing changes...

 

[garlin]

If you're worried about telemetry data, both EDU & Enterprise editions allow you to completely disable all data (unlike Home & Pro).
Configure Windows diagnostic data in your organization

Settings / Privacy / Allow Telemetry -> Security | Disable (Policy)

"Security | Disable" only changes the current reg value​

"Security | Disable (Policy)" updates the GPO​

Be careful when disabling Event Logger classes, as some internal Windows features need to consume event data for later analysis.

 

[Darkblue]

Hi, thanks. Yes I did choose EDU just because of that. Moreover, I have removed telemetry too, and configure diagnostics to 0 (which I guess it is not needed as I removed the component, but just in case). I'm not sure about the settings you list, I'll check later.

I'll also check the Event Logger, maybe it has something to do with the Battery, Screen on/off time, etc. I thought Push Notifications and Sleep Study were the cause, and I enabled them, but they did not help it seems. I'll disable them then. BTW, I see both (or only Sleep Study?) are listed as Telemetry. Is really Sleep Study telemetry related/affected?

On the other hand I am really puzzled (and bothered) with the missing Power Mode option/dropbox. But for this, I really don't know what to test, (maybe the Event Logger could have somethign to do too?)

 

[garlin]

Sleep Study harvests ETW logs in order to do reporting, because it's not a background service but rather a scheduled task. Log data is collected and rotated in a staging folder.

The problem is people have a poor understanding of "telemetry". Many Windows functions create log data of some type as part of their normal function, whether it's a log file, events posted to the event log, data stored in a private database. It only becomes "telemetry" when it gets summarized or transmitted to someone else (MS or 3rd-party).

Disabling event logs can improve Windows performance, but at some point you can break features.

"powercfg /restoredefaultschemes" does nothing?

 

[Darkblue]

Thanks. Indeed, the other day I was thinking about this. I agree with you. Personally I don't care about having logs in local, as far as they are not sent to Ms or any 3rd party, in full or extracted conclusions/summary.

I guess this is the reason "Sleep Study" and "Cloud Notifications", for example, are classified in NTLite as telemetry (green preset). Maybe they are considered that they generate sensible information that could become privacy risk in case someone gains unapproved access to the system. But then, there is a lot more sensible information in my PC (added by the me/user...) than the OS usage information. And imho, these shouldn't be classified as "telemetry" but something like "sensible information generation" at most. Well, just thinking.

I'll test what you suggest later and report. BTW, is there some part of NTLite where I can check the Event Logger classes ? I seem not to be able to find them in NTLite.

 

[Darkblue]

Update: tested "powercfg /restoredefaultschemes" and it does nothing. Just in case, the problem is not missing plans, is missing option as a whole, I don't see the "Power Mode" plus the dropdown box. BTW, the test did not add back the option (neither plans, of ocurse) in settings, neither in Control Panel.

Sure it will be something disabled that has nothing to do -in its name- to power, energy, etc, because I can't find it by searching or filtering in NTLite.

Just in case, I tested and installed offline, the iso downloaded directly from MS. Just in first boot I had the Power Mode there, so it is not a problem for hardware or drivers (as nothing was installed yet)... (?)


For the battery tracking, sleep on/off, etc "Diagnostics & Troubleshooting" must be enabled, but also the Setting "DiagLog" (otherwise, it will not work).

 

[Darkblue]

Ok, I found the culprit for missing Power Mode: it is the component Remoting & Privacy > Windows Provisioning > Device Management > Declared Configuration (DC) service. It must be checked.

On the other hand, I would like to block any updates during setup and also just after setup. I see that in the profile xml is ProtectYourPc set as 3:

<OOBE>
<HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
<HideLocalAccountScreen>false</HideLocalAccountScreen>
<HideOnlineAccountScreens>true</HideOnlineAccountScreens>
<HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>true</HideWirelessSetupInOOBE>
<NetworkLocation>Home</NetworkLocation>
<ProtectYourPC>3</ProtectYourPC>
</OOBE>

AFAIK this prevents or disables the updates during setup, theoretically. Nevertheless during the second boot (when you set the local account), it connects and looks for updates. I can't swear though if it really downloads something or not, but certainly when the cable is unplugged this screen does not appear... Is it normal?

Moreover, just after setup, I can go to Windows Updates and if I click to search for updates, it finds and downloads a lot of drivers (chipset, audio, etc that I have not yet installed). BUT I have disabled driver download and updates! so it seems that it does not respects the setting in NTLite! How is that?

EDIT: It does not only find and download them, but it ALSO installs them without telling me nothing at all. This is driving me nuts !!
And the group policy to disable the driver updates is missing from the group policy editor, (I guess because the setting in NTLite). It is just as if the setting in NTLite does nothing at all...!?



I thought I had almost finished, after several weeks of tweaking, and I just see that... It makes me wonder how effective are actually the settings chosen, or I miss something? Please could you help me? (I have updated the attachment in first post)

Thanks for any help!

 

[garlin]

Windows Update is a software platform with different services and functions, some of which do not follow the WU settings.

Windows can check for new updates in three different stages:
1. If you have integrated the Setup Dynamic Update (which is optional), it will stop in the middle of installation to check for a newer Monthly Update and apply it. This allows Setup to guarantee a new PC will always have the latest CU installed, even if the source image is out of date.

2. OOBE separately downloads Zero Day Patches (ZDP), which may include last-minute fixes to OOBE but can theoretically include other content. ZDP updates cannot be blocked by WU settings.

3. Windows is a live system after the first reboot, and Windows Update will run in the background. This part of WU is managed by the normal WU settings as defined by NTLite.

 

[Darkblue]

Thanks for your reply. I have removed the Setup Dynamic Update from the online updates list in NTLite, now it do not look for updates. And for the remaining issue (WU updating drivers) I had to disable "Include drivers with Quality Updates", otherwise WU downloads and install drivers (at least if they are not installed, I can't say about updating already installed ones). Now although I ask WU to search for updates, and even without any driver installed, it does not search for any driver.

Thanks a lot for your help!