Making Windows 11 Really Fast and Stable

[dmontaine]

I have been using a combination of tools: Winhance, OO Shutup 10++ and Winslop to remove all the bloatware, AI features and telemetry from Windows 11. I also install Windows 11 using my Microsoft account, then create a local admin user and finally remove the Microsoft account. The result is at least 100% faster than default Windows and seems to be more stable. In addition, WSL really flies.

It actually seems like a real operating system a la Windows 7, rather than a marketing front end. With Winhance I can also batch install a bunch of open source tools that are not repackaged web apps.

I am not associated with any of these tools, just wanted to post a way to escape what Windows has become. Anyone else tried these or any other de-bloating techniques?

BTW, I am not against AI. In fact I use LM studio and several AI models. I even use Gemini in Chrome. But I much prefer AI to be encapsulated within an app, not a part of the OS.

[Skipper]

Anyone else tried these or any other de-bloating techniques?

oh, yes! On all but one of my computers, I replaced Windows with Linux....

[Piero]

Making Windows 11 Really Fast and Stable

Secure-delete it?

[Mesa]

Ultimate Windows Tweaker 5 for Windows 11
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate ... windows-11

M.

[Mijikai]

Just install linux...

[dmontaine]

I have used Linux a lot. Two problems, there are Windows specific software that I am not willing to throw away because I have spent extensive time learning them and two, even though I have years of experience with Linux, I have a new MSI laptop with an i9 Ultra / Intel ARC gpu that no Linux distribution (I have tried 20) will run reliably on. Windows has no problem.

My solution in the past has been to run a Linux system with Windows available in a VIrtualbox VM. Now I have reversed that and am running de-bloated Windows with Linux running in a VM (still much preferred to Wsl). Even with Purebasic, my favorite GUI designer, IceDesign, is only available in Windows and my favorite Freebasic IDE (tico) is also unavailable in Linux.

My de-bloated Windows removes at least 95% of the reasons I use Linux. Almost all of the open source software I use is also available under Windows.

[Rinzwind]

I use below website to generate (partly) unattended install that strips quite a bit of the garbage.

https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/

It is a shame how MS is treating Windows. The programming quality is also downhill it seems seeing how many bugs are introduced with new features and how they can't get the consistent UI or deliver a uniform modern UI toolkit for developers, unlike Apple who did a good job of making a consistent modern UI and its controls available for anyone. Windows feels like patched taped together legacy.

[dmontaine]

Just a follow up. I usually use a very light version of Linx; Bunsen Labs or similar. I prefer to run Windows in a Virtualbox VM for the very few instances where I need access to a Windows App.

De-bloating Windows, running a local account, and especially removing Bitlocker, telemetry, unneeded programs and AI, really makes running the Windows instance much more stable and pleasurable.

I also found with my new MSI laptop, that I need to run the Liquorix kernel. Once I made that change my issues with kernel faults went away. I also need to use X11 (xLibre) as Wayland also creates problems with this computer. I'm sure the drivers will eventually be updated, but the newer i9 ultra with ARC graphics is picky running Linux at this point, at least on this gaming MSI laptop.

But I still prefer to avoid Windows as much as possible.