Just bought a new Windows 10 rig - what is the best decrapifier app to clean it?
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I have to say I was pleasantly surprised last year when I bought my new dell laptop that came with Windows 10 pro and nothing else. No ms office, no utilities from dell, no games, none of the junk that you normally have to spend time getting rid of. Just a bare system.
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Download the Windows 10 or 11 retail ISO and reimage it. There's really no way to get the OEM crapware off a machine short of a reimage.
The current Win10 installer ISO does not fit on a single-sided DVD. When I recently installed Win10 on my new PC, I downloaded the MS tool which created a bootable flash drive.
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A clean install would get my vote. As for Windows 11 vs Windows 10, I am running Windows 11 now and it's something of a disappointment. It's definitely less stable and has a few subtle bugs, so unless you need it because most of your customers are using it I would recommend you avoid it until M$ get their house in order (if they ever do). The other thing you should do (if you're not already) is boot off an SSD. This cuts boot and app load times dramatically. And yes, download and install from a Microsoft ISO, that gives you the cleanest system.
Paul Sanders http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk
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The current Win10 installer ISO does not fit on a single-sided DVD. When I recently installed Win10 on my new PC, I downloaded the MS tool which created a bootable flash drive.
It fits on a dual layer DVD though, I'm not sure I see the problem.
Paul Sanders http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk
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It fits on a dual layer DVD though, I'm not sure I see the problem.
Paul Sanders http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk
Paul Sanders (the other one) wrote:
It fits on a dual layer DVD though, I'm not sure I see the problem.
If you don't have a dual layer DVD or burner, it's an insurmountable problem.
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I'm highly certain someone else will say this and they probably already have but remove Windows 10 immediately and install GNU\Linux. Debian 11 seems to work pretty good for general use... Seriously, I think GNU\Linux needs to rename their background drivers from daemons to services, but with the exception of Cubase and Emulator X for ultra-low latency audio, I no longer have much need for Microsoft. Their products have issues. I really like .NET Core, but I highly regret jumping on the Microsoft bandwagon about 10 years ago. I've paid dearly for that decision. Richard Stallman, if you are listening *pretty please* with electrons on top, will you rename GNU\Linux background drivers from daemons to something nicer? Git is already in the process of renaming the Master branch to Main. Please understand that some Christians such as myself are offended by the daemon naming convention. Now, I guess I had better get to my day job...
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Paul Sanders (the other one) wrote:
It fits on a dual layer DVD though, I'm not sure I see the problem.
If you don't have a dual layer DVD or burner, it's an insurmountable problem.
Both are cheap and all burners have been dual layer for as long as I can remember.
Paul Sanders http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk
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Brain.exe Knowing exactly what you're about to disable and why as well as how, is superior in the long term to those apps.
With all the sync that is going on it is very hard to keep junk off. I use a combination of CCleaner, doing a browser clean of history, data and cookies. I use ccleaner to run a check on the registry and clean it though I am told it does very little to help but some help is better than none. Then I do a scan for malware etc... I manually uninstall any software I do not want. I do this for all my devices at least once a month. But then I am no longer programing and just use the system for my personal bookkeeping, emails and browsing. The more you use search engines (which you have no choice) the more crap that gets on even if you don't open any pages. It seems google and all the search engines want allow cookies when you don't even open a page. I have done searches and just read the results of the search without opening any page but the page that lists the search and had the browser cookie pop up come up and ask if you want to allow cookies from such and such. So, you do not even have to open a page to get a cookie or unwanted things. Security begins with you. Always remember anything you put on your computer can and will get out on the web if that computer is connected to the web. The best security you can have, is a system that is not connected to the web that you can transfer files from to a system that is connected but those transferred files are then no longer secure. I do not care how much security software you place on a computer there will be someone that will find a way in if they really want too.
Curtis Way always can be found.
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Without a doubt, the best tool for this is Winareo Tweaker. Winaero Tweaker[^] Not only can you remove the annoying things you don't like, you can do a crapload of other nice-to-have configs, with just a few button clicks.
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Maybe one of these: software-uninstallers-on-windows[^]
Then you get crap but from the "decrapify" vendor.
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I wouldn't trust any of the so-called "decrapifier" tools. You put yourself at the mercy of whoever developed it to make sure it: a) doesn't install more crap and b) does the de-crapify 100% correctly. Reformat and reinstall. Then you only have official MS crap on your computer. And you control what crap gets loaded after that. Make sure you have the latest Win10 drivers for things like the network device, video adapter, sound device, etc. just in case you need them. I'd download all of that plus the Win10 install from MS and have it all on thumb drives before you start the reinstall.
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I wouldn't trust any of the so-called "decrapifier" tools. You put yourself at the mercy of whoever developed it to make sure it: a) doesn't install more crap and b) does the de-crapify 100% correctly. Reformat and reinstall. Then you only have official MS crap on your computer. And you control what crap gets loaded after that. Make sure you have the latest Win10 drivers for things like the network device, video adapter, sound device, etc. just in case you need them. I'd download all of that plus the Win10 install from MS and have it all on thumb drives before you start the reinstall.
I originally tried to boot up with a Win10 installation stick, and it said I had to do it from Windows, not as a boot. In the end I was able to make out how to do a recovery which got rid of the retailer's crap, and then was able to change the language for about 3/4 of everything.
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I originally tried to boot up with a Win10 installation stick, and it said I had to do it from Windows, not as a boot. In the end I was able to make out how to do a recovery which got rid of the retailer's crap, and then was able to change the language for about 3/4 of everything.
I've never had a problem creating a bootable USB. There are several methods. See the following article: Install Windows 10 from ISO. I've used both the "MediaCreationTool" and "RUFUS" methods successfully. Maybe if the Microsoft "MediaCreationTool" didn't work, you could try the "RUFUS" method. Although it sounds like you might not want to go back to that point and start over. Note: you can't download the ISO, mount it and just copy the files to a USB. The USB has to be created through one of the tools above. That might be how you got to the "must be installed from Windows" message.
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Both are cheap and all burners have been dual layer for as long as I can remember.
Paul Sanders http://www.alpinesoft.co.uk
Thumb drives are cheaper. And re-usable. Also...if you have a functioning copy of Win10 already running and you just want a reload....Win10 has that built in. Just search for "reset" and it even has an option to download and install from the internet and it will grab the latest and greatest. De-crappifying comes from choosing the "keep nothing" option.