Leo's Powershell script to decrapify Windows 10

Tech Talk Windows
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I’m new here.I have a new Thinkpad P53S coming from the Far East, and I remember Leo mentioning a Powershell script he uses on every new Windows 10 computer to remove all the Store apps other than the Store itself, and perhaps remove other cruft. Does anyone have a link to that script?

On the same subject, I think there’s a Thurrott article on how to set up Windows 10, but it appears to be premium content. But if I bought the Field Guide, would the same information be there? Or are there other free detailed guides on what to do with a new computer to defeat all the Microsoft crap? I know about not connecting to the network until after you’ve set up a local account, but I’m sure there are many other tips to “upgrade” Windows 10 so it works like Windows 7.

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I too would like to see @Leo 's script. Until we do I wanted to note that since 1903, you can now uninstall MOST of the “crap” simply by right clicking on it in the Start Menu and asking to uninstall it. There are still a few things, like the “Xbox Game Bar” and “Your Phone”, that you can’t request uninstall from the UI.

Two things that I find helpful, but that you require Windows 10 Pro to do, are to run the gpedit.msc (Group Policy Editor) and to disable OneDrive and to Disable all of the Cortana and Web Search features under Search. Once you disable OneDrive, you can then uninstall it. (Unfortunately there seems to be times when it shows up again, but you can just uninstall it again if it does. Not sure if that is a bug or a “feature”.)

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Never saw Leo’s script but have used this free program many times in the past: https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

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I use the decrapafier https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

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It’s a moving target but I have a bunch of links for you:

  1. I started with Paul Thurrott’s article

  2. Jesse Frazelle has some useful tips.

  3. This is her Powershell Script

  4. Many of Jessie’s ideas are from Nick Craver

Unfortunately I can’t find the script I derived from these sources.

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Thanks Leo, those are great tips!

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Thanks very much, Leo. The Thurrott article is Premium content. Do you know if the same information appears in the Field Guide? I’d kinda rather pay for that if anything.

Anyway, it looks like I can choose from several scripts. Thanks for the links.

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I found my notes! But WARNING - use these ideas with caution. They may have unexpected side effects!!

Log in with LOCAL admin account leo for setup

Create User account and attach that to MS account

#--- List all installed programs --#
Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion, Publisher, InstallDate
|Format-Table -AutoSize

#--- List all store-installed programs --#
Get-AppxPackage | Select-Object Name, PackageFullName, Version |Format-Table
-AutoSize

Uninstall ALL store apps with Powershell (leaving only the Store app itself):

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | where-object {$_.name –notlike “store”} | Remove-AppxPackage

Turn on HyperV

Ensure that hardware virtualization support is turned on in the BIOS settings
Windows Key "Type turn windows features on or off" enable everything under HyperV

Windows Key Hyper-V Manager

Setup scripts:

jessie https://gist.github.com/jessfraz/7c319b046daa101a4aaef937a20ff41f

nick

Install:

Chocolatey

choco upgrade lastpass brave sysinternals googlechrome launchy wsl cmder keybase adobe-creative-cloud synologydrive racket autohotkey dropbox 7zip notepadplusplus vlc git powershell jdk8 skype vscode curl wget python3 chocolateygui googledrive slack gpg4win claws-mail cpu-z hexchat firacode inconsolata --yes

Office

Adobe

Synology DSM Notes

Haskell

Docker

Configure Dropbox, Onedrive, Synology

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Thanks very much. It looks like I have a lot of studying to do. It’s just a shame that this much work is needed to get Windows 10 to behave in a reasonable manner. I should be excited about getting a new Thinkpad, but I’m just dreading what’s ahead.

Let me mention something unrelated that may be of interest. I’ve noticed that in Firefox on Windows 7, when I sign in to twit.community, it is using large amounts of site storage - 25MB is the largest value I’ve seen, which seems excessive.

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Better late than never, but thanks for posting the script Leo. This is the type of thing that can make this forum shine.

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Yesss. Bookmarked for sure. Thanks Leo :v:

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I like the “Chocolatey”; I’ve used https://ninite.com/ [an old Thurrot suggestion], but moving to Choco

Might you retitle this thread; “Leo’s RegEdit Warrior’s Windows 10 ReWipes”

It’s I’ve labeled my onenote cribsheet. :joy:

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