How so I ‘decrapify’ Windows 11?

[iammrdom]

Hello everyone. It’s been a bee long time since I’ve been a windows user, and I hear that windows has a fair bit of preinstalled ‘stuff’ that seems to be called as ‘crap’ 😆

 

from my Windows 7 days I remember using Ccleaner but otherwise unsure what to use to delete annoyances or ‘stuff’ that’s part of windows or likely installed as part of windows that’s just unneeded. 
 

anyway, I’d appreciate any tips.

[adrynalyne]

The majority of junk can be uninstalled under Settings. 

[Accuphase]

Try this tool from CTT. It lets you batch add, remove and tweak various apps and settings.

https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil

[iammrdom]

On 01/03/2024 at 12:44, Accuphase said:

Try this tool from CTT. It lets you batch add, remove and tweak various apps and settings.

https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil

Awesome 🤩 Thank you so much I’ll try it as soon as my new Pc arrives. 

[Taliseian]

Also, if you change the "Time and Currency Format" to "English (World)" during the setup, it doesn't install some of the stuff (like TikTok, Whatsapp, etc).

You will need to go into Settings and change it back to "English (United States)" after install so you can easily access the Windows Store, however.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

I personally am not fond of using third-party applications to change Windows settings, because a lot of the time they make changes that have consequences that may not be immediately apparent, and later end up breaking Windows in weird, difficult to troubleshoot ways, like Microsoft Store apps failing over time because they have dependencies on operating system updates, and those were disabled.  I think a better approach is to find out the exact changes you wish to make, and then automate the registry (file, etc.) changes to enable and disable them through scripts, so you can not only apply them, but restore them as well if needed.

If there's a preinstalled application that is installed that you don't want, you can right-click on it and select Uninstall from the context menu that pops up.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[xrobwx71]

I agree with @goretsky

and would also suggest:

Before doing anything I would implement a sound backup plan.

Hasleo is a nice program and it's free. I've been using it for about a year now with success.

 

 

[adrynalyne]

On 01/03/2024 at 05:50, xrobwx71 said:

I agree with @goretsky

and would also suggest:

Before doing anything I would implement a sound backup plan.

Hasleo is a nice program and it's free. I've been using it for about a year now with success.

 

 

I wish Windows had a snapshot feature like snapper. 
https://github.com/openSUSE/snapper

 

System restore is unreliable and even when it does work, insufficient. 

[Accuphase]

On 01/03/2024 at 21:22, adrynalyne said:

I wish Windows had a snapshot feature like snapper. 
https://github.com/openSUSE/snapper

 

System restore is unreliable and even when it does work, insufficient. 

There's Rollback RX.

RollBack Rx Home | Horizon DataSys Corporation Horizon DataSys Corporation

Program solutions aside, sometimes a registry backup restore has proven successful for me.

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

Also agree with @goretsky

Targeted approach and proper uninstall each specific app you and proper backup advice above.

If your still determined to live dangerous....

O&O App Buster
https://www.oo-software.com/en/ooappbuster

It prompts you to create a system restore point before running
This allows you to easily remove Universal Windows Apps, and trigger the proper add/remove function installed apps (I suspect it's running the power shell underneath the GUI)
It hides the most critical Windows System UWA apps by default so you don't try to go down a rabbit hole and prevents you from  removing them. That's not to say you can't do stuff that will  give you errors.

To get the apps UWA back, you will have to use the Microsoft Store.

You could see things like "Visual Studio C++ 2xxx Redistributor", "Microsoft Windows Desktop Runtime", "Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime", and more, they can be dependencies for other software you do use, or hardware drivers that are needed to run things correctly.

Edit - Question

Would running "Reset This PC" erase everything get rid of a lot of third party add-ons are those now baked in to the windows customization?

 

[+DKAngel Subscriber²]

or just leave windows alone, and slowly just uninstall it once setup is complete ther really isnt a hell of a lot to change

[AlDollaz]

https://github.com/builtbybel/xd-AntiSpy

 

xd-AntiSpy is another good one.

[Copernic Reporter]

https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

[Som]

If you do a clean install of windows 11 , there's an option in the region to pick world instead of whatever country you're from, that version doesn't install all the crap

[inactive]

Alternatively... unless you want/need Windows 11 for whatever reason, I suggest you consider 'Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021' as that's supported until Jan 2032 and as a bonus it's start menu is nice and clean. pretty much what Windows should be. it's what I am using on my Linux PC in a virtual machine (QEMU/KVM) so I don't have to use Win11 etc for the foreseeable future.

p.s. but I generally agree with Goretsky as while using some of those 'tweaking' programs may be good here and there, you risk breaking stuff. so those who want to ensure stuff runs well, it's best to avoid them, especially on ones primary use PC that you can't afford something not to work.

[Imajin86]

I used to always use the WPD app, but I dont really trust it anymore since it hasnt had updates in a long time. Funny thing is, I recently came across a tool literally called 'Crapfixer' and it looks exactly like CrapCleaner 😅 You should check it out, its on GitHub
 

[Circaflex]

On 19/08/2024 at 15:25, ThaCrip said:

Alternatively... unless you want/need Windows 11 for whatever reason, I suggest you consider 'Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021' as that's supported until Jan 2032 and as a bonus it's start menu is nice and clean. pretty much what Windows should be. it's what I am using on my Linux PC in a virtual machine (QEMU/KVM) so I don't have to use Win11 etc for the foreseeable future.

p.s. but I generally agree with Goretsky as while using some of those 'tweaking' programs may be good here and there, you risk breaking stuff. so those who want to ensure stuff runs well, it's best to avoid them, especially on ones primary use PC that you can't afford something not to work.

Do we really expect home users to have access to enterprise licenses?

[binaryzero]

On 15/06/2025 at 06:17, Circaflex said:

Do we really expect home users to have access to enterprise licenses?

It was just a copy pasta from his other replies...