Slimming Down Windows 10

[GrizzlyBear]

I just about remember the days when Windows arrived on a few floppy disks...

Windows 10 is actually rather large, so what can I get rid of so it takes up less space on my HD?

I was looking around today and there are loads of X-Box things etc which I doubt I will ever use, so what can I get rid of with out causing problems?

Cheers

[The_Jackal]

Storage is cheap these days and specs are more than enough to run Win10 fine. Dont waste your time being obsessive over Win10.
If you are that paranoid just install Linux and be done with it.
The internet is bursting full with debloat articles and videos about cutting Win10 down. Most uneccessary and ironically filling the internet with more rubbish than the original bloat causes in Windows.

[Ozone]

I usually use CCleaner and uninstall all the XBox, Phone and other stuff I never need, It declutters the start menu for me.

The only problem is that when there's an update, some of them get re-installed, No harm is done getting rid of them.

[snuffy]

You can use Powershell to remove MS stuff that you can't uninstall in the normal way:

https://www.action1.com/kb/uninstalling-software-u...

But you most likely find that a) it saves you very little and b) the next Windows update will reinstall them all again anyway.

[Mr Pointy]

Life's too short to spend it battering Windows down to a smaller footprint just to have it come back again when updates are pushed out. Just buy more storage. Or learn to use one of the Linux packages.

[Skyedriver]

Mr Pointy said:

Life's too short to spend it battering Windows down to a smaller footprint just to have it come back again when updates are pushed out. Just buy more storage. Or learn to use one of the Linux packages.

A few years ago I bought a HP lap top for my young lad. It came with W10 installed but it took up 28 of the 32GB storage. The idea they gave was everything was saved to cloud or to a card in a slot.
Of course as soon as W10 started updated there was no available space....
It's still in use, just, by my wife for surfing, but needs careful cleaning to stop it gumming up.
It's not even heavy enough to use as a boat anchor!

[Jaguar99]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Lots of what are essentially netbooks being sold as Win10 laptops. Headline spec seems ok to the average punter but costs are cut on some of the components including the storage which is typically either 32GB or 64GB. They have enough room to install Win10 but stick on some software and a couple of Windows Feature Updates and you are out of space pretty quick. Some are upgradable, some have the storage on the MB and are not but either way they are not unusual today never mind 7 years ago

[rxe]

snuffy said:

You can use Powershell to remove MS stuff that you can't uninstall in the normal way:

https://www.action1.com/kb/uninstalling-software-u...

But you most likely find that a) it saves you very little and b) the next Windows update will reinstall them all again anyway.

This. You can spend a morning trying to have it down by a few percent, but you're quite likely to break something and you're not really doing any good. Get a decent sized disk.

More importantly, partition the disk so that you can separate the Windows install from your work. Windows 10 is perfectly good (probably the best yet) but it does degrade quite fact. Reinstall every year or so to maintain the speed.

[Halmyre]

rxe said:

snuffy said:

You can use Powershell to remove MS stuff that you can't uninstall in the normal way:

https://www.action1.com/kb/uninstalling-software-u...

But you most likely find that a) it saves you very little and b) the next Windows update will reinstall them all again anyway.

This. You can spend a morning trying to have it down by a few percent, but you're quite likely to break something and you're not really doing any good. Get a decent sized disk.

More importantly, partition the disk so that you can separate the Windows install from your work. Windows 10 is perfectly good (probably the best yet) but it does degrade quite fact. Reinstall every year or so to maintain the speed.

If only. I reinstalled and within a month it had reverted to its persona of a truculent teenager.

[Fishlegs]

I recalled seeing a Youtube video about this subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYOsevW3KdA&ab...

The aim of that video is making a minimal size win10 installer, but if you don't need to repeat the install you could just play along with the removal bits.

[Skyedriver]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

HP Stream 13 (in blue) was introduced around 2015/16 and in production up to about 2020 approx
Still on the Currys web site but unavailable, probably still available elsewhere.