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Win11Debloat is a simple script that removes pre-installed windows bloatware

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141–150 of 196 posts

Re: Win11Debloat is a simple script that removes pre-installed windows bloatware

#141
post #123

I have a love and hate relationship with this type of tools. On one hand, I want to remove all that I don't need and keep my privacy on my computer; on the other I don't want to have to fiddle and google why the Windows update failed. Because, I stopped counting how many times one of those registry changes/app removal actually broke Windows update. In the end, I just run other software like StartAllBack that I can ea…

> times one of those registry changes/app removal actually broke Windows update. If there is an option in Registry, it's clearly an acceptable use-case. The truth is that Microsoft developers are lazy (like most devs) and just fail to test their updates properly - or even intentionally ship broken software, in order to force this or that option back to its (typically privacy-invasive) default.

That's not true at all. The contents of the registry are not a documented public API. They have no support guarantee. Some keys are documented, but those are not what these tools modify and are not the ones that cause problems.

"I deleted a whole bunch of stuff in xorg.conf and my graphics started flickering" is not the fault of Xorg needing more tests.

Re: Win11Debloat is a simple script that removes pre-installed windows bloatware

#142

If you turn the complexity curve of debloating and custom Windows ROMs about 90 degrees, it's the same as the backwards bend Windows users are doing to avoid jumping to something easier like Linux Mint.

>> If you turn the complexity curve of debloating and custom Windows ROMs about 90 degrees, it's the same as the backwards bend Windows users are doing to avoid jumping to something easier like Linux Mint. Let me know when Linux is running games that have Easy Anti Cheat or stuff from Blizzard. It's the day I will ditch my windows gaming rig. Until then, kindly STFU.

It's a Blizzard problem, not a Linux problem.

Re: Win11Debloat is a simple script that removes pre-installed windows bloatware

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't know when you last tried a Linux distro but most Linux distro's come with a video player out of the box and have done for the better part of the last 10 years at the very least

Correction: most Linux distros come with 12 video players out of the box (and at least 7 calculator apps)...... the philosophy of "we can't decide so just include them all" is pretty strong.

There may be 12 video players in the package repositories but I can't think of any distro that installs with 2 video players.

Re: Win11Debloat is a simple script that removes pre-installed windows bloatware

#144
I could really go for something like Ninite that let me easily customize win11. It's about turning stuff off but also enabling some of those optional windows features like hyper-v.

Just let me install, fire up ninite, that util, and we're off.

Re: Win11Debloat is a simple script that removes pre-installed windows bloatware

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rando: "Gud, why's there no video player installed? How do I get to play my video player?" Gud: "Just use the operating system's package manager." Rando: "What's that? How do I find it?" Gud explains what it is and how to find it. Rando: "Wow, finally found it. What do I do next?" Gud: "You search for a video player. Try [...]." Rando: "I can't find it. This sucks. Why is there no video player installed by default? M…

I can't reply to Gud below, but their comment really shows they haven't worked with real users at all. A lot of people on hacker news assume everyone is in the demographic of hacker news for some odd reason. It absolutely can take 2 hours to help someone with a task it would take you 2 minutes to do (with 1.5 of those minutes watching progress bars) Some people are just dumb as rocks. Some, if you say to click a butt…

> Some people are just dumb as rocks.

Or maybe they have become apathetic for what's on offer.

Its not like anyone documents what data is sent back to base by an app, and its not like anyone is even looking at how to use the firewall to block data phoning home, in order to protect privacy and reduce the attack vector from opportunists with network access.

This all seems like a side show.

Re: Win11Debloat is a simple script that removes pre-installed windows bloatware

#146
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's the same as the backwards bend Windows users are doing to avoid jumping to something easier like Linux Mint No need to be snarky for a cheap shot at windows users who never bothered you with anything, not everyone is trying to avoid jumping or trying to jump. Get out of your (tech) bubble and touch some grass, plenty of Average Joe users are contempt using what's familiar and works for them out of the box with…

Oh, the sensitivity of the Windows defender. I'll keep repeating this. I've been doing "installing operating systems and intro to IT courses" for well over a decade now, for many different types of users at many skill levels. Out of the box Linux (e.g. Mint) is an across the board better operating system for anyone who doesn't need anything specifically tied to Windows. It's easier, it just works. I admit that it's n…

>> anyone who doesn't need anything specifically tied to Windows

This is the elephant in the room.

Re: Win11Debloat is a simple script that removes pre-installed windows bloatware

#147
My question to this is "why go through the trouble of doing this when there's operating systems where you don't need to do a debloat step"

I realize the answer is that people use Windows because the software they use requires Windows, but it just irks me that this is the solution to not wanting a "bloated" OS.

Re: Win11Debloat is a simple script that removes pre-installed windows bloatware

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rando: "Gud, why's there no video player installed? How do I get to play my video player?" Gud: "Just use the operating system's package manager." Rando: "What's that? How do I find it?" Gud explains what it is and how to find it. Rando: "Wow, finally found it. What do I do next?" Gud: "You search for a video player. Try [...]." Rando: "I can't find it. This sucks. Why is there no video player installed by default? M…

I can't reply to Gud below, but their comment really shows they haven't worked with real users at all. A lot of people on hacker news assume everyone is in the demographic of hacker news for some odd reason. It absolutely can take 2 hours to help someone with a task it would take you 2 minutes to do (with 1.5 of those minutes watching progress bars) Some people are just dumb as rocks. Some, if you say to click a butt…

Presumably these users would be in a managed environment.

Re: Win11Debloat is a simple script that removes pre-installed windows bloatware

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's the same as the backwards bend Windows users are doing to avoid jumping to something easier like Linux Mint No need to be snarky for a cheap shot at windows users who never bothered you with anything, not everyone is trying to avoid jumping or trying to jump. Get out of your (tech) bubble and touch some grass, plenty of Average Joe users are contempt using what's familiar and works for them out of the box with…

I didn't read the GP comment as bashing. I read it as simply asserting that the levels of effort were closer than some Windows users realize.

The vast majority of Average Joes Windows users don't seek out debloating tools on GitHub though, but the HN hivemind is too self-absorbed and out of touch to realize this. Most users don't even know what GitHub is except maybe some website programmers use.

And the users who do seek out debloating tools, it's because they need/prefer Windows over Linux mint despite them having the skills to learn to use Linux.

It's not about effort, it's about necessity/preference/habit.

Re: Win11Debloat is a simple script that removes pre-installed windows bloatware

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? You think that a modern consumer/professional operating system, upon double-clicking a video, should do nothing? That's a thing that you would ship to an entire planet full of Regular People and say "Yes, this is the Right Thing. You should be happy about this result"

The Linux hivemind on HN would say that's OK, but that mindset is also why Linux has such a dismal consumer base. There should be a video player built it by default, yes, but it should also be easy to remove if you so choose.

Distros not shipping with programs like video players installed by default isn't the reason Linux hasn't found mainstream traction. The real reason is because Linux simply doesn't solve the sort of problems most users need solving; there aren't many compelling reasons for a casual computer user to use Linux in the first place. For normal users, not technical/power users, Linux could work fine but Windows or MacOS also work fine, so they'll stick with what they and most other people know already. Oh you get the source code? Most users don't know what that is, they don't have a reason to care. You get the power to customize things? They don't want to. These things are important and valid to some people, but not important to many more. And that's fine. I've been using Linux for about 20 years and I love it, but I don't recommend it to normies anymore because I figured out that it wasn't doing them any favor. If Linux gave normies some great advantage over the alternatives then more would use it, but that's just not the way it is.
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