I decided I would rather switch to Linux than run Windows 11 on my personal systems. But that doesn't stop me from having to deploy Windows 11 for work purposes, so I needed to figure out how to clean this all up anyway. :)
This is (mostly) protected from being changed in future updates. Microsoft wouldn't make any friends if classified government networks suddenly had new stuff showing up on their secured PCs, after all! These registry keys exist specifically to disable this behaviour, and for that reason, you can expect them to work through all versions of Windows 11. (And even if Microsoft did add new provisioned applications, it would affect any existing user accounts on the machine. Provisioned apps only install themselves for brand-new users on the machine, so you're fairly safe from that, too!)
We're definitely going to be taking a look at disabling the requirement for a Microsoft account in order to use your computer! There's also going to be some more settings that we can toggle to reduce the amount of "cloud" prompting we have to deal with. Stay tuned!
It's quite irritating when apps don't close file handles when they're supposed to be done with them. It's something that every programing 101 class teaches, yet _so many_ apps still don't do it correctly--even Microsoft's! It's even worse when a Windows service or the user shell clings to an old file handle. Ever tried to unmount a removable drive only to be rejected with an error message...even when _every_ app that ever touched the drive was already closed? Yep, a random service or part of the user shell left a damn file handle on the drive open.
Indeed! I've had some success using Procexp to find the offending handle and force it closed, but I've found that when it's System holding it open, force-closing the handle leads to system instability. Usually, though, a System file handle is the result of an anti-virus scanner, a file opened remotely via SMB, or something else of that nature. Makes me go on a bit of a hunt!
@@NextDoorNetAdmin Yep, I've had Procexp fail a few times too. Sometimes the offending process just re-spawns the handle. On rare cases, it just fails with an error. Rather than trying to force it at that point, most people would give up and just reboot the system to clear the issue. My end run around an inclosable file handle is to simply unplug the drive in sleep mode. When the system wakes up, the offending process just has to deal with the file error...for a file it never should have kept open anyway. Technically, it was done with the file. If the system successfully goes to sleep, any pending file operations and cached versions of the file should have been committed to disk. Of course, I wouldn't do that with a complex file system, such as a database or enterprise-level system. For the average PC, I hadn't had any issues with that trick. If I keep having the same problem with the same app/process, it's still preferable to actually find and correct the issue.
There are lots of programs out there. :) For cleaning up an installation file, specifically, there is a program to do this... but it went further than I thought was beneficial, so I went through it all myself to choose what to get rid of and what to keep. It's also worth pointing out that sometimes programs to do this automatically can have negative effects--some previous versions rendered Windows unable to install any security updates, making them quite vulnerable to exploitation. I'm going to show you all one of those tools at the end of this series, but I thought it would be important for people to know how it works and why, so they can make their own decisions about whether they want to go through it manually (like I have).
That actual tutorial starts at 9:58 for those wanting to skip the backstory.
The fact that this video is helpful tells me to never buy another Windows machine.
I decided I would rather switch to Linux than run Windows 11 on my personal systems. But that doesn't stop me from having to deploy Windows 11 for work purposes, so I needed to figure out how to clean this all up anyway. :)
@@NextDoorNetAdminthere is no workaround for Office/Excel users and gamers right?
@@NextDoorNetAdmin I don't want to do it, but I'll be running Windoze 10 until May, and then I'll have the summer to figure something else out.
Can you share the sites that list the locations of those pesky registry entries can be identified? Awesome job on these tutorials! 🎉
Wonder if with every new update all this laborious work goes to waste. Microsoft can just reinstall everything and more😢
This is (mostly) protected from being changed in future updates. Microsoft wouldn't make any friends if classified government networks suddenly had new stuff showing up on their secured PCs, after all! These registry keys exist specifically to disable this behaviour, and for that reason, you can expect them to work through all versions of Windows 11.
(And even if Microsoft did add new provisioned applications, it would affect any existing user accounts on the machine. Provisioned apps only install themselves for brand-new users on the machine, so you're fairly safe from that, too!)
That's actually really helpful!
Thank you so much...! Show how to disable cloud also.
We're definitely going to be taking a look at disabling the requirement for a Microsoft account in order to use your computer! There's also going to be some more settings that we can toggle to reduce the amount of "cloud" prompting we have to deal with. Stay tuned!
@@NextDoorNetAdmincan we buy a "cleaned" installation file from you sir? Of course i would pay the key + the technical work done
It's quite irritating when apps don't close file handles when they're supposed to be done with them. It's something that every programing 101 class teaches, yet _so many_ apps still don't do it correctly--even Microsoft's!
It's even worse when a Windows service or the user shell clings to an old file handle. Ever tried to unmount a removable drive only to be rejected with an error message...even when _every_ app that ever touched the drive was already closed? Yep, a random service or part of the user shell left a damn file handle on the drive open.
Indeed! I've had some success using Procexp to find the offending handle and force it closed, but I've found that when it's System holding it open, force-closing the handle leads to system instability. Usually, though, a System file handle is the result of an anti-virus scanner, a file opened remotely via SMB, or something else of that nature. Makes me go on a bit of a hunt!
@@NextDoorNetAdmin Yep, I've had Procexp fail a few times too. Sometimes the offending process just re-spawns the handle. On rare cases, it just fails with an error. Rather than trying to force it at that point, most people would give up and just reboot the system to clear the issue.
My end run around an inclosable file handle is to simply unplug the drive in sleep mode. When the system wakes up, the offending process just has to deal with the file error...for a file it never should have kept open anyway. Technically, it was done with the file. If the system successfully goes to sleep, any pending file operations and cached versions of the file should have been committed to disk.
Of course, I wouldn't do that with a complex file system, such as a database or enterprise-level system. For the average PC, I hadn't had any issues with that trick. If I keep having the same problem with the same app/process, it's still preferable to actually find and correct the issue.
Nice videos sir! Is there a program to clean windows 11 from bloatware?
There are lots of programs out there. :) For cleaning up an installation file, specifically, there is a program to do this... but it went further than I thought was beneficial, so I went through it all myself to choose what to get rid of and what to keep. It's also worth pointing out that sometimes programs to do this automatically can have negative effects--some previous versions rendered Windows unable to install any security updates, making them quite vulnerable to exploitation.
I'm going to show you all one of those tools at the end of this series, but I thought it would be important for people to know how it works and why, so they can make their own decisions about whether they want to go through it manually (like I have).
@@NextDoorNetAdmin i just want a safe and non monitoring version that plays games and works with Office suite