I once killed a Linux install using the wrong version of BB, and some things checked that I kinda thought might be bad ideas. They were. But it was a test setup, so no harm done.
Earlier BB versions did not have the warning pop ups, and I was caught out a few times. I expect that possibly those pop ups were introduced to try and make it a bit safer.
@@39zack CCleaner is integrated with both Google Analytics and Logentries that collects tons of data about its users and their machines and sells it to third-party advertisers. The software has also been been compromised in the past and had backdoors inserted into it on numerous occasions.
@@SIackware yea, I remember that , but the official one is safe as far as I know, but I remember it was compromised versions around some years ago. I also guess you don't use Google search or any other Google stuff of you don't like Google analytics
The extra disc clean up you mentioned looks similar to what is sometimes suggested to me to do by my older computers when the C drive gets close to full. (I have not seen it offered to me yet on any of my newer Windows 10 machines). I had not thought to try and do it before hand. It’s always very helpful IMO when you give us these little snippets of useful info.
I previously used CC just because a lot of people were using it, and told me about it. When Chris first mentioned his thoughts on CC and BB back in 2019, I tried BB, and as a Layman it seemed a lot better getting me out of some memory problems I had, that CC only sometimes helped a bit with. I still use an older BB version on some older machines as I think the BB versions are a bit optimised for a windows OS version. (Having to split this comment as the complete one keeps getting a false positive and being deleted. This is 1 of 4)
2 of 4 I think a criticism previously may have been that this tool could be a bit too powerful for the unwary. In earlier versions, it did not have the warning pop-ups, so the introduction of those pop-ups may have been because of that criticism, so as to encourage you to be a bit more careful of what options you check.
3 of 4 If you are using an earlier version you might want to check out part of an earlier video of Chris’s where he discusses the options. RU-vid won’t let me give you a URL link, but I will try (again!) to give you the last bit of a bitly link that will take you to the relevant part of that video:
Oh damn, I can not wait for that extreme debloat video. I have been waiting to reinstall Windows for a while now in hopes that we could get a full start to finish guide for something like that
Having used the free versions of a number of cleaners over the years, I can say that Windows has so many hiding places for software to stash files and unwanted or unneeded dreck it is amazing. And each cleaner's free version usually hits different places besides the obvious ones, especially if you use their live versions from a CD/DVD/USB stick. If you can, run those cleaners while the device/machine is in Safe Mode, you may get even more junk out.
Greetings from Hamburg/Germany! Chriss I've been a subscriber for a while, I like how you explain things and are honest with your opinions. I follow your work very intensely and have implemented all your advice, which I understand clearly and unambiguously, to date! I have to tell you that your tuning tips always keep what they promise and my system mutated into a hell machine after a new installation of Windows 11 and the changes you suggested. Thank you for that! And please keep it up, I'm counting on your expertise... love you man!
Really looking forward to that extreme windows debloat video. Especially for using certain aspects of it for my customers who have older and slower systems they would like to continue using.
They can use this , at least that helps getting all their drivers up to date with an actual WORKING update system. Not downloading from Realtek with 0.000001 mbps when you're lucky, or the WIndows Update that claims there really isn't a better driver than the one from 2015. It's called DriversCloud and offers a lot more when you want to know all the parts, readings and the like. To me cleaner than Speccy
The perfect tool when you accidentally leave sensitive government documents exposed because you just wanted to use one blackberry. And fun fact 2016 was my first election…..let’s just say I wasn’t impressed.
I'm really starting to doubt stuff like this makes a worthwhile difference anymore. I turned 59 last month. I've been doing this stuff for decades. PC hardware has become cheap and powerful enough that it takes a lot to slow a modern PC noticeably. I'm finding that even something that reduces the process count by say 50 or so doesn't really change the seat-of-the-pants Windows experience that much assuming the machine has enough memory. Sure a benchmark will detect it, but is that enough of a difference to make a difference? I'm not so sure anymore. Just because things are pre-fetched into memory and show up as processes doesn't mean they are slowing down the machine. Then there is the problem of Windows Update regularly undoing the changes. Don't get me wrong. I'm still in the business and still a nerd. When given a choice I'll always choose fewer processes, less bloat, and the cleanest, quickest experience possible. But age, laziness and complacency are powerful forces that eventually raise doubt as to whether repeatedly doing this stuff is worth it. It'll be nice when your tool is developed to the point where the changes it makes are permanent.
I am having a bad day with the RU-vid bot making false positives on all my comments and replies and deleting them. So I am having to jump through loops to get anything posted. Splitting sometimes helps. So this is 1 of 5
2 of 5 I think theoretically if you select the updates only option on Chris’s tool then that should introduce some stability. I share some of your pessimisms, I think a growing problem is that MS are integrating things a lot more, so it’s difficult to do the tweaking without breaking other things.
3 of 5 I am a Layman so this following idea could be bad, but I was thinking of trying to standardise on using an earlier Windows 10 version install and optimise such a Debloat/ tweaking script to work on that with just security updates always selected
4 of 5 Windows 10 re install seems to be very easy so I would probably wipe my computer clean with a re install regularly. Some Profis have told me that they do that in conjunction with always keeping good external back ups of personal data
5 of 5 For me the biggest problem in that solution is that I also prefer a good stable version of earlier MS Office software, and despite having a many legal DVD and licence keys, MS make it difficult to keep re installing with the key. But there are ways over that as well.
I've used it. Also, to uninstall software, I use Revo Uninstaller pro. I've paid for it but it's so much better than the built in uninstaller in Windows. This will delete all entries in Program files and other storage locations and clear the registry keys for the software.
While sniffing out and deleting left over residual cause by uninstalled programs normally might give you peace of mind, the truth is that some things that are leftovers containing preferences and settings if said program were to be installed again. and not really space killers. and the off-chance that a game outright refuses to acknowledge itself as uninstalled.
Great video and suggestion to use BleachBit, finally, Ive been using it for 4-5years (since recently together with CCleaner, but not anymore :) ) Can't wait to see 'Extreme Windows DeBloat' .. ;)
I thank you Chris for another relevant and useful video. You make our computer world experience better. I now offer a list of all the "alternative" methods people have thus far mentioned in the comments: System Mechanic Wise Registry Cleaner Ghost Spectre's Win11 version Glarysoft Registry Cleaner CCleaner's Registery Cleaner Glary Utilities 5 Privazer Yamicsoft Win 10 manager Clearprog Windows Server 2022 Non-conventional solutions: Pros don't use anything. They use the OS properly in first place :D All you have to do is Disk Cleanup occasionally. Delete files the manual away I just take a hammer to the hard drive...And then throw it in the fire pit. Cloth and some hammers Windirstat and do it all by hand :)
Thank you chris for making such a useaful and informative videos. Keep making new ones! One small request though. If possible, can you please reslease the NTLite modified version as an iso? As a student and as an avg Indian I can't afford the software but I really want to use it because of my shitty laptop. No probelem if you don't. One of my fav youtuber.!
I'd love to, but distributing windows modified ISOs is illegal and they literally sent someone to prison for it. Vox ran a story on the guy that took a bunch of refurbished PCs and repackaged them with recovery media and he ended up getting 2 year prison sentence. If I could ever figure out a way to do it legit, I totally would though!
thanks for the information Chris, but im still using ccleaner for removing broken reg files. looking forward for bleachbit in your debloat tool, maybe add some tool to deal with broken reg files.
Best to leave registry files alone.. having a "clean" registry, doesn't really make a ton of difference.. unless your computer is years old without any fresh installs of the os.. or you install everything on the Internet, it doesn't need to be cleaned
Been using Bleachbit for years since it was pretty much the cleaner always available in linux distro depositories, always there and always doing the job fine, especially after a fresh installation.
yes lets go , im using BleachBit for some time already but i was not sure what i can check and what not so finnaly Chris make a video on it , thanks a lot ♥
Chris, I've been using your tool on every machine I have, everywhere, since like 2020, and it fricken rocks!! I work in IT, one stop shop to make a clients Core 2 Duo machine with an SSD they don't want to upgrade feel fast, it's so easy!
To be clear, running this utility only removes extraneous files and it does not touch any processes that are going on? I ask because how is the number of processes you were running relevant to what this utility does? I suspect many people watching that are just wanting to make their system run better will potentially damage system files because the first minute of this video insinuates that this tool will remove unnecessary background processes.
I think mentioning process reduction is always a good seller. It’s often used as a performance measure by Debloat and tweak tools, for example. If I understand correctly, such improvement only, or mostly, comes from a code section in such tools which deals with Services/ Processes, and often that is only part the script. But it is difficult to give a simple to demonstrate measure of what the other stuff does. I expect BB has nothing to do with such things. But I could be wrong.
Actually, I just read the extra accompanying guide Chris has for this at his website. There may be some issue of CC doing some background stuff/Processes that BB doesn’t. Maybe somehow that is what Chris was on about?
I used to use System Mechanic back when I used to work on windows 7, it stooped working properly for later windows versions. Up until I used it, it was amazing, I used to see clear differences in performance
Disk Cleanup doesn't always work. I had over 18GB of trash in the temporary folder. It would look like it was doing something, but didn't delete a single file. I had to clean those files manually.
CCleaner is still what i use, it's just what I'm use to and the bloat is just on the installer, which you can decline, and just ignore the cheesy options in the app, it's not that hard to use and avoid the crap.
I Delete files the manual away I just take a hammer to the hard drive... And then throw it in the fire pit. But this method does get expensive after a while
For space saving don't forget about: dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup or... dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup /resetbase (The second one is going to prevent you from removing any windows updates prior to that point in time).
Bleachbit especially, and CCleaner, are both known to need to be used with care, or they will delete all kinds of things that should be kept. I don't use either one.
I've been using the portable version for quite some time. In fact I have a portable HD with Portable Apps on it and a bunch of select programs which I use for computer maintenance as well as repair and recovery. That way I don't have to install stuff like this on every computer, I just plug the drive in and go to work on whatever machine needs cleaning or work
Thanks for this, I stopped use ccleaner many years ago but will try out Bleachbit! Chris btw! I really like Revo Uninstaller but for what I know it also has a lot of bloat? And might not be trusted.. Maybe you have another recommendation that's similar or even better then Revo Uninstaller? Because I really like when it let you choose a scanning mode to delete all the left over maps and all regedit leftovers.. Awesome vid!
It's bullshit. All it does it will use less RAM during idle and light workloads and on top you will lose some features/bloat. Win11 itself handles the RAM properly, if your system has low ram e.g. total 2GB then Win11 will simply automatically disable some background services/apps to save the RAM also it automatically will prioritize main "foreground" processes e.g. games/browser but once you run some app/game that demands lots of RAM ( usually more than you have like running 1Bil polygon 3D scene ) both Vanilla Win11 and Ghost Spectre's will use exact same amount of physical and virtual memory. Already tested that myself with quite a lot of apps/games. But it might be different with super low-end PC's and Laptops that has like up to 4GB RAM. But if you have 8GB+ don't waste your time. Unused RAM is wasted RAM.
@qckz Fortunately, I run csgo on linux with better performance (and responsiveness) than any windows. Win11 is for dualboot some modern games that doesn't work on proton because of anticheat or something :D
I still use CCleaner. Bleachbit just looks so dark and dull. Very utilitarian to the point it looks like an early 2000s Linux program... and not in a good way.
Chris has done all this one a few times now, the first time back in May, 2019 as part of a longer video. He recycles a lot in a much shorter content, but better produced and entertaining form, as that gives better results for him on You Tube
It's good to go even further with the NTLite, but I think it should have at least Windows Defender because the system needs some kind of anti-virus in my opinion. Maybe you can remove everything unnecessary so Windows can have only the process that is needed to function correctly. I would love to use this kind of version of Windows.
Bleachbit is just missing a small registry cleanup. I know, at least the leftovers of other software doesn't harm, but I just don't like it. Since I use Glarysoft Registry Cleaner (free) since such a long time, the combination of both makes me at least satisfied. If it's needed? Who cares 🙂?
I've known about Bleachbit for years but only used it on linux. But yea, freespace is something you want to do on it's own and only once in a good while.
Hello Chris. I love your videos so much. I want to request you something. Can you please upload your windows screen record videos in like low dpi (or low resolution I don't know) ? You know I (and maybe most of us) watch your videos on a smartphone. And it looks too tiny on here. And not all of us can switch to FHD stream as I have a limited data plan. 😕 And once again thank you for all these amazing windows tweaking videos. 😀
any chance of a video showing how to go about removing some of the thousands of programs included in Linux Mint? There seems to be quite a lot of them. isn't this why people build gentoo systems...why can't you just delete ones you won't use? or shouldn't I even think about it?
Of course you can sort of. Linux Mint has created a bunch of dependencies in their DEs. These are not technically necessary. However, they are attempting to keep new Linux users from breaking the system. So, some programs cannot be removed without removing the DE as well. Even Debian has done this when you include a DE as part of the install. I’ve been able to avoid this in Debian by installing a minimal version of Debian then installing Xorg and my DE of choice. So, if you are not comfortable with the terminal, or are new to Linux, I would advise against doing this. It is too easy to break your system this way. While that is a great way to learn, most users simply want something that works without the learning curve.
As in other OSs, you have 'dependencies', which are other programs or data files required to run the basic system. Many of those cannot be deleted, because of the way Linux distros are put together. For example, if you files like "libxxxyyy", those are "library" file which either the OS or some software is 'dependent' on to work. Some Linux distros are terrible at creating dependencies where they could have avoided it for user freedom of choice, even MX Linux had fits when I tried to delete a mousepad/trackpad program that actually created a user problem by conflicting with another dependency also trying to control the pad (!)
@@markh.6687 thanks for the reply guys! who says Linux users aren't helpful to newbies? I think all those years on Windows has made me 'worry' about 3,000 programs on the system when I actually use, I dunno, 300?....so maybe a better way of putting my question would be: does having many programs installed make any difference to the system speed/function, by just having them on the system? cheers
@@alexeisavrasov888 Thank you, Alexei. It depends on what the programs do and how they do it. A number of system functions in the different OSs will just sit there not using many (or any real) processor (CPU) resources unless and until they are asked to do something, either by the user, or by the OS itself. Printer spoolers, scanner utilities, and so forth. But the problem with Windows is that software loves to schedule tasks you didn't want or need, run in the System tray taking up memory and CPU resources, automatically starting and running without a system tray icon, etc. Windows machines sold in US stores were packed with 'bloatware' taking up hard drive and processor power. In Linux, I just removed a Debian Linux virtual client that likely was installed by default, and it did affect the system. It was optional, so I removed it, because I do not run virtual machines and it was somewhat tying up the CPU on an older machine. If you limit your machine to what you need, you save space, have faster updates of fewer files, and your backups take up less space (a plus on USB devices in particular). If you are using mechanical hard drives, this also helps speed up reads/writes depending on file sizes as well, and in Windows speeds up the dreaded defrags and cleaning.
it’s impressive seeing that few services. I always have problems figuring out which services to keep or deactivate. for my system Im down to 113 services but im not sure what to disable further
"Disable ALL the services!!" (parody of common Internet meme). Seriously, sometimes you need to read up on those services to see what can go; I've seen various discussions and lists on services, but haven't looked for anything current (i.e. Win10 or Win11).
Much appreciated. I had an SSD fail on me, and after transfering a bunch of stuff over I had some really weird issues and the only program that came to mind was CCLeaner from back in the day. glad to not have to even think about that garbage program again.
Ya know, it's hilarious as I've always used CCleaner and I've always called it "C C Cleaner" but last month I realized for the first time it's actually "C Cleaner"...for drive C. Nice to see I wasn't the only one calling it C C Cleaner 🤣
Hi Chris, correct me if I am wrong here, as I remember you saying in one of your very old videos, where you mentioned to take windows server core image and installing third party launcher and window manager to make it super fast. Is it possible? Thanks!
Yeah, I did that, but the issue is some of the media dependencies for games couldn't be used because of the need for explorer. Still my favorite setup of all time was using Windows Server 2008 R2 as a base and game streaming from that. Obviously that would be dumb in 2022, but still my favorite system.
@@ChrisTitusTech Thanks for replying. Anyways, could you make a video over it whenever you have some time, even if it doesn't support games though. We would love to see that and hopefully learn a lot from you 👍 Thanks!
Hi Chris, I know you can't release an ISO file of a stripped down windows but can you show us step by step how to build it ourselves in that upcoming video.
I ran from Win8.1->Win10-> Win11 on a 256 GB SSD from way back and only recently it started to die on me. Probably because I've used up all the read and writes on it. So now I'm on a new 256 GB SSD on Win11. Still, I didn't bother with debloating Windows in any way. Other than that Telemetry that I turned to a minimum. I did use window tool to get rid of the old Windows files but I never maxed out the drive while using it. Windows ran fine the entire time. It was always fast. I never felt that it was slow. Bloat just isn't a thing you need to care about on a SSD when you got a decent system.
Pros don't use anything. They use the OS properly in first place :D All you have to do is Disk Cleanup occasionally. And if it's PC Repair job then clean win/app reinstall is far easier option and far safer for the client. But I guess most services don't do that so their clients PC will break sooner.
