User:Misterhaan/Windows 10 Setup

disable unneeded services

black viper has a comprehensive guide to the [services in windows 10](url=http://www.blackviper.com/service-configurations/black-vipers-windows-10-service-configurations/). here’s what i changed on mine:

- application management → disabled - base filtering engine → disabled - diagnostic policy service → disabled - diagnostic service host → disabled - diagnostic system host → disabled - diagnostics tracking service → disabled - distributed link tracking client → disabled - homegroup listener → disabled - homegroup provider → disabled - ike and authip ipsec keying modules → disabled - internet explorer etw collector service → disabled - ip helper → disabled - ipsec policy agent → disabled - problem reports and solutions control panel support → disabled - security center → disabled - webclient → disabled - windows error reporting service → disabled - windows firewall → disabled - windows media player network sharing service → disabled - windows remote management (ws-management)→ disabled

disabling the security center service is still going to leave the flag icon in the system tray. to turn it off, right click the taskbar and choose properties, then click the customize button for notification area. at the bottom of the new window, click the turn system icons on or off link, and set the action center icon to off.

the windows defender service can no longer be stopped or disabled. instead, run windows defender from the start menu and go to the settings tab and the administrator section and uncheck “turn on this app.”

prevent onedrive

onedrive starts up every time even if you haven’t set up a microsoft account and thus can’t use it. if you have windows 10 pro you can disable it through group policy by entering *gpedit* in the start menu, then enable the only setting in computer configuration / administrative templates / windows components / onedrive. if it seems weird to enable a setting to turn it off, notice that the setting is to prevent onedrive, so enabling the setting disables onedrive.

enable automatic login

if you only have one user account or almost always login with the same account, you may want to have windows do this for you automatically. in the start menu search box, enter [i]netplwiz[/i]. it should give you one result, so use that. uncheck [i]users must enter a user name and password to use this computer[/i] and click [i]ok[/i]. the [i]automatically log on[/i] window pops up — fill in the user name and password fields.

map network drives

click the file explorer icon (looks like a folder) on the taskbar, then click this pc in the left pane. click the [i]map network drive[/i] button in the computer section of the ribbon.

in the map network drive window, choose an open drive letter and a network location. leave [i]reconnect at logon[/i] checked so that you won’t need to do this every time you boot.

change drive icons

it’s easier to tell my mapped drives apart if i give each one its own icon. this is done by creating registry keys. run regedit, then get down to [code]HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer[/code]. create a key called [code]DriveIcons[/code] (it sometimes already exists), then under that create a key that is called the drive letter, for example [code]X[/code]. under that, create a key called [code]DefaultIcon[/code] and set its default value to the icon file you want to use. you can use a file with multiple icons if you add a semicolon followed by a number telling it which icon to use. repeat as desired for additional drives. Similarly, a key called [code]DefaultLabel[/code] will change the text that displays for that drive when empty (in the case of cd/dvd/memory cards). for mapped drives you can actually find them in computer and rename them like any other file.

customize desktop

right-click the desktop and choose *personalize*. use the browse button to choose an image for the desktop. choose colors from the left and tell it to automatically choose an accent color. the algorithm doesn’t always do a good job, so pick something manually if you don’t like it. if the taskbar and start menu are difficult to read, turn off transparency. choose lock screen from the left and click browse to choose a picture for the lock screen, which won’t show much with auto-login. choose themes on the left and click the desktop icon settings link. check the box for computer. i don’t use the recycle bin, so disable it by right-clicking the recycle bin (on the desktop) and choosing *properties*. turn off the delete confirmation dialog and choose the *don’t move files...* option to disable the recycle bin. now you can uncheck it in the desktop icon settings to hide its icon. you also have the option of changing the icons for everything that shows in the box. i change computer and user.

now click the back arrow in the upper left corner of the personalization window and choose system. choose *power & sleep* from the left, then click the *additional power settings* link and then the *change plan settings* link for the active plan, and finally *change advanced power settings* to get at all power options. some settings will be locked until you click the *change settings that are currently unavailable* link. i make the following changes:

• balanced → require a password on wakeup: no (except on a laptop because i might leave it unattended)
• sleep → sleep after: 0 (never)
• power buttons and lid → lid close action: do nothing
• power buttons and lid → power button action: hibernate

click ok, then cancel, then *choose what the power button does* from the left. click *change settings that are currently unavailable*. if you are dual-booting with linux and want to be able to mount your windows partition in read-write mode, make sure *turn on fast startup* is unchecked. otherwise windows actually does a partial hibernate which prevents anything else from writing to the disk. check the box for hibernate to add a hibernate option to the shutdown menu.

back to the settings window, choose *about* on the left. click *rename pc* to give your computer a name. also right-click the *this pc* icon on the desktop and choose rename and type the name there if you like. you will need to reboot for the new name to take effect. by default windows puts you in a workgroup named “workgroup,” but i prefer the name of my network. the about page we’re looking at displays it, but you can’t change it from here. click the *system info* link and then under the *computer name, domain, and workgroup settings* section follow the *change settings* link. click the *change* button in the window that pops up, and enter your workgroup name.

shorten vertical icon spacing

windows 8 seems to have removed access to the advanced display properties dialog, so to put desktop icons closer together it’s necessary to edit the registry. go to HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics and find the value named IconVerticalSpacing. it's in some sort of secret code where -1125 means 43 (the default) and -825 means 23 (what i change it to). This will take effect after your next login.

remove folder links from this pc

there are 6 folders that show up in file explorer along with all the drives. i don’t even use 5 of the 6 and the other isn’t useful to have right there, so remove them all. run regedit and get to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID. there are problably 6 subkeys that are uuids, and those are what you want to delete. the ones under CLSID though have a value named System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree that needs to be changed to 0. in case you actually want to keep one or two of them, here’s the list:

• {1CF1260C-4DD0-4ebb-811F-33C572699FDE} - Music
• {374DE290-123F-4565-9164-39C4925E467B} - Downloads
• {3ADD1653-EB32-4cb0-BBD7-DFA0ABB5ACCA} - Pictures
• {A0953C92-50DC-43bf-BE83-3742FED03C9C} - Videos
• {A8CDFF1C-4878-43be-B5FD-F8091C1C60D0} - Documents
• {B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641} - Desktop
• {018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6} - OneDrive (only under CLSID)

For 64-bit Windows, delete the same keys and modify the same values from under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace HKCR\Wow6432Node\CLSID to also remove them from 32-bit application dialogs.

folder options

you can get to folder options from the control panel, or from file explorer (formerly called windows explorer) by going to [i]view → options[/i]. make the following changes on the view tab: [bullets]hidden files and folders: show hidden files and folders hide extensions for known file types: uncheck hide protected operating system files: uncheck launch folder windows in a separate process: check use sharing wizard: uncheck[/bullets]

turn off keyboard switch shortcut

even though i tell windows to use the dvorak keyboard at install time, it still also installs the qwerty keyboard. to make matters worse, it also uses a common key combination as a hotkey to switch keyboard layouts. if i ever actually want to switch, i use the mouse on the language bar in the taskbar. it's sort of hard to find the shortcut to turn it off, so here's how:

click the language bar to pop up the keyboard layout menu. click the language preferences link at the bottom of the list. click additional date & time settings at the bottom. click the language heading. click the advanced settings link from the left side. click the change language bar hot keys link under the switching input methods heading. click the change key sequence button and then set both options to not assigned.

program customization

some programs work better with some customization. this list reminds me what i should change after installing certain programs.

borderlands

when borderlands starts up you get to see a bunch of logo videos, and it won’t let you skip them. i just want to play not watch the same videos repeatedly, so edit borderlands\WillowGame\Config\DefaultEngine.ini. find [FullScreenMovie] around line 400 and comment out (insert a semicolon at the beginning) each of the +StartupMovies and +SkippableMovies lines.

civilization v

the startup video continues playing until you told it to skip and it’s finished whatever startup actions the game needs. i prefer to not see anything until it’s at the main menu, which can be configured by editing a file. open C:\Users\YOU\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civiliation 5\UserSettings.ini and find the line that says SkipIntroVideo = 0, and change it to SkipIntroVideo = 1.

visual studio 2015

while the visual studio 2015 installer has some optional components, other things that should be optional get installed anyway. here’s what i remove after installing visual studio community 2015:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Management Objects
• Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Management Objects (x64)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Transact-SQL ScriptDom
• Microsoft SQL Server 2014 T-SQL Language Service
• Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0 SP1 x64 ENU
• Microsoft System CLR Types for SQL Server 2014
• Microsoft System CLR Types for SQL Server 2014 (x64, presumably)

world of goo

by default, world of goo runs at 800×600 resolution in fullscreen, but my monitor is 1920×1080. there’s no settings whatsoever available to change within the game, but there’s a file in the properties directory (for steam it’s [code]steamapps\common\world of goo\properties\[/code]) called [code]config.txt[/code] which is actually an xml file with some settings. change the 800 to your resolution width (for example, 1920) and the 600 to the height (1080). save the file and the game should run at the resolution you entered. works for me at 1920×1080.