Need reading list about services/components of windows 10

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GodIsGirl

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My mom has a cloud book with Windows 10 Home(64bit). It has 28 GB of disk space and 3 GB of RAM. This is not life-or-death critical, but it made me wonder if I will be able to optimize Windows 10 Home (with help of NTlite home) to such degree, that that fat rigid swine of OS (Yes, I am a Linux user, how could you tell?) called Windows 10 22H2 would be still useful despite extremely limited resources.

But by looking at long list of services and components I already see that , in order to disable services (to save RAM) and remove components (to save space AND, possibly, RAM) without rending the OS useless I already need to act carefully. I wonder if if there are any books, articles, websites, etc, that would help me to understand what each service/component does, how they interact, what consequences can happen due to them being disabled/removed. I am okay if it will be complicated and require exhaustingly long reading, just nothing that requires paying constant subscription fees, okay?
 
Check out the Guide (link1) section of the NTLite forum, it has everything you need, except a wiki of component removals and what they affect, since an exhaustive list doesn't exist anywhere and never will, as there is no way to know, since file dependencies are developer-specific. This preset guide (link2) helps NTLite users figure out which path they want to pursue in their tweaking.

Modern Windows are very heavy on both disk space and resource usage, so on your device a default Windows install is already maxing out the available disk space and RAM to the point where Windows cannot function properly. Later versions of W10/W11 won't even install on that device, since it doesn't meet basic requirements. You can strip it down and make it usable, but take a look at this guide (link3) to see how many resources a default install uses so you can understand why that is ultimately a waste of time in your scenario, since Windows just isn't designed for weak devices.

Personally, I would save myself the hassle of tweaking a device like that and buy a new Chromebook when they go on sale for as low as $99. They have essentially zero maintenance, a light footprint, are more secure, and designed specifically for basic stuff like web browsing, text editing, etcetera.
 
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Thanks for the links. I will try anyway, I think I can learn something useful in the process. (Besides, Chromebooks and other netbooks are not sold anymore where I live)


I also need sanity check. In order to save resources I think to do following things:

1. OEM recovery partition will be removed to gain 0.5GB. If I understand it correctly, I don't really need it. I have zip with OEM drivers, I have a laser disk with Windows 10 installation (and consequentlty, its built-in recovery tool).

2.Windows Update will be disabled and, likely, deleted. Updates will only suffocate the system even more and can undo tweaking and deletion of components. If new major build of Windows will come I will just create new custom ISO and install new version of Windows 10. Yes, I know that it will break SFC, but I can just reinstall Windows. Also I keep CompactOS enabled to save space and it breaks Windows Updates for some reason anyway.

3.The cloudbook will live without any real-time antivirus protection to save RAM. Only very limited list of trusted third-party apps will ever run on the cloudbook. The same goes for websites (I will block all websites except whitelisted websites). I will set up 32bit Pale Moon for browsing whitelisted websites to save RAM. Autoplay feature will be disabled to protect against autorun viruses on removable media. I will try (please, give the hyperlink if you already know how to do this) to break .LNK files in order to prevent accidental click on a virus that imitates legitimate document (all legitimate apps will run by clicking custom bat files on desktop instead of LNK files). This leaves open possibility of malware that autoruns thanks by exploiting vulnerability in explorer.exe when it tries to show custom images and thumbnails. I will probably try to get rid of explore.exe altogether and replace it with alternative shell(again, please share the hyperlink if you already know how to do this). Additionally, I will periodically use several antivirus live disks to scan the system. And app lockdown tool like "Voodoo schield" to prevent any apps( except the trusted ones) from running.

If I succeed, the biggest risk will be Windows default services/processes being exploited to gain access to the cloudbook by internet worms. This is why I will need to prevent all Internet Access except for Pale Moon (and probably for several free antivirus scanners like Avast, Bitdefender and Malwarebytes, which will be used to scan removable media for viruses, just in case. They will need to be able to update their antivirus definitions). Although, given how hungry Microsoft is for telemetry, Windows will likely not surrender without some fight and most likely something extra will be left anyway, breaking things in process too.

4.I will have to delete Windows Defender, as it will be unable to update its malware signatures without Windows Update. I hope it is possible to do without deleting the firewall too.

Any additional ideas/guides for hardening Windows 10 Home in absence of real-time antivirus protection are welcome!
 
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I suggest, in addition to tweaks and optimizations, trying to use older builds of Windows 10 like version 1607 or 1507 which are considerably lighter in terms of RAM usage, disk space and responsiveness, especially if you don't have an SSD. But they may not be compatible depending on the hardware. Mobile devices are more annoying with compatibility.

Below are some links about optimizations that may be useful. Keep in mind that some are aimed at virtual machines and not all will necessarily be good for real machines as well (Example: Superfetch service (SysMain) in a non-persistent virtual machine is useless but in a real machine it can improve performance).

https://www.reddit.com/r/closedopensource/comments/ssezw5/windows_10_optimization_guides/?rdt=50076
https://github.com/djdallmann/GamingPCSetup
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...es-vdi-optimize-configuration#system-services
https://github.com/The-Virtual-Desktop-Team/Virtual-Desktop-Optimization-Tool
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...r-disabling-system-services-in-windows-server
 
"I suggest, in addition to tweaks and optimizations, trying to use older builds of Windows 10". This will make the system more vulnerable to exploits. Also there is always a chance that ISO files of older builds might have been infected with malware, as Microsoft doesn't allow to download older builds and doesn't say their hash codes.
 
GodIsGirl said:
This will make the system more vulnerable to exploits.
Click to expand...
Why vulnerable if LTSB/LTSC editions continue to have updates? And you yourself said that you will disable/remove Windows Update.

Unless you insist on using Home or Pro edition.

In that case, you can't perform miracles, have the best of both worlds, a lightweight and modern system at the same time. In that case it's better to use Linux.
 
"In that case it's better to use Linux." My friend, the second I will make our home printer properly work under Linux is the second I will start screaming "Viva La Revolution!" and swiftly introduce this Swine OS to madame Guillotine. Maybe I just need to try harder this time, maybe my previous attempt was half-hearted ...

"And you yourself said that you will disable/remove Windows Update."
The idea was to install the latest major update and reinstall anew in case of new major (or just final) update

"Unless you insist on using Home or Pro edition."

We have only Home license
 
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GodIsGirl said:
The idea was to install the latest major update and reinstall anew in case of new major (or just final) update
Click to expand...
So every month you will do a host refresh with NTLite or install Windows with an updated ISO on top (inplace upgrade)? Otherwise the system will be vulnerable anyway.

With a new build of Windows you will have to limit Windows resources a lot to get good results on low-end hardware and depending on that hardware it won't even work well. Without an SSD I would say it will be a pain to use. But there are people who like to suffer and say that recent Windows runs well even on a potato lol. The focus of Windows development is always on newer and more powerful hardware.

But it doesn't hurt to try, maybe there is no other alternative, I would say that it will probably only be compatible with 22H2, no one can say that it will be bad before testing and only you can do that.
 
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