Removing components vs Modifying registry?

[RLL90]

Hey everyone.

I'm interested in learning how to use NTLite and would like to know if it's advisable to delete components directly or use modifications to the registry instead.

I am seeing some guides in the forum (Windows 10 GamerOS and Windows 10 Optimized Image) and would like to know which practice is "more recommended" to get rid of telemetry and unnecessary services.

Removing components or modifying the registry?

Thanks !

 

[Hellbovine]

The answer depends on the scenario, and whether the aspect of compatibility or performance matters more to the user.

PERFORMANCE AND COMPATIBILITY

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For the performance aspect, it's possible for presets or guides to be designed differently, but perform the same. This aspect is easy to get a read on, because it's as simple as running benchmarks and playing games to find out how they compare to each other.

For the compatibility aspect, the major difference between component removals and registry tweaks is that a removal deletes files too, which recovers extra disk space as a benefit, but due to file dependency issues may come with significant consequences in the form of bugs. For example, users commonly find by uninstalling the Windows Media Player that many games break, because they relied on files in the component.

Many removals also require that a new image be created to install Windows with, in order to fix buggy components. Registry tweaks however, can be reversed on a live Windows, and any problems in the registry are typically due to operator error.

USAGE SCENARIO

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If the person is using someone else's work, then it doesn't matter which approach was used, it matters more how good of a job was achieved overall. Operator error and quality control are a massive part of everything discussed here, so a small preset that's built and tested properly (link1) could easily rank better in performance and compatibility than a much larger one, regardless of the approach being used. In this case, it's best to test different presets and guides, then choose the one that worked best.

If the person is making their own preset, then we have to consider new variables, such as time, effort, and knowledge. It's definitely faster and easier for users to only mess with component removals, because there's a limited amount of them (somewhere over 1,000) and NTLite has reduced the difficulty too by doing the hard part, so all that's left for the user is the simple job of guess and check, trying to uninstall a batch of 10 or 20 components, checking if there's any issues in Windows, then proceeding further. Once an issue is encountered, just undo the last layer of removals and find the individual culprit so it can be left out, and eventually you have a custom Windows with tons of removals.

Registry tweaking however, has countless options, requires knowledge of how it works in relation to other parts of Windows, the different ways to manipulate it, lots of time spent researching keys online, testing multiple values for the same key, registry snapshot tools, and more. The benefit here is that it can match the performance of removals, but without compatibility issues.

BEST APPROACH

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There is a best approach for most things, but it can sometimes be easy to shift someone's perspective so that it seems like one is suddenly better than another or that no approach is best, depending on the circumstances at the time.

In other words, there are so many variables in many types of "what is best" questions, that everyone would be better served by focusing on what it means to the person asking, by turning questions from, "Is it best to use component removals or registry tweaks" into something like, "Between preset A and B, which one gets better frame rates?" or "Can I merge presets to make a super preset?"

For general NTLite users, probably most of them use component removals and registry tweaks together, because the tool offers both. For component removals versus registry tweaking or specifically the GamerOS vs the Optimized Image, there have been many people doing both approaches there too, and are making an image with component removals like the GamerOS first, then taking that and processing the Optimized Image (registry tweaks) on top. Some more information can be found in another guide (link2) about presets.

 

[AeonX]

which practice is "more recommended" to get rid of telemetry and unnecessary services.

For this alone, both practices produce exactly the same positive result, but one of them (removing components) produces more negative results, so the best one is the simplest and least aggressive one, which is to modify the registry. However, this requires more knowledge, more research and more patience.

But that's not the only thing that impacts performance. For example, you would have to disable scheduled tasks. Some system apps run in the background and the only way to stop them is to remove them. When you remove components, in addition to reducing the space occupied on the disk, you also reduce the size of the registry, since several keys are removed, which reduces RAM usage. In addition, related drivers that run in the background are also removed.

So, in terms of performance, removing components will give you a better result, and you won't have to research too much about which registry entries you need to apply to get something equivalent. However, you are likely to have many more problems where the only way to solve them is to reinstall the OS, so you have to take that into consideration.

I've researched several scripts and they all tend to cause some kind of problem even if they don't remove anything. The only exception is Sophia Script, but it's more focused on privacy and customization, not so much on performance, although you do get a small gain.

This shows that you have to know what you're doing to mess with the OS. It's not enough to just take scripts and tweaks and apply them blindly, you need to know what they do. If you're not willing to do that, it's better to stick with NTLite.

 

[Mr. Yu]

For example, LTSC2021 removed components such as "Windows Security Assessment Browser" and "OneDrive". For 22H2, NTLite has the option to disable "Windows Security Assessment Browser" and "OneDrive" in the settings without manually changing any services, registry, or scheduled tasks. I suggest that if certain components can be disabled in NTLite, there is no need to delete them. If NTLite cannot disabled them, then can choose delete them.