Windows 10: Run Windows 10 Setup Script after installation to customize the OS

Windows 10 Setup Script is a PowerShell script designed to be run right on the first run after Windows 10 was installed and set up on a computer. The main idea behind the script is to give administrators ample options to customize the experience, e.g. by modifying privacy related settings, making other tweaks, or removing built-in applications.

Note: Windows 10 Setup Script is an advanced script that should not be run on Windows 10 installations that are not new. Additionally, since it can potentially change many settings and options on the system, it is advised to create a backup before you run the script.

Tip: check out our overview of privacy tools for Windows 10.

Windows 10 Setup Script


Using the script requires some preparation. First, it is important that you download the script for the target version of Windows 10 that you want to modify. The developer offers scripts for Windows 10 version 1903, 1909, 2004 and Windows 10 LTSC 1809. A test version for Windows 10 21H1 is in the works right now as well.

Once you have downloaded and extracted the right version, it is necessary to open the script in a text editor or PowerShell IDE as it needs to be configured before it should be run. While you can, in theory, run the script and use all of the defaults, it is better to go through the script to enable or disable the options to be in line with your expectations.



Users who cannot read PowerShell scripts may still do that as documentation is provided in the form of comments. Still, it is best suited for advanced users who will feel more comfortable doing that. The Windows 10 version 2004 script has a total of 3488 lines and that takes some time to go through, even if you are an advanced user.

So, what modifications does the script support? Among others (the full list is here):

• Set up Privacy & Telemetry
• Turn off diagnostics tracking scheduled tasks
• Set up UI & Personalization
• Uninstall OneDrive "correctly"
• Change %TEMP% environment variable path to %SystemDrive%\Temp
• Change location of the user folders programmatically (without moving user files) within interactive menu using up/down arrows and Enter key to make a selection
• Uninstall UWP apps from all accounts with exception apps list with pop-up form written in WPF
• Turn off Windows features
• Remove Windows capabilities with pop-up form written in WPF
• Create a Windows cleaning up task in the Task Scheduler
• Unpin all Start menu tiles
• Pin shortcuts to Start menu using syspin.exe
• Three shortcuts are preconfigured to be pinned: Control Panel, "old style" Devices and Printers, and Command Prompt
• Turn on Controlled folder access and add protected folders using dialog menu
• Add exclusion folder from Microsoft Defender Antivirus scanning using dialog menu
• Add exclusion file from Microsoft Defender Antivirus scanning using dialog menu
• Refresh desktop icons, environment variables and taskbar without restarting File Explorer

All you need to do is use comments // to enable or disable certain tweaks in the script. Just place these in the front of commands to skip them when the script is run. Save the script once you have modified it.

Now it is necessary to run it on the system. This requires that you set the execution policy to bypass as Windows 10 will refuse to run the script otherwise.

1. Open an elevated PowerShell prompt, e.g. by displaying the "secret" menu with Windows-X and selecting the option.
2. Run the command: Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force
3. Run the PowerShell script or Start.cmd as administrator afterwards.

The program may display some choices to you, e.g. a list of apps to uninstall, depending on your editing of the script.

Closing Words


Windows 10 Setup Script is an advanced tool for advanced users and system administrators who want to modify new installations of Windows 10 right from the get-go. It takes quite a bit of preparing as you need to go through the script to make sure that everything is set up according to the needs before the script is run.

All in all, a great tool for advanced users who want to modify the system heavily.

Now You: do you use privacy tools?

Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post Run Windows 10 Setup Script after installation to customize the OS appeared first on gHacks Technology News.

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windows xp installation and dual core am

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Clean Install Workaround for Vista

You may remember this news story on techPowerUp! a couple of days ago relating to the lack of clean installs when using the Upgrade Editions of Vista, which required an old OS to be installed. However, Paul Thurrott has managed to find a workaround for this issue, which ironically lets users do a clean install Vista without any previous version of Windows, albeit a little tedious. Here are the steps:

• Boot from the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD as normal
• When prompted for a product code, leave this blank
• Select the version of Vista you have purchased and let Vista install
• When you boot to your desktop for the first time, run the Vista setup from Windows
• This time enter your product key
• When asked whether you want to do an Upgrade of Custom install, select custom and choose a clean install
• Windows will now install for a second time and you should be able to activate it

Remember, these steps are only advised for use in order to achieve a clean install of Vista, it is only legal to use the upgrade editions if you have previously purchased the appropriate version of Windows.

Source: DailyTech

 

How to customize Windows OS like Mac OS X?

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

Windows and Mac OS X are both different OS and designed in different ways. Both the OS has their own customizing capabilities. As both the OS are designed differently, some of the Windows customization cannot be done on Mac OS X and vice versa.

As .webloc opener is a third party application, we are unsure what modifications it does on the Windows OS, I suggest you to get in touch with the .webloc opener support team to know more about the application.

A Shell-script is a file that contains sequence of commands that can be used to perform certain operations using an command line application. As Mac OS X has terminal as a command line application, Windows has Command Prompt and PowerShell that can
be used to run scripts. To know more about how to write and run scripts, please refer the article

How to Write and Run Scripts in the Windows PowerShell ISE.

Extensions and add-ons are small software modules that can be used to customize the web browser. There are a variety of extensions and add-ons that can be used to customize the interface of the browser, ad block and cookie management. You can refer
the articles
Extensions in Microsoft Edge and
Manage add-ons in Internet Explorer 11 to add and manage Extensions and add-ons in Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer.

Windows comes with it’s own security software known as Windows Defender. Windows Defender is an in-built application that keeps the computer protected from virus, malware, spyware, and ransomware. To know more about security on Windows please refer
the articles
Help protect my device with Windows Security and

Windows Defender Security Centre.

You can use Task Manager to check for the startup items and the usage of Memory, CPU and Disk application wise. Press and hold
Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys to open Task Manager. To check for startup applications you can click on the Startup tab and you will find all the startup applications.

The customizations that you are currently interested in can be done as mentioned below:

To move selected items to new folder:

We can move some selected items to a compressed zip folder.

1. Select the items that you want to move.
   
2. Right click on one of the item and click on
   Send to.
   
3. Select Compressed zip folder and the files will be moved to compress zip folder.
   

Batch renaming files:

You can rename multiple files using File Explorer. Follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Select the files that you want to rename.
   
2. Right click on any of the selected file and click on
   Rename.
   
3. Type the new name for the file and hit Enter on the keyboard.
   

Note: All the files will be renamed following up with a number like (1), (2) and (3) etc.

Customizing Windows File Explorer to show GB/MB instead of KB:


Windows is designed in such a way that it will show the file size in KB only. Currently, we don’t have the feature to make the File Explorer to show the file size in GB/MB. However, this seems to be a good suggestion and
I would encourage you to provide your valuable feedback in Feedback hub so that our development team can review your suggestions. To provide your feedback, please refer to the article

Send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app

Better display of file paths:

You can see the path of an application by following the steps mentioned below:

1. Right click on the application for which you want to see the file path.
   
2. Click on Open file location to see the file location of the application.
   

You can also check the folder path or application path in File Explorer. Follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Press and hold Windows + E to open
   File Explorer.
   
2. Click on View tab.
   
3. Click on Choose columns.
   
4. Scroll down, select Path and click on
   OK.
   
5. You will be able to see the file path in
   File Explorer.
   

Regarding the better previews, I would like to know what previews are you referring to?

There are certain hotkeys already defined for Windows, to know the hotkeys that are already defined please refer the article

Keyboard shortcuts in Windows. Also, I would like to know the hotkeys that you want to customize.

You can use Cortana to search anything on the web and use it as your digital agent. To know more about Cortana, please refer the article

What is Cortana?

Hope it helps.

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community - Moderator