SOA Windows 10: clean install Windows with a gaming-oriented ISO

RoboMan

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I stepped across this Windows 10 modified image and gave it a try. It seem's it's very well known among hispanic IT users, giving out support on a Facebook Group named Tecnicos Inside.

1564403803332.png


tl;dr: It is a Windows 10 1903 build pre-optimized, disabled services that are not necessary, enabled tweaks for maximum performance, and brings a couple of IT tools that will come at hand (it also brings a Windows activator that I deleted to avoid possible privacy/malware issues, and because I have my original license). Windows Update comes enabled and it installs updates without any issues. It also brings a light easy tool to block updates if you want to.

I have been using it for around some days and the performance is amazing, much better than regular 1903, ideal for me that I game and edit with AutoCad and Photoshop. The installer comes in Spanish but it's just a couple of buttons that will let you choose wether your PC is a low-end PC, mid-end PC, high-end PC, and to enable SSD trim. I have a high-end PC but chose low-end PC for maximum performance (the creator suggests it).

 

Nightwalker

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Since Windows 7 I am a huge sceptical of tweaks and custom images, Microsoft has made huge progress in the resources management area that I doubt that most tweaks actually have some benefic impact for the machine.

There is no need to disable services, prefetch, pagefile and so on, thats why the user must avoid system optimizers, registry cleaners, most third party defragmenters because they do more harm than good.

I will give the doubt benefit just because of your knowledge and experience, but I really dont recommend those custom images.
 

shmu26

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I stepped across this Windows 10 modified image and gave it a try. It seem's it's very well known among hispanic IT users, giving out support on a Facebook Group named Tecnicos Inside.

View attachment 217575

tl;dr: It is a Windows 10 1903 build pre-optimized, disabled services that are not necessary, enabled tweaks for maximum performance, and brings a couple of IT tools that will come at hand (it also brings a Windows activator that I deleted to avoid possible privacy/malware issues, and because I have my original license). Windows Update comes enabled and it installs updates without any issues. It also brings a light easy tool to block updates if you want to.

I have been using it for around some days and the performance is amazing, much better than regular 1903, ideal for me that I game and edit with AutoCad and Photoshop. The installer comes in Spanish but it's just a couple of buttons that will let you choose wether your PC is a low-end PC, mid-end PC, high-end PC, and to enable SSD trim. I have a high-end PC but chose low-end PC for maximum performance (the creator suggests it).


If you can figure out which tweaks are improving the performance, please share!
 

Nightwalker

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Every SSD manufacturer recommends to disable those to prolong SSD's life, since they are useless on SSD anyway (like prefetch = faster loading).

When Windows detects that it is running on SSD it automatically disable prefetch and Superfetch (even if the service is enabled it will have zero impact on system performance anyway).

Very interesting article by Sinofsky.

Windows 7 Optimizations and Default Behavior Summary

As noted above, all of today’s SSDs have considerable work to do when presented with disk writes and disk flushes. Windows 7 tends to perform well on today’s SSDs, in part, because we made many engineering changes to reduce the frequency of writes and flushes. This benefits traditional HDDs as well, but is particularly helpful on today’s SSDs.

Windows 7 will disable disk defragmentation on SSD system drives. Because SSDs perform extremely well on random read operations, defragmenting files isn’t helpful enough to warrant the added disk writing defragmentation produces. The FAQ section below has some additional details.

Be default, Windows 7 will disable Superfetch, ReadyBoost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching on SSDs with good random read, random write and flush performance. These technologies were all designed to improve performance on traditional HDDs, where random read performance could easily be a major bottleneck. See the FAQ section for more details.


Since SSDs tend to perform at their best when the operating system’s partitions are created with the SSD’s alignment needs in mind, all of the partition-creating tools in Windows 7 place newly created partitions with the appropriate alignment.

Most recommended tweaks are just plain ignorance about Windows internals ...
 
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SeriousHoax

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When Windows detects that it is running on SSD it automatically disable prefetch and Superfetch
The only Windows service that causes problem on my HDD system is Superfetch which is now renamed to SysMain. Often randomly it would start causing high disk usage and make other programs slow. This is the only thing I disable, everything else is fine.
 

Nightwalker

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The only Windows service that causes problem on my HDD system is Superfetch which is now renamed to SysMain. Often randomly it would start causing high disk usage and make other programs slow. This is the only thing I disable, everything else is fine.

You have a point there, if you are actually experiencing problems that is a reason to disable a Windows service, just in this case.

About Superfetch on Windows 10:
windows-10-services-superfetch-disable.png


The Service name will be displayed as SysMain but the technology is still Superfetch.
 

SeriousHoax

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You have a point there, if you are actually experiencing problems that is a reason to disable a Windows service, just in this case.

About Superfetch on Windows 10:
windows-10-services-superfetch-disable.png


The Service name will be displayed as SysMain but the technology is still Superfetch.
Yes. Like I said, I disabled it and haven't faced such issue again.
 

RoboMan

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Why should one trust a customised Windows 10 version?
  • Significantly reduce telemetry
  • AIO with pre-installed software
  • Avoid those services that do not apply to your specific needs to run anyways and use resources
  • Give a second chance to low-end PC that cannot stand official Windows 10 image
  • Install Windows 10 in a way according to your specific needs and hardware and not a generic installation
  • Default-add context options like direct energy modes, shortcuts to useful tools
  • Manage and customize start menu and bar
  • Maximize performance and lessen interine lags and process crashes
The list goes on. If you want to not trust it, do not do it. This is not a use or get banned thread. It's an option. Everybody is free to try it on a secondary machine or VM, enjoy it or analyze it for zero day NASAware spying for you. It's true Microsoft tries to improve performance within each patch but we also now they fill it with garbage like useless Candy Crush app (example, I understand it got removed reciently).

I will search for the changelog to share exactly what comes pre-disabled and which tweaks are introduced. Use or don't, no pressure here.
 

roger_m

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@Robbie Thanks for the links, I'm downloading it now.

Why should one trust a customised Windows 10 version?
I used quite a number of customised versions of Windows over the years and have never found anything suspicious, that would lead me to believe that they were infected. Malware will sometimes be detected in custom ISOs, because they often include Windows activators. But the activators are not actually malware and you can delete them. Of course it is possible for custom ISOs to be compromised. But so far, I've been lucky I guess.
Since Windows 7 I am a huge sceptical of tweaks and custom images, Microsoft has made huge progress in the resources management area that I doubt that most tweaks actually have some benefic impact for the machine.
I have used some customised "light" versions of Windows 10 before and there was a huge increase in performance, compared to regular builds of Windows 10. On some of my old laptops, while Windows 8 (surprisingly) ran quite fast them, Windows 10 ran slow enough to make it unusable. On the same systems, the tweaked versions of Windows 10 ran just as fast as Windows 8 did. I'm not sure exactly what tweaks caused the increased in speed, but there was a huge difference.

With build 1903 of Windows 10, I have seen a big improvement in speed on low end computers. Enough to make it usable on them, without any tweaks. But, the performance is still not as good as it is with a tweaked version of Windows 10.
 

shmu26

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I just hope there are not some unscrupulous modders out there who want to abuse our trust.
IMHO the "security by obscurity" rule applies here. If the modified ISO appeals to a small group (especially to a technically advanced group who might notice strange network connections) then the chances of a tainted ISO are very low.
 

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