I’m using Tiddlywiki for my internal notes and I find myself using these whenever I do a new Windows installation, but I think this is something that should be shared publicly. This will basically be a list of the changes I’ve been making to my Windows 10 installation to enhance or disable functionality, change the way Windows does things, or just plain buffoonery. These are meant for Windows 10 only.

Backup your stuff

Make these changes at your own risk. I am not responsible if you break your installation or lose data, so back up your stuff and make sure those backups actually work.

Disable Bing in Start Menu

On 2020-05-02 Windows lost the ability to provide search results on local Windows 10 installations due to “a third-party networking fiber provider” failing, but it also means Windows 10 is sending everything you look for out to their servers.

• In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search create a 32-bit DWORD with the value name BingSearchEnabled and value data 0. Via How-To Geek.

Disable Game and App Downloads in Start Menu

• In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CloudContent change DWORD DisableWindowsConsumerFeatures to value name 0. Via JohannesMP/Windows10RegistryHacks.md.

Disable Cortana

• In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search change DWORD CortanaConsent to value name 0. Via How-To Geek.
• In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search, change DWORD AllowCortana to value name 0. Via JohannesMP/Windows10RegistryHacks.md.

There is an entire set of registry values here.

Remove “Scan with Windows Defender` from right-click context menu.

• Delete key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{09A47860-11B0-4DA5-AFA5-26D86198A780}. Via JohannesMP/Windows10RegistryHacks.md.

Disable Windows Update from rebooting system automatically

• In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU create 32-bit DWORD NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers with value name 1. Via A Complete Guide to Windows 10 Registry Tweaks.

Disable Start Menu advertising.

I use Classic Shell instead but if you can’t use it or aren’t allowed to use it, you can do this instead.

• In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft|Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced change DWORD ShowSyncProviderNotification to value name 0. Via A Complete Guide to Windows 10 Registry Tweaks.

Remove “AMD Radeon Settings” from right-click context menu

• In HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\ACE, edit the (Default) key and prepend -- to the value name.

Remove Dropbox “Send Link” from right-click context menu

• In HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\DropboxExt edit the (Default) key and prepend -- to the value name.