[Windows 10] Permanently disable system services and settings

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-04-23 21:08:34

Windows updates will reset any user modifications of basic system services and options to the factory defaults.

To make any changes permanent, it is necessary to create a custom startup service to run the required program or command to effect the modification on every boot.

Press the Mod4 ("Windows") key and type in task scheduler then click on the item brought up.

In the Task Scheduler GUI, click on Create Task... then fill in the Name and Description sections and click on the Run whether user is logged in or not and Run with highest privileges checkboxes to select those options in the General section.

In the Triggers tag, use New... and select Begin the task: at startup then click OK

For the Actions sub-section, click on New... and fill in the parts as needed.

For example, to disable Fast Startup, use powercfg in the Program/script box and -h off in the Add arguments box.

If the machine is a laptop, go to the Conditions section and disable Start the task only if the computer is on AC power.

Alter the other sections as required then click on OK to save the new custom service.

The services can then be managed from the Task Scheduler and should work to repair any damage wrought by Redmond after major updates.

Sector11 · 2017-04-23 21:50:01

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

and should work to repair any damage wrought by Redmond after major updates.

]:D ]:D
holding tummy ... oh my .... that was good. Don't know why it hit me as so funny but ....

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-04-24 06:46:35

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

For example, to disable Fast Startup, use powercfg in the Program/script box and -h off in the Add arguments box.

I probably should have emphasised this example more, any multiboot systems with Windows & BunsenLabs installed *must* have Fast Startup disabled to prevent potential corruption and data loss on the BL partition.

This is why I posted the guide here, in case anybody is wondering

The command to disable Fast Startup in Windows is:

powercfg -h off

Another reason why I use this method is to reset the UEFI bootloader used by Windows to my preferred systemd-boot:

bcdedit /set "{bootmgr}" path "\EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi"

For this example, bcdedit would be entered in the Program/script box with all of the flags and options in the Added arguments box.

However, I am far from expert with Windows so if there is a better way to ensure that user modifications are maintained across major updates I would love to hear about it.

[rant]
OpenBSD people run sysmerge(8) after an update, Arch uses .pacnew files and Debian has it's wonderfully inscrutable "The package maintainer's scripts have changed" message — why couldn't MS just steal one of those ideas?
[/rant]

damo · 2017-04-24 08:44:12

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

....
[rant]
OpenBSD people run sysmerge(8) after an update, Arch uses .pacnew files and Debian has it's wonderfully inscrutable "The package maintainer's scripts have changed" message — why couldn't MS just steal one of those ideas?
[/rant]

Because MS doesn't acknowledge the possibility of the idea of the existence of the concept of not-Windows. So how could anyone want to do something off-message? They know what is good for you.

brontosaurusrex · 2017-04-24 10:09:14

Had anyone tested Windows 10’s Bash Shell
https://www.howtogeek.com/249966/how-to … indows-10/
and if so, would/will that run on win7 as well?

Last edited by brontosaurusrex (2017-04-24 10:09:48)

damo · 2017-04-24 11:50:19

brontosaurusrex wrote:

Had anyone tested Windows 10’s Bash Shell
https://www.howtogeek.com/249966/how-to … indows-10/
and if so, would/will that run on win7 as well?

@HoaS of course! https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 676#p49676

HoaS wrote:

I used the Git for Windows package to install a minimal bash environment — that's a real shell running in Win10

PackRat · 2017-04-24 13:40:41

Another reason why I use this method is to reset the UEFI bootloader used by Windows to my preferred systemd-boot:

So systemd-boot is bootting Windows 10 as well? How's that going with Windows 10 updates (or have you been using it long enough yet)? I use grub2 on my WIn7-Void dual boot. Thanks to something MS did when Windows 8 came along, if I don't boot Wndows 7 natively (which I can do by changing the drive order) a lot of the updates (critical system file types) don't install and Windows 7 goes into an endless loop of rebooting to try and install upgrades. That would be beyond annoying on a laptop with one harddrive.

As far as the shutdown goes -

pressing Shift while clicking Shut Down from the menu will cause Windows 8/10 to perform a full shutdown and bypass the hybrid shutdown. Works to preserve the battery life, don't know if that will appliy to data corruption issues. I don't think Windows 10 fast boots after a full shutodwn.

If you don't want to hold the Shift key, you can try a desktop short cut.

Last edited by PackRat (2017-04-24 13:41:58)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-04-24 18:04:24

brontosaurusrex wrote:

https://www.howtogeek.com/249966/how-to … indows-10/

Thanks for the link, I hadn't seen that.

I installed a bash shell accidently while setting up git but the instructions in your link give a full (ish) Ubuntu system, it seems to work well.

I've changed bash to mksh, ofc 8)

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 776#p49776

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-04-24 18:11:33

PackRat wrote:

So systemd-boot is bootting Windows 10 as well?

Yes, it works better than GRUB for a dual-boot system because it provides a Windows menu entry automagically with no need for any configuration.

PackRat wrote:

How's that going with Windows 10 updates

It seems to work fine, if $ESP/EFI/Boot/boot{x64,ia32}.efi is present then Windows leaves it alone and will accept it as an alternative boot manager if the `bcdedit` command is used.

The trick is to set Windows as the default in the systemd-boot menu so that update reboots cycle correctly if the laptop is unattended.

PackRat wrote:

As far as the shutdown goes -
pressing Shift while clicking Shut Down from the menu will cause Windows 8/10 to perform a full shutdown and bypass the hybrid shutdown.

Thanks for the tips!

geekosupremo · 2017-04-25 17:23:06

brontosaurusrex wrote:

Had anyone tested Windows 10’s Bash Shell
https://www.howtogeek.com/249966/how-to … indows-10/
and if so, would/will that run on win7 as well?

I've played with it a little bit, and it's quite nice. It doesn't yet support running X11, but there have been some people that have hacked it to work. It is the Ubunutu Userland, just FYI.

It won't work on Win7. Win10 has a "new" technology called Linux Sub-system for Windows that is effectively WINE for Windows. Technically it is not WINE but it's effect is the same. If you want to try it you can add it to the pre-built VMs from https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/m … tools/vms/

#1 2017-04-23 21:08:34

[Windows 10] Permanently disable system services and settings

#2 2017-04-23 21:50:01

Re: [Windows 10] Permanently disable system services and settings

#3 2017-04-24 06:46:35

Re: [Windows 10] Permanently disable system services and settings

#4 2017-04-24 08:44:12

Re: [Windows 10] Permanently disable system services and settings

#5 2017-04-24 10:09:14

Re: [Windows 10] Permanently disable system services and settings

#6 2017-04-24 11:50:19

Re: [Windows 10] Permanently disable system services and settings

#7 2017-04-24 13:40:41

Re: [Windows 10] Permanently disable system services and settings

#8 2017-04-24 18:04:24

Re: [Windows 10] Permanently disable system services and settings

#9 2017-04-24 18:11:33

Re: [Windows 10] Permanently disable system services and settings

#10 2017-04-25 17:23:06

Re: [Windows 10] Permanently disable system services and settings

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