In this guide, I will show you how to successfully debloat Windows 10 to free up some excess storage space, help your PC and applications load faster, and, most importantly, reduce some of the load on the CPU and RAM.
Everything you find in this post will improve your PC performance regardless of usage, whether it be web browsing, video editing, or gaming.
Debloating Windows 10 is a fantastic and easy way to achieve better performance and get the most out of your PC without spending a penny.
Table of Contents show
Step 1 – Install all the Windows 10 updates.
The first thing you should do before you debloat Windows 10 is make sure your pc is up to date with the latest Windows 10 updates.
- Type “Check for updates” in your search bar and click on the result.
- Click on “Check for updates,” if there is any update available, let it finish the installation and restart your pc if needed.
Step 2 – Create a restore point.
I highly recommend creating a restore point before debloating Windows 10. If something goes wrong or you don’t like some of the changes made, you can revert everything to the previous state with the restore point.
To create a restore point, follow the steps below :
- In the search box, type Create a restore point and select the option from the results list.
2. On the System Protection tab, click on your system drive, and press configure. Enable the option Turn on system protection, and on Max usage, choose a value between 5% and 10%. It should be enough to save your new restore point.
3. Click on Create, type a description, for example, “before debloat” and again click on Create.
Now that we created a restore point, we can safely proceed to the actual part of debloating our Windows 10 computer with the help of some scripts and software.
Step 3 – How To Debloat Windows 10
There are a lot of debloat scripts around the internet, referred to as Windows 10 debloaters. I’ve used a lot of them. The Windows 10 debloater we will use in this tutorial is from farag2 on Github since it frequently updates, and it’s one of the best scripts out there.
If you want to support the creator and the contributors to this tool, you can visit the farag2 Github profile.
Here is a sum up of the core features of the Sophia script :
Now that you know the main features of this script and the supported Windows 10 versions, I think we are ready to start!
The first thing I want you to do is to check your Windows version!
How can I check my Windows 10 Version?
- Go to your search bar and type “winver” and hit enter
- You should be able to see the exact version
Once you know your exact Windows 10 version, download the script. ( Make sure to download the file that matches your Windows 10 version.
Once you have downloaded the file, go ahead and extract it. As the developers suggest, you can edit the file and choose what gets changed and whatnot.
If you have no idea and think you may mess up everything, stick with me, and continue reading!
Now that you have extracted all the files, your folder should look like this:
Now let’s start debloating Windows 10!
1. Run PowerShell as admin from the scripts folder directly.
On the top left of the folder where you extracted the script files, click on file, then move your mouse to the arrow of the option “Open Windows PowerShell” and click on “Open Windows PowerShell as administrator“.
2. Set execution policy to be able to run scripts on this PowerShell session
Copy this: Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force and right-click on the PowerShell tab, and hit enter.
3. Run the Script (Debloater)
On the same PowerShell window type: .\Sophia.ps1 and press enter.
4. Choose which Scheduled Tasks you want to disable
I prefer to disable everything, but you can go ahead and untick whatever scheduled task you want to keep enabled. Once you choose the ones you want to get disabled, click on the Disable button.
5. Disable Windows Features
The next tab will ask you which Windows features you want to disable. Go ahead and disable everything unless you know you need some of these features. WindowsPowerShellv2 is an older version, and if you are an average user, you will probably never use it so that you can disable it now.
6. Optional features to disable
These features right here it’s a personal preference. I usually disable everything. Suppose you don’t use any of these features.
I recommend deleting everything since there are better alternatives. Remember that you should tick the ones you want to be disabled. Once you have made your choices, click on Disable, and let’s move on to the next step.
7. Background Apps
By the time you get here, the background apps tab should be in front of your screen. Disable whatever doesn’t need to start up with your computer. I have everything turned off. But don’t worry, though. We will go more in-depth later on.
8. Changing Locations of the main folders
- Would you like to change the location of the Desktop folder?
- Type S and hit enter unless you want to change it.
- Would you like to change the location of the Documents Folder?
- Type S and hit enter unless you want to change it.
- Would you like to change the location of the Downloads Folder?
- Type S and hit enter unless you want to change it.
- Would you like to change the location of the Music folder?
- Type S and hit enter unless you want to change it.
- Would you like to change the location of the Pictures folder?
- Type S and hit enter unless you want to change it.
- Would you like to change the location of the Videos folder?
- Type S and hit enter unless you want to change it.
9. Deleting UWP Packages
Here you want only to keep the ones that you use. Many of these may be useless to you, so go ahead and tick the ones you don’t need. I only keep some Xbox packages, Calculator, Windows Photos, and Windows Camera.
Once you are ready, on the top right side of the tab, tick the option ” Uninstall for All Users ” and click on Uninstall. If you don’t know which ones you must uninstall, copy my selections below.
Give it some time to finish uninstalling. Once completed, move on to the next step!
10. Setting graphics performance ( Optional )
The script will ask you if you want to set the graphics performance setting of an app of your choice to “High Performance.”
Type A and hit enter. Now look for the .exe file of the game/program to apply the high-performance setting. This will increase the fps in your games, but it is possible you’ve already done it if you watch optimization videos on YouTube.
11. Enable Controlled Folder Access ( Optional )
There is a good possibility you want to protect a specific folder just if there is any malware on your computer. If you have any financial documents or anything valuable, you may consider enabling this option to that folder.
12. Allow an app to access the folder you previously Protected ( Optional )
If you enabled the controlled folder access feature, you might want to allow an app to access that folder. If you do, type A and hit enter if you don’t, skip to the next.
13. Specify a folder to be excluded from Microsoft Defender malware scans?
The title speaks for itself. Press A and enter to add or S and enter to skip .
14. Specify a file to be excluded from Microsoft Defender malware scans?
Same as the previous step.
If everything went well, we should get a yellow message at the end of the PowerShell telling us to make sure we restart our computer.
Before you restart your computer, let’s do some final tweaks on the startup apps, and we are ready to go.
Step 4 – Eliminating Startup apps and processes.
We will now disable some startup apps and processes that we don’t need and are bloating our system. We won’t go with the traditional way from the task manager, but instead, we will go more in-depth in the processes with the help of Autoruns by Microsoft. Autoruns will allow us to see every single app and process running and automatically start when our computer turns on.
Go ahead and download Autorun, as shown in the image below.
Once downloaded, extract the files to a folder and right-click on Autoruns.exe, and choose run as administrator.
Now a tab should open and look like this.
Move to the logon tab, and go ahead and untick every service you don’t need to start with your computer. It’s safe to disable everything in this tab if you want to.
My Logon tab looks like this :
Once you are done with the Logon tab, let’s move on to the Scheduled Tasks tab.
I prefer to keep only what’s related to my GPU/CPU software updates on the Scheduled Tasks tab. I disable everything related to browsers and other software that I barely use since if there is any update, you will probably get a notification from the program itself.
My Scheduled Tasks tab looks like this:
The last tab we will optimize and tweak is the Services tab and debloat our Windows even more.
On the services tab, we don’t want to disable anything that will make our game/program unstable or don’t even start.
For example, if you disable EasyAntiCheat, you may get errors when playing online games that depend on it. Another example is that if you disable MBAMService, Malwarebytes will not start on startup.
A description box in every service will give you an idea of what this service is about and what you should expect if you disable/enable it.
Here is a screenshot of my Services tab :
Once you are done with the Services tab, close autoruns
Step 5 – Uninstalling the rest of the apps manually.
It’s a great idea to uninstall any software/app you are not using to free up some space on your drive.
Go to your search bar and type “Add or remove program” and click on the option available.
Now go ahead and uninstall any app you are not using on your computer.
Guides to Optimize your PC
Below you can find some posts from me that will help you optimize your PC even more and possibly increase your FPS.
- Windows 11 Ultimate Optimization Guide
- Best NVIDIA Control Panel Settings
- Best AMD Radeon Settings
- Unpark your CPU cores
- Create a custom Power plan to unlock performance
If you have any questions or suggestions or need help, please let me know in the comments below!
Debloat Windows 10: Frequently Asked Questions
What does debloating Windows 10 mean?
Debloating Windows 10 means getting rid of most of the pre-installed apps in Windows 10. Most of the time, these apps are useless to us, and also tweaking/optimizing some windows settings and registry values for better privacy and performance.
Is Debloating Windows 10 worth it?
Debloating Windows 10 is worth it if done correctly since the operating system has so many pre-installed apps that make your computer slow for no actual reason.
What are the benefits of Debloating my computer?
Your computer will use fewer resources, which automatically means you will have more resources for your games and apps. You will also have a cleaner computer and a more responsive interface.
Do I need to install Windows fresh before debloating?
No, but ideally, you should debloat the system right after installation.
What is a Windows 10 Debloater?
A Windows 10 debloater is when combined Powershell scripts whose primary purpose is to uninstall and remove pre-installed applications from Windows 10 which are not valuable for the users, disable telemetry functions and disable unnecessary scheduled tasks for the users to have a better Windows environment, faster and more responsive computer, and overall a cleaner and better system use.
Is it safe to Debloat Windows 10?
Debloating Windows 10 is completely safe if you don’t mess up with services you don’t know what they are doing. If you follow my guide or understand what you are doing, debloating Windows 10 is safe.
