Ninety days of notes: what actually changed
A three-month field report on debloating, optimizing and customizing Windows 10 and 11 across three very different machines, with the results left in.
Everything, newest first
Field notes
Long-form write-ups from real machines. No affiliate links, no sponsored placements, and numbers wherever I have them.
Debloating without breaking Windows: the checklist I actually follow
A careful, reversible debloating checklist for Windows 10 and 11: what to remove first, what to leave alone, and how to keep a rollback path open.
Privacy and telemetry: what I turn off, and what I leave alone
A practical look at Windows privacy and telemetry settings — advertising ID, diagnostic data, activity history — and the trade-offs behind each switch.
Gaming and performance settings: what actually moved the numbers
Measured results from Windows gaming and performance optimizations: power plans, Game Mode, background apps, and which changes were worth keeping.
Config files: turning a good setup into a repeatable one
How to export, edit, version and re-import a settings configuration file so every machine you touch ends up in the same known state.
Building a custom Windows ISO with WIMUtil and autounattend.xml
A walkthrough of creating custom Windows installation media with WIMUtil and an autounattend.xml answer file, including driver injection and the mistakes to avoid.
When something breaks: restore points, registry backups and a calm head
How to recover from a Windows tweak that went wrong: restore points, registry backups, config re-import, and knowing when to stop and reinstall.
A settings app vs. doing it by hand: an honest comparison
A balanced comparison between using a debloating interface and applying Windows registry tweaks and PowerShell scripts by hand.