The Ultimate Windows Utility (2022)
Posted19 days agoActive16 days ago
christitus.comstory
informativepositive
Windows OptimizationSystem AdministrationConversion_rate_optimization
Key topics
Windows Optimization
System Administration
Conversion_rate_optimization
Windows Utility: The Ultimate Windows Utility (2022)
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
Discussion Activity
Very active discussionFirst comment
23m
Peak period
72
0-6h
Avg / period
12.3
Comment distribution86 data points
Loading chart...
Based on 86 loaded comments
Key moments
- 01Story posted
Dec 24, 2025 at 5:48 AM EST
19 days ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Dec 24, 2025 at 6:11 AM EST
23m after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
72 comments in 0-6h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Dec 26, 2025 at 4:52 PM EST
16 days ago
Step 04
Generating AI Summary...
Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
ID: 46374413Type: storyLast synced: 12/27/2025, 10:40:26 AM
Want the full context?
Jump to the original sources
Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.
(Asking as I don't have a Windows box of any kind around to test, as I'm not a masochist and therefore all of my machines run Linux or macOS)
https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil/releases/tag/25.12...
This one looks more like a PowerShell automation and debloating script for power users than a classic one-click optimizer, but it still requires knowing exactly what each tweak does. Used without that understanding, tools like this can easily create confusing problems.
To be fair, this tool doesn't claim to fix a broken system; as near as I can tell it doesn't actually remove the underlying Windows installation, so the core problem will remain.
And in the end of each sprint a single exe comes out. Or multiple. Like a soap opera for product managers.
[0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkTgX1mGmDg
[3] - https://officesnapshots.com/2014/11/18/microsoft-redmond-bui...
[12] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8OnoxKotPQ
[44] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzkRVzciAZg
When Windows 95 entered the picture, such wipe-and-reinstall antics were pretty much standard for all but trivial problems. Even then people would usually live with those problems, though a handful of people would be able to go in and fix them. Of course, Microsoft has introduced some functionality over the years to mitigate such drastic measures, but they tend to be variations of the same theme (e.g. restore points rolling back changes, rather than going in to fix what is broken).
I tried that. The advice was to reinstall. Then I remembered that this is the convention with Windows -- when it stops working, reinstall...
I will be switching to Linux before the ESU program expires though. I use my desktop mostly for gaming and have been planning to evaluate a few distros and desktop environments. I have my own Proxmox/TrueNAS/Debian homelab and use macOS daily for work so I'm fine with the CLI and tinkering but I'd rather everything Just Works™ for my gaming machine. I did a lot of dual booting back in the Fedora[ Core] 6-12 days but ultimately it got too tedious.
For decades I clean install Windows to a new PC one time, and that's about it for true "installs".
Then don't get in a hurry, it's my personal computer and I plan to be using it smoothly for a number of years to come.
So spend "a few" hours tweaking and adjusting settings, and this always takes ridiculously longer with each Windows version, but that's table stakes if you want to participate in a mainstream way without all the mainstream drawbacks.
Ideally of course without ever going on the internet, and then comprehensively back up the system before doing anything else.
Any valuable data is also never allowed to be routinely stored on the C: volume, that's what other partitions are for besides merely multibooting.
What's on C: should always be a minimal number of gigabytes, you have to take some kind of action or the defaults will work against you, massively. People can be misled that no attention is required and C: will be fine.
C: is best restricted to a highly-replaceable OS, containing in addition any programs you decide to install afterward, but none of the user data which is very worth the effort to carefully direct elsewhere at every opportunity.
So after I finish installing and configuring the desired programs, then another comprehensive backup is made.
Before it has even handled any valuable user data yet.
This is Windows, you can't take any chances :\
Then later, in situations when others would best re-install but with the typical hesitation, I boot to a different partition, zero the volume formerly known as C: while it is then dormant, followed by recovery of the (tweaked) bare OS backup, or using the image from when the apps and settings were also completely like I wanted.
Obviously programs that are not robust enough to withstand offline recovery from backup are too garbagey to include in a well-crafted backup image. You can't usually find this out without testing your backups in advance. It would be good before the backups are desperately needed if an emergency were to arise.
With basically minimal disaster preparation (but careful hours by necessity), you may never actually need to do a true "re-install" ever again, just recover from backup instead, and without hardly any hesitation at all. Sometimes more than once a day, in minutes. Rather than hours, which with Windows 11 the hours can now really add up and are sometimes best spread over more than one session :\
In that case it would be nice if calendar days were not required to manually get it like you could do with Windows 95 in minutes.
After all that effort I know how tiring it can be. Even more reason to back up your work before doing anything else, and test the backups routinely. Which is another whole session or two. I know it's the complete opposite of mainstream behavior, but it can really allow you to participate a lot more effectively in the long run.
For consumers, routine rapid recovery has been effectively de-emphasized for decades since plenty of users respond to Windows failure by purchasing a new PC, which is crafted to be a more simplified and familiar procedure as long as they can afford it.
And it's really not the worst tragedy if they think they screwed up their own computer so bad they needed a new one, if it makes them be more careful next time ;)
in conclusion:
>still requires knowing exactly what each tweak does. Used without that understanding, tools like this can easily create confusing problems.
Which I have always taken as extreme encouragement to use performance-improving setting configuations, and therefore gain the understanding to do so effectively.
If I can do it, anybody can, I'm no engineer.
With this approach in mind it makes the Titus offerings show a remarkable amount of superiority.
As another commenter has noted, 2022 is just when his Utility was beginning to get noticed.
It is being kept up-to-date with Windows 11 as it evolves.
It's not a comparison app, but you can check different resources in detail both before and after disabling un-needed features.
Disk activity is one of the things reported in real time, as well as memory usage, but the Gb of bloat on the OS drive is not a consideration.
Inhibiting things which are useless to you from occupying memory, may be less than 1 Gb but may still be worth it, but that is different than disk drive bloat which can really get massively out-of-hand.
Drive Gb is expected to grow with each additional program you install, but further drive bloat has often dwarfed that as preinstalled apps have proliferated, written by those who do not have experience using limited resources to a serious degree of efficiency.
And then after non-security updates became mandatory, each year this lack of professional experience has an accelerating impact across-the board, and by now you are expected to accomodate a dozen or more gigabytes than last year.
And both Windows 10 and Windows 11 were more functional in some ways than a year ago too.
Cut back on memory waste by keeing things from loading until an event when you yourself really need it.
Cut back on drive bloat by uninstalling things you know you are never going to need.
Also, checking those dozens of services will take a lot of time
Unsuspecting users can't even measure space savings correctly since many components can be hardlinked to something else and deleting them will "free up" the space shown in the folder (the size standard size reporting on Windows is deeply inadequate), but not free up anything in reality. Or for some uwp apps you can't even see the size at all as the folders have a very dumb permission set, and these scripts remove those preinstalled uwp apps.
That's the point of public benchmarking - so that ever single user doesn't have to waste time doing the mistaken comparisons on his own, so your suggestion doesn't help at all even in theory.
But at least in practice I can run challenging software that would not otherwise run.
Plus outperform those having more powerful hardware.
First: "safe" and Windows never ever matched. Not in Windows 98, not in Millenium, not in Vista. Not ever.
I, reluctantly, after having confiscated my mother-in-law's Windows laptop and replacing it with a Chromebook about two years ago (which still works fine for her btw), ordered her a new desktop PC six months ago, running Windows 11.
Six months.
Six months is all it took for this piece of shit to become infected to the point of being unusable. Malware over malware took over: whatever 0-click or 1-click exploit in Edge that took over the machine and tells her to call indian scam center to help her "get her PC rid of viruses", blinking left and right, covering half the screen.
In other words: good old Windows. It's 20-fucking-25, nearly 26, and Microsoft still cannot ship an OS that's not rooted when a grandma is browsing for less than six months.
Pathetic.
Windows is a mediocre piece of insecure (and now spying) turd.
I fully agree with you: reliable Linux distros are the Windows replacement.
And as we've reached a point where everyone except some part of the corporate world can do everything they need from an Android smartphone and these same people are just fine with a Linux distro on their laptop or desktop.
I don't care about the snarky "2026 is the year of Linux on the desktop". Linux conquered everything: all the servers, all the routers, 500 of the world top 500 supercomputers, etc. Linux shall conquer the laptop and the desktop too.
And those who don't switch have two choices: MacOS (pricey hardware) or be slaves to that turdery on bits that Windows is.
I gave her an iPad Owh, 10 years ago? And I’ve never had to troubleshoot her system ever again. No spyware. No viruses. Nothing.
The worst that happened recently is that the Starlink antenna had te be realigned after a particularly heavy wind blew it off the roof almost. Oh and her printer needed new toners after printing for x years without problems.
https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-...
Mine is... 15+ years old? I replaced the toner once. And it doesn't have Ethernet or WiFi, so I bought Printopia for my iMac (to which it's attached) to enable AirPrint.
If you want inkjets, buy those with ink tanks. More expensive up front, but operating cost is so cheap. And no more "you have to replace a whole cartridge just because Magenta is low"; if Magenta is low, buy a bottle of Magenta, and fill.
For laser printers, buy those whose toner cartridges are separate from the drum, and those whose toner cartridges can be reset mechanically. And refillable.
My go-to brand for printers is Brother, btw.
We can't say the same about living, because we have not created living.
To some extent. I am not convinced it would be as bad.
For one thing, Linux is less of a monoculture.
For another, you can lock it down more for that type of user. You can set it up to make it hard to install anything from outside trusted repos.
I even offer to hire your gradma, she seems really good at locating very valuable 0-days online.
There are even more minimal Windows versions, but easy, convenient, legal distribution is kind of tricky
Any more than this you get sued for distributing MS owned code.
I'm typing this on my company azure ad integrated windows 11. The system info says it's windows 11 enterprise 25h2.
My start menu still has multiple random xbox crap in there, game bar (what even is that?!), "game mode", "solitaire and casual games". It shows random ads in the weather app. It invites me to do more with a microsoft account, even though the computer is fully azure ad joined and my windows session is an azure ad account with some expensive office365 licence attached.
Before reinstalling the other day for unrelated reasons, I had actually tried to add that account. Turns out it doesn't work with a "work or school" account, it requires the personal one, but it doesn't say it clearly, only that "something went wrong".
I honestly don't see any difference when compared to my personal windows install I use for the occasional game and Lightroom / Photoshop.
Your Windows install probably started as Pro and then was changed to an Enterprise license key later.
Why MS feels the Kardashians should be in my start menu, I don't know.
is changed into a stock ticker and tabloid news cornucopia... dagnabbit, I know where to get those, I just want the weather info.
"They have no taste" was right.
If you really want a clean windows environment, you are better off getting an IoT enterprise LTSC license. It is boring, stable, has zero bloat and doesn't require hacking the registry to stop candy crush from reinstalling itself.
That said, it feels like a constant arms race. Microsoft introduces a new user-hostile pattern (like making local accounts harder to create), the community builds a workaround and then Microsoft patches the workaround. I am tired of fighting my own OS.
I still have my mid-2015 MBP running triple-boot between macOS, Windows and Arch Linux. That machine could run everything...
I now have to keep around a physical PC desktop in order to run games like ARC Raiders. I use OBS with a capture card to use my MacBook's screen as a monitor for the PC, and an application called Deskflow to forward the MacBook's keyboard to the PC (I connect the mouse directly). Also, SonoBus for voice chat, since the PC doesn't have a microphone built-in. It works well enough.
Works for me without any extra hardware. Just a network connection between the machines. Haven't tried voice chat though.
I may still look into those for the keyboard input, but the only improvement I foresee really making is getting Ethernet for the MacBook (I moved my one line to the PC since the MacBook's Wi-Fi is so much better). Haven't decided between a passive or active switch yet.
I used to love my 2013 MBP. ARM Macs run pretty much everything I need, and some things better than Windows (such as Lightroom and PS which don't run at all on Linux).
But what kills it for me is the absolutely bonkers window management, and the fisher-price interface filling up half the screen with empty space around huge widgets.
If you just need to browse the web and whatnot, just get a cheap tablet?
For all the good softwares, it seems like you just get much better performance out of a much lowered priced PC. I just don't get who is benifiting for the 1-2 hours of supplementary runtime out of a MacBook and this is wortht the price delta as well as the hassle of dealing with all the specificity of that software implementation.
But then again, my experience with Apple users is that they are not the most logical peoples around, so maybe that's just it.
I still like some parts of macOS but it has been very hard to justify considering how Apple has been behaving lately.
If Apple manages to produce a decent iMac soon enough, it might just bite the bullet once again, but otherwise I'm out.
I think the Pro version is enough for reasonable experience, most of the terrible stories originate from the Home version, which should be avoided like the plague.
There are multiple settings in Windows that are hidden which only appear in the menu when you add a registry entry. There are so many anti-patterns in Windows it feels like defending against a determined hacker who tries to make your life worse and is hunting for a slight misstep to turn the shit back on.
But my use case is never 24/7, I hibernate it overnight and every time I leave for longer than going to a grocery shop, and I have several Proxmox boxes with proper OSes for hosting stuff. Windows + WSL is my dev/media/files/OneDrive machine, a compact silent SFF box. Lately I try Linux Desktop on Fedora/Ubuntu with every major version, however RDP server and secure boot that I can trust to work and not break myself - these things remain unsatisfactory.
I then shut down more things and disabled Bluetooth on lock. It is now usable and doesn't crash but feels very fragile. I will soon face dilemma of allowing "feature" updates or be out of security ones.
Unfortunately seems like there's no way of getting a license legally without being a company. Windows Server seems easier to obtain but harder to morph into something useful (mostly because of missing drivers on Windows Update) though definitely possible.
People cite bugs or incompatible software on Linux as a reason to avoid it and use Windows, but they fail to recgonize that Windows actively fights you. I'd take something that's slightly and mistakenly broken on an utterly open platform where I can fix it if I care enough over a closed platform that's actively trying to screw me over.
Writing your own OS?
shutdown ? /s
It seems to work OK: it didn’t break anything, and disabled some Windows annoyances but not all.
It’s closed source so I don’t fully trust it, but I’m not keeping anything sensitive. It’s free and I haven’t heard anything bad about it, except other people who are suspicious.
I setup both a Windows and Linux VM and give them both the EXACT config from the hypervisor, including GPU passthrough and CPU Host.
The Linux VM runs faster in some games designed for Windows, running on Proton.
I read somewhere that Microsoft admitted Windows is bloated. Which surprised me since I didn't think anyone in the top 150 of Microsoft even knew Windows still existed, but it's a step in the right direction.