Windows Post-Installation Steps

After installing Windows, sometimes the default settings are not suitable and you may want to make changes. This post will outline ways to optimize Windows on your setup so you can have a better experience.
Note: Some of these steps will not work on all Windows editions. Where this is the case, this will be noted in the tip's heading.

Automatic Maintenance

Windows periodically decides to intrusively perform unnecessary activities because it (incorrectly) thinks you stepped away and drains your resources performing such activities as automatic defragmentation, virus scans, and other activities which can be performed manually. You can disable this using a registry setting, outlined below:

1. Open regedit (run dialog, and type "regedit" and press enter)
2. Using either the tree view or the address bar, navigate to:
   

   hklm\software\microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\Maintenance

3. Select Edit, then New, then Dword (32-bit) value. Name it MaintenanceDisabled and press enter.
4. Press enter or click on the new value, and change it from 0 to 1.
5. Close the registry editor and reboot.

Turn Off All Telemetry (Enterprise and Education only)

This wil only work on the Education and Enterprise/Enterprise LTSC editions, and possibly Server.

1. Open group policy editor, and navigate to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, then Data Collection and Preview Builds.
2. Find the option for "Allow Telemetry Windows 10) or Allow Diagnostic Data on Windows 11.
3. On Windows 10, set this to 0 (security), or on newer versions of Windows, set this to Diagnostic Data Off (not recommended).
4. Open a cmd window, and type:
   

   gpupdate /force

Turn Off Automatic Updates (Pro and above)

You can disable automatic updates and avoid your system rebooting unexpectedly and discarding unsaved work in applications that don't support recovering from a system restart. This is also good if you want to set an alternative routine for updates.

1. Open Group Policy Editor.
2. Navigate to:
   • Windows 11: Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Update, Manage End-User Experience
   • Windows 10: Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Update
3. Once there, find the item "Configure Automatic Updates," and press Enter.
4. To set a custom automatic process, set this to "Enabled," and then a drop-down menu will appear.
5. In the drop-down menu, select one of the options (the lowest level is 2, which will send notification of available updates.
6. If you want to completely turn off automatic updates, set the radio button option to Disabled.
7. After making your selections, press Ok.
8. Open a command prompt, and type
   

   gpupdate /force

Additional Notes

On the home edition, the automatic update options are not available, so you won't be able to use this process on the home editions. However, you can meter your connection to avoid Windows performing an automatic download for (most) Windows updates (for some very weird reason, kb4023057, an update that installs a Microsoft Update Health Tools package to force you to a new version of Windows, will always auto download, so you'll want to hide this update using the Show or Hide Updates package.

Additionally, if you press the check for updates button, automatic update options will not be honored (i.e. The system will always automatically download the updates unless you're on a metered connection, but again, that doesn't apply to all updates, because kb4023057 is on the always install this update and completely disregard and not respect your metered connection list of ridiculous behaviors.

Disable Driver Retrieval from Windows Update when a new device is first connected

This process does not affect when using Windows Update itself to install updates and drivers; instead, this affects the notification that reads, "Setting up a device, Windows is setting up (device name). Before Windows 10 1511, this was easily accessible through the old system properties dialog box, on the hardware tab, under "Device Installation Settings." Starting in Windows 10 version 1511 and higher (including Windows 11), this dialog box has a different option in the device installation settings, so that method doesn't work anymore. However, you can still change the setting manually that would be changed in versions of Windows before Windows 10 1511. Follow these steps to disable the automatic driver retrieval.

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. Using either the tree view, or the address bar, navigate to:
   

   hklm\software\microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DriverSearching

3. Press enter or click on the SearchOrderConfig value, and change it from 1 to 0 and click ok or press enter.
4. Close Registry Editor and reboot the machine for the change to take affect.

Make All Wi-fi Connections Metered

On systems with cellular connectivity, if the system is connected to a cellular network and you use the Internet that way, Windows limits what can be done in the background, including downloading Windows updates, due to you being on a cellular network which can have data limits. On the contrary, a wi-fi network usually doesn't have as tight of data limits, so you have to manually tell Windows to enforce these limitations for each network you connect to by default, by accessing the individual wi-fi network's properties. However, you can set up Windows so that it will consider any future wi-fi network you connect to as a metered network, so you don't have to worry about it. It is possible to do this in either Group Policy Editor or the Registry Editor, so if you have at least the Pro edition, you can choose whichever method works for you. On the home edition, however, you have to use the Registry Editor method. Given this, the registry editor method is described first.

Set All Wi-fi Connections to Metered (Registry Editor)

1. Open regedit from the run dialog.
2. Navigate to:
   

   HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

3. From here, expand the Windows key.
4. Go to Edit, then New, then key, and name it Wireless, and press enter.
5. Make sure you're inside the Wireless key you just created, and repeat the same process you just performed (edit menu, then new, then key), and this time, name this new key NetCost (the case doesn't matter, but note that it has to be one word). Press enter to create the NetCost key.
6. From inside the NetCost key you just created, select Edit, then new, then Dword (32-bit) value, and name it cost, and press enter.
7. Press enter on the cost value, and change its value from 0 to 3.

Notes

• A reboot is not required after changing this setting.
• The reason 3 is used is because 3 indicates to Windows that the connection has strict data limits in place. While it is unclear whether this makes any difference, I always set it to 3 (variable data limit) to be safe, as opposed to setting it to be fixed data limit.

Set All Wireless Connections To Be Metered (Group Policy)

This method could be easier, but it only works on the Pro editions and above. Behind the scenes, this method makes the exact same change as described in how to do this on Home Edition, it's just a different method of accomplishing the same task.

1. Open Group Policy Editor.
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Network, WLAN Service, WLAN Media Cost.
3. Once there, find the item called Set Cost, and press enter.
4. In the radio button options, set it to Enabled.
5. In the drop-down menu, select "variable."
6. Press enter on the Ok button.
7. Close Group Policy Editor.
8. From a command prompt, type
   

   gpupdate /force

   
   and press enter.

Disable BitLocker/Device Encryption

On new systems shipping with Windows 11, BitLocker and device encryption ship on by default, which can create problems when trying to reinstall Windows. To disable this, follow these steps:

1. Open Settingns, and navigate to Privacy and Security.
2. Select the Device Encryption page in the security group. If you don't see this page, then your device doesn't support device encryption.
3. Toggle off the device encryption option, and confirm that you want to do this in the corresponding dialog.

Notes