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Cleaning up a Fresh Install of Windows 10 using PowerShell

DEPRECATED

This version has been deprecated and is no longer available. The latest version can be found at its new website cleaner10.io.

Windows 10, in my opinion, is a great operating system and a welcomed improvement over Windows 8, but it does have its quirks and annoyances. One major annoyance is the number of apps that come pre-loaded on a new installation. At my work, I wrote a PowerShell script around two years ago that does some configuration when a new computer is joining the domain. It removes the annoying apps, and locks down some settings, among other things.

I had been thinking about re-writing the script to be a bit more generic, and I finally did. You can find it by going to the TOOLS section and downloading it from there. Here, I will explain how to use it. The script will need to be ran for a total of three times for the best results.

Before we continue, be aware that this has been tested on Windows 10 version 1803 (April 2018) update ONLY. You can follow along below or watch the video demonstration.

1st Run

You will first need to set the execution policy to unrestricted within PowerShell to allow the script to do its job. Open a PowerShell window in Administrator mode and run the following command:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Force -Confirm:$false

Then find the downloaded copy of the script and right click on it and select Run with PowerShell. The first run will:

  • Set the power plan to High Performance
  • Disable UAC

After UAC is disabled, the computer will be restarted. Once it's up we'll do the second run.

2nd Run

After the computer has restarted, find and run the script the same way you did in the first run. The second run will:

  • Repeat 1st run
  • Disable hibernation
  • Attempt to run the Windows 10 Decrapifier script
  • Remove app packages
  • Remove OneDrive

If the Windows 10 Decrapifier script was not found in the same directory as my script, then a browser window will be opened to the download location. Download it and wait for the computer to restart to continue into the third run.

3rd Run

On the third and final run, we just re-run the script one more time. This time if the Decrapifier script is available, it will be invoked. The third run will:

  • Repeat 1st run
  • Repeat 2nd run

After the final restart you should have a clean fresh copy of Windows 10. The only annoying thing is that sponsored apps are not removed. You will have to right click and "Uninstall" them yourself, however, thanks to the Decrapifier script they will not reinstall themselves again. From here on out you can customize Windows 10 how you want it to be.

Windows 10 Cleaner v1 Released

DEPRECATED

This version has been deprecated and is no longer available. The latest version can be found at its new website cleaner10.io.

The Windows 10 Cleaner tool is a PowerShell script I’ve put together to clean and configure a fresh installation of Windows 10. It can be used on an instance of Windows 10 that has already been in use for a while, but for best results should be used on a fresh install. It has been tested on Windows 10 1803 (April 2018 Update) ONLY.

The PowerShell script does rely on the Windows 10 Decrapifier script by CSAND over at Spiceworks. If it is absent it will open a browser window for you to download it. You can get the Windows 10 Decrapifier script here ahead of time, just make sure to place it in the same directory as Cleaner script. If you decide not to use the Decrapifier script, the Cleaner script will do what it can without it.

Download the script here.