Running Windows with No Services (2005, updated in 2009)(techcommunity.microsoft.com)
techcommunity.microsoft.com
Running Windows with No Services (2005, updated in 2009)
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-blog-archive/running-windows-with-no-services/ba-p/723386
5 comments
Microsoft did an unfortunately great job at silencing Mark Russinovich by hiring him. I really miss these kind of posts from him. I enjoyed them very much.
Including all those useful tools he made and stopped making when Microsoft hired him.
You're right. When I first heard of Russinovich joining Microsoft, I thought oh hell that's the end of a good run and it was. The trouble is that to date no one of his caliber seems to have emerged in what has now been quite a long time (there will be others but we're not going to hear from those doing nefarious hacking). Nevertheless, it's odd that we've heard so few instances of home-grown patching of Windows that would be useful to users.
Of course, quietening Russinovich by employing him is what Microsoft and other Big Tech excel at in spades—that is by buy off any competition or looming trouble.
Of course, quietening Russinovich by employing him is what Microsoft and other Big Tech excel at in spades—that is by buy off any competition or looming trouble.
> [Task Manager] has an internal list of processes that it considers critical and that it won’t terminate.
But we can use other tools for the job. Hah. Nice.
Being used to everything in the open as a Linux user, articles like these lifting the veil from Windows internals never cease to fascinate. I wonder how far Windows 10 could survive.
But we can use other tools for the job. Hah. Nice.
Being used to everything in the open as a Linux user, articles like these lifting the veil from Windows internals never cease to fascinate. I wonder how far Windows 10 could survive.
Windows 10 is a complicated mess. It would indeed be impressive if someone managed to do this with Windows 10.
Compared to Linux Windows 10 is a malicious bloatware operating system designed to prevent you from removing the bloat and the user hostile stuff. Which is why I think it's not possible to do this with Windows 10.
Compared to Linux Windows 10 is a malicious bloatware operating system designed to prevent you from removing the bloat and the user hostile stuff. Which is why I think it's not possible to do this with Windows 10.
Recently, I bought a laptop with the purpose of installing Linux on it. It came with Windows 10 installed that I had to remove so I had the chance to see how much punishment it could take before it crashed.
As Microsoft has seen fit to make Windows 10's junky annoyances uninstallable, the only option was to install the hard disk in an operational Linux machine so I could surgically remove any program or section that I wanted to. Without the hindrance of a live Windows, it was dead easy to not only remove all the bloatware I could find but also various services, the browser and media player, etc.
It amazed me how solid and hardy Windows 10 was; in fact, even after I'd severely hacked it about I never actually managed to kill it (clearly I could have by deleting essential kernel DLLs etc. but there'd be no point in doing that). The fact is Windows 10 continued to work with huge parts of it missing to the extent that the program was hardly recognizable and it did so in ways that were never possible with XP or Win 7 (yes, I've tried the same exercise with them way back).
I cannot say the approach that I took was very systematic—it wasn't, and except for some brief notes taken as I deleted stuff I didn't document the exercise, after all my aim was to remove Windows 10 and replace it with Linux so any further delay would have been unproductive.
However, the exercise proved to me that wholesale hacking and patching of Windows 10 was not only possible but also that removing some parts of it were comparatively easy (especially the bloatware)—and due to its solidity it's likely that Windows 10 is the best candidate/version of Windows to attempt it with. Given the massive amounts of inbuilt spyware, forced upgrades and heaps of useless bloatware in Win 10, there are rich pickings for those who wish to experiment (just don't try it on your only working machine).
Given my easy success in what was hardly a concerted effort, I'm surprised we've heard so little from those more dedicated and knowledgeable than I am and I'm wondering why it's so (perhaps people are too scared of MS if they publish the fact or they're frightened that if they announce their findings then MS will patch ways around them).
I'd be most interested in hearing any accounts from anyone who has had success especially if they are successfully running a patched Windows 10 sans bloatware and spyware.
I'll finish by saying we need to put the Windows 10 problem into perspective. The last Win 10 ISO I downloaded was an incredible 7GB or thereabouts—as I found out much to my annoyance and chagrin when I first tried unsuccessfully to load it onto a DVD. I would suggest that in anyone's language that 7GB for what is essentially a file-loader program is excessive in the extreme. I recall around the time that Mark Russinovich joined Microsoft that he said that the essential core Windows programs were only about 50MB in size. Even allowing for a multitude of additional drivers and essentially utilities, it really begs the question what all those other gigabytes are actually used for.
As Microsoft has seen fit to make Windows 10's junky annoyances uninstallable, the only option was to install the hard disk in an operational Linux machine so I could surgically remove any program or section that I wanted to. Without the hindrance of a live Windows, it was dead easy to not only remove all the bloatware I could find but also various services, the browser and media player, etc.
It amazed me how solid and hardy Windows 10 was; in fact, even after I'd severely hacked it about I never actually managed to kill it (clearly I could have by deleting essential kernel DLLs etc. but there'd be no point in doing that). The fact is Windows 10 continued to work with huge parts of it missing to the extent that the program was hardly recognizable and it did so in ways that were never possible with XP or Win 7 (yes, I've tried the same exercise with them way back).
I cannot say the approach that I took was very systematic—it wasn't, and except for some brief notes taken as I deleted stuff I didn't document the exercise, after all my aim was to remove Windows 10 and replace it with Linux so any further delay would have been unproductive.
However, the exercise proved to me that wholesale hacking and patching of Windows 10 was not only possible but also that removing some parts of it were comparatively easy (especially the bloatware)—and due to its solidity it's likely that Windows 10 is the best candidate/version of Windows to attempt it with. Given the massive amounts of inbuilt spyware, forced upgrades and heaps of useless bloatware in Win 10, there are rich pickings for those who wish to experiment (just don't try it on your only working machine).
Given my easy success in what was hardly a concerted effort, I'm surprised we've heard so little from those more dedicated and knowledgeable than I am and I'm wondering why it's so (perhaps people are too scared of MS if they publish the fact or they're frightened that if they announce their findings then MS will patch ways around them).
I'd be most interested in hearing any accounts from anyone who has had success especially if they are successfully running a patched Windows 10 sans bloatware and spyware.
I'll finish by saying we need to put the Windows 10 problem into perspective. The last Win 10 ISO I downloaded was an incredible 7GB or thereabouts—as I found out much to my annoyance and chagrin when I first tried unsuccessfully to load it onto a DVD. I would suggest that in anyone's language that 7GB for what is essentially a file-loader program is excessive in the extreme. I recall around the time that Mark Russinovich joined Microsoft that he said that the essential core Windows programs were only about 50MB in size. Even allowing for a multitude of additional drivers and essentially utilities, it really begs the question what all those other gigabytes are actually used for.