Optimize Windows for Business Use, Privacy, Performance, Stability and Control

Digital Tigers now offers the option of a customized Windows experience, reflecting what we believe are the priorities of most business users. This optimization is far more important for Windows 10 than for prior Microsoft operating systems.

Optimize for Business Use: Remove Microsoft bloatware (games/consumer apps)

Windows 10 comes with dozens of consumer games and apps that do nothing for business users. We remove Candy Crush Saga, Xbox, Zune Music, Windows Phone, Bing News and much more, while providing a record of what's been uninstalled and how to reinstall any apps you want back. The removals streamline your desktop and Apps / Programs menus and promote a more professional desktop experience.

Privacy: Block Microsoft telemetry, disable Cortana, install ad-blockers, block Start menu ads

By default, Microsoft monitors your configuration and your activity on your computer and sends updates to its servers multiple times an hour, a practice known as telemetry, as part of its product feedback process. This monitoring includes your web browsing history using Microsoft browsers. We block most such monitoring. You can change this preference later if you prefer.

We also disable Cortana, the digital assistant component, reverting the search box to "Search Windows." This removes the conflation of desktop and web search inherent to Cortana, and stops the comprehensive tracking that Cortana conducts and sends to Microsoft (Cortana's Notebook). For Windows 10 Pro, disabling Cortana is handled via Group Policy. For Windows 10 Home, we add a Windows Registry key to disable it. You can reenable Cortana later if you prefer.

We install Chrome and Firefox web browsers, along with Adblock Plus and uBlock Origin ad blockers. The ad blockers improve your web browsing experience while speeding up page-load times and bolstering privacy and security. We set Chrome as the default browser, based on its popularity; you can change this preference.

We install VLC media player and make it the default media player, bypassing the tracking and ads inherent in Windows 10 Movies & TV. You can install any preferred media player and make it your default.

We also turn off Start menu ads ("suggestions," Windows Store apps you never downloaded, appearing as tiles in your Start menu) and targeted ads from third-party apps ("Let my apps use my advertising ID"). You can reverse these settings later if you prefer.

Performance: More system resources, faster browsing, fewer background processes

We change Windows Registry settings to allocate more system resources for graphical, user and desktop objects, doubling the number of application windows and financial trading indicators that can be displayed. These changes reduce the frequency of out-of-memory errors when there is available physical memory, and they reduce the probability that you will be prevented from opening new windows.

We install Chrome and Firefox web browsers, which have faster performance and also enable you to isolate demanding web applications in one browser while you use another browser for general use. Adblock Plus and uBlock Origin speed up web browsing by removing ads, which are often resource-intensive.

We disable the ability of most preinstalled apps to run in the background (Privacy > Background Apps setting), and we turn off non-essential items running at startup.

Blocking Microsoft telemetry and other tracking prevents occasional spikes in CPU, drive and network utilization, avoiding interference with your actual applications.

Stability and Control: Take control of Windows Update

We believe best practice for Windows Update calls for timely security updates and deferred feature updates. Timely security updates are important to protect the system from newly discovered vulnerabilities. Deferred feature updates are important because major new revisions to Windows 10 can cause system instability and application compatibility issues when first released.

Windows 10 Pro (highly recommended) enables us to set Windows feature updates to release on the slower Semi-Annual Channel, and then we use Group Policy to add an extra 180-day delay beyond this slower distribution channel. Without these configuration settings, Windows 10 Pro users would receive updates much closer to their first release. Unfortunately we can do none of these optimizations for Windows 10 Home, and so Windows 10 Home users get new feature updates immediately, with some risk of problems.

We also make changes to Windows to put you in control of when you install updates and when you restart your computer. With Windows 10, Microsoft has become very aggressive with updates, forcing computers to download updates and even forcing system reboots, disregarding alternative customer priorities. There is usually an opportunity to defer a number of hours, but after this modest concession, the system takes control and executes an update and reboot, which normally cannot be stopped. For Windows 10 Pro customers, we make changes to keep you in control of when updates are installed and when you reboot your computer. Certainly security updates are timely and important, but so is control of your time and your workspace, so we give that control back to you.

If you prefer to disable these controls or to get faster Windows feature updates, we can undo these preferences before or after purchase.