- Create a bootable USB thumb drive (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10)
- Boot computer onto drive
- Format SSD/HDD
- Install windows
- If ethernet is plugged in, unplug it & don’t connect to wifi
- Select “I don’t have internet”
- Select “Continue with limited setup”
- Select no/decline
- Toggle everything optional off
- Reconnect to internet, if you get a prompt that says finish account setup close out of it, and if you can’t just restart your PC and you won’t see it again.
- In windows search type “Check for updates” and update everything mandatory, you can skip optional updates
- In windows search type Microsoft store, click the hamburger menu in the top left, click “Downloads and Updates”, click “Get Updates” and let everything install
- Reboot your computer
Some of these are optional, might add a severity level at some point. Separated and ordered by the way they are laid out in the settings app
- System
- Notifications & Actions
- Uncheck “Show notifications on the lock screen”
- Uncheck “Show reminders and incoming VOIP calls on the lock screen”
- Uncheck “Show me the windows welcome experience….”
- Uncheck “Get tips, tricks, and suggestions”
- Uncheck any apps you don’t want notifications from (revisit this after you have installed your stuff)
- Multitasking
- Uncheck “Show suggestions in your timeline”
- About
- Click “Rename this PC” and rename to something more useful
- Notifications & Actions
- Devices
- Typing
- Click “Typing insights” under “How AI as helped you”, toggle it off
- Autoplay
- Toggle off autoplay for all media and devices
- Typing
- Personalization
- Background
- Change to solid color, black
- Colors
- Choose dark theme
- Turn transparency effects off
- Choose accent
- Lockscreen
- Change background to picture, select random or upload one
- Uncheck “Get fun facts, tips and more on lockscreen”
- Change all apps for status on lockscreen to “None”
- Start
- Uncheck “Show recently added apps”
- Uncheck “Show suggestions occasionally”
- Click “Choose which folders appear on start” and do what you want
- Taskbar
- Check “Use small taskbar buttons”
- Click “Select which icons appear on the taskbar” and uncheck any unwanted (Revisit this after you have installed your stuff)
- Click “Turn system icons on or off” and uncheck any unwanted
- Right click the task bar
- Uncheck “Show Cortana button”
- Uncheck “Show Task View button”
- Background
- Accounts
- Sign-in options
- Uncheck “Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up….”
- Sign-in options
- Time & Language
- Date & time
- Adjust your time zone manually
- Date & time
- Gaming
- Game bar
- Uncheck “Record game clips, screenshots, and broadcasts…”
- Game bar
- Search
- Permissions & History
- Turn SafeSearch off
- Turn cloud search off
- Turn my device history off
- Permissions & History
- Cortana
- Talk to Cortana
- Uncheck “Use Cortana even when my device is locked”
- Talk to Cortana
- Privacy
- General
- Uncheck “Let windows track app launches to improve…”
- Uncheck “Show me suggested content in settings” Really Microsoft?
- Activity History
- Uncheck “Store my activity history on this device”
- Background apps
- Turn off all apps you don’t want running in the background (pretty much all of them) (revisit this after you have installed your stuff)
- App diagnostics
- Click the change button under “App diagnostic info for this device is on” and turn it off
- General
- Remove “Edge” shortcut from desktop and taskbar
- Remove “Mail” from taskbar
- In windows search type “Remove programs”
- Uninstall everything possible (except for things like hardware drivers)
- Go to “optional features” near the top
- Remove internet explorer 11
- Remove Microsoft quick assist
- Remove Windows hello face unless you’re using it
- Startup apps
- Disable everything you don’t want opening (revisit this after you have installed your stuff)
- Start menu
- Right click and remove all tiles on the right section
Open powershell as an administrator and run the following
- Remove Maps
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *maps* | Remove-AppxPackage
- Remove Alarms/Clock
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *alarms* | Remove-AppxPackage
- Remove People
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *people* | Remove-AppxPackage
- Remove Photos
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *photo* | Remove-AppxPackage
- Remove Camera
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *camera* | Remove-AppxPackage
- Remove Messaging
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *messaging* | Remove-AppxPackage
- Remove Your Phone
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *phone* | Remove-AppxPackage
- Remove Get Help
Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *GetHelp* | Remove-AppxPackage
- Download/install Firefox
- Close any account prompts
- Pin to taskbar, remove shortcut from desktop
- Install ublock origin, allow to run in private windows
Firefox Settings
- General
- Make default browser, you can uncheck the “Always check”
- Uncheck “Use a background service to install updates”
- Uncheck “Recommend extensions”
- Uncheck “Recommend features”
- Home
- Set homepage, new windows, and new tabs to Blank Page
- Search
- Default search engine to duck duck go
- Privacy
- Tracking protection to “Strict”
- Enable “Do Not Track” always
- Disable all login/password autofill
- Disable address autofill
- Set history to “Never remember history”
- Open settings for notifications and block all requests
- Uncheck all Firefox data collection