Motivation

Windows is useful and we all use it, but it comes with A LOT of things that we don't need, some among them invide our privacy completely, other simply serve no purpose becuase we don't use it. In this guide, I'll walk you through the steps to removing some of those annoying programs.

I'm currently not using windows for other than gaming, so I will update this list as needed. If you'd like me to include more, leave a comment below.
This is supposed to be a guideline, not every step is necessary to make a difference.

Installing your favorite programs

I don't recommend this option since you won't have the granular options of choosing what you want to install, however, for the lazy ones or the ones in a hurry, here it is, go to ninite and select the ones you want to install

Customizing Settings

Some settings that I personally think that should be changed to enhance privacy and usability.

Remove OneDrive

With this shell code you can get rid of Microsoft’s OneDrive plague. Which allows Windows (10) automatically store you private stuff and can be access by Microsoft staff for “juridical” reasons  according to the privacy statement.
Paste this code below in into your favor text editor:

 @echo off
    cls
    set x86=”%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\OneDriveSetup.exe”
    set x64=”%SYSTEMROOT%\SysWOW64\OneDriveSetup.exe”
    echo Closing OneDrive process.
    echo.
    taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe > NUL 2>&1
    ping 127.0.0.1 -n 5 > NUL 2>&1
    echo Uninstalling OneDrive.
    echo.
    if exist %x64% (
    %x64% /uninstall
    ) else (
    %x86% /uninstall
    )
    ping 127.0.0.1 -n 5 > NUL 2>&1
    echo Removing OneDrive leftovers.
    echo.
    rd “%USERPROFILE%\OneDrive” /Q /S > NUL 2>&1
    rd “C:\OneDriveTemp” /Q /S > NUL 2>&1
    rd “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\OneDrive” /Q /S > NUL 2>&1
    rd “%PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft OneDrive” /Q /S > NUL 2>&1
    echo Removeing OneDrive from the Explorer Side Panel.
    echo.
    REG DELETE “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}” /f > NUL 2>&1
    REG DELETE “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}” /f > NUL 2>&1
    pause

Then, save the file as file.cmd ( example OneDriveSucks.cmd), then execute the .cmd file as administrator by right click on it. Reboot computer and your are 1% in progress of privacy in Windows 10.

Create Keyboard Shortcuts for Favorite Apps

Create keyboard shortcuts for your favorite apps so you can launch them.

Prevent Windows From Re-Opening Apps On Restart

You have a ton of programs open -- so many that it's taxing your computer's system resources and causing lots of lag. You decide to restart your computer so to clear out the memory, but when you log in again, the OS opens all the same programs you had active before. Microsoft thinks it's doing you a favor by letting you pick up where you left off, but you'd be better off only re-opening the apps and tabs that you need right now.

To stop Windows 10 from automatically re-opening programs on reboot, navigate to Settings->Accounts->Sign-in Options and scroll down to the Privacy subhead. Then turn the toggle to off for "Use my sign-in to automatically finish setting up my device and reopen my apps after an update or restart."

Protect Your Privacy

By default, Windows 10 shares a lot of data with Microsoft about your usage habits. Fortunately, by changing a few settings, you can keep at least some of your information out of the software giant's hands.

Navigate to Settings->Privacy and toggle all the settings to off. These currently include four options: "Let apps use advertising ID, " "Let websites provide locally relevant content," "Let Windows track app launches" and "Show me suggested content."

Enable System Protection / Restore Points

If something, like a bad driver, prevents Windows from booting or causes frequent blue screens of death, one likely solution is to return Windows 10 to its previous state. The best way to take a step back to a previous configuration (with the old driver or update or settings) is to do a system restore.

However, by default,  System Protection, the feature which creates restore points you can return to, may be off. Turn on System Protection by typing "restore point" into the search box, clicking the top result, selecting your boot drive (usually C drive) , hitting the Configure button and then toggling "Turn on system protection" to on. We recommend setting maximum disk space usage to at least 5GB. Also you'll want to click the "Create" button to set up your first restore point.

Enable Storage Sense to Save Space

Unless you have a 2TB SSD in your system, you can always use more free space. Windows 10 has an optional feature called Storage Sense, which automatically purges files you no longer need in order to free up precious gigabytes for you.

To enable Storage Sense, navigate to Settings->System->Storage and then click "Change how we free up space automatically." Toggle Storage Sense to On, Then click "Change how we free up space automatically," set it to run every day and to delete files in your recycle bin and downloads folder every 14 days (or every day if you want to be more aggressive).

After you've changed those settings hit the Clean Now button to free some space right away.