Windows "Desktop"
- Windows 10 Usability Tweaks
- STUC Valley
- Installing Windows 11 (from ISO) on real hardware (without SB and/or TPM 2.0 support)
Windows 10 Usability Tweaks
A subjective guide based on supposedly-objective data
This guide aims to collect a number of obvious and less-obvious tweaks on making Windows 10 a more usable interactive system. Any entry should be backed by direct, measurable data and external references: no placebo!
Shell performance
win32kbase!*Crit
A common cause of bad interactive performance (and gaming microstutters!) due to Win32 message loop lock contention. Allegedly regressed around RS3. ETW tracing with context switches should provide enough information regarding this.
References: Bruce Dawson's blog series
Explorer side-panel view
Common contention originating from callbacks in Windows.Storage.dll due to change notifications if any drives (e.g. hot-pluggable SATA drives or external drives) are expanded in the side view and any change is made to a directory shown there. Worsens with many File Explorer windows.
Tweaks
- Disable shell side panel in toolbar. Might take some closing/reopening windows to get the preference to save.
- Ideally: hide removable drives from the side view so they do not auto-expand. Anything under 'This PC' already does not, only removable drives somehow have the tendency to do so. TODO: someone find this
Task Manager 'Details' tab
Icon refreshing seems to be extremely slow. Try to avoid refreshing the Details tab when running Task Manager in the background.
Global performance
Memory compression
Memory compression is regressive on high-memory systems (especially with SSD page file backing) as decompressing page-in still leads to unneeded blocking latency (as opposed to disk ops from failed disk cache generally being asynchronous). In addition to that, it confuses system-wide memory metrics as the commit usage for compressed memory is duplicated: once in the process that's compressed, then yet again as CM31 paged pool.
References: microsoft/WinDev#35
Tweaks
-
Disable-MMAgent -mcin PowerShell. - Reboot.
Svchost split
Improves reliability, but has been reported to also affect interactive performance. No references at this point.
STUC Valley
Stupid, Technically Useless, Confusing
Those are a few words that come to mind once you see what in the fresh hell happened to Velocity feature names once Sun Valley development picked up the pace
Here's a table of acronyms used in various feature names
| Acronym | Explanation |
|---|---|
| AL(L)B | Animated Lock/Logon Background |
| AUXEMP | Add Undocked Xaml Extensions Metadata Provider |
| CBR(S) | Cloud Backup Restore Settings |
| CUIDFS | Credential UI Desktop Fluent Styling |
| CUIPN | Credential UI Provider Name |
| DGI | Dashboard Gesture Integration |
| DI | Drag Improvements |
| DLOOBE | Desktop Lite Out Of Box Experience |
| DTC | Deprecate Tile Control |
| Emrbspi | Enable Monitor Removal Behavior Spi |
| Erpsrbspi | Enable Restore Previous State Recalc Behavior Spi |
| FTVTM | Frontload Timeline Visual Tree Modifications |
| MTCMCTSA | Move Taskbar Context Menu Options(?) To Settings App |
| MW | Minimize Windows |
| RW | Restore Windows |
| SA | Snap Assist |
| S(BT)G | Snap Based Task Groups |
| SE | Snap Education |
| SSWPU | Shell Set Window Position Unrestricted |
| Swonms | Shrink Window On Move Size |
| TD | Taskbar Dll |
| TTP | Taskbar Test Proxy |
| TUC | Taskbar Undocked Controls |
| UDTHD | Use Desktop Taskbar Handler Dll |
| UTTV | Updated Taskview Timeline Visuals |
| UUS | Undocked Update Stack |
| V(D)PM | Virtual Desktops Per Monitor |
| VTRRCC | Visual Tree Rounded Rectangle Cpu Clip |
| WTA | Win32 Taskbar Access |
| WUIOD | WinUI On Desktop |
| Acronym | Guess |
|---|---|
| HFEFNM | Hello First Enrollment Flags N M |
| GTG | G Touch Gesture |
| VDS | Virtual Desktop S |
| VDR | Virtual Desktop Rename |
| VDW | Virtual Desktop W |
| MSZ | ? |
| CUICOORD | Credential UI C O O Rounded Dialog |
| OP | |
| XHSWUI | |
| SCM | |
| STUC | S Taskbar Undocked Controls |
| NP | |
| NM | |
| VT | Visual Tree |
| SR | |
| DLNP | Desktop Lite N Privacy |
| Tr | |
| AT | |
| P | Palette |
| IA | |
| V | |
| WS | |
| CAC | |
| OSetup | |
| 63 | |
| DA | |
| LC | |
| SB | |
| LA | |
| SN | |
| DE | |
| HVCZM | |
| DLOMETRIC | Desktop Lite O M E T R I C |
| HVCHM |
Installing Windows 11 (from ISO) on real hardware (without SB and/or TPM 2.0 support)
| Created: June 20, 2021 | Last Update: June 20, 2021 |
|---|---|
| Authors: | Gustave Monce, Daniel Kornev |
| Status: | Draft |
| Supported Windows 11 Version: | 21996.1 |
WIP
Overview
Here's some quick notes on installing Windows 11 on real hardware from ISO in case when hardware doesn't support TPM and/or SB (Secure Boot). For this example, we're assuming a system with no other critical disks installed, and a helpful host system being around to set up the initial image.
This guide has been created for the 21996.1 version of Windows 11.
Prerequisites
Host
- Windows 10 Iron or Cobalt (20279 or 21xxx+) - though 20H2 can also work just fine
- Utility USB flash drive of ~8GB+
Target
- Boot drive larger than 50 GiB
Common: Files & Tools
- Download Windows 11 ISO
- Download Windows USB/DVD Tool
- Install it
Prepare USB Drive for Flashing
- Get an empty USB Flash drive (with size at least 8GB)
- Use Windows USB/DVD Tool
- Follow its instructions to flash your Windows 11 ISO onto the USB Flash drive
Apply Your Image
Clean Disk & Lay Out Partitions
- Boot from USB Flash drive
- Open diskpart
- Type this:
list disk
Take a note of the name of your device's main disk drive, e.g., disk 0
4. Type this (where disk 0 is your device's main disk drive):
select disk 0
clean
- Follow the instructions for UEFI-based PCs from docs.microsoft.com to properly lay out your device's main disk for Windows 11 installation:
rem == CreatePartitions-UEFI.txt ==
rem == These commands are used with DiskPart to
rem create four partitions
rem for a UEFI/GPT-based PC.
rem Adjust the partition sizes to fill the drive
rem as necessary. ==
select disk 0
clean
convert gpt
rem == 1. System partition =========================
create partition efi size=100
rem ** NOTE: For Advanced Format 4Kn drives,
rem change this value to size = 260 **
format quick fs=fat32 label="System"
assign letter="S"
rem == 2. Microsoft Reserved (MSR) partition =======
create partition msr size=16
rem == 3. Windows partition ========================
rem == a. Create the Windows partition ==========
create partition primary
rem == b. Create space for the recovery tools ===
rem ** Update this size to match the size of
rem the recovery tools (winre.wim)
rem plus some free space.
shrink minimum=500
rem == c. Prepare the Windows partition =========
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"
assign letter="W"
rem === 4. Recovery partition ======================
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="Recovery"
assign letter="R"
set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
list volume
- Mark your Windows partition as active in diskpart:
list partition
note the name of your Windows partition (e.g., "partition 3")
select partition 3
active
- Type exit to leave diskpart
Apply Image
- Check which OS SKU you want to install:
dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:D:\Sources\install.wim <— here D:\ is the drive name of your USB drive
- Remember its index and use it to apply its image to your Windows partition (e.g., "W"):
dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:D:\Sources\install.wim /index:1 /ApplyDir:W:\
- Create boot records:
W:\Windows\System32\bcdboot G:\Windows
If you'll see "Failure when attempting to copy boot files" error message then use this command instead:
W:\Windows\System32\bcdboot c:\windows /s s: /f ALL
- Type exit in the Command Prompt window
Load Windows 11
At this time, your Windows 11 will boot. If everything is correct you should see the OOBE.