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Windows 10 Settings for Dedicated Media PC

565 views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  Brian Hampton 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi,

I have a dedicated computer as part of my HT for media playback now and wanted to share tips for setting up or optimizing windows 10.

I know there are guides. And these ideas mostly come from watching a few youtube videos on tuning a PC for gaming. And, I most likely can't tell you how to "undo" this stuff so remember that. But, if you are building a dedicated Media PC then I think you must be fairly advanced with computers or soon will be.


But here's some

0. Set BIOS to ignore the lack of keyboard. (I don't use a keyboard I use a remote and there is no keyboard hooked up)

1. Automated login
http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-automatically-login-in-windows-10/

2. Use Local Account instead of Micro$oft account.

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2956427/microsoft-subnet/how-to-setup-a-local-account-in-windows-10-during-or-after-installation.html

3. If you want to Remove One Drive. (I don't use it and don't want it)

http://www.howtogeek.com/225973/how-to-disable-onedrive-and-remove-it-from-file-explorer-on-windows-10/

4. Forget security software aside from the built in Windows Defender and Windows Firewall. (if you want to truly explore the internet use a different machine)

5. Dis-able the swap file. This is easy to do and undo and works for me, I suggest trying it. Even though I use a SSD I don't want the computer doing anything unless I ask it to and that includes trying to manage a swap file.

6. Remove any bundled software or "shovel-ware" or better yet do a clean install of Windows 10.

7. Set Power Management scheme to High Performance.

8. Dis-able start up delays... There's one for choosing the OS and another for letting the OS load before starting prrograms.

For the first case look here..

Start>Right click on Computer and Properties> Advanced Settings on the left side of the window> Advanced Tab> Settings from theStartup And Recovery section (last one)> Choose the operating system you want and uncheck the Time to display List of operating systems.

For the second look here... (But this one rely's on hibernation for quick booting so you lose the freshness of booting up... On second look I don't recommend this one but you can try it)

http://betanews.com/2015/11/20/speed-up-windows-10-boot-up-with-this-simple-tweak/

I think there is a third tweak for this ... Still looking for the link. It's something about a delay Windows has to let start up programs load before trying to launch other applications... Have to find that one.. it works well.

9 - Well now I have to go.. a few more things I can quickly remember is I turned off automatic maintenance and just run it myself as needed and turned of indexing on the hard drive.


That's all I have time for now. I hope others will give tips I forgot or better versions or something. I think Windows 10 is great for dedicated Media PC's but lots of things need to be adjusted. Watching a couple of youtube vids for windows 10 optimazation is a good place to start.. they will show you how to turn off lots of privacy stuff which to me means just turning off lots of automated processes that I would prefer just never happen.

-Brian
 
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#2 · (Edited)
A few more tweaks I remembered are turning off remote access and turning off the option to fetch and supply windows updates to other PCs on the network.

I was surprised to learn there is a "for real" version of Windows 10 lite made for Rasp Pi shown here...
http://www.nextbigwhat.com/windows-10-iot-core-launched-297/

I guess in my optimizations I'm looking to shut off features I don't use and try to eliminate times when my computer starts making it's own plans instead of doing what I ask it to do.

-Brian
 
#6 ·
I have no use for swap file or disc indexing.

Disc indexing is for quick search of files like for peeps that use MS Word all day and want to open files... I don't do that. My media server opens files from my NAS drives and this indexing isn't used.

My system runs fine without a swap file.. there's just no reason to have one.

-Brian
 
#8 ·
Hello again,

Been thinking and reading more about these optimizations.

It's true that if you read optimization guides some of the tips seem to do more harm than good.

For me, turning off warnings about lack of keyboard and also automatic login and local account are all essential to the way I use my HTPC.

My suggestions for indexing and page file are more "your mileage may vary" as suggested above.

The best info for optimization guides that I've found for Windows 10 is here...

http://www.back2gaming.com/guides/windows-10-optimization-guide-for-pc/

-Brian
 
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