Problem

Users all across the board experience several significant inconveniences that adversely impact their overall satisfaction and productivity. The key issues faced by users of Windows 11, focusing on hardware compatibility, excessive bloatware, latency, and perpetual slowdown of systems due to functionality-breaking updates.

Excessive Bloatware: Windows 11, like its predecessors, comes pre-installed with an array of software applications and utilities, commonly known as bloatware. These applications consume valuable system resources, disk space, and may lead to a cluttered user experience. Users often find themselves struggling to remove or disable these applications, resulting in a loss of productivity and suboptimal system performance. The presence of excessive bloatware also impacts system startup times and can lead to slower overall operations.
Latency and Performance Issues: Windows 11 users have reported experiencing latency and performance issues, particularly concerning application responsiveness and system stability. Latency problems arise when running demanding applications, leading to laggy or unresponsive behavior. Users have expressed frustration regarding latency-related glitches, affecting various aspects of their computing experience, including gaming, video editing, and multitasking. These performance issues hinder the operating system's capacity to meet user expectations, ultimately impeding productivity and user satisfaction.
Functionality-Breaking Updates: Windows 11's update mechanism has raised concerns among users due to the perpetual slowdown of systems caused by functionality-breaking updates. These updates, designed to enhance security and features, can inadvertently introduce new bugs, conflicts, or compatibility issues, leading to system instability and reduced performance. Users often encounter scenarios where a previously well-functioning system becomes sluggish or dysfunctional after installing updates. The lack of a transparent and user-controlled update process adds to the frustration and uncertainty among users, impacting their trust in the operating system's reliability.

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Solution

I decided to create a personalized custom Windows build based on Windows 11. The goal was to provide users with an optimized operating system that would prioritize utility and performance out of the box.

To achieve this, we removed unnecessary features and applications from the default Windows build, optimized system settings, and included essential tools for productivity such as Microsoft Office Suite. The build also includes essential utilities such as Microsoft PowerToys, Filelight, Eartrumpet and many other utilities that provide intuitive functionality out of the box. We also provided users with the option to customize their installation by selecting additional features they may need or want.

Performance Impact

Decreased startup process count by 35-40%
Startup Processes include the background services and processes that start once Windows has booted up and are required for optimal functioning.
On a standard Windows installation, this number revolves between 140 to 155 processes without opening any third party background or startup apps.
This number has been turned down to around 80-95 processes. By doing this, users face relatively faster boot and turnaround times when using their device instantly after booting it up.
Idle CPU Utilization dropped to 5-10%
Reduced DPC Latency by 50%
Deferred Process Call Latency is responsible for scenarios where audio/video output goes out of sync on a machine. For example, if you're watching a movie and you're noticing out of sync dialogue, it could be due to your device having higher DPC Latencies.
The average DPC Latency on a standard Windows installation is 4.5-4.7 µs.
This number has been cut down in half thanks to system and driver optimizations.
Base Installation Size reduced from 35 GB > 20 GB
The removal of redundancies and bloatware leads to a significantly smaller install footprint, making it more convenient and storage friendly.

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Custom Windows 11 OS