Customizing the Windows 10 user experience with Group Policy

[TechLady]

This looks useful.

"Some of the customizations I apply to Windows 7 and Windows 10 computers for visual experience settings that are not available in plain Group Policy.

This is my original research unless noted otherwise."

Disable auto-installed Windows 10 apps
This stops all "suggested" apps from getting installed while leaving important and useful Windows 10 applications. This must be applied to a user by Group Policy on their first sign-in. It is not retroactive. The "Remove consumer experience" Group Policy does not work anymore in Windows 10, but this works.

Credit: @wdormann on this page.

• HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager\
• Value name: SubscribedContent-338388Enabled
• REG_DWORD - Decimal = 0

Hide Cortana search box in the taskbar
Users can just hit Start and begin typing to search. For various reasons our users all know this.
You can also set the value to 1 to just show the Cortana button.

• HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search\
• Value name: SearchboxTaskbarMode
• REG_DWORD - Decimal = 0

Disable the people button in taskbar

• HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\People\
• Value name: PeopleBand
• REG_DWORD - Decimal = 0

Disable system pane suggestions

• HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ContentDeliveryManager\
• Value name: SystemPaneSuggestionsEnabled
• REG_DWORD - Decimal = 0

Disable taskbar animations

• HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\
• Value name: TaskbarAnimations
• REG_DWORD - Decimal = 0

Taskbar small icons

• HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\
• Value name: TaskbarSmallIcons
• REG_DWORD - Decimal = 1

Control panel shows all icons by default (Win7)

• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ControlPanel\
• Value name: AllItemsIconView
• REG_DWORD = 1

• HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ControlPanel\
• Value name: StartupPage
• REG_DWORD = 1

Disable animations and fading while preserving GPU acceleration and translucency
This sets the following in Performance Options screen, but the checkboxes WILL NOT CHANGE ON THE CLIENT. The settings themselves change, but the interface does not. This is expected because the status of the user interface is stored separately from the actual Windows visual settings bitmask.

• HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\
• Value name: UserPreferencesMask
• REG_BINARY = 90320780100000

• HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\
• Value name: VisualFXSetting
• REG_DWORD - Decimal = 3

Disable animations and fading on sign-in screen
Not recommended as-is. You should substitute your own settings to preserve animations because this will break the sign-in circle thing and users won't like it. I was experimenting with this but never applied it.

Note that ".DEFAULT" is the system profile, it's not the default user profile. You cannot edit the default user profile with Group Policy for various reasons.

• HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop\
• Value name: UserPreferencesMask
• REG_BINARY = 90320780100000

Disable first logon animation
Just documenting. This probably isn't a good idea for most people but there are certain scenarios with MDT where this setting has to be configured.

• HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\
• Value name: EnableFirstLogonAnimation
• REG_DWORD - Decimal = 0

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[sapphirescales]

How old is this article? Most of this stuff can be done through the Settings app on Windows 10. You don't need to go screwing around in the registry to change most of this stuff if you're on a more recent build of Windows.

 

[TechLady]

Less than 24 hours old.

 

[sapphirescales]

Less than 24 hours old.

Disabling Cortana and the stupid "People" button can be done by simple right clicking on the taskbar and unchecking them. Why in the world you'd go mucking around the registry to change such a simple setting is beyond me. The same can be said about just about everything on this list. Windows 10 hasn't been reinstalling the "recommended" apps that you've removed for several builds now. Small taskbar icons can be set by right clicking on the taskbar and choosing "Taskbar settings." And the thing about animations...why you'd want to do this is beyond me. Unless of course you're installing Windows 10 on a Core 2 Duo machine that had trouble even doing Aero effects back in Windows Vista.

Windows 10 has removed a few things that I find annoying. For example, if you want to set a picture slideshow for your desktop background, 1 minute is the shortest time interval you can set. If you want the slideshow to go any faster, you have to modify the freaking registry. I personally prefer the picture to change every 10 seconds when I'm using a slideshow as a background.

 

[Archon Prime]

Ya i was going to say, this is all stuff that can be disabled normally. The rest is redundant.

 

[mdownes]

TechLady's post looks pretty useful to me... If you know the reg settings, surely that makes it much easier to roll out across large volumes of endpoints rather than clicking your way through the various settings on each PC one-by-one? Unless I'm missing something...

 

[sapphirescales]

TechLady's post looks pretty useful to me... If you know the reg settings, surely that makes it much easier to roll out across large volumes of endpoints rather than clicking your way through the various settings on each PC one-by-one? Unless I'm missing something...

It's literally 2 or 3 clicks to enable/disable this stuff. Less work than going through the registry. But I use images anyway so I don't spend much time mucking around in the registry.

 

[mdownes]

It's literally 2 or 3 clicks to enable/disable this stuff. Less work than going through the registry. But I use images anyway so I don't spend much time mucking around in the registry.

2 or 3 clicks multiplied by the number of changes she gave (about 10), multiplied by the number of PCs. I think most people use images, but things often need changing after deployment. It’s hardly ‘mucking around in the registry’ if you’re applying in bulk across a domain via GPO.

 

[E Bell]

There are a number of scenarios...

• scripting to automate the process and keep the process consistent
• remotely applying settings without GPO in a peer-to-peer network/environment
• modifying the setting on a customer where ScreenConnect or MSP agent is installed (without having to remote into the machine)

 

[TechLady]

Honestly I'm not a big fan of scripting or registry hacks myself. I'm really not. I just thought it might be useful to others who are.