Windows 11 has gotten progressively more bloated over the years, on top of more aggressively promoting features users don't actually want. With that, we've also seen an increasingly larger number of tools crop up to help you get rid of all the things you don't want or care about. These days, there are plenty of solutions out there, but a particularly notable one that launched recently is called TidyOS.

This tool comes from GitHub user builtbybel, who has made many apps of this nature in recent years, such as Bloatynosy and Winpilot. TidyOS seems to bring together the best features of these apps in a cleaner and more straightforward UI, and it's one of the best ways to clean up your Windows install, especially if you don't feel comfortable using a terminal environment. Let's break it down.

Disable all the ads and invasive features

Make Windows 11 shut up for once

There are many ways in which Windows 11 intrudes on your experience while you're using your PC, and it adds up to a lot of frustration over time. The setup process is one of the worst parts, but even after you do it, every now and then, Microsoft will try to force you into it again. If you didn't enable all the features during the first-time setup, it will sometimes prompt you to enable them again after installing new updates, which gets annoying. Plus, there are all kinds of little ads and pop-ups, and much more that can just get in the way of the experience.

One of the big features of TidyOS is disabling all that. Across multiple pages, you can turn off "features" like ads in the Start menu, lock screen tips and ads, the Copilot button, Game DVR, and all kinds of things that can make your Windows experience worse in a wide range of ways. Even those screens to "finish setup" can be disabled this way. The tabs here include Ads, Privacy (disabling things like telemetry and activity history), Personalization (where you can disable the most used apps on the Start menu or enable the classic context menu), AI (to disable Copilot and Recall snapshots), and Gaming (which includes some performance settings).

You can disable only the things you don't need, but if you disable all of it, you're going to have a way more seamless experience on Windows. I recommend selecting and activating most of these tweaks if you want to enhance your privacy, performance, and overall usability of the OS.

Uninstall bloatware

Too many apps come preinstalled

Another big problem with Windows 11, especially on a fresh setup, is how much bloatware comes preinstalled. There are a ton of apps included you probably don't need or want, and some of them are even blocked from being removed through normal methods. Once again, TidyOS comes in clutch here with an easy way to uninstall all of the bloatware in on go.

In fact, the Debloating section can uninstall any app on your PC, but out of the box, it loads in a list of preinstalled apps you might not want, such as Spotify, Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Phone Link, and so on. It will check your PC against this list, and then you can select all the apps you want to remove, and they'll be gone in one fell swoop. Of course, you can also choose to view all installed apps, or even create your own list of unwanted apps you can paste into the search field, so you can narrow the focus of your search.

This has multiple benefits. It may free up a bit of storage on your PC, and it can also save resources from having some of these services launch in the background. Most noticeably, though, it will clear up your Start menu from the get-go, so you can fill it with apps you actually want to use.

Scripts and plugins

Do even more

Finally, TidyOS has a few more tricks up its sleeve, not just for disabling certain features, but other little things that enahnce the experience. In the Scripting section, you an use plugins and scripts that can help you set things up in certain ways, though these are completely optional.

Some of the more useful things I'd highlight here are the ability to remove the Windows.old folder, uninstalling OneDrive, or removing Windows AI features. You can also run the popular Chris Titus script that can disable even more intrusive Windows features.

Then there are some smaller optional things, like using Winget to install some essential apps like Google Chrome, 7-Zip, and VLC, creating restore points, and more. If you regret deleting the built-in apps with the section above, there's also a script here to restore the built-in Windows apps, which is nice to see.

TidyOS should be one of the first apps you use on a new PC

At this point, I think it's safe to say that, if you're setting up a new Windows 11 PC, TidyOS should be one of the first apps you get for it. Before you do anything else, just use this to clean up the experience and remove all the unnecessary junk from Windows. After that, you're going to have a way better time using your computer, and you'll be very thankful you set it up. Even if you've been using your PC for a while, it's never too late to run this and clean things up a bit.

As someone who's moved away from Windows almost entirely, this is a big step towards making it better if you have to stick with it for one reason or another. If you're interested, you can download it below and let us know how it goes for you.

• TidyOS

  See at Github