Further Reading & Power Tools

Official docs for PowerToys, Microsoft's free, open-source utilities: Text Extractor, File Locksmith, PowerRename, FancyZones, Peek, Registry Preview, Hosts File Editor, Command Palette and more.

The safe ways to shrink the component store: the StartComponentCleanup task, DISM /StartComponentCleanup (with an optional /ResetBase) and Disk Cleanup. It also warns why you must never delete WinSxS files by hand.

Microsoft's list of Windows features that are no longer being developed and may be removed, such as Steps Recorder. Check it before relying on an older tool or tweak.

The companion list of features Microsoft has actually removed, with dates, for example WMIC and PowerShell 2.0. If a guide's command no longer works, look here first.

The full table of ms-settings: addresses that open individual Settings pages directly, with notes on which ones are deprecated in Windows 11.

A far more detailed Task Manager. It shows the process tree, which DLLs and handles each process has open, and lets you find which program has a file locked.

A classic 2014 explainer, written with the Windows storage team, on why Windows occasionally defragments SSDs on purpose and what retrim does. It's an older post, but its main advice not to disable Optimize Drives is still commonly cited.

Overview of the Windows Package Manager command-line tool, with links to every command: install, upgrade, export, import, pin and more.

How to use an answer file to skip or pre-fill the first-run setup screens, including creating local accounts and hiding the online-account pages.

Shows everything that starts automatically with Windows: startup apps, services, drivers, scheduled tasks, Explorer add-ons and more. Untick an entry to disable it without deleting it. Disabling drivers or system entries can break Windows.

Explains what the page file is really for (the commit limit and crash dumps), how system-managed sizing works, and why removing it can cause crashes even on PCs with lots of RAM.

Documents the SystemResponsiveness and task-profile registry values behind many 'gaming' tweaks, including the rule that values below 10 are clamped to 20.

How to record and analyse what Microsoft Defender Antivirus is scanning with New-MpPerformanceRecording and Get-MpPerformanceReport. This is the measured alternative to switching protection off when something feels slow.

The full reference for PnPUtil, Windows' driver-store tool: list, add, export and remove driver packages, and list devices with problems.

Microsoft's reference for every Windows policy setting, with the matching Group Policy path, supported editions and the Windows version each policy needs. Useful for checking whether a policy tweak still applies.

Logs file system, registry and process activity in real time. It's the standard way to find which registry value or file a program is reading, which is very useful for checking what a tweak actually changes.

Download page for the whole Sysinternals toolkit in one bundle, including Process Explorer, Autoruns, Process Monitor and dozens more. A Microsoft Store edition and an ARM64 build are also available.

Every setup.exe switch for upgrades and installs, including /auto upgrade, /compat scanonly, /DiagnosticPrompt, /copylogs and /unattend, with their return codes.