Anyone who decides to reinstall Windows 10 on their computer will discover a mountain of digital junk that under normal circumstances must be removed manually. From unwanted applications to very aggressive telemetry settings, the process is long and tedious. However, an open source tool called WinSlap allows us to optimize Windows 10 with a series of automatic commands to remove bloatware, apply tweaks, and disable invasive components.
How many times have we told this story? At times it seems we will have a little peace, but the struggle between Microsoft and users never ends. Redmond's strategy and interests are very well identified (the future is the cloud, Windows is a service, etc., etc.), and they clash head-on with our idea of a fast, stable, and efficient operating system.
What does that mean? That if we decide to reinstall Windows 10, we will receive all the preinstalled bloatware from the factory. The problem is obvious: a huge number of computers that were declared "incompatible" for Windows 11 will have to continue on Windows 10, but if the default experience is full of digital junk, the user is not going to have a good time. Fortunately, there are tools like WinSlap, which allows us to optimize Windows 10 quickly and easily.
How to Optimize Windows 10 with WinSlap
Due to the type and number of interventions WinSlap makes on the operating system, the recommendation is to work with a clean and fresh installation of Windows 10 21H2, the latest stable build available. The official GitHub profile mentions that WinSlap "should" work on previous editions of Windows 10, but it was not thoroughly evaluated with them.
The adjustment options are divided into four tabs: Tweaks has options like disabling Cortana, uninstalling OneDrive, disabling Bing searches, and blocking telemetry at various levels. Appearance hides many of the new Windows 10 icons (for example, News and Interests), reactivates the classic volume control, and removes OneDrive references from File Explorer.
Software helps us install third-party programs like 7-Zip and Discord, but this does not work in the latest WinSlap build due to a winget module error, and we recommend ignoring this section for now. Finally, Advanced focuses on disabling background app persistence, fast startup, pointer acceleration, and other secondary connectivity aspects like Teredo.
Beyond the error we found with winget, the truth is that WinSlap works much better than we expected, and our Windows 10 21H2 installation feels almost like the LTSC variant. Of course, then there are privacy settings to adjust in both Windows and Microsoft Edge, but that takes a few minutes. If the plan is to optimize Windows 10 after reinstalling it, WinSlap definitely deserves a chance.
Official site and download: Click here
