this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026
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Every Windows debloater script comes with the caveat of "until the next update". Instead of becoming a Windows Defucking Engineer I just left it entirely.
Except that these are group policy settings. The stuff they provide to allow businesses to manage their endpoints. Businesses that actually have enough size and money for Microsoft to care. Businesses that can have strict audit and data security requirements relating to things like not allowing data to even brush against something like OneDrive.
To be more direct, the only reason I can't count the number of times they've broken a Group Policy is because I legitimately don't recall it happening in the past decade.
https://lemmy.today/comment/25761328
Fair enough. I work in IT but endpoint config and group policy isn't my area at work, so most of my experience is with my personal computers at home. I at least usually hear the latest bullshit Microsoft is pulling from our endpoint management/config guy.
I should also bear in mind that I stripped down and customized the hell out of the install media before I last installed Windows on any of my devices, and I've run a shit ton of other customization/privacy/debloat tools afterwards as well. Usually by examining the policy and registry edits or PowerShell code they run and just picking and choosing parts for myself. Lots of good tools out there, but none I trust to do exactly what I want with no oversight or investigation.
I'd still say that Group Policy is usually the best option for configuration shit sticking though, due to it being Microsoft's "business side" solution for endpoint config for quite a while now.
Yes and no. They started to limit GPOs. Some are only valid on Enterprise Licenses or Windows Server and will be ignored by your usual Windows Pro License at home. With Windows Home, you're SOL regarding GPOs.
Also they started to migrate some of these settings to their Intune Device Management and will ignore those if not set via Intune.
Read: Companies can still disenshittify Windows to some degree, but they make it harder and harder for normal people to do so.