How to use Windows Debloat Studio

Windows Debloat Studio reviews the telemetry, advertising, preinstalled apps, services, scheduled tasks and shell behaviour that ship with Windows 11. It shows you each option, explains what it does, tells you the live state on your machine, and lets you choose Enable, Disable or Revert — nothing happens until you press Review & apply and confirm.

First run

1. Double-click WindowsDebloatStudio.exe No installer. The exe unpacks itself into a temporary folder, runs, and deletes that folder when you close the window. Windows will show a SmartScreen warning the first time because the file is not code-signed yet — click More info, then Run anyway. Verify the checksum on the download page first.
2. The Start here dashboard Shows headline numbers: how many options exist, how they split by risk, how much of your machine is already switched off, and how much this app has touched. Click any category row to jump to it.
3. Browse, read, choose Every option has its own card. Open one, read what it does, and pick Enable, Disable or Revert. Your choices are staged — nothing has happened yet.
4. Review & apply Press the button in the sidebar. The confirmation screen shows every change in full. Tick Dry run first if you want a log of what it would do without touching anything.

The three choices

Each button describes the Windows feature, not the tweak. The same word always points the same way.

Enable

The feature is on. For most options this is the state Windows ships in.

Disable

The feature is off. This is the debloating direction for most options — but not all. A handful of options are things Windows ships turned off that you may want on (End Task on the taskbar, long path support, LSA protection), and those cards say so.

Revert

Put the option back to the exact value it had before this app first changed it, read from the journal. If the app has never touched that option, Revert is skipped rather than guessing at a default.

Each card carries three colour-coded panels spelling out what Enable, Disable and Revert will each do, plus a Technical detail block listing the exact registry values, services, packages or tasks involved.

Risk labels

Every option carries a risk label. The toolbar can filter by risk, so you can hide everything aggressive while you work.

• Safe — Reversible, no functional loss for most people.
• Moderate — A real feature changes or disappears. The card names it.
• Aggressive — Can break Windows Update, security, or app installation. The card explains the specific danger.

The safety net

Presets

A preset is a named set of choices. Staging a preset ticks Enable, Disable or Revert on the options it covers and leaves everything else untouched. It never applies anything on its own — you then walk the categories, change your mind on anything you disagree with, and only then press Review & apply.

Free presets (3)

• Privacy Essentials Safe — Data collection and advertising surfaces off, nothing else. Start here.
• Windows 10 Feel Safe — Classic context menu, left taskbar, file extensions, This PC.
• Put Everything Back Safe — Stages Revert on all 355 options.

Pro presets (8)

• Recommended Desktop Moderate — The full sensible pass for a personal desktop.
• Gaming Rig Moderate — Latency and frame-pacing work. Keeps Xbox sign-in and anti-cheat.
• Laptop & Battery Safe — Privacy pass with power-hungry tweaks left out.
• Security Hardening Moderate — Mostly uses Enable. Closes legacy protocols, turns on protections.
• Developer Workstation Moderate — Long paths, dev mode, Sandbox, WSL on.
• Family PC Safe — Marketing and remote-access tools gone, every protection on.
• Quiet Machine Safe — Every prompt, banner, tip and nag removed. Everything stays functional.
• Maximum Debloat Aggressive — Everything safe and moderate. Carries a warning.

Technician presets (3)

• Corporate Build — Locked-down corporate desktop. Telemetry off, consumer features off, Defender and update ON.
• Kiosk & Shared Terminal — Aggressive lockdown for shared machines. All preinstalled apps removed, personalisation closed.
• Client Hand-off — Prepares a machine before giving it to a client. Clean slate, no leftover settings.

Applying to every account

By default, per-user options only affect the account running the app. Tick Apply per-user options to all accounts on the confirmation screen and the app also writes them into every real user profile on the PC and the default profile, so accounts created later inherit the settings.

Needs administrator rights. The checkbox disables when there is nothing to do: not elevated, no other profiles, or no per-user options staged.

Reinstalling removed apps

If you removed an app package and want it back, the app can drive winget to reinstall it from the Store. The order tried:

1. Re-register from the exact folder recorded in the capture
2. Re-register from whatever matching payload is still in WindowsApps
3. Install from the Store with winget (verified: the app asks winget to describe the package first and only proceeds if the name matches)
4. Failing all that, log a clickable Store link

Sharing presets

Save as preset… writes a .json file. Send that file to someone; they use Import a preset file… and get exactly your choices.

A preset contains only option ids and the word Enable, Disable or Revert. It cannot carry a registry path, a command, or anything executable. Importing a preset from a stranger can only ever set choices you could have set by hand, and you still see the full list on the confirmation screen before anything runs.

Requirements

• Windows 11 (options that do not apply show as Unknown)
• Windows PowerShell 5.1 and .NET Framework 4.x — both built in
• Administrator rights for machine-wide options; without them the app still runs and says which options will fail
• Nothing is downloaded and nothing is installed

Licensing

The app is free. All 355 options, every category, and the whole safety net are free forever. Two paid tiers unlock convenience features:

Pro is for your own machines; Technician is for machines that are not yours. The code that enforces them cannot reach the journal, Revert, Undo or the dry run — a test asserts it.

Where it keeps things

Nothing is written into the app folder. In the packaged build that folder is a temporary directory that only exists while the app is running.

Known limits

• Defender Tamper Protection silently rejects registry changes. Those options will appear to apply and then do nothing. The cards say so.
• Protected services refuse changes even from an elevated session. The engine falls back and tells you a restart is needed.
• Feature updates can reinstate removed apps and reset some policies. Re-stage your preset afterwards.