Initial Workstation configuration with MS Windows 10 20H2 (part 2) - Windows Settings

In this part of the series, we will configure the settings needed for our system in the “Modern” Settings application - by clicking the Settings “Cog”.

During the first part, we have tackled the first steps of our Windows 10 20H2 installation. In part 3 we will make adjustments to other settings as well as application-specific selections and settings. Finally, part 4 is for more hard-to-reach settings that need group policy, command line, and registry tinkering.

Disclaimer: These settings are only applied to my set up, and turn off systems and services that might be useful to you. Do not follow this guide blindly - use your discretion and actual use case and decide if you need a particular setting or not.

So without further ado here’s part 2 of a 4-part series:

Windows Settings

System

• Display
  • Resolution: To what is needed depending on your Monitor, as well as the refresh rate
  • Scale and layout: 100%
• Notifications & actions
  • Remove All by clicking Edit your quick actions:
  • Add only:
    • All settings
    • Network
    • Wi-Fi
    • Airplane mode
    • Brightness
• Notifications
  • Get notifications from apps and other senders: Off
  • Show me the Windows welcome experience after updates and occasionally when I sign in to highlight what’s new and suggested: Off
  • Suggest ways I can finish setting up my device to get the most out of Windows: Off
  • Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows: Off
• Focus assist
  • Automatic rules
    • When I’m duplicating my display: Off
    • When I’m playing a game: Off
    • When I’m using an app in full screen: Off
    • Show me a summary of what I missed while focus assist was on: Off
• Power & sleep
  • Screen
    • On battery power, turn off after: Never
    • When plugged in, turn off after: Never
  • Sleep
    • On battery power, PC goes to sleep after: Never
    • When plugged in, PC goes to sleep after: Never
  • Click Additional power settings
    • Switch to High performance or Ultimate Performance (If there are no such power plans available go to Windows Mobility Center and select it from there. If they are still missing from Windows Mobility Center open a command line and type powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61. Close and re-open Windows Mobility Center and they will come up.
      • In change plan settings
        • Turn off the display -> Never in both on battery and plugged in.
        • Change advanced power settings:
          • Turn off hard disk after: 0 in both
    • In Choose what the power button does:
      • Lid close action: Do nothing
      • Power Button on both: Shut Down
      • Sleep button on both: Do nothing
      • Unselect Turn On Fast startup (after you click Change settings that are currently unavailable)
• Storage
  • In Configure Storage Sense or run it now:
    • Delete files in my recycle bin if they have been there for over: Never
    • Delete files in my Downloads folder if they have been there for over: 14 days
• Tablet mode
  • When I sign in: Never use tablet mode
  • When I use this device as a tablet: Don't switch to tablet mode
• Multitasking
  • Snap Windows -> When I snap a window, show what I can snap next to it: Off
  • Timeline -> Show suggestions in your timeline: Off
• Shared experiences
  • Share across devices: Off
• Remote Desktop
  • Enable Remote Desktop: On
    • Keep my PC awake for connections when it is plugged in: On
    • Make my PC discoverable on private networks to enable automatic connection from a remote device: Off
    • in Advanced settings:
      • Require computers to use Network Level Authentication to connect (recommended): On
• About
  • Rename this PC

Devices

• Bluetooth & other devices
  • Bluetooth: Off
• Printers & scanners
  • Let Windows manage my default printer: Off
• Typing
  • Autocorrect misspelled words: Off
  • Highlight misspelled words: Off
  • Show text suggestions as I type on the software keyboard: Off
  • Add a space after I choose a text suggestion: Off
  • Add a period after I double-tap the Spacebar: Off
• Pen & Windows Ink
  • Write in the handwriting panel with your fingertip: Off
• Autoplay
  • Use AutoPlay for all media and devices: Off
• USB
  • Notify me if there are issues connecting to USB devices: Off

Network & Internet ====

• Wi-Fi
  • Hotspot 2.0 networks -> Let me use online sign-up to get connected: Off
• Ethernet
  • In Change adapter options
    • Right click the NICs you want to change settings -> Priorities
      • Disable IPv6
      • In IPv4 -> Properties -> Advanced -> WINS -> Disable NetBIOS over TCP/IP
• Adapter priority
  • Usually on Laptops: Favor wired connections over wi-fi. Go to Network Connections -> Right Click the adapter you want the highest priority and click Properties. Go to IPv4 properties -> Advanced and change interface metric to e.g 10. Go to the other interface with lower priority and do the same with a higher metric (for e.g 20) to have lower priority.

Additionally to the above, if you need DNS resolving over OpenVPN, you need to make sure that the OpenVPN interface has higher priority (lower number) than LAN & WLAN. for e.g at the moment, I have TAP-Windows adapter (OpenVPN) at metric 10, LAN at 15, and WLAN at 20

Personalization

• Background
  • Solid Color: Gray Dark or a custom color (such as #34495E) or Picture
• Colors
  • Choose your color: Custom
  • Choose your default Windows mode: Dark
  • Choose your default app mode: Light
  • Windows colors: Steel Blue
  • Show accent color on the following surfaces: Start, taskbar and action center & Title bars
• Lock Screen
  • Background: Picture
  • Get fun facts, tips, tricks, and more on your lock screen: Off
  • Choose an app to show detailed status: None
  • Choose apps to show quick status: Select None to all
• Themes
  • Save theme if you’re ok with it
• Start
  • Show app list in Start menu: Off
  • Show recently added apps: Off
  • Show suggestions occasionally in Start: Off
  • Show recently opened items in Jump Lists on Start or the taskbar: Off
  • Choose which folders appear on Start
    • Remove: Documents, Pictures
• Taskbar
  • Use small taskbar buttons: On
  • Use Peek to preview the desktop when you move your mouse to the Show desktop button at the end of the taskbar: On
  • Replace Command Prompt with Windows PowerShell in the menu when I right-click the start button or press Windows key+X: Off
  • Notification area
    • Select which icons appear on the taskbar: Always show all icons in the notification area: On
  • Multiple displays
    • Show taskbar on all displays: On
      • Show taskbar buttons on: Main taskbar and taskbar where window is open

Apps

• Apps & features
  • Optional features
    • Uninstall:
      • Math Recognizer, Microsoft Quick Assist, Windows Hello Face, Windows Media Player, Steps Recorder, Wordpad
  • Uninstall: All default Windows apps that are uninstallable as needed.
• Offline maps
  • Automatically update maps: Off
• Apps for websites
  • Associate apps with websites
    • Turn all Off
• Video playback
  • When watching movies and videos on battery power: Optimize for video quality
• Startup
  • Startup apps: Turn Off all that is not needed

Accounts

• Sign-in options
  • Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device after an update or restart: Off

Time & Language

• Region
  • Regional format:
    • Change to Greek (Greece)
  • Change data formats
    • Short time: HH:mm
    • Long time: HH:mm:ss
• Language
  • Remove Ελληνικά (Κύπρος) if it exists

Gaming

• Game bar
  • Enable Xbox Game Bar for things like recording game clips, chatting with friends, and receiving game invites.: Off
  • Open Game bar using this button on a controller: Off
• Captures
  • Record audio when I record a game: Off
• Game Mode
  • Game Mode - Off

Ease of Access

• Interaction
  • Keyboard
    • Allow the shortcut key to start Sticky Keys - Off
    • Allow the shortcut key to start Toggle Keys - Off
    • Allow the shortcut key to start Filter Keys - Off

Search

• Permissions & History
  • SafeSearch: Off
  • Windows Cloud search:
    • Microsoft account: Off
    • Work or school account: Off
  • History: Off

Privacy

• General
  • Let websites provide locally relevant content by accessing my language list: Off
  • Let Windows track app launches to improve Start and search results: Off
  • Show me suggested content in the Settings app: Off
• Diagnostics & feedback
  • View diagnostic data: On Click the “Open Diagnostic Data Viewer” button that becomes available and you’re being taken to the Microsoft Store to download the Diagnostic Data Viewer application. Go ahead and do that to continue. After you’ve installed the app, you can either click the “Diagnostic Data Viewer” button again under Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics & Feedback to open it or launch the “Diagnostic Data Viewer” shortcut that appears in your Start menu.
  • Activity history
    • Store my activity history on this device: Off
• Camera
  • Camera access for this device is on: Click on Change and Turn Off
• Microphone
  • Microphone access for this device in on: Click on Change and Turn Off
• Notifications
  • Let apps access my notifications: Off
• Account Info
  • Account info access for this device is on: Click on Change and Turn Off
• Contacts
  • Contacts access for this device is on: Click on Change and Turn Off
• Calendar
  • Calendar access for this device is on: Click on Change and Turn Off
• Phone calls
  • Phone call access for this device is on: Click on Change and Turn Off
• Call history
  • Call history access for this device is on: Click on Change and Turn Off
• Email
  • Email access for this device is on: Click on Change and Turn Off
• Tasks:
  • Tasks access for this device is on: Click on Change and Turn Off
• Messaging
  • Messaging access for this device is on: Click on Change and Turn Off
• Radios
  • Let apps control radios: Off
• Other devices
  • Communicate with unpaired devices: Off
• Background Apps
  • Let apps run in the background: On and turn Off all individual applications but Ubuntu if you have that installed.

If you turn Let apps run in the background to Off you will lose the ability to search for any installed applications in the start menu which are installed after the switch it Off

• App diagnostics
  • Let apps access diagnostic information: Off
• Documents
  • Documents library access for this device is on: Click on Change and Turn Off
• Pictures
  • Pictures library access for this device is on: Click on Change and Turn Off
• Videos
  • Videos library access for this device is on: Click on Change and Turn Off
• File System
  • File system access for this device is on: Click on Change and Turn Off

Update & security

• Windows Update
  • Change active hours: 9 AM to 3 AM
  • Advanced options
    • Receive updates for other Microsoft products when I update Windows: On
• Delivery Optimization
  • Allow downloads from other PCs: Off
    • Advanced options
      • Download settings:
        • Absolute bandwidth -> Limit how much bandwidth is used for downloading updates in the background: On & 1 Mbps
        • Absolute bandwidth -> Limit how much bandwidth is used for downloading updates in the foreground: On & 5 Mbps
      • Upload settings:
        • Limit how much bandwidth is used for uploading updates to other PCs on the Internet: On & 5%
        • Monthly upload limit: On & 5GB
• Windows Security (Open Windows Security)
  • Virus & threat protection
    • Virus & Threat protection settings
      • Cloud-delivered protection: Off
      • Automatic sample submission: Off
      • Exclusions
        • Exclude any files or folders needed. To do this click on Add an exclusion and find the file or folder you need. After that select the folders to be excluded one by one or the parent folder.
  • App & browser control
    • Reputation-based protection -> Check apps and files: Off
    • Reputation-based protection -> SmartScreen for Microsoft Edge: Off
    • Reputation-based protection -> Smartscreen for Windows Store apps: Off
• For developers
  • Use developer features: select Developer mode
  • In PowerShell click apply on Change execution policy to allow local PowerShell scripts to run without signing. Require signing for remote scripts.

This concludes the second part of the setup guide. Continue on part 3

Thank you for reading! Be sure to share this post if you found it helpful and don’t hesitate to chat with me about it!

This post was first published on Stathis’ log book by Stathis Athanasiadis aka StatAth