Operating systems can be a lot of work for administrators – work to configure the image, work to install the applications, and work to provide the best user experience possible. As with any software, what is provided to you is what the developer intended, but not necessarily what you want or need for your end users.
This blog series introduces you to Windows® Operating System (OS) optimizations, starting with version 1903. I will attempt to keep these optimizations as environment agnostic as possible. Hopefully, these optimizations will be just as good to administrators of physical machines as to a virtual environment utilizing Nutanix Frame®, Citrix® Virtual Apps and Desktops, or VMware Horizon®.
This series aims to share the seemingly infinite number of ways you can optimize a Windows environment, with something for beginners as well as administrators familiar with optimizations but looking to deliver an even better experience within their environment.
Of course, the optimizations provided in this blog series are intended only as a guide. Be sure to vet any optimizations carefully and test the optimizations described in this series internally before pushing the changes to your production environment.
The first entry covered Active Setup. The second entry covered the Microsoft® Store. The third entry covered Services and Scheduled Tasks. In each case, we discussed what each piece is, how it works, and how to optimize it.
This blog addresses Startup Items, which includes Run and RunOnce Registry Keys, as well as the Startup folder that exists in each user’s profile. More specifically, we will discuss their purpose, how they work, and what can be done with them for the purposes of optimization.