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Okay, let's discuss how to get rid of these processes...


NoelC

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By the way, that helped me identify TimeBorker (er, TimeBroker :)) as a service to be disabled, and I'm looking at a few others.

TimeBroker and/or that other Broker when disabled broke Task Scheduler during my brief Win8.1 testing. Although I removed the dependency, it still didn't work quite right. Or maybe it was another "out of sight" subsystem, like WMI or Perfmon. Or it was the driver installation procedure.

In the end, I decided to keep the brokers active, although I hate them as much as anyone.

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Interesting.  I tested the Task Scheduler without TimeBroker running, and it still starts things at scheduled times.

 

I'll keep a sharp eye on things, though.  Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

-Noel

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This is the post that warned me. Yes, it was that all driver installs failed and I didn't know why. After I re-enabled the services, drivers could be installed again.

 

For everyone reading, I have a warning

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you disable System Events Broker!!

It is NOT just part of the store, but as It turns out a core part of windows. Disabling it has resulted in ALL driver installations failing (from "invalid data"), ALL networked computers becoming inaccessible, as well as completely breaking Task Scheduler. Those are only the issues I've found so far, there's bound to be more stuff going on in the background that has been broken

I'm also finding that it is practically impossible to re-enable System Events Broker, even after changing the registry key back to default it still refuses to start. I've spent the last day an a half trying to fix this. I also strongly suggest removing the suggestion of disabling it from the OP.

This was on windows 8.1 64 bit. If anyone disabled their system events broker, and was able to fix it, please let me know how.

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I guess the discussion has morphed from "TimeBroker" to "SystemEventsBroker".

 

Note that I have disabled only TimeBroker, and so far in about a day of testing things still seem peachy on both my Win 10 and Win 8.1 test setups.  I even successfully installed Windows Updates on my Win 10 test system (which consisted only of a Windows Defender definitions update).

 

I can see why people would try to disable SystemEventsBroker, though, since the service description mentions WinRT.  Savvy people realize that all recent bad from Microsoft has come from WinRT / Metro / Modern / Universal / Toy Apps.

 

-Noel

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NoelC -- this is what you want. Follow instructions. It will work on any version of Windows 10. You can strip out everything, or pick and choose. It works offline. This has been tested. Basically if you use this on Windows 10 N Enterprise 1511, it will give you an LTSB. But, like I said, you can use it on other versions also.

Toolkit-v3.2https://mega.nz/#!pZ5jwDRK!IshC_u9yPFbPyQXaleFSwCcv4EoHD2NP4eAFJGzmjHY
Edited by dhjohns
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Thanks.

 

For my test system at least I'm not really that interested in having a long-term servicing branch, since I'd like to see what's coming.  If I ever did put my workstation on 10 I might go that way, except that it's what I've already accomplished with the more functional Win 8.1.

 

Rather, my goal is a minimalist desktop-only, up-to-date system.

 

Given that Microsoft isn't really advancing the desktop, maybe these are closer together than it sounds.

 

-Noel

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I'm still waiting on my laptop with Windows 10 but I'm learning as much as I can and trying to determine best build/configuration.  I've followed several forums and from this I think what I've gathered is that the minimum processes and apps are listed below.  Please correct me if I'm understanding this incorrectly.  When I get my laptop the tweaking will begin.  I just wanted to establish a baseline to head towards.  Thanks

 

Confirm Minimal apps?
Finally minimal packages are :
Microsoft.AccountsControl ================== Modern account control
Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost ======= modern start menu / clock / notification shell
windows.immersivecontrolpanel ============= Modern control pannel
 
Minimal processes?
RuntimeBroker.exe - Manages permissions / trust for Modern Apps.
ShellExperienceHost.exe - Unversal App integration in the shell.  Needed for Settings.
sihost.exe - Shell Infrastructure Host.
taskhostw.exe - running {222A245B-E637-4AE9-A93F-A59CA119A75E}.
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On my functional WIn 10 system (with which I log in with a local account and I eschew everything Metro) I've found that Microsoft.AccountsControl isn't needed either, and I have removed it.

PS C:\TEMP> Get-AppxPackage -allusers | Select NameName----Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHostwindows.immersivecontrolpanel

and

 

I have the following from the original list in this thread still running right now:

  • RuntimeBroker.exe - Manages permissions / trust for Modern Apps
  • ShellExperienceHost.exe - Unversal App integration in the shell.
  • sihost.exe - Shell Infrastructure Host.
  • taskhostw.exe - running {222A245B-E637-4AE9-A93F-A59CA119A75E}.

 

Most recently I have disabled (via registry edit) the Time Broker service without apparent ill effect - at least so far. 

 

I have also disabled Network Connection Broker via the Services snap-in.

 

Task Scheduler still works fine, Windows Defender updates itself fine, and (when I configure the firewall to allow it) Windows Update works fine.  I'm able to run the desktop applications I require to do software development work, and it even looks pretty darned good with Aero Glass for Win 8+ on the job.

 

-Noel

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Got mine down to 38 by disabling Catalyst starting with Doze. Go to task manager and startup and there are 4 entries there. Then some reg settings disabling taskbar, autoupdates and background. Will see if it comes back. Hate that W10 wants to control this, I usually just install drivers and no Catalyst

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  • 1 month later...

Just wanted to check about disabling sihost.exe, is this enough to change to disable it?

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]"EnableSIHostIntegration"=dword:00000000"ShellInfrastructure"="explorer.exe"
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Cool!  That is definitely a way to start Windows 10 without sihost.  Thanks for that info.

 

However...

 

The problem is that you now have no way to run the Action / Notification Center, nor run the Settings App.  Not that I *LIKE* these components, but I don't think there's a way to do everything else needed...  For example, how would you do initiate a Windows Update?

 

If Microsoft would have retained enough of the Control Panel to be able to do things the old way, that would be a very good tweak indeed.  As it is, it appears to cut too deep.

 

You don't know of a way to resurrect all the functionality that can only be done through Settings and the Action / Notification Center, do you?

 

-Noel

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Let me start by saying this:

 

I've uninstalled/disabled/hammered much of Cortana, OneDrive, and cloud-oriented, Modern App components, I never use the Windows Start Menu, and I log in with a local account and disable UAC, and have a deny-by-default firewall setup.

 

In short, I only need / want a desktop-oriented system - however archaic that may seem - that does pretty much what I am able to do with Win 8.1 and with 7 before that. 

 

I'm not interested in cloud-integration, save for the delivery of updates (e.g., to keep ahead of those who would take advantage of security holes).

 

In pursuit of these goals, I'm leaning the system down to being a pure desktop servant that isn't chatting with servers all over the internet, nor supporting any part of "Modern" activity.  Unfortunately, I apparently DO still need the Settings app.

 

I've already made strides...  I have a system that settles to a process count in the mid 40s when it's idle, and uses maybe about 1 GB of RAM (on an 8 GB system).

 

But I'm not done.  I want to find out what it will take to eliminate the following processes that are always seen running.  I don't believe they're needed at all on a system with the above goals, and I don't want them to even start.  Someone please correct me if I'm wrong or have characterized what they do incorrectly.

 

  • InstallAgent.exe - (presumably) Looks for updates for Modern Apps
  • RuntimeBroker.exe - Manages permissions / trust for Modern Apps
  • SettingSyncHost.exe - Syncs settings on multiple systems through the cloud - not wanted.
  • ShellExperienceHost.exe - Unversal App integration in the shell.  Needed for Settings?
  • sihost.exe - Shell Infrastructure Host, not sure what this does.
  • svchost running UnistackSvcGroup - not sure what this does; haven't matched it to a named service.
  • taskhostw.exe - running {222A245B-E637-4AE9-A93F-A59CA119A75E}; not sure what this does.

 

All these new "hosts" and "brokers".  Sheesh.

 

Initial experiments imply that the system can run with no problems without at least some of these.  I'd like to know your thoughts. 

 

-Noel

Are you seeing these 7 processes in Task Manager?

 

I can only see RunTimeBroker.exe here.

 

I used Windows 10 Lite (Better Privacy) during install.

 

http://sourceforge.net/projects/windows-10-lite/?source=navbar

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