How to easily lock down Windows 10, block telemetry, and uninstall unwanted apps
Windows 10 isn’t a bad operating system by any means, but that’s not to say it couldn’t be better.
Each major update of the OS resets your privacy settings to default, and it comes with various apps you likely don’t want or use. There are plenty of free third-party programs available you can call upon to tweak Windows 10’s settings, but they can be complicated or confusing to use.
SEE ALSO: Forget Windows 10, Windows 20 is the Microsoft operating system we need!
PimpApp, from Mirinsoft, doesn’t have the best name in the world, but its purpose -- to pimp your Windows, privacy and apps -- is definitely something we can get behind.
It uses the power of the company’s Debotnet Windows tweaking tool, but is more straightforward to use.
Run the portable app and you will be presented with a choice of privacy templates -- Beginner, Advanced, and Professional. Choose the one that suits your needs and it will run some community powered scripts and get Windows behaving how you want.
'Advanced' is an interactive template which turns off Windows data collection and removes unwanted apps. 'Professional' is a silent template which debloats Windows 10, disables features like OneDrive and Windows Defender, and tweaks various settings.
There’s also an apps section which lets you choose which preinstalled apps to remove, and a tracking section that blocks IP addresses used for telemetry. You can either add addresses manually or import them from community rules.
The software includes support for the Ninite service so you can easily download and install 75 popular Windows applications, and you can also run PowerShell scripts through PimpApp’s scripting section.
The key features of PimpApp are:
- Provides privacy templates for beginners, advanced and professionals
- Builds upon a Powershell engine, which is transparent for everyone
- Removes Windows 10 preinstalled and sponsored apps
- Blocks IP addresses of telemetry
- Features community powered and trending script files
- Customizable (no hard-coded scripts)
- Support for Ninite service, which allows you to download and install 75 popular apps for Windows.
- Modern and familiar UI
- Small footprint. No installation required (Portable)
- Lightweight and fast
- Easy to use
- 100 percent free (please donate and support the developer if you like it)
PimpApp is a very new tool, and is being updated regularly. It hit the beta milestone yesterday after five days of alpha releases.
You can download it from here.
Photo Credit: Alexander Supertramp/Shutterstock