[SOLVED] Winreducer 4.2.0.0 Bitlocker, Start Menu bugs among others

I've been experiencing quite a bit of strange behavior after shrinking Windows 10 (US) with the most recent Winreducer version:

1. Windows Mail, Search: Removed them, yet they're still in the start menu and seem to be fully functional

2. Double-Clicking on Bitlocker-protected drives in explorer throws an error message instead of presenting the password input dialog:



I have to enable my protected drives in the control panel to gain access. The Bitlocker service is set to automatic start and seems to be working.

3. The Internet Explorer Control Panel options were removed despite the fact that I didn't select them. Those were apparently automatically selected after choosing Internet Explorer to be removed, but I deselected both of the control panel options after selecting the removal of IE, yet they were removed. It's important to keep access to the internet explorer options since the proxy settings that can be set there take effect for the entire system and therefor other online apps.

4. Calculator was removed, even though I explicitly kept it. There's still a calc.exe present in the system folder, but it's way too small with only 32kb in size and it doesn't work.

5. After installing my graphics drivers and Adobe Flash, I experienced extremely strange bugs with the start menu: Whenever I clicked on it or pressed the Windows key, it only flashed for a split second in the upper left corner instead of rolling out from the taskbar. I have to press the Windows button for about a dozen times until it finally appears properly after which it again starts to act up. I installed a vanilla Windows with the same drivers and setup and experienced no such issues leading me to believe that this is Winreducer related. I also uninstalled every single software I installed on the shrinked Windows version to no avail.

I was able to track some background action with Procmon. Every start menu button press seems to invoke Searchui.exe which is not active and closes just as quickly as the start menu. Since I have removed Search, this might be the reason. Also, it seems that every button press invokes the following command:

"C:\Windows\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\ShellExperienceHost.exe" -ServerName:App.AppXtk181tbxbce2qsex02s8tw7hfxa9xb3t.mca

Update: By now I was able to fix the startmenu bug by deleting the Windows.Cortana-directory in C:\Windows\SystemApps
It contained 1200 files, including SearchUI.exe. After taking ownership and removing it manually, the start menu instantly started to work. In another reduced Windows build I tried to fix it by using different options in Winreducer and that also worked, however, I can't for the live of me remember what I changed. Still, said Cortana-directory was still present (same size and all, including SearchUI.exe) without causing any troubles. Anyway, since I had also selected the removal of Cortana in both builds I'm surprised to see this directory at all. Shouldn't it have been removed? I also removed it manually on my second build and so far none of those systems seem to mind that it's gone.

Update 2: Today, while booting up Windows failed some updates for my graphics card even though I already have the newest drivers installed. So it rolled back the changes and after the reboot the start menu problem was back again. This is on the second build which I thought used the correct Winreducer settings to avoid it. A quick deletion of the cortana-directory solved it once again.

No bugs, but just a few suggestions: Winreducer currently doesn't support removing the UI apps Calender, Mail and Get Started (I suppose this was removed after you found out that it would break the start menu). It would be nice if Winreducer would support the removal of those apps. Also, it would be great if Winreducer supported an option to show the taskbar only on one monitor, to show hidden system files and to set the control panel to show small icons.

Anyway, thank you for this awesome tool. I've been using it since it came out. Keep up the good work

Hello,

Thank you very much for your feedback ...

First, I would like to remind you that WinReducer EX-100 is still in alpha stage so it still contain important bugs. I'm currently on it to remove all necessary components, in order to avoid useless components. So, you should consider that the next build (maybe a beta build) should be much better than alpha build because it will be closer to the final version with less bugs ...

1. Windows Mail, Search: Removed them, yet they're still in the start menu and seem to be fully functional

Wait to beta build to have them properly removed

2. Double-Clicking on Bitlocker-protected drives in explorer throws an error message instead of presenting the password input dialog:

It seems to be a bug, I will try to see this before beta released.

3. The Internet Explorer Control Panel options were removed despite the fact that I didn't select them.

Have you used "Automatic Removing Process" ? if yes, this is normal. Because it's an automatic components selection. So in order to select each component you need without removing them automatically, you need to deselect "Automatic Removing Process" to be in manual mode : you need to select individually all components.

4. Calculator was removed, even though I explicitly kept it

If you selected it in "Accessories", this is a deprecated components, so please wait beta build to properly fix this.

5. For the moment, Modern UI Apps, are not properly cleaned, so please wait for the beta buil to have them properly removed.

6. I will support removing all modern ui apps in the future, but I need to perform more test to improve cleanup before re-adding them.

Have a good day !

Thank you so much for your reply. I will wait for the beta version

winterstorm2050 wrote:

Hello,
Have you used "Automatic Removing Process" ? if yes, this is normal. Because it's an automatic components selection. So in order to select each component you need without removing them automatically, you need to deselect "Automatic Removing Process" to be in manual mode : you need to select individually all components.

Yes, I had "Automatic Removing Process" activated. Thanks for clearing that up


Hate to say it, but I experienced a couple more bugs. Hope it helps listing them here in case you don't know them yet:

- TakeOwnership isn't added to the reduced Windows 10 even though I checked it. I then added the reg-entries manually in the post-installation section and that also didn't work.

- Tried to integrate NetFramework 3.5 several times by pointing Winreducer to the sxs-directory of the DVD, yet it wasn't integrated. The directory did contain a microsoft-windows-netfx3-ondemand-package.cab file. I also tried it via the Winreducer Update assistant to no avail. (Update: Turned out I tried to integrate the x86 version into a x64 Windows. An error message would have been helpful. Winreducer100ex.log didn't contain an entry about that either)

- I removed every language, yet during installation Japanese is still available in the otherwise empty language dropdown list. In the Language options in control panel Windows tells me to connect to the internet and look for language packs if I choose to add it, so it seems to have been removed after all.

- Disabling the Windows Update Service in Winreducer results in the service being set to manual and being active at the first boot up. Deactivating it manually afterwards works without a hitch though.

- Hidden System Files (Hide) seems to be without function. I tried it with and without and didn't see a difference. I suppose not ticking its checkbox should show all hidden system files, yet I had to activate that manually after installation.


Have a great day, too.