Apply deboater to all users, not just new users.

[37liska73]

Hello, is it possible to apply deboater to all users on the machine, even those that are already created? I'm upgrading a lot of PCs from 10 to 11 and I'm running it as admin. I want to apply custom settings.

[Raphire]

Heya, it's not currently possible to apply all changes to all users.

Some changes do however apply to all users by default. What changes are you looking to make?

[staman81]

@Raphire
Same here. Typical domain machine: local administrator, one imported domain user with local administrator privileges (this one is running the script), and in most cases just one domain user who actually uses the computer.
I'm applying the Win11Debloat.ps1 with option 4 (I customized CustomAppList and SavedSettings beforehand).

The ideal scenario would be to run it once for all existing and new users.
In reality, adjusting one administrator account + one domain user would be enough (I’m running it under that administrator account).

What doesn’t work for existing/new user(s) is: RevertContextMenu(old_style), TaskbarAlignLeft, … (these two bother me the most).

At the moment:
I'm running the script under administrator
I'm running it second time with -User switch (btw, this will give me an error while creating restore point)
I'm running it for third time with -sysprep switch so the new users will be also modified

My question is, how to run the script so all SavedSettings would work under that existing domain user account?

PS: StartMenu2.bin:
To add to the wiki/KB, You can modify the Start Layout under a logged on User, take that Start2.bin file, and copy it from:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5*\LocalState

to:

.\Win11Debloat-master\Assets\Start

This will adjust the Start Menu Layout for all new and existing users. Confirmed, this works

[Raphire]

@Raphire Same here. Typical domain machine: local administrator, one imported domain user with local administrator privileges (this one is running the script), and in most cases just one domain user who actually uses the computer. I'm applying the Win11Debloat.ps1 with option 4 (I customized CustomAppList and SavedSettings beforehand).

The ideal scenario would be to run it once for all existing and new users. In reality, adjusting one administrator account + one domain user would be enough (I’m running it under that administrator account).

What doesn’t work for existing/new user(s) is: RevertContextMenu(old_style), TaskbarAlignLeft, … (these two bother me the most).

At the moment: I'm running the script under administrator I'm running it second time with -User switch (btw, this will give me an error while creating restore point) I'm running it for third time with -sysprep switch so the new users will be also modified

My question is, how to run the script so all SavedSettings would work under that existing domain user account?

Do you remember what error you got when attempting to create a restore point? Maybe it gets stuck and never gets on to apply the changes.

PS: StartMenu2.bin: To add to the wiki/KB, You can modify the Start Layout under a logged on User, take that Start2.bin file, and copy it from:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.StartMenuExperienceHost_cw5*\LocalState

to:

.\Win11Debloat-master\Assets\Start

This will adjust the Start Menu Layout for all new and existing users. Confirmed, this works

This feature is actually already documented here: https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat/wiki/Advanced-Features

You can simply provide a path to the start menu binary to replace the start menu for the current user/all users.

[staman81]

I couldn't replicate, tried that twice on another machines. That previous machine was imaged, I just remember it was red line error and something about error creating restore point. Sorry

I'm still fighting with it as EOL for Win10 is comming fast.
What i've noticed while running Win11Debloat.ps1 -user NAME, that my script will fail if the user has been not logged in yet (under Windows11). It will fail in the step "ClearStartAllUsers". Error message is following:

_PS>TerminatingError(Test-Path): "A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'Replace'."
Test-Path : A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'Replace'.
At C:\Temp\Win11Debloat-master\Win11Debloat.ps1:591 char:55

• ... $userDirectoryExists = Test-Path $env:USERPROFILE -Replace ('\' + ...
  ~~~~~~~~
  • CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Test-Path], ParameterBindingException
  • FullyQualifiedErrorId : NamedParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.TestPathCommand
    Test-Path : A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'Replace'.
    At C:\Temp\Win11Debloat-master\Win11Debloat.ps1:591 char:55
• ... $userDirectoryExists = Test-Path $env:USERPROFILE -Replace ('\' + ...
  ~~~~~~~~
  • CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Test-Path], ParameterBindingException
  • FullyQualifiedErrorId : NamedParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.TestPathCommand

Error: Unable to find user directory path for user NAME_

The script will stop without running the other settings.
My workaround for now is to move ClearStartAllUsers to the end of SavedSettings.

It doesn’t fail when running in -SysPrep mode or other modes; for me it only fails when running with the -User NAME switch (and that user hasn’t logged in yet on Windows 11).
When running normally, there are error messages like "Error: Unable to replace start menu for user xxxx, original Start2.bin file not found", but it continues further — however, not with the -User parameter.

Anyway, I’m trying to modify Run.bat so I can debloat:

• the current administrator running the script
• a user whose NAME I know
• and also use -SysPrep for new users

So far, no luck :(

BTW, still great job with all this — we are very grateful, thanks!

EDIT: Ok, I managed to get it working. In run.bat I run the script three times in total, but it works — it applies to all users. This way it’s sufficient.

[Raphire]

@staman81 Thanks for the detailed reply and the insight in how you use Win11Debloat. I do want to add better support for applying changes to all users in the future, but there's a lot of edgecases that have to be accounted for. For now I'm glad you got something working :D

I'll look into fixing the issue you encounter with clearing the start menu for users that have not logged in before.

[Raphire]

@staman81 I was able to reproduce the issue you reported. It should be fixed in the latest release. Instead of crashing you should now only see a warning in the logs, the start menu should be cleared.

If possible, could you let me know if this fixes the issue for you?

[staman81]

@Raphire Thank you for your time. I can quickly confirm that with latest version 2025.09.28 there is no error , only warning message. I will do more testing next week .. anyway, thank you very much so far!

To that insider "how to". The way I do it is: approve Windows 10 to Windows 11 update for certain computers (keep the user files). Once it goes trough the update process Windows 11 will become alive. Users are mostly not present so I can do some changes as local administrator. There is built-in local administrator password with LAPS or I can use dedicated domain account that have local administrator rights. (this way I do apps deployment etc). So, I'll log in as local administrator and trying to do the changes. User has not logged-in yet (into Windows11)
I do not know the user passwords so I can't do much about it.. I don't wan to reset it because of 2FA.

So my goal is do most of the changes as logged-in local admin and not bother users at all. Once they log in to Windows 11 for a first time, i'ld love to have all set-up including StartMenuLayer, StartMenuToTheLeft and other windows visual/funcional settings. That would be perfect.. :)

World is not perfect, I work with what I have :)
Sure I can do some changes once they log-in to Windows11 for the first time.