Project Ronin 7.4

Project Ronin 7.4.0

A features + polish release. Recommended for everyone on 7.3.1 and under!

New

• Debloat Center (System Core) — a real app-removal menu that scans what's actually installed on your machine. Known junk (Bing apps, Office promos, Teams, third-party bloatware like TikTok/Candy Crush) comes pre-selected; Xbox / Game Pass never is. Nothing is removed until you confirm, with live progress in the console. Critical packages (Store, winget, Defender, Terminal) are never touched, and removed apps can be reinstalled from the Store anytime.
• Console Mode (Gaming) — boot straight into Steam Big Picture at startup, so the PC powers on into Steam's controller UI like a console. Works on any hardware (desktop, laptop, handheld). Fully reversible.
• Two new Privacy tweaks — Block Copilot in Edge and Disable Paint/Office AI & Hide AI Settings. Registry-only and fully reversible.

Faster

• Audits and Apply/Revert batches are MCUH quicker — repeated audits now finish in under 2 seconds (down from ~8), thanks to smarter caching of a few slow system checks.

Stability & polish

• The system audit and the Debloat Center are now rock-solid under repeated use.
• Fixed a bug where the app would freeze applying tweaks due to NetDMA being removed from Windows
• Dialogs and confirmation prompts behave cleanly — single-click OK, and the Debloat removal uses a clear two-step "CONFIRM REMOVE" button.
• Better behind-the-scenes diagnostics, so any future issue is easy to pinpoint from a log.

Removed

• "Enable Network Buffer Tuning" — it depended on a Windows feature (NetDMA) Microsoft removed years ago, and its other setting is already on by default on modern PCs.

Every tweak is fully reversible. The entire source is plain, auditable PowerShell — no telemetry, no bundled binaries.

Project Ronin 7.3.1

Changelog

Well I seem to be on a roll with updates but yesterday's patch had a few bugs I genuinely missed. Thanks for being patient while I work to get Ronin to a polished state.

[7.3.1] — 2026-06-11

Stability and polish patch. If you downloaded 7.3.0, please update — this fixes a
critical engine bug that could silently stop tweaks from applying.

Installing and running the new version:
Step 1 — Unblock before extracting (Right click, properties, unblock)
Step 2 — Run it: right-click Launch_Ronin.bat → Run as administrator → Yes on UAC → "Windows protected your PC" box is expected (More info → Run anyway)
Optional - build the app yourself from source → right-click BuildRonin.ps1 → Run with PowerShell

Added

• Reclaim Space (Maintenance) — one-click deep clean: removes Windows.old and
  permanently compresses superseded update files (DISM ResetBase). Typically frees
  15–30+ GB and reports the exact amount freed. Includes a clear warning first.
• Block Vendor Software Injection / WPBT (Advanced) — stops motherboard and laptop
  firmware from auto-installing vendor software (e.g. Armoury Crate) into every Windows
  install. You bought the hardware; you decide what runs. Reversible; reboot required.
• Quad9 DNS (Advanced) — added the security-focused Quad9 resolver (blocks known
  malware domains) to the DNS Command Center. DNS cache now auto-flushes after switching.
• Theme-matched batch summary — applying tweaks now ends with a styled summary
  (applied / reverted / already-optimal / failed, with failing tweaks named) instead of a
  plain Windows message box.

Fixed

• Critical: the background engine could stop applying tweaks partway through a batch
  (commands intermittently failed to resolve). Tweaks now apply and revert reliably.
• Restore-point creation can no longer hang the app indefinitely (90-second cap with a
  clear message, e.g. when System Protection is off).
• Dropdown tweaks falsely reported "failed" after applying successfully.
• "Already optimized" detection for CompactOS, Reserved Storage, Ultimate Performance and
  file-system tweaks — broken state checks forced slow re-applies (e.g. a ~35s CompactOS
  run on every batch even when nothing changed).
• Windows Update Reset left Cryptographic Services stopped and never cleared the download
  cache; it now performs the full standard reset sequence.
• Nagle's Algorithm tweak was a silent no-op (wrote to the wrong registry level); it now
  applies per network interface and cleans up the old stray value on revert.
• CPU boost-mode dropdowns now correctly reflect OEM power schemes (values 4–6).
• Clearing the search box left dropdown text invisible (black-on-black).
• Hover descriptions permanently stopped working after toggling any tweak; pinning a
  description is now right-click (left-click just toggles).
• "Disable System Restore" is no longer pre-checked in Auto-Optimize — it silently broke
  Ronin's own Auto-Backup restore points.
• BitLocker decryption banner hardened (named lookup) and a close-guard warns if you exit
  Ronin while a drive is still decrypting.

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7.3.0 — 2026-06-09

A near-complete rewrite of the engine and UI since the public 7.0.0 build. The
background worker, diagnostics, logging, status detection, ranking, and the UI controller
were substantially rebuilt (RoninCore +57%, controller +40%, tweak database +24% by size),
nearly every tweak gained a verified Revert and Check, and 40+ bugs were fixed
across the engine, tweak application, and UI.

Added

• Reclaim Space (Maintenance) — one-click deep clean: removes Windows.old and
  permanently compresses superseded update files (DISM ResetBase), typically freeing
  15–30+ GB, with a confirmation warning and a freed-space report in the console.
• Full reversibility — Revert support added across the tweak database: 126 of 131
  tweaks are now reversible (up from 106 of 125 in 7.0), each paired with a Check so the
  app can detect and roll back state accurately.
• Diagnostics & logging subsystem — Write-Diag, Write-DiagException, and
  Start-DiagSession (verbose internals, exception traces, and an environment header for
  bug reports) — all new since 7.0.
• Safer service handling — Set-Service-Registry disables services via the registry
  instead of fragile Set-Service calls that could fail or hang.
• System State Report — C:\ProgramData\Ronin\Ronin_StateReport.txt, a full ON/OFF
  snapshot of every tweak, regenerated after each audit. Click the on-screen console (or
  Maintenance → Open Logs & Backups) to open the logs folder.
• Post-batch summary dialog — after applying/reverting, shows counts (applied,
  reverted, already-optimal, failed) and names any tweaks that need attention.
• Weighted System Rank — scored against the curated Auto-Optimize recommended set and
  weighted by impact, so 100% is achievable and optional features no longer inflate it.
• Per-tweak descriptions — 45+ hover descriptions surfaced in the Information Dojo.
  Right-click a tweak to pin its description.
• BitLocker safety — live decryption-progress banner plus a close-guard that warns
  before you exit Ronin mid-decryption.
• Diagnostics engine — structured Ronin.log (events) and Ronin_Diagnostic.log
  (verbose, with environment header) for clean bug reports.
• Touch Mode — scales the UI for handheld touchscreens.
• Code-signing pipeline — Sign-Ronin.ps1 (EV / OV / PFX / self-signed-test, with
  RFC-3161 timestamping); BuildRonin.ps1 -Sign builds and signs in one step.
• New tweaks — Storage Sense, Meet Now removal, WSL and Hyper-V toggles, and
  per-power-state (AC/DC) handheld Boost Mode and EPP controls.

Fixed

• 40+ stability, correctness, and reliability fixes across the engine, tweak
  application, and UI since 7.0 — including the major ones called out below. (See the
  release's closed issues / commit history for the full itemized list.)
• Tweak activity now actually logs. The background engine ran in a runspace that never
  received the log-file paths, so every apply/revert/skip/failure silently failed to
  write (only the environment header appeared). Engine logging and snapshot backups now
  work.
• Hover tooltips stopped after toggling a tweak. Pinning was on left-click, which also
  toggles a tweak — so any click froze the description panel and disabled all hover text.
  Resolved (see Changed). The hibernation interlock and Expert Mode also left it stuck;
  both now release it.
• Search clear hid combo-box text. Clearing the search box reset dropdown text to black
  on the dark theme, making it invisible. Now restored to white.
• Build could silently produce a broken monolith. If a source file was saved with CRLF
  line endings, XAML failed to inline (a ~170 KB output instead of ~275 KB). The build now
  normalizes line endings and verifies the output, failing loudly if anything didn't inline.

Changed

• Pin a description with right-click (was left-click), leaving left-click free to
  toggle tweaks.
• The on-screen console and the Maintenance button now open the logs folder (was: the
  crash transcript / config snapshots only).
• Version unified to 7.3.0 across all files.
• Removed the irm … | iex one-line installer from the README — it is the single most
  common antivirus/AMSI trigger. Install by downloading and running Launch_Ronin.bat.
• De-obfuscated an internal manage-bde call (string-splitting tripped AV heuristics).

Security

• No telemetry, no network payloads, no obfuscation, and no Windows Defender tampering.
  All tweaks use documented Group Policy / registry settings and are reversible. Antivirus
  flags are heuristic false positives; the full source is auditable under src/. Report
  false positives at https://www.microsoft.com/wdsi/filesubmission.

Project Ronin 7.3.0

7.3.0 — 2026-06-09

Thank you everyone for your patience as this hobby project of mine has become a huge work in progress. This new version is a near-complete rewrite of the ENTIRE engine and UI since the first public 7.0.0 build and I'm very proud of the results. The
background worker, diagnostics, logging, status detection, ranking, and the UI controller
were substantially rebuilt (RoninCore +57%, controller +40%, tweak database +24% by size),
nearly every tweak gained a verified Revert and Check, and 40+ bugs were fixed
across the engine, tweak application, and UI.

Installing and running the new version:
Step 1 — Unblock before extracting (Right click, properties, unblock)
Step 2 — Run it: right-click Launch_Ronin.bat → Run as administrator → Yes on UAC → "Windows protected your PC" box is expected (More info → Run anyway)
Optional - build the app yourself from source → right-click BuildRonin.ps1 → Run with PowerShell

Added

• Full reversibility — Revert support added across the tweak database: 126 of 131
  tweaks are now reversible (up from 106 of 125 in 7.0), each paired with a Check so the
  app can detect and roll back state accurately.
• Diagnostics & logging subsystem — Write-Diag, Write-DiagException, and
  Start-DiagSession (verbose internals, exception traces, and an environment header for
  bug reports) — all new since 7.0.
• Safer service handling — Set-Service-Registry disables services via the registry
  instead of fragile Set-Service calls that could fail or hang.
• System State Report — C:\ProgramData\Ronin\Ronin_StateReport.txt, a full ON/OFF
  snapshot of every tweak, regenerated after each audit. Click the on-screen console (or
  Maintenance → Open Logs & Backups) to open the logs folder.
• Post-batch summary dialog — after applying/reverting, shows counts (applied,
  reverted, already-optimal, failed) and names any tweaks that need attention.
• Weighted System Rank — scored against the curated Auto-Optimize recommended set and
  weighted by impact, so 100% is achievable and optional features no longer inflate it.
• Per-tweak descriptions — 45+ hover descriptions surfaced in the Information Dojo.
  Right-click a tweak to pin its description.
• BitLocker safety — live decryption-progress banner plus a close-guard that warns
  before you exit Ronin mid-decryption.
• Diagnostics engine — structured Ronin.log (events) and Ronin_Diagnostic.log
  (verbose, with environment header) for clean bug reports.
• Touch Mode — scales the UI for handheld touchscreens.
• Code-signing pipeline — Sign-Ronin.ps1 (EV / OV / PFX / self-signed-test, with
  RFC-3161 timestamping); BuildRonin.ps1 -Sign builds and signs in one step.
• New tweaks — Storage Sense, Meet Now removal, WSL and Hyper-V toggles, and
  per-power-state (AC/DC) handheld Boost Mode and EPP controls.

Fixed

• 40+ stability, correctness, and reliability fixes across the engine, tweak
  application, and UI since 7.0 — including the major ones called out below.
• Tweak activity now actually logs. The background engine ran in a runspace that never
  received the log-file paths, so every apply/revert/skip/failure silently failed to
  write (only the environment header appeared). Engine logging and snapshot backups now
  work.
• Hover tooltips stopped after toggling a tweak. Pinning was on left-click, which also
  toggles a tweak — so any click froze the description panel and disabled all hover text.
  Resolved (see Changed). The hibernation interlock and Expert Mode also left it stuck;
  both now release it.
• Search clear hid combo-box text. Clearing the search box reset dropdown text to black
  on the dark theme, making it invisible. Now restored to white.
• Build could silently produce a broken monolith. If a source file was saved with CRLF
  line endings, XAML failed to inline (a ~170 KB output instead of ~275 KB). The build now
  normalizes line endings and verifies the output, failing loudly if anything didn't inline.

Changed

• The on-screen console and the Maintenance button now open the logs folder (was: the
  crash transcript / config snapshots only).
• Version unified to 7.3.0 across all files.
• Removed the irm … | iex one-line installer from the README — it is the single most
  common antivirus/AMSI trigger. Install by downloading and running Launch_Ronin.bat.
• De-obfuscated an internal manage-bde call (string-splitting tripped AV heuristics).

Security

• No telemetry, no network payloads, no obfuscation, and no Windows Defender tampering.
  All tweaks use documented Group Policy / registry settings and are reversible. Antivirus
  flags are heuristic false positives; the full source is auditable under src/. Report
  false positives at https://www.microsoft.com/wdsi/filesubmission.

Project Ronin v7.0.0

⚔️ Project Ronin v7.0.0 - The "Sentinel" Update

Welcome to the first official public release of Project Ronin. This version (v7.0.0) represents a huge leap forward in how the app works under the hood.

My goal for this update was simple: keep the elite performance tweaks that make Ronin powerful, but rewrite the core engine to follow the same "system-friendly" standards used by tools like Winutil. This makes the app much more stable and ensures it doesn’t get incorrectly flagged by antivirus software.

✨ What’s New?

• Better Compatibility: I’ve moved away from aggressive "forced" system changes. Ronin now uses official Windows pathways to apply tweaks, making it much safer and more transparent for your OS.
• Clean & Transparent: The "Vaccine" startup engine has been removed. The app now only runs when you want it to, performs its job, and closes cleanly without leaving active hooks in your boot cycle.
• Standardized Core: I’ve updated how the app reads your system stats (like RAM and CPU usage) to use standard Windows tools, ensuring everything stays fast without triggering security alerts.
• Visibility: No more hidden windows. When you launch Ronin, you’ll see exactly what’s happening, giving you full control over the process.

🚀 Still Unrivaled Performance

Even though the delivery is "cleaner," the power is the same. You still get:

• Elite Gaming Tweaks: HAGS, VRR, and Latency Slicing for maximum frame-time stability.

• Handheld Supremacy: Full support for ROG Ally, Legion Go, and MSI Claw, including "Hot-Bag" protection and custom EPP power profiles.

• Privacy Hardening: One-click removal of Windows 11 telemetry, Recall AI, and Copilot.

📥 How to Run It

You don’t even need to download a zip. Just open PowerShell (Admin) and paste this line:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/keiretrogaming/Project-Ronin/main/run.ps1 | iex

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💡 A Note on Security

Because Project Ronin modifies deep system settings (like the Registry), Windows might still show an "Unknown Publisher" warning when you first run it. This is normal for open-source projects! You can always audit every line of code in the /src folder before you run it to see exactly what’s happening.