How to Actually Clean Install Windows 11

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨TheOneWithTheHair@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-clean-install-windows-11/

Basically, install Windows as you normally would, but when asked for Time and Currency format, select English (World) instead of your country.

Then let the installer do its thing. Eventually, you will see a window with an ice cream cone on the floor with the words “Something went wrong” and the error message “OOBEREGION.” This cryptic message means that the “out of box experience” (OOBE) didn’t launch because it didn’t know which region to launch.

Click Skip, though, and Windows will install just fine. You won’t be prompted to buy Microsoft 365, you won’t be prompted to pay for a OneDrive subscription, and your Start menu won’t be cluttered with apps.

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willybe@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
After the install. Create admin and user accounts not tied to ms. Use the user account normally, and when you need admin you enter the second account details.

Use Sophia script to clean up all the advert apps bundled with win11.

I wish I could find a script to remove the advert features from edge for when I have to office. Mozilla Firefox is your day to day browser.

Use chocolatey.org to install ur apps. When you do updates, one command can do it all.

Check start-up scripts, and ensure there is nothing that doesn’t need to be there. Teams no, zoom also no.

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- GigglyBobble@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Isn't it ironic how you to instructions now to install Windows with a bearable level of bloat? Kinda like installing Arch just for uninstalling/skipping instead of installing.
  
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  - CaptainAniki@lemmy.flight-crew.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    [deleted]
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  - cesium@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    The sad truth is that most people don’t care about all the bloat and adware.
    
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- nix@merv.news ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Im assuming this is the Sophia Script you’re referring to? github.com/farag2/Sophia-Script-for-Windows
  
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- manapropos@lemmy.basedcount.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Any reason to use chocolatey over winget?
  
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  - ichbinjasokreativ@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Such a shame that winget is no longer preinstalled in Windows 11. have to install the msix bundle first and remove msstore as source.
    
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  - looeee@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Because you like poorly maintained hacky amateur install scripts
    
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  - glad_cat@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I’m not OP but some applications are not available on Winget.
    
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  - mjhelto@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    ::gestures broadly::
    
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- Excrubulent@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I actually managed to excise Edge from my system entirely, so pressing F1 in explorer doesn’t launch it anymore.
  
  Dsspite some people warning that Edge was needed for some “core web functionality” it has broken nothing except the handful of places where they want to force you to launch a link in Edge. In that case nothing happens, but that’s not a big deal since I know how to use search engines to find information, which is the only purpose those features served.
  
  It took quite a few steps but I got there. There are a few extra steps to stop it coming back in the next update but you can do it.
  
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- Wispy2891@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I like to use Winget instead of chocolatey
  
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- d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  Check start-up scripts, and ensure there is nothing that doesn’t need to be there.
  
  Nothing better than Autoruns for this.
  
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- foggenbooty@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I grew up on Windows, but Microsoft is seriously pushing me towards Linux. Gaming is all that keeps me here. I have a Steam Deck and I love what Valve is doing for gaming on Linux, so I hope that gets better and multiplayer games become possible.
  
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  - histic@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I mean a lot of multiplayers alr do
    
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- ultratiem@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Jesus Christ feels like using a treadmill!
  
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- Psythik@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Does the Sophia script allow you to pick and chose what built-in to remove? Some of them are actually useful.
  
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  - TheMissingNumber@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Yes, it does.
    
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TheOneWithTheHair@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
According to the article, “The only downside is that the Windows Store appears not to work out of the box.”

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- eee@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  “The only downside is that the Windows Store appears not to work out of the box.”
  
  This is a feature, not a bug.
  
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  - naticus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Can be a major deal breaker though for anyone using GamePass.
    
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- cs127@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  that is absolutely not a downside
  
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  - bastion@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    GamePass.
    
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- Engywuck@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Article’s author didn’t fully catch the meaning of “downside”.
  
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- qwertyqwertyqwerty@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I’m of the opinion that MS will eventually get this right, but it won’t be called Windows 11 by the time it does. The redesign, efforts into command-line and WSL, they are moving in a positive direction, but the ads, bloat, spyware, needs to go. If they can release Win12 or whatever its called with the simplicity of Win11, have the features of Win10 (and finally put a nail in the old interfaces from XP and before), they could have another solid performer like Windows 7.
  
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  - deweydecibel@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    they are moving in a positive direction, but the ads, bloat, spyware, needs to go
    
    They’re going nowhere. They’re entrenched, they own most of the business world, they will never face serious kickback for their design decisions.
    
    This isn’t ever going to change. The only thing they’ll do is give tools to Enterprise editions for businesses to control the instal, and only via Azure, at a price point far too high for the average user. Anything less than Enterprise will be locked down and monetized to hell and back.
    
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  - GigglyBobble@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    the ads, bloat, spyware, needs to go
    
    They just introduced them. What makes you think this isn't an integral part of the future of Windows?
    
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  - sadreality@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Win13 gonna spy even harder tho
    
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  - rastilin@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I think they'll go even harder, making Windows only run stuff purchased through the Windows Store so they can completely lock in the market.
    
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  - fiah@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    (and finally put a nail in the old interfaces from XP and before)
    
    that’s probably not going to happen because it will break some programs
    
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- Toribor@corndog.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Now that I can get the Windows Terminal and WSL without the Microsoft Store it seems like this is yet another bonus.
  
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- Boldizzle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  It also talks about just setting your region again after the install to get the windows store working again. Most of the other bloat still stays away though.
  
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eruchitanda@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
> Clean Install

> Windows 11

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spudwart@spudwart.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The cleanest windows 11 install topped off with formatting the drive and installing Linux.

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Resol@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I think you mean “how to polish a turd”

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- TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Mythbusters managed to do that pretty well
  
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  - Resol@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Lol
    
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- PixxlMan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I love this description of trying to make windows bearable.
  
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  - Resol@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Because Windows will never be bearable in my book.
    
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the_q@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Download Rufus.

Download Pop! OS

Create USB installer.

Install Pop! OS

There you go.

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- 13617@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  insert specific versions of missing dependencies here for whatever program you try to run
  
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  - the_q@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I mean sure I guess? I don’t know what you’re running where that happens a lot, but everything I have on my system has been as easy or easier to install as Windows.
    
    Joking and snark aside, Linux can be as difficult or as easy to use as you want it to be.
    
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- stephenc@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Pop!OS is becoming more and more out of date and problematic. Honestly Fedora is the only version of Linux worth using these days (there’s some gamer variant of it I can never remember that’s probably fine too).
  
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  - kogasa@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Honestly, there’s a half dozen that are just as good as Fedora out of the box, and dozens that are just as capable once broken in.
    
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  - A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    The gamer variant you’re talking about is Nobara.
    
    Which is pretty good.
    
    I switched to it about a month ago, reminds me of what Ubuntu used to be with its easy to use-ness
    
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  - the_q@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    It is? Hmm I’ve not had a single issue with it in years. It gets regular updates, granted it’s not on the current Ubuntu version, but out of date it is not. What problems does it have?
    
    Use what you want, but making the declaration that Fedora is the distro to go with is a stretch.
    
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  - HafizMuhammad@mastodon.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    @stephenc @the_q
    I think you're talking about Nobara Linux.
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- Case@unilem.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I had an issue switching away from Pop!, and it may have been a one off, but when I tried to install a different distro, and it wound up screwing up my boot partition to the point the easiest thing was just to run a live distro, pop open parted, and wipe from there before I could install a different distro.
  
  Mostly mentioning it because it was annoying to figure out and remedy - the remedy was annoying because I only had one flash drive so I had to wipe what I wanted to install, and just wasting time regarding that.
  
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- Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Couldnt even shut down my pc with popos
  
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  - the_q@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    That sounds like a you problem then.
    
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  - TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Wow you must really struggle with basic day to day stuff then
    
    What a bizarre flex. You may as well be saying I don’t know how to flush my toilet 😎
    
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nostradiel@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I would rather go for Linux but when Windows needed I’d go for LTSB/LTSC version, choose this oobe during install, after install run christitustech debloat script, activate through github script and in register turn off auto download/install updates. 1.4GB ram idle usage while having all you need.

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- havokdj@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  1.4 GB ram idle usage
  
  That is still comically high. Arch Linux with DWM gets 100 mb, I’ve seen gentoo builds with DWM get as low as 40 mb.
  
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  - kogasa@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Idle RAM usage means literally nothing.
    
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  - vsh@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I had Debian Ubuntu and Void use little over 1 GB in the past
    
    For windows it’s insanely low RAM usage. For me 3-3.5 GB RAM used on idle was the windows standard
    
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  - vsh@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Also don’t forget that to reach 40 MB RAM you have to strip your system out of literally everything. Sometimes it makes a miserable user experience.
    
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- raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  but when Windows needed
  
  the irony is that the only reason ever for “Windows needed” is because some obnoxious asshole decided they want to force others to use Windows. There’s literally nothing that Windows can do better. There is only a quasi monopoly and probably bribes to companies to release no builds for other platforms (e.g. for games).
  
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  - Redditiscancer789@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    ive heard this for years and i always laugh, “there is nothing windows does that linux doesn’t!” yeah, totally man.
    
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  - nostradiel@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I agree.
    
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- caustictrap@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I exactly do this. It switches every services to manual and turn off so many notification bloat. After doing this windows never bothers me. Every app , games, hardware like capture card just works on windows.
  
  But i use linux on my laptop because linux is good for browsing and wordprocessing.
  
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legion@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
How has it been like 20 years since Slashdot was relevant, and we’re still getting the same, “LOL install Linux instead” comments?

Like, I’ve been using and loving Linux since the late '90. But damn, I’m expecting to see “Micro$oft” in these comments any moment.

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- kogasa@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Slashdot or not, Microsoft sucks. The underlying truth of the “meme” will keep it alive forever.
  
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- Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Lmao I’m surprised I don’t see Micro$oft anymore, was literally just thinking about that the other day for some reason.
  
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  - Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I still chuck an “M$” into conversations sometimes. Everyone still knows what it means.
    
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- Boldizzle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Reminds me of the PC Master Race people that comment on Console related posts. Like, cool we get that you’re insecure about your platform of choice, we don’t need to be reminded.
  
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Snipe_AT@lemmy.atay.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
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- ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  It will be fixed pretty quickly
  
  You’re better off removing everything from power shell since you’ll be in there to install apps anyway
  
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Agm1015@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I choose antartica as region, and appers to be the same

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pineapplelover@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Really cleanse yourself by booting into Linux

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- Zeroxxx@lemmy.my.id ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Can’t play the game I want on Linux.
  
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  - pineapplelover@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Some may have that problem. Check protondb.com to be real sure of it though. Pretty much every game I’ve wanted to play has been compatible on Linux. If you really can’t even with WINE then you could boot windows from a separate drive.
    
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Reygle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Pretty @#%^ing ironic posting this shortly before the W11 23H2 build releases and literally un-does everything all over again.

The only answer is refusing to use Microsoft malware full stop.

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HelixDab2@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
If you really need to use Windows for some reason–for instance, my job requires me to use software that isn’t available for Linux (or, for that matter, Mac)–what you want to look for is a long-term service channel release of Windows. They’re difficult for end users to find, but It’s more or less just the OS, and not much of anything else. Updates are security only, not features. You’ll typically need a Windows license, and then will have to buy an additional Win LTSC license on top of your existing license.

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- jsnfwlr@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  If you really need to use Windows
  
  What if I want to use Windows for many reasons? I mean in cases where Linux could work, but it is a personal preference?
  
  I get you’re trying to help with your suggestion, but the way you started that comment isn’t needed at all - it stinks of elitism.
  
  You could have just said:
  
  Another way to get Windows without all the bloat is to install it using a Windows long-term service channel release.
  
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Shao66@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
This is my opinion ...

To clean install Windows 11, first, create a bootable USB drive using the Windows Media Creation Tool. Boot your PC from the USB drive, select your language and region, and click "Install Now." Enter your product key if prompted or choose to activate later. Follow the on-screen instructions, format your desired drive, and complete the installation process.

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- Honytawk@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Get the N verison and you won’t get any bloatware either
  
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mojo@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Linux btw

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Gazumi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Microsoft is a “New Oil” drilling company. Expect the Enron like approach

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ichbinjasokreativ@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I’ve created a powershell script for fresh installations that removes all the unnecessary preinstalled garbage and copies a cleaned up startmenu layout file to the appdata subfolder of my user and the default user because in a professional setting, people shouldn’t see tiktok and Disney+ and shit like that. Fuck Microsoft. In private, I’ve switched to Linux and couldn’t be happier.

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LazaroFilm@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Look for Tiny10 and Tiny11 versions.

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Nonononoki@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Rufus can bypass all that crap and you get to install on unsupported hardware as well.

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Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
You can do that but you have to change region to activate windows.

But then you can just chnge it back to (world) again

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