Hey y’all

I’m taking a college course which is hell bent that its students use Windows 11. Currently my laptop is still using Windows 10 and if there is no bloatware/AI free way to install Windows 11, I’m just going to bite the bullet and install it the regular way. So if anyone knows of a relatively bloatware free way of installing Windows 11, please let me know.

p.s. For those who would encourage me to use Linux. For my desktop I already use Linux Mint.

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      2 days ago

      ↑ This right here is the best answer in this thread.

      For further nagware avoidance, remember that the Enterprise editions of Windows come bundled with the group policy editor (gpedit.msc, stick that in your run prompt) and will respect group policy settings with the intent of system administrators having control over various components and features.

      In your case, a the system administrator is you.

      For the purposes of decluttering your start menu specifically, for instance, I’ll link everyone to this comment I wrote the other day which lists off the policy settings you’ll want to mess with — including disabling Copilot completely.

  • nottelling@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    2 days ago

    The most correct answer so far is Win11 IoT. But there’s a good chance it won’t have enough “windows” for your school needs.

    If you’re just trying to get work done and not trying to stick it to the man with the purity test that this thread seems to insist upon, you can install normally and force an offline user. (Microsoft keeps threatening to kill this capability, it still worked last time I tried early last year.)

    Then run Chris Titus debloat utility before you set up anything else.

    If you don’t have a registration, you can activate it with massgrave.dev.

    • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      1 day ago

      If you’re just trying to get work done and not trying to stick it to the man with the purity test that this thread seems to insist upon

      School for my healthcare career had several "virtual clinical experiences that were graded and required windows. They did help us memorize the basics a little before touching a real patient but they were probably also spyware in the grading functionality. In the end though I didn’t have a choice. Some of us just don’t, especially those of us picking careers in public safety. I’m just grateful they provided the iPads for when we used the charting software that required iOS.

  • LeapSecond@lemmy.zip
    291·
    2 days ago

    Could you get away with running it on a vm? I did that for some college classes that needed specific programs.

    • Old Jimmy Twodicks@sh.itjust.works
      331·
      2 days ago

      I did this and had some success with it during the semester, but when it came time for exams, we had to install anti-cheat software with the assistance of the university’s IT department. They realized that a VM is a pretty effective way around the software, so I had to take all my exams with a proctor staring at me.

      • lemmylommy@lemmy.world
        41·
        2 days ago

        That anti cheat software usually is worse spyware than what even Microsoft can dream up for windows 11. so i would use a „burner device“ for that anyways that will be formatted after the exams. No way I would let any of them access my personal data.

        • Nikelui@lemmy.world
          6·
          2 days ago

          To build on this answer, maybe it’s possible to install and boot win11 from a removable drive?

          • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.worldEnglish
            5·
            2 days ago

            Theoretically, but it would probably be slower than dogshit if you tried to do it over e.g. USB, and the administration would probably also not be pleased with you spending the entire exam with an external storage device conspicuously bunged into your computer.

            You could grab a cheap (relatively, these days) low-ish capacity SSD in whatever flavor your machine takes and install Windows on that with your primary drive removed and safely stored away somewhere, though, and then just swap them back when you’re done.

            If you want something to do with your secondary SSD afterwards there are enclosures you can get that’ll convert an NVME SSD into a super fast USB flash drive sort of arrangement, albeit typically dangling on the end of a short cable rather than sticking directly into the port, which makes a good modern day stand-in for those portable laptop hard drive enclosures nerds used to carry around in the early 2000s.

        • LordMayor@piefed.socialEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          Could you not create a separate partition on the internal drive for Windows 11 and boot from that? That’s how I would do it for MacOS or Linux installs.

          • EpeeGnome@feddit.onlineEnglish
            2·
            1 day ago

            You can, but on the same drive they will share the same bootloader. While Windows officially can share its EFI partition, be aware that updates may rewrite it, and might not bring your other install along. This is fixable, but still very annoying if you have some expertise on Windows boot setup commands.

            This is why I always to prefer to setup multiboot systems on separate drives with their own EFI partition, and always use the non-M$ install for the boot menu.

            • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
              1·
              2 days ago

              I’ve never had trouble with UEFI. I keep people commenting about it, so I believe it happens, I just never experienced it.

              • EpeeGnome@feddit.onlineEnglish
                2·
                16 hours ago

                I’ve admittedly got a lot of selection bias, since people don’t tend to bring me their computer when it’s working correctly. I’m sure it usually works fine. Still, the only times I’ve seen a multiboot system suddenly fail, it was Windows’s fault.

              • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                1·
                1 day ago

                its not really an UEFI issue but a windows one. unlike BIOS systems, UEFI was made capable to handle this, yet windows fucks it up.

                it also depends on your configuration. on an ESP partition there’s a default bootloader, and per-os bootloaders in directories. if you rely on using the default bootloader, windows will overwrite that from time to time, but it can fuck up the per-os bootloader setup too if it fucks with the list that the efibootmgr command manages on linux. I don’t know whether it does the latter

                • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
                  1·
                  1 day ago

                  I understand the issue just fine, just never experienced it. And I’ve dual booted plenty. I just wish I knew why so I could help other people not to go through it.

      • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        1 day ago

        so I had to take all my exams with a proctor staring at me.

        much much better than having to install spyware. a proctoring spyware could record your precise mouse movements, keypresses and build a profile out of it, or upload anything from your computer to its developers. but a proctor person? what will they do, take notes? they only see what you show them, and by using a different OS account they really can’t see anything sensitive.

      • Flax@feddit.ukEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        Why can’t you just do the exams on University devices? That’s what my uni does

    • Otter@lemmy.ca
      6·
      2 days ago

      Yup, this is the one I’ve been seeing in a lot of guides. I’m not sure how it compares to the other ones, but it was easy enough when I tried it.

      The process for a clean install would be something like:

      1. select the region and keyboard but do not connect to wifi, instead hit shift + F10 and run start ms-cxh:localonly to have a local only account
      2. Once the desktop loads, connect to the Internet and (assuming the recent Windows update didn’t break everything again) run updates through the UI
      3. Run Win11Debloat to remove/disable junk and to make common adjustments
      4. Run appwiz.cpl for anything that was missed

      Bonus

      • Winget for apps (or UniGetUI if you prefer a GUI)
      • WinHawk and PowerToys for quality of life improvements

      You can try Chocolatey too, but I gave up on it recently because of constant errors and questionable community packages

        • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          Last I used it a few years ago, whew, that thing is a monster and often way overboard. Not sure I’d trust it any longer. Anyone?

    • timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      6·
      2 days ago

      This works very well if youre technically inclined. I have to set up windows sometimes for people and this lets me simply select the drive then it goes. No one drive, local accounts, no bloatware, etc. Super nice.

      • towerful@programming.dev
        3·
        2 days ago

        It’s not that difficult, is it?

        I mean, it’s not like running a program on an already installed windows, or using the windows 11 installer to install from windows.
        Otherwise, it’s the basic steps for installing any OS except for creating the unattended.xml file.

        Use the media creation tool to create install media on a USB drive, work through the generator (Google what you need to), drop the resulting XML onto the drive, reboot from USB and install as normal.

        • timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2·
          2 days ago

          I’ve only used it with ventoy. Didn’t know if you could plop it in the root of a normal flash drive that has the windows installer or not.

          Not really hard with ventoy either but I don’t like to assume what’s easy for me is easy for someone else.

          • towerful@programming.dev
            2·
            2 days ago

            Yeh, ventoy takes an extra step (but ventoy is itself an extra step): find the iso from a legit source instead of using the media creation tool, install software to edit iso, add unattended.xml to the iso, plop iso on ventoy drive.

            Anyone playing around with or working with Linux/windows:
            Check out ventoy. I think they’ve solved their issues of binary blobs and it is so useful.
            Create a Ventoy usb drive. Drag any and all OS ISOs onto the USB stick. Boot from the USB, choose which ISO to actually boot.
            Want to switch flavours of live Linux (or try another installer)? Boot from usb, choose different ISO.
            Absolutely fantastic software

  • MudMan@fedia.io
    122·
    2 days ago

    Any normal install of W11 can be cleaned up a fair bit just by manually refusing permissions and disabling unwanted features. For all the memes, very few of the features people complain about are forced on.

    After that the biggest fixes I’d recommend are editing the registry to remove online search in the Start Menu, which makes it very workable (although there is a redesign incoming, not sure how that’ll interact) and installing PowerToys to get a universal search shortcut and a bunch of really nice QoL features.

    W11 is actually perfectly usable after some customization, honestly.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      Can’t believe lemmy hasn’t buried you for this comment. I don’t have any of the issues I’m told I’m suffering, and I actively look for them when I see articles posted. The circle jerk is strong.

      I suspect most of the hate is people running the factory install of 11 Home from their laptop manufacturer. Pulling the crap out of Windows is about the same effort as adding needed crap to Linux.

      • MudMan@fedia.io
        1·
        1 day ago

        It depends on what “crap” is involved specifically and your use case, I suppose.

        I think it’s worth calling out that Win11 does indeed look extremely different depending on what settings you pick. Even out of the box my Win11 does not look like the mess a lot of the online advocacy likes to show. I’m guessing a bunch of the settings are saved to the MS account (which is again something people insist on considering anathema but I’ve used since before it was cool to hate it for several unrelated reasons).

        Win11 has some quirks (where is my vertical dock, MS, it’s been years), some inexplicable technical flaws (how is your indexing so bad, MS, and why is the online search-enabled start menu so slow but the multisearch bar instant) and it is occassionally annoying to have to keep up with poorly communicated new features I don’t care about (what’s new screens, MS, they exist for a reason), but it’s mostly just… you know, Windows.

        I’ll say this, if all my system partitions exploded today and I had to reinstall everything I’d definitely have an easier time getting back to where I was from scratch on my Windows devices/drives than on my Linux ones.

  • falseWhite@lemmy.world
    168·
    2 days ago

    Is it your laptop bought with your own money? If so, how the fuck can they dictate what OS you use?

    If not, why the fuck is it your problem to install the OS?

    All of this sounds fucked up to me. You’re being forced to use the shittiest os filled to the brim with the shittiest ai.

    • someguy3@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 days ago

      how the fuck can they dictate what OS you use?

      “You need this software, which requires Windows.”

          • lemmyman@lemmy.world
            3·
            2 days ago

            Some professional software licensing options dint work in vms, either.

            Solidworks single-seat licenses won’t activate in a VM, for instance.

            Not saying that’s OPs specific use case, but it’s an example of another constraint

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      You have no idea what is going on behind the scenes, and neither do I, so we can’t call it bullshit by default.

    • Pechente@feddit.org
      92·
      2 days ago

      I agree that they shouldn’t have picked Windows but it makes sense to keep everyone on the same software stack to avoid wasting time helping people install basic stuff that might or might not run on their systems

      • falseWhite@lemmy.world
        51·
        2 days ago

        Well yeah, it’s your laptop and your responsibility to install stuff.

        So the main reason you’re going for windows is because you’re afraid you won’t know how to install stuff on linux and won’t get any support from the college?

        Fair enough, but you did say you are a Linux user, so that shouldn’t really be a big problem. Things like wine and VMs also exist to help running windows apps.

        • Flax@feddit.ukEnglish
          2·
          2 days ago

          My uni let me use linux alternatives but I had to do some serious debugging by myself. The biggest issue was caused by snap LOL

        • village604@adultswim.fanEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          Wine is by no means a stable option for all windows software. Some windows stuff just will not run on Linux. And not all laptops are capable of virtualization.

    • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      4·
      2 days ago

      Yeah. From experience, even moderately powerful laptops can run a win11 ltsc iot VM pretty easy, and that runs everything you need that wine can’t.

      For reference, my current laptop has an 8th gen i5, 32 GB RAM. I use the VM for Lightroom, affinity. Runs perfectly fine with 4 Threads and 16 gigs of RAM.

  • MuttMutt@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 day ago

    This is where computers with two dives shines. If you install windows on a drive then remove it and install a second drive with anything else you like you can then manually swap the drive in the UEFI just like booting from USB or optical when both are installed.

    Another option is grab a second drive (nvme or sata) that works in your computer. Swap it out for test taking physically. You can also check if your computer can access a memory card directly and use that to install a removable os on, cfexpress would be ideal but the drives can get insanely expensive. Microsd express would work but it’s slower.

    Can’t help with windows 11. Never used it beyond looking in a store at a computer. I disliked 10 and ran openshell just to make it usable. Didn’t even want to try to fix 11 once linux was viable.

  • SpikesOtherDog@ani.socialEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    Schneegans is pretty well respected. An answer fully used in combination with Ventoy gives you quite the professional install, repeatable on hundreds of machines.

    My concern is that someone unfamiliar would want to spend some time understanding the process before diving right in.

    Given the amount of research, I suggest using Rufus for the offline install portion and then running the debloat scripts mentioned elsewhere.

    https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/wiki/FAQ#user-content-Help_I_no_longer_see_the_option_to_bypass_TPMSecure_Boot_with_Windows_11

    https://rufus.ie/en/

  • yeehaw@lemmy.ca
    25·
    2 days ago

    No, the only answer is mac/bsd/Linux. Vote with their market share.