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
      19·
      10 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
    14·
    10 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·
      9 days 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.

    • Otter@lemmy.ca
      4·
      10 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·
          9 days 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?

          • lemmyman@lemmy.world
            1·
            10 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

    • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      3·
      10 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.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      9 days 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.

  • MuttMutt@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    9 days 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.

  • yeehaw@lemmy.ca
    24·
    10 days ago

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