Tech Corner

[jaylach]

You can't believe everything you read from third parties...

Very true but I actually remember Microsoft making the statement that 10 would be ongoing with no end of life. Now I'm sure that there is probably something in the EULA to enable them to change their stance...

 

[anewbie]

Very true but I actually remember Microsoft making the statement that 10 would be ongoing with no end of life. Now I'm sure that there is probably something in the EULA to enable them to change their stance...

They discovered something call secure boot and decided to FORCE every user to use it one way or the other hence windows 11. They could have just added an option to windows 10 to support secure boot but all no - everyone in usa wants a new computer.

 

[jaylach]

They discovered something call secure boot and decided to FORCE every user to use it one way or the other hence windows 11. They could have just added an option to windows 10 to support secure boot but all no - everyone in usa wants a new computer.

Actually Secure Boot along with TPM are not controlled by Windows 11 other than to detect. Both checks can be turned off with registry hacks that Microsoft actually published for OEM makers. Actually the CPU compliance can also be turned off. The CPU check can be turned off and still allow an upgrade install but, both, the TPM and Secure Boot hacks have to be done with a clean install.

TPM and Secure Boot are features of your BIOS and not something included in Windows. I personally think the TPM and Secure Boot checks are garbage as it should be up to the user to decide security.

 

[MaloK]

It's when... Red Hat (RHEL) Enterprise, started to deal with it.
Now Fedora and even Mint leverages the asses with signed boot loaders.

This is no longer a Microsoft thing. It's a world wide compliance.

 

[Colin_T]

Are you in USA? As for computers - i personally been blessed with building my own since 1996 so they usually last 7 to 15 years. In truth all you need is something like an intel nuc and linux (which is free). If you want to build a small computer you can do so but of course it depends on what you want as to cost but lap top performance would be around $500 or $700 (not cheap but not super duper expensive).

I'm in Australia and everything here costs more than the USA. The cheapest laptop here is around $400 and has a 14 inch screen and 8GB ram and 100GB HD

 

[anewbie]

Actually Secure Boot along with TPM are not controlled by Windows 11 other than to detect. Both checks can be turned off with registry hacks that Microsoft actually published for OEM makers. Actually the CPU compliance can also be turned off. The CPU check can be turned off and still allow an upgrade install but, both, the TPM and Secure Boot hacks have to be done with a clean install.

TPM and Secure Boot are features of your BIOS and not something included in Windows. I personally think the TPM and Secure Boot checks are garbage as it should be up to the user to decide security.

Well windows 11 REQUIRE TPM and secure boot which is a change from previous os. While you might be able to trick it to do otherwise the average user isn't going to be able to preform such miracles.

 

[jaylach]

Well windows 11 REQUIRE TPM and secure boot which is a change from previous os. While you might be able to trick it to do otherwise the average user isn't going to be able to preform such miracles.

Since Microsoft lowered the TPM requirement from TPM 2.0 to TPM 1.2 it makes a LOT more systems qualify. Still I hear what you are saying.but the info and .reg files are easily available. I see a big part of the problem is that too many users don't really know how to use a search engine.

 

[MattW]

After a lengthy process, I have moved all my C drive data onto my other drives, ready for a fresh Win11 install. I'm thinking of attempting it tonight . I'm still in two minds on what browser to use for the new install. I've been on Chrome for a long while now. But after using Firefox on my NUC and a brief period with DuckDuckGo, I'm starting to consider other options. The main issue, though, is Chrome gives me easy access to all my Google accounts and emails.

Also, if I were to run a W11 debloater program again. What should I not have it delete? Just so I don't go back to square one

 

[jaylach]

After a lengthy process, I have moved all my C drive data onto my other drives, ready for a fresh Win11 install. I'm thinking of attempting it tonight . I'm still in two minds on what browser to use for the new install. I've been on Chrome for a long while now. But after using Firefox on my NUC and a brief period with DuckDuckGo, I'm starting to consider other options. The main issue, though, is Chrome gives me easy access to all my Google accounts and emails.

Also, if I were to run a W11 debloater program again. What should I not have it delete? Just so I don't go back to square one

Best advice I can give to start is to NOT use apps such as the bloat tool or others such as CCleaner. The issue with such apps is that they remove everything associated with what is removed. In Windows several apps may rely on the same DLL file the app removes the DLL and kills things you actually want. Ya, it takes longer but get rid of the bloat manually. In the Start menu select all apps and right click on an app you don't want and select to uninstall. This method may be tedious but is much more safe as no common files associated with other apps will be removed. The removal of such files is likely the cause of your initial failure. This may sound like a cliche but is normally true. The best way to deal with Windows is to use the tools already there in Windows.

As to Google and Chrome... get rid of them! I will not allow anything Google on my system as they ignore no tracking signals and sell info collected by their apps to others. As an example they were recently busted... again ... on one of their apps. The app had a 'button' to turn off data collection but the button was fake and they were still collecting personal data and selling. Google is the Darth Vader of the net. They cannot be trusted therefore I don't allow on my systems and that includes as a search engine.

For a browser I just use two, Edge and Firefox. I use Edge specifically for streaming as it does it quite well on my main system. I use Firefox for everything else.

 

[MattW]

Thanks for the advice. I did do a manual debloat a long time ago on win 8. I just wish we could get a version of Windows with just the basic OS and nothing else.. One can dream.

 

[MattW]

Holy hell, that was a pain.. So I installed Win11 media creation tool onto a USB. No issues. I select it as the boot in BIOS, loads perfectly. I go to delete the partitions of the old C drive and load Win11 into the unallocated space. Win11 installs, but around 86% completion, it fails without a code error or anything suggesting what the issue was. After digging into older posts on Reddit. It turns out Win11 media isn't fond of FAT32.. Microsoft couldn't even be bothered to add a check box or a message asking whether or not the USB is formatted in FAT32, and that it's not compatible.. Now, because my C drive partitions had been deleted, I had no access to my PC. So the Nuc came to the rescue. Only issue is that you can't seem to run the W11 media creation tool on a W10 PC.. So I had to download the W10 MCT, install that using a FAT32 USB, and then do an internal upgrade to W11 through the upgrade windows part of the settings .. Its currently 5 am. It took me around 3 hours to do all that.

Thank you, Billy gates

Well atleast Microsoft store works and snipping tool! Now onto the manual removal of all the bloat!

 

[Colin_T]

A bit of advice from someone who just installed win11 on a new pc (it was a laptop that came pre-installed with win11). Microsoft and Google both want personal information and you need a microsoft account and a google account to finish setting up win11. I gave them false info but still had to make 2 new accounts just so I could finish installing win11.

In my opinion, if you don't need to install win11, don't. I was pulling my hair out and swearing at the machine because of the bs I had to go through just to finish setting it up.

 

[jaylach]

Holy hell, that was a pain.. So I installed Win11 media creation tool onto a USB. No issues. I select it as the boot in BIOS, loads perfectly. I go to delete the partitions of the old C drive and load Win11 into the unallocated space. Win11 installs, but around 86% completion, it fails without a code error or anything suggesting what the issue was. After digging into older posts on Reddit. It turns out Win11 media isn't fond of FAT32.. Microsoft couldn't even be bothered to add a check box or a message asking whether or not the USB is formatted in FAT32, and that it's not compatible.. Now, because my C drive partitions had been deleted, I had no access to my PC. So the Nuc came to the rescue. Only issue is that you can't seem to run the W11 media creation tool on a W10 PC.. So I had to download the W10 MCT, install that using a FAT32 USB, and then do an internal upgrade to W11 through the upgrade windows part of the settings .. Its currently 5 am. It took me around 3 hours to do all that.

Thank you, Billy gates

Well atleast Microsoft store works and snipping tool! Now onto the manual removal of all the bloat!

Just for the record Gates has not been with Microsoft since 2014 and left the day to day activities in 2008.

Not sure what you were trying to do by putting the Media Creation Tool on a USB drive... You just run the tool and it makes the Windows install media on a USB drive automatically formatting the drive to NTFS.

 

[MattW]

I didn’t explain that very well sorry. Probably because I’d not had any sleep. I did originally run the tool and it did put the media on the usb. But it must of formatted to fat32 as it didn’t work. I forgot to mention I even unplugged and removed all my other drives so the single 2TB nvme was the only drive that was recognised. And that didn’t even help.

And I blame him for all my tech issues Microsoft related

 

[jaylach]

I didn’t explain that very well sorry. Probably because I’d not had any sleep. I did originally run the tool and it did put the media on the usb. But it must of formatted to fat32 as it didn’t work. I forgot to mention I even unplugged and removed all my other drives so the single 2TB nvme was the only drive that was recognised. And that didn’t even help.

And I blame him for all my tech issues Microsoft related

OK, Got it. Still seems a bit odd though. I double checked my flash drive with Windows 11 install and it is formatted NTFS. I suppose that it may have previously been NTFS...

Yep, just formatted the flash drive FAT32 and created the media. My bad when I said the creation tool should format the drive to NTFS but it stayed FAT32. Could have sworn it formatted but mayhaps that was an earlier version or, possibly, even Windows 10.