I had 9.6 GB worth of files in the end for win11. 16gb USB would probably be the minimum requirement.
Not sure what you are saying but I'll try.
The thing is, if doing an upgrade install, there will be a folder called Windows.old that allows for reverting back to Windows 10. This folder is huge and is part of the reason for the 64 GB minimum drive size.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!
10 hours ? to install windows or create installation thumb drive...
I assume you mean, why didn't I repair the original Win11 with a fresh install? If so, I couldn't. There were too many corrupted files and lost data using the debloater. I had already attempted a repair weeks ago, and it couldn't handle it.
Pretty sure it was 4GB external hard-drive and had a partition coz my old pc couldn't read 4GB HDs (it could only read 2GB), that took all night. I was trying to make a win10 boot disc on it.
The upgrades were free; not the initial license however there are loop holes I htink i don't know. I have one of these really good license on windows 7 that allows me to install on any machine and upgrade whatever (unfortunately it is limited to one machine at a time).
There are actually scripts out there that will force an activation to any level of Windows 10/11 that you want including Enterprise that does not need a license at all. I tried one when I was doing a clean install on one of my systems and the thing showed as activated as Enterprise and there was no issue with updates or anything. I then wiped the system and installed legit. An OS, as is any program, is just code. If code can be written, it can be unwritten. No, I will not post links to such scripts nor will I help in using as they are quite illegal and I believe in running legit systems.
Hmmm interesting. As a former software engineer I also support legal software...
I MAY have a thought on your systems... You are using a VM for the install and boot to Windows. Since any VM on a host is going to show the same system ID signature any previous install of 11 on a guest system just MAY carry over the digital license as it is, in essence, the same system.Hmmm interesting. As a former software engineer I also support legal software...
But the trial of WIn11 I installed on Hyper-V when I was setting up my Intune config has never shown any signs that it needs activation. Now I know the docs are a bit vague about when and how it actually kicks in but I never bothered to investigate because the whole point of the excercise was that I could provision a new machine in minutes so could have a rolling 90 day trial forever. but your post prompted me to go and check and I found this...
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The host machine is Windows 11 Pro so its not a piggy back. I don't believe business is an official release name (it behaves just like Pro), and we don't have any corporate licencing agreement. There is an O365 business licence associated with the MS account I use on that machine but (AFAIK) that does not entitle me to Windows licensing. I have done a fresh start on this VM several times (using Intune) to test stuff, and on the odd occasion when I completely screwed it up
I guess there may be an outside chance its picked up an old digital retail licence from 7,8 or 10 that I had forgotten about - but I always thought you had to de-activate the old machine online to throw the licence back in the pool
But like you, I am treating this as a legit system.
Think I figured it out. Windows business is the subscription version (sold as Windows 365). Now I don't have a subscription but I suspect a glitch in the backend systems (many of which are still held together by bits of string, elastic bands and even chewing gum). The same has happened on my laptop so here is the theory:
