#windows 10

[amalgamasreal]

Reblogging for general knowledge and of course because I have to be THAT PERSON: this is an excellent reason to take a look at Linux if you haven't already.

Mint is super easy to use, super easy to install, and compatible with most hardware right out of the box. Fedora and pop_OS are two other options that hold wide appeal and are very very stable right out of the box.

If you want something more flavored for gaming then the three best options currently are Bazzite, Garuda, and SteamOS. They all come out of the box tailored specifically for gaming and as long as your primary game doesn't require Anti-Cheat you should be able to run it without issue.

If you want something MUCH more stable and secure then Fedora Silverblue and EndlessOS are your two best options. They are what's called "Immutable", which in short means that they don't allow you to do anything that might damage the operating system inadvertently. The downside is that they're usually about two steps behind because they favor stability over bleeding edge.

The truth is: Microsoft will not stop here, Copilot will continue to be pushed in new and creative ways, so if you don't want to continue to fight a losing battle it might be time to just switch tactics and leave the field entirely. Just my $0.02

Literal definition of spyware:

Also From Microsoft’s own FAQ: "Note that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers. 🤡

[monody-monody]

So I've recently been finally getting around to something I've wanted to do for a few years: switching to Linux.

To safely test out this process before applying it to my main tower machine, I decided to first do the switch over on an old Mac Mini which had a lot to gain from this as it was stuck on an outdated and unsupported version of MacOS.

But of course this all involved shuffling around a lot of old data and making sure everything was backed up. And here's where the story begins.

I backed up the Mini's MacOS install to its own partition on an external backup drive shared by my Windows tower machine. Once done, I shrank it to only the used size( which was complicated in its own right for reasons I'll explain shortly,) and then wanted to move it to the end of the drive so I could expand the Windows partition back out to fill the unused space.

Problem #1: MacOS's Disk Utility is so stripped down and lacking in functionality in the name of gloss, it literally cannot work with unallocated space on a drive in any way. You cannot see unallocated space, and you cannot create it. Want to shrink or delete a partition? It automatically creates a new one to fill the space whether you wanted it or not. Want to make a new partition in unallocated space without wiping the whole drive? Gotta use a different OS to make a dummy partition first and then replace it in Disk Utility. And the real problem… Want to move a partition? Can't.

Problem #2: Windows's Disk Management doesn't know what HFS+ is and refuses to work with it. Windows can't even read the Mac backup partition, let alone move it. But wait! I can use EaseUS Partition Manager! …Aaand most of its essential functionality is locked behind one of its multiple paywall tiers, including the ability to work with non-Windows filesystems at all.

But what about that new Linux install on the Mini?

I run 'sudo apt-get install gparted', a FOSS program, and in less than a minute I've already got it moving the partition. No hassle. No BS.

And if this whole thing doesn't just sum up the operating system trio, I don't know what does.

[olessan]

[swedlex]

I don't know who is interested in hearing this, but since Microsoft is dropping support from windows 10 this year in October it will mean many are forced to move on and many have their issues with windows 11 due to reportedly a lot of bloat and an AI assistant no one is really hyped for and i am one of the people that did not look forward into updating to windows 11, because i don't know. I'm not a fan of the taskbar in the middle and a lot of what i've heard is not amazing

So i tried something new and i switched to Linux (i dualboot it actually), and i've been running it for about a week now? It's so nice because this distribution was so easy to set up and it's very minimal i cannot lie. Aside from a few hiccups getting it running, this operating system has been a dream to use at the moment. I don't even know if this is the "right place" to rant about operating systems but i just had to share :)

[os2warp]

i got this thing recently. its a 2019 windows 10 machine. 3.7ghz i3, 8gb ram, 240gb ssd, one pcie slot, one pciex16 slot. boring. modern.

*these might not even be possible, but trying is the fun part.

[cj33333]

[boredtechnologist]

Hey thanks CrowdStrike for your latest update - my corporate laptop is now bricked!

The unofficial workaround to removing the faulty agent/probe only works if you:

A) Know your Bitlocker key (which corporate users usually don’t know)

B) Have a full administrators account that works in SafeMode - which 95% of corporate users don’t have.

If both are true, then you execute the following:

1. Boot Windows into Safe Mode or WRE.

2. Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike

3. Locate and delete file matching "C-00000291*.sys"

4. Boot normally.

[fedora-official]

the absolute state of troubleshooting on windows

[dragonmarquise]

How to Deal with Windows 10/11 Nonsense

This is more for my own reference to keep all of this on one post. But hopefully others will find this useful too! So yeah, as the title says, this is a to organize links and resources related to handling/removing nonsense from Windows 10 and Windows 11. Especially bloatware and stuff like that Copilot AI thing.

First and foremost, there's O&O Software's ShutUp10++ (an antispy tool that help give you more control over Windows settings) and App Buster (helps remove bloatware and manage applications). I've used these myself for Windows 10 and they work great, and the developers have stated that these should work with Windows 11 too!

10AppsManager is another bloatware/app management tool, though at the moment it seems to only work on Windows 10.

Winaero Tweaker, similar to ShupUp10++ in that it gives you more control over Windows to disable some of the more annoying settings, such as disabling web search from the taskbar/start menu and disabling ads/tips/suggestions in different parts of the OS. I think ShupUp10++ covers the same options as this one, but I'm not entirely sure.

OpenShell, helps simplify the Start Menu and make it look more like the classic start menu from older versions of Windows. Should work with both 10 and 11 according to the readme.

Notes on how to remove that one horrible AI spying snapshots feature that's being rolled out on Windows 11 right now.

Article on how to remove Copilot (an AI assistant) from Windows 11. (Edit 11/20/2024) Plus a post with notes on how to remove it from Windows 10 too, since apparently it's not just limited to 11 now.

Win11Debloat, a simple script that can be used to automatically remove pretty much all of the bullshit from both 10 and 11, though a lot of its features are focused on fixing Windows 11 in particular (hence the name). Also has options you can set to pick and choose what changes you want!

Article on how to set up Windows 11 with a local account on a new computer, instead of having to log in with a Microsoft account. To me, this is especially important because I much prefer having a local account than let Microsoft have access to my stuff via a cloud account. Also note this article and this article for more or less the same process.

I will add to this as I find more resources. I'm hoping to avoid Windows 11 for as long as possible, and I've already been used the O&O apps to keep Windows 10 trimmed down and controlled. But if all else fails and I have to use Windows 11 on a new computer, then I plan to be as prepared as possible.

Edit 11/1/2024: Two extra things I wanted to add onto here.

A recommended Linux distro for people who want to use Linux instead of Windows.

How to run a Windows app on Linux, using Wine. Note that this will not work for every app out there, though a lot of people out there are working on testing different apps and figuring out how to get them to work in Wine.

The main app I use to help with my art (specifically for 3D models to make references when I need it) is Windows only. If I could get it to work on Linux, it would give me no reason to use Windows outside of my work computer tbh (which is a company laptop anyways).

[kde-plasma-official]

[eundior]

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　　　　(*ᴗ͈˳ᴗ͈)  ⨳　 ˚　💻× 　⿸

[nixcraft]

Grandpa: Come here, nixCraft. me: Yeah, Grandpa? Grandpa: What is this error? What am I supposed to do? Do they expect me to buy a new computer every few years? I'm a pensioner with limited income. me: You don't have to if you use Linux Mint. Grandpa: What is that now? me: Explains everything Grandpa: It is free? It will not steal my data? It will not install stupid games without my permission? I can access Facebook and do shopping and buy or sell stocks? Are you sure it is free and connect to my WiFI? me: Yup. Grandpa: Linux Mint it is, then!

[fruitiermetrostation]

[indeedgoodman]

[nando161mando]