YouTube is taking down videos on performing nonstandard Windows 11 installs

https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/1oiz0v0/youtube_is_taking_down_videos_on_performing/

by jjbinx007 • 9 months ago

541 484 9 months ago

old.reddit.com

breve4• 9 months ago

The solution is to run Linux. KDE is a good desktop environment: https://kde.org/

90% of Windows games run on Linux: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45736925

LibreOffice is an okay office suite (good enough for my purposes): https://www.libreoffice.org/

GIMP is a good image editor: https://www.gimp.org/

VLC is a good media player: https://www.videolan.org/vlc/

markwakeford• 9 months ago

Onlyoffice is also not a bad alternative. (docx,xlsx etc)

croes3• 9 months ago

If you trust Russian developers

arein3• 9 months ago

Austria armed forces use Libre Office: https://www.heise.de/en/news/Austria-s-armed-forces-switch-t...

kkan• 9 months ago

I think that is the main issue. 90% games is a lot, but is not nearly enough when the most popular multiplayer titles simply do not work due to usage of anti-cheat. For example you cannot play the new Battlefield 6.

As for GIMP, while I understand it can do many things as Photoshop, it is not close in terms of features and the UX is unfortunately terrible.

N-Krause2• 9 months ago

While I can understand that it's frustrating. Kernel level Anticheat is a abomination in itself and should in no way be supported. It is a security flaw in itself!

Read this: https://gist.github.com/stdNullPtr/2998eacb71ae925515360410a...

hdjfjkremmr• 9 months ago

GIMP can't compete even with the version of Photoshop from 2000.

pessimizer3• 9 months ago

GIMPs UX is wonderful, and Photoshop UX is poison. The problem is that after torturing yourself to learn Photoshop, and sitting in it for 8 hours a day (for many people; I worked in prepress) makes you think that it has been designed rationally rather than simply cobbled together and stuffed with ads. Illustrator, being older, is even worse.

People who work with Photoshop have never worked with any other thing. The way they learned to edit bitmaps was through Photoshop. They can't separate the act and the product in their heads. Thank god for Affinity getting into the mix.

One just has to deal with GIMP as it is, and stop trying to project Photoshop paradigms onto it. People just need to stop thinking of FOSS as the generic, off-brand or ersatz versions that pass or fail due to their degree of imitation of some other product.

IMO, every step GIMP takes towards Photoshop UI is a regression. GIMP's problems have been technical, such as color management and non-destructive editing, and they're gradually falling away.

baq• 9 months ago

LibreOffice is an okay office suite

writer, perhaps. calc, not even close - google sheets is unfortunately better in almost every way, and google sheets aren't great either.

indigo945• 9 months ago

Writer is awful too. It will randomly mess up formatting, especially in tables. Also in tables, it will insist to try and parse cell values like Calc would (breaking numbers and dates), even though Writer doesn't even provide a way to run calculations on those numbers anyway.

distances• 9 months ago

> LibreOffice is an okay office suite > writer, perhaps. calc, not even close

This really depends on your needs. I'm sure it's not enough for someone who does Excel wizardry for living. But I use it for tracking personal finances and other simple tasks and graphs, and it is completely sufficient.

This in my book easily earns it the "okay office suite" badge. To be honest all office suites in the last 20 years have been good enough for most small scale needs, including OpenOffice back in the early days.

boudin• 9 months ago

LibreOffice Calc works well and does the job for what most people needs, I don't see any issue recommending it.

drumhead• 9 months ago

If you're a finance professional then there's no alternative to Excel. But otherwise Libre office calc is perfectly fine.

dtj1123• 9 months ago

Any task that warrants a complex spreadsheet can be done better in a Python notebook using pandas or polars IMO

thyristan• 9 months ago

Calc is far better than Excel.

CSV import in Excel sucks. LibreOffice Calc is far better there.

Best feature of all in LibreOffice Calc: highlight current row/column, so you have a cross-like cursor.

Easier and better embedding of Python and other languages, not the "Python in the Cloud" crap that Excel does.

Less crappy conversions like "oh, that surely looks like a date, let's mess up your data"...

jdalgetty• 9 months ago

I've used calc every day for years. It works well.

lelanthran5• 9 months ago

> LibreOffice is an okay office suite
writer, perhaps. calc, not even close

For what I see 99% of people do in excel (make a table, then sort it and draw some charts), calc would support all their uses just fine.

For those using it for actual accounting/financial stuff with equations in the cells, and custom macros, etc ... then no, calc won't be sufficient.

hgomersall• 9 months ago

I've come to the conclusion that anyone trying to use a spreadsheet in a way that requires excel, probably shouldn't.

smallstepforman2• 9 months ago

There are users (me included) that state the opposite, LibreCalc is better for my needs (complex formulas table driven) and that Excel is a toy for more “scientific” calculations.

red-iron-pine2• 9 months ago

google sheets sucks too.

excel runs the world, and I mean that unironically.

LogicHound8• 9 months ago

The 90% of games running on Linux does not say how well and what games. Sure I can play the Batman: Arkham Knight perfectly on Linux. However the game is a decade old now. Try playing some titles that came out this year and it going to be very variable, multiplayer titles are often a no go at all due to anti-cheat. You can argue to you are blue in the face about kernel level anti-cheat but at the end of the day if all your mates are playing X, you are just going to suck it up and play X.

There is enough issues running games on Linux that there are specific distros created for running games because everything from the kernel version, X/Wayland, Compositor and the pipewire version can affect immensely how well the game runs.

mikkupikku7• 9 months ago

The overwhelming majority of games that came out this year are from smaller studios and will work perfectly on Linux. It's only the big budget "AAA" games with corporate publishers pandering to shareholders/investment firms which insist on custom DRM and anticheat which are a problem.

theshrike793• 9 months ago

Online competitive games with anti-cheat are the problematic ones in general.

If you play single player games with no or limited online features you'll be fine in 99% of the cases (number pulled from my ass).

sylens2• 9 months ago

Expedition 33 is a GOTY contender this year and it’s been working great for me on Linux

ahoka• 9 months ago

I would recommend Krita over GIMP.

ncake• 9 months ago

or https://photopea.com

lvncelot2• 9 months ago

Aren't they're used for slightly different things though? GIMP for image manipulation and Krita for digital drawing?

(Krita is pretty awesome though, it's up there with Blender for me)

ethin3• 9 months ago

If only. Accessibility on Linux isn't as good as it is on Windows. It's getting better, but there are so few people actually working on it that it will take quite a while to get there. Which results in anyone who uses Linux who needs accessibility to suffer very weird problems like not even being able to install it because the installer is inaccessible in some way, or it flat out breaking depending on hardware or because the distro isn't setting obscure env vars that are documented nowhere except for mailing lists that nobody reads anymore, or weird things like that. It's been improving, but really really slowly, and Wayland didn't help things when they for the longest time refused to even consider the possibility of allowing global keyboard access because "security".

4gotunameagain5• 9 months ago

Let's be realistic, accessibility — whether you like it or not — is an edge case. This is also why as you said, the amount of people working on it is low.

It is really not the limiting factor in Linux desktop adoption. The inherent fragmentation and HW compatibility issues are much more pertinent.

Buy the wrong laptop, and you have to fight with X, wayland and Nvidia graphics like a terminally inclined caveman in danger

jasode• 9 months ago

The solution is to run Linux.

The Linux answer is often repeated but unfortunately, some users depend on various Windows software that only runs properly on Windows. E.g. CAD/CAM, Quicken finance, sewing embroidery, etc can't run in a Linux WINE emulator nor QEMU/KVM virtual machine. And avoiding the WINE/KVM incompatibilities by switching to "Linux-native" software such as Gimp often means having less features and/or not having ability to open old files because they use different formats.

Sure, there's the idea that "90% of users just use email and surf the web so they can just get by with a Chromebook" ... true, but there's still a lot of users who can't because they use other productivity software.

For me, there's always some unexpected situation that requires a working Windows computer. Last year, I had to do an unplanned firmware update on a digital audio interface via a USB cable. There was no Linux updater. They had a firmware updater for macOS but it didn't work. Based on the tech support forums, I had to download the firmware updater for Windows platform and that finally worked.

reply to: >What software do you have that doesn't work in a VM?

Example would be software that use hardware USB dongles for DRM. E.g. embroidery software for sewing machines. The passthrough USB emulation to the vm is not invisible enough to fool the software searching for hardware dongles. Another example was Trimble software for LIDAR that depended on DirectX which crashed in a vm.

reply to: >A good-enough compromise is a dual boot with a tiny Windows partition for the rare cases

That is a very techie solution that's not practical for "normies". Dual-boot creates the "2 os file systems" issue instead of having a single unified disk mount. Windows doesn't have a built-in way to read Linux ext4 file system. Linux doesn't have a bulletproof reliable way to read/Write NTFS partition (various tech forums mention data corruption). Unless one goes external with external NAS hardware and store all documents on an SMB mount -- but that also layers on more technical issues and doesn't work for laptops on-the-go being disconnected from the NAS.

Y_Y• 9 months ago

What software do you have that doesn't work in a VM? Without going to extra effort the environment should be indistinguishable for the application.

manbitesdog• 9 months ago

A good-enough compromise is a dual boot with a tiny Windows partition for the rare cases

thispbowden• 9 months ago

Have you tried PCI passthrough of a USB bus? Worked for me with a device that didn't work with regular USB passthrough.

Lendal2• 9 months ago

Manufacturing and automation is another big one. Think about a water plant that is air-gapped but needs computer automation software to run. These things are everywhere, in every town that has indoor plumbing and sewer. The specialized software that automates these plants only runs on Windows. It relies on industrial hardware and touchscreens that are designed for use in harsh outdoor environments. All of these types of plants rely on high school educated operators that need to understand what's going on at a simple level. Having an OS that in any way relies on Internet access is a non starter. A Linux based system would be removed within a year of operation. You could get it approved maybe if you really worked at it but it would not be accepted in the long run, after the initial startup. There are physical constraints, technical constraints, and human/political constraints that are all working against Linux.

Levitz3• 9 months ago

Agree on all points. Basically, Windows could suck to any degree whatsoever right now, it still has enjoyed an hegemony for decades and the vast majority of the population considers it the default, it's not impossible for this to change, but it's definitely going to take time.

Paianni• 9 months ago

LibreOffice is ok for reading and making minor changes to existing files but I haven't used Writer or Calc for anything new in years. LaTeX and Gnumeric are my tools of choice.

chongli2• 9 months ago

Anyone have a good suggestion for Linux dictation software? My friend wants to switch to Linux but he does all his writing with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

itsn0tm3• 9 months ago

How about OpenAIs whisper[0]? My social science friends tell me it‘s been great for them. Not sure whether data privacy et all would be an issue of course, but I guess you can just run it locally :)

[0]https://github.com/openai/whisper

bmn__• 9 months ago

Dragon in Wine. A lot of the Talon users do it that way.

kwar13• 9 months ago

If you run gnome then I made this: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/8238/gnome-speech2tex...

naikrovek5• 9 months ago

The solution is to run Linux.

that is never the solution. that is the workaround. workarounds are not solutions.

lousken7• 9 months ago

correct, the solution is to fully switch and use the native software there not wine

haritha-j2• 9 months ago

VLC is a GREAT media player

lousken7• 9 months ago

Outdated ffmpeg, good for dated formats, not good for new stuff

Players like mpv are way better unless you want to use nightly build of v4

AlexandrB2• 9 months ago

VLC always had the ugliest UI of the open source media players. It also renders subtitles in a really ugly way (at least the last time I used it, which is years ago).

I really appreciate VLC for how it can play just about anything, but it's a "player of last resort" for me.

BrandoElFollito6• 9 months ago

Outlook is what is keeping me away from Linux Desktop.

lousken7• 9 months ago

Outlook on the desktop is pretty much in maintenance mode only and Microsoft is already breaking it[0]. As for web version runs on linux just fine so you are in luck.

In general, unless you need advanced Excel features, you can switch to linux.

[0] e.g. https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-cant-help-break-window... and couple others

etothepii• 9 months ago

And the crazy thing is that while outlook is my life it's also unbelievably bad. Why can't I have the calendar and email client open at the same time? Why don't newly received email addresses appear in the valid auto complete for sending out calendar invites? Why is search practically useless?

PeterStuer2• 9 months ago

Outlook in its recent versions is (barely) functionally just the repackaged web version.

It is the poster child for enshittification.

baobun3• 9 months ago

Have you tried Thunderbird recently? It's had quite a lift.

elric• 9 months ago

Can you briefly explain what it is that you like about Outlook? I've had to use it at corporate clients, and I really detest it. The interface seems to suffer from that same ribbon-nonsense that Word suffers from. Its search is poor and slow. It offers very few display customization options. The calendar in particular is horrendous, I can't even seem to select a time block by clicking/dragging the way I've been able to do in Thunderbird for (probably) 2 decades.

Or maybe you're talking about needing Exchange integration? I don't know what the state of that is on Linux these days.

pabs32• 9 months ago

Evolution is a good MUA/calendar/contacts/notes app.

mzajc• 9 months ago

Another great media player for those who prefer minimalist UI: https://mpv.io/. Includes yt-dlp integration and a much nicer terminal interface.

zenoprax• 9 months ago

And much better keyboard control. It can also do interesting things such as run in 1:1 scaling mode (for example, 4K on a 1080p monitor) and then you can use your mouse to zoom in and out (wheel) and Ctrl+drag to pan around.

VLC walked so MPV could run.

xethos• 9 months ago

I like the CLI / scriptability of MPV so much better than VLC. Absolutely fantastic.

chaz6• 9 months ago

I use Softmaker Office on Fedora/KDE but Excel is the one Microsoft application I would pay for a Linux version. Even the Office Web version doesn't come close (though it is still a vast improvement).

rzerowan2• 9 months ago

I think the main issue for most casual users is the office suite and browser. LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org unfortunately do not cut it for quirky functionality/aesthetics etc. The most polished alternatives Corel and WPS Office only WPSOffice have a ready deb/rpm installer while also having a collaboration feature inbuilt. Corel seems to have decided to concentrate on a windows only Law vertical , whererthey are admittedly not doing too bad. Browsers should do most of whats neeed for the rest of the saas apps even the video collab apps like Teams/Zoom have a browser mode.

ta12653421• 9 months ago

cant Office be run in a VM?

Tor35• 9 months ago

Japanese Windows software mostly don't run, or does it badly, with Wine on Linux. Unfortunately. I've been a full-time Linux user since 1992 and this frustrates me. Some of the software won't even pass the install stage. I'm forced to run this on wife's Windows 10 PC, which has its own set of nightmarish problems. Japanese software houses develop for one target: Windows. As a rule. They don't really know about anything else, except for the occasional support of Mac from some of them.

DaSHacka4• 9 months ago

If it's a one-off program, have you tried Winboat or running it in a Windows VM?

fallenhitokiri• 9 months ago

Have you tried Bottles? I helped a friend a few weeks ago getting his game library to work after he migrated to Bazzite and there are a few games from Japanese studios / indie devs. It was mostly setting the locale for a separate bottle configuration and from there they installed and worked.

worble• 9 months ago

I've not really had a problem with Japanese software, but I mostly stick to old games and the like. You do need to make sure you install cjk fonts, and if your system locale isn't Japanese you need to make sure jp locale is enabled then set it before running with `LANG="ja_JP.UTF8"` (or possibly LC_ALL if that fails) but other than that I've not had any major problems.

What kind of software isn't working?

thenickdude• 9 months ago

I've run Japanese windows software under Wine, and with no configuration it was a sea of crashy mojibake. With the right locale configured, it worked fine.

kelvinjps10• 9 months ago

Sorry, but could you list any program I'm never thought about japanese software and since I'm interested on japanese culture, I'd would like to know which kind of programs they are

sylens2• 9 months ago

Just made the jump to CachyOS on my gaming PC this week. It’s been great so far.

TiredOfLife• 9 months ago

VLC is a good media player

VLC is a broken mess and has always been a broken mess.

antiloper5• 9 months ago

I've never had a VLC problem in decades of using it.

egeres• 9 months ago

Unfortunately, that last 10% of games are AAA competitive multiplayer that account for a massive user base who are still dependent on windows to play them (battlefield 6, fortnite, any of the call of duty games from the last 8 years, league of legends, GTA online, apex legends, rainbow six siege...)

Ray20• 9 months ago

And in the Linux community, "run" apparently has a slightly different meaning than what ordinary people are used to.

larrik3• 9 months ago

Weird, I used to play LoL on linux all the time a few years back. I assume something changed

mapcars3• 9 months ago

Just my 2 cents: I recently switch from GIMP to Krita, also very good and I find it more intuitive.

And VLC is a superb media player, I use it on all platforms for like 10 years, nothing even compares to it.

gradientsrneat• 9 months ago

VLC doesn't have gapless playback sadly.

belorn2• 9 months ago

A more difficult but potentially great solution is to run Linux as a the host system and windows in single purpose containers for each game/program that work better in windows. All the anti-user behavior will only have minimal harm if all the container does is to start windows and then start the game, then close when finished. Ads will not have time to be shown, and telemetry only has game data to give. It can take a bit of trickery to get anti-cheat drm to work.

C_Loving_Bones• 9 months ago

What would you use for that? Does docker work or is there a better solution, more oriented towards gaming?

Imustaskforhelp• 9 months ago

MPV is a better recommendation than VLC and Although I am a huge open source fan, saying gimp is a good image editor is questionable though.

I have always preferred pinta for normal usage editing and although this might be shunned but idrc, but sometimes photopea can be also good software.

Regarding desktop environmnents, Just try anything you find interesting, KDE,XFCE,Cinnamon etc., you would be shocked by how snappy/minimalist somethings like XFCE are.

Personally I am on hyprland in cachy os.

flipthefrog• 9 months ago

Gimp is NOT a good image editor for someone who uses Photoshop professionally. This idiotic claim keeps coming up, year after year, along with suggestions for opensource replacements for InDesign, Illustrator, LightRoom - there really really arent any valid opensource alternatives to most creative software apart from Blender, and Krita for a linited subset of what Photoshop covers. I would have switched to Linux immediately if it wasnt for Adobe

devnullbrain2• 9 months ago

That may be true but, as you've not given any reason, it will come up again next time.

IAmBroom4• 9 months ago

How fresh and original! Someone making a joke in a thread about Windows, suggesting that everyone abandon Windows for Linux.

Well, I am certainly chuckling now. That is a joke I have never heard before, but I get it! How witty you are.

Tee hee.

GaryBluto• 9 months ago

GIMP is a good image editor: https://www.gimp.org/

Modern GIMP doesn't have the features that Photoshop 6.0 had 25 years ago, and GIMP had a 5 year head-start on it.

hilbert422• 9 months ago

Yeah, right. I've the latest GIMP 3 on both Windows and Linux and an old CS4 Photoshop which I stopped updating years ago because of Adobe's ripoff prices and I continually find myself falling back to Photoshop because it's easier to use than GIMP (I'd prefer to switch to GIMP completely if it were easier to use).

Unfortunately, the authoritarian PIAs that develop GIMP have a rigid and inflexible mindset that stop GIMP becoming the default for millions of Photoshop users and or those who cannot afford Adobe's outrageous prices, and those who can no longer accept its draconian licensing terms.

In short, millions would switch to GIMP on Linux if it worked 'properly'.

I don't know why the Linux community doesn't put more pressure on GIMP's developers to comform. The percentage of Linux desktop users would increase considerably if they would.

Look at it this way: here's just one GIMP issue that turns away Photoshop users: why did GIMP's developers remove the perfectly functioning Fade feature in GIMP?

Yes, I know their stated reason and I also know the workaround but it's a damned nuisance to use.

By removing the Fade feature GIMP's 'high minded' developers have effectively done what mathematical types tried to do with the calculator when they introduced RPN/Reverse Polish Notation in place of the standard way of entering data.

Except for mathematicians, engineers, etc. RPN failed spectacularly—sure it is better but just too hard for mere mortals to grasp.

The bloodymindedness of GIMP's developers are deliberately holding back GIMP's adoption. They could have easily left Fade in place and just added their fancy sophisticated option for their propeller-head brethren to use.

Fixing some of GIMP's problems seems so obvious I sometimes think Adobe has placed a Trojan on GIMP's team to thwart competition.

not4uffin• 9 months ago

I run two partitions: one for gaming (windows) and one for everything else (linux)

mikkupikku7• 9 months ago

The writing has been on the wall for years. Die hard windows users have been telling me that the increasingly esoteric incantations needed to install Windows without submitting to giving Microsoft your identity are a deliberate and officially supported feature which they can rely on even as the common proles are herded onto Microsoft's plantation. I wonder if any still really believe it. The best time to jump ship is now.

gverrilla• 9 months ago

How viable is it to stay in Win10?

breve4• 9 months ago

You can buy extended security updates for Windows 10:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/extended...

mschuster912• 9 months ago

In Europe it's free although you have to log in with a Microsoft account for... reasons.

N-Krause2• 9 months ago

While you're at it, you might as well downgrade to Win7. No jokes aside, if all the software you want runs on it, it is fine. Just no security update etc.

I would suggest just switching to Linux and using a VM for things that NEED to be Windows. Games that run kernel level Anti-Cheat won't run, but tbh nothing I would suggest installing anyway.

netsharc• 9 months ago

I stayed on Win7 until December 2023, until there was some exploit that was attackable by just viewing an image, so just browsing the web would've made it vulnerable (I believe in the WebP format).

Although it seems there are people still Frankensteining Win7, and even patching DLLs to make the newest browsers/apps still run on it.

Famously MS Teams was really screwed up, but I had to use it for work..

engeljohnb• 9 months ago

VM for things that NEED to be windows.

The big two that spring to mind are online games and Adobe softwares. I don't think a VM can usually meet the performance needed for either.

I do wish more artists would take a chance on open source softwares, but most of the ones I know are still insistent that nothing can ever come close to Adobe. But that's a rant for another time.

abcd_f3• 9 months ago

Browsers are the problem.

Firefox outright refuses to install on older Windows versions for a couple of years now. Very lazy and negligent move on Mozilla's part.

teekert2• 9 months ago

If you are in the EU (or European economic area or something), you get another year. Not for free: You need to register an account, or pay ~31 eur.

gambiting• 9 months ago

Presumably even if you pay you still need to log in with an account so they can verify the update licence is actually bound to your account?

haunter• 9 months ago

IoT LTSC is updated until 2032 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows...

I use it since 2021 on my gaming PC. Zero problems, it’s a trimmed down Win 10 with most of the bloatware removed

Win 11 has a similar trimmed down LTSC version

Just install it, MS doesn’t care about piracy

chithanh2• 9 months ago

Win10 IoT LTSC does not cover all use cases though.

When it comes to gaming, for example Windows Mixed Reality is not included and cannot be installed afterwards (but then again, Microsoft dropped it from Windows 11 too, so no loss there).

Only way to keep it is staying with consumer Windows 10 or use 3rd party software like Oasis.

keyringlight3• 9 months ago

I think the challenge with 10 IoT LTSC isn't going to be the OS itself, but the software running on it. Lots of software uses chromium embedded, and in the case of win7 the day that extended support (+3 years) ended CEF also dropped support and required features only found on more recent windows releases, then as other software updated their CEF dependency they also dropped win7 support. It might not be a major thing, but there is a slow erosion that goes beyond whether the OS gets patches. If nothing else, if it's a machine that uses software that goes online it's a notice that you should investigate moving to something else eventually.

Brett_Riverboat10• 9 months ago

If you practice good operational security and maintain a decent anti virus and fire wall you will probably be fine. I know people who still run Windows 7 to this day with no trouble because they are vigilant of what they are doing.

This isn't to say it's a good idea but that it can be done.

If you plan on running win 10 anyway Ask Leo has a video called "how to keep using windows 10 safely after support ends" with some solid advice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpAIOcYPYgo&list=TLPQMjkxMDI...

aquir• 9 months ago

The best time to buy a MacBook Air (or Pro) or a Mac mini! Much less BS and you take it out of the box and use it within 5 minutes.

jinwood• 9 months ago

The problem with this is Tahoe.

yehat2• 9 months ago

Exactly, with the caveat I'm buying very cheap pre-M1 Mac to put Linux on it. Works well.

chithanh2• 9 months ago

The later Intel Macs with T1/T2 chip also come with a number of caveats on Linux. Don't expect those to work out of the box with standard Linux distros.

hu3• 9 months ago

it might work well today for m1/m2 but the writting is on the wall for linux in newer macs.

asahi development slowed down and is getting further away as apple releases new malcs yearly.

i don't think this is a good bet for those who want to use linux.

jacquesm5• 9 months ago

The better solution is to buy an x86 laptop and install Linux instead. All of these empires are just milking us.

elsjaako• 9 months ago

The videos being taken down here are about how to avoid: Windows requiring a Microsoft account to install, and Windows only being installable on compatable hardware.

AFAIK an apple account isn't strictly required, but a lot of MacOS won't be functional without one.

How is a Macbook better than Windows in these senses?

Aleklart• 9 months ago

You can use mac, ipad and iphone without apple account at all. You can use app store without logging to icloud. You can install apps without app store. There is no nagging to use icloud after initial setup. There is no spyware and adware integrated into standard apps or OS itself. Apple does not sell user data.

delfinom• 9 months ago

I use all three platforms regrettably.

I would rather be subjected to fingernail torture than deal with the productivity implosion that is using macOS. It isn't meant for users who do more than stare at webpages. And the workaround apps to give it more productivity such as actually useful taskbars are buggy as hell fighting Apple's trash.

Linux or Windows or bust.

api• 9 months ago

Why bother? Run Linux or get a Mac.

eadmund• 9 months ago

Some motherboards only support firmware updates applied from Windows. In 2025, which is just crazy to me.

LogicHound8• 9 months ago

I am a die-hard Linux guy and I have to use Windows for certain things. One of those is multiplayer games. I am never buying a Mac. I've owned 4 macs over the last 20 years and I've regretted every purchase.

mentos• 9 months ago

I've only ever used windows. Recently got a mac mini so I could compile for iOS. I'm debating embracing the entire Apple ecosystem given I use iPhone. Not a huge fan of iCloud's pricing though. Curious what issues you ran into with your macs/Apple experience?

surgical_fire• 9 months ago

Mac is not an option.

I'd rather install Win 11 on my laptop than buy another Apple computer. Did so once and it was the worst experience I ever had. Never again.

teekert2• 9 months ago

Your computer is not yours citizen. Stop your disobedience.

subscribed• 9 months ago

OK, I really hope they were downloaded and will spread on other platforms like vimeo, dailymotion and especially The Internet Archive?

a5c112• 9 months ago

It's funny to see how Windows and Linux completely switched sides. Linux once being the clumsy one, hard to install, even harder to configure, mediocre UX, running on poor device drivers and requiring hours spent on the internet to solve a problem. Today, replace the "Linux" word with "Windows" in the previous sentence.

JohnLocke4• 9 months ago

Convention and the terminal holds it back. A terminal looks like the 1970s but feels like the future

luma• 9 months ago

I'd rather suspect it has a lot more to do with 40+ years of application backward compatibility and the ludicrous stack of software available for the platform.

xtiansimon• 9 months ago

“terminal holds it back”

Presumably the it here is Linux? That’s not what I would have said. The terminal makes maintaining your own systems much easier because it’s all text. Opposed to having to mix screen shots and instructions. Which is to say, I don’t imagine people who can’t handle the terminal (and are on Windoz) are doing any maintenance or configuration beyond a few GRRR items they’ve convinced themselves is ultimately intolerable.

From a small business I’d say what keeps the accounting office on Windoz is software (ie. quickbooks, excel). But a close second would be tighter integration of file management and core office apps (ie email). It’s very easy to rename, move, copy, files on windows. You can perform many of these file management tasks inside an app experience (ie saveas dialog box). Apple has the mindset with their suite of Apple productivity apps, Chromebooks are very easy for general users to get their head around. If Linux could roll up a Chromebook environment with a QB clone into an expert system (e.g. no. We don’t need pictures, videos or games folders), I think our firm would consider the switch. It would certainly have the appearance of stability productivity, and simplicity which is always a plus when your job is not maintaining IT systems. (Now we just need to find new outsource IT for troubleshooting)

naikrovek5• 9 months ago

they have definitely not completely switched sides. Linux is still clumsy and hard to configure if everything isn't configured for you. Linux has worse UX than Windows has ever had (I'm including windows 8 in that comparison)

Really liking Linux doesn't make Windows worse, and it doesn't make Linux better.

Watch someone who is not familiar with Linux and how it works attempt to install it and use it. Do not intervene. Now do that with a dozen different people on a dozen different machines which you do not preselect.

On Windows it is a much smoother experience.

I am making zero statements about any application compatibility or application comparisons between platforms. I am talking only about UX, UI, and installation.

Linux still has so, so very far to go.

And, honestly, there is no operating system which a complete newbie can start using without help in some form. Linux is not some golden child, here.

You like Linux on the desktop, and that's fine. Keep enjoying it. Just be aware that your experiences color your viewpoints, sometimes completely.

I am not a fan of Microsoft, I use Windows about once a month these days, but the UX difference between Linux and Windows is still very large. Very large.

ruszki2• 9 months ago

Yeah, I don’t understand the parent commenter either. Even with my latest laptop, it took days and weeks to make everything work (like audio, my monitors, DPI, VLC/mpv, even networking). And even then I had to turn off some hardware functionality, because it’s so buggy (bye-bye battery life). And this is before introducing Wayland for example…

Also installing is way easier for beginners with Windows. I’m happy that Linux installation now at least reached the level of Windows 98, but I still need to search for things every single time, even when I do it about every other years for several decades now. Just because somebody thought that it’s so important to ask simple users about an implementation detail which almost nobody care about. And this is before bugs… which I encounter quite frequently.

It’s getting better, but by not much. It could be a very stable OS with the right hardware even 20 years ago. That didn’t change, you still need to be very careful if you want a good experience with Linux and a GUI. I had no laptop or PC in the past 30 years on which I could install Linux without serious hiccups if I wanted anything more than terminal. I could almost always make it usable (it was impossible with one laptop), but I always had to give up something, like battery life, game performance, my headset at the time, etc. And of course a ton of time.

a5c112• 9 months ago

Watch someone who is not familiar with Linux and how it works attempt to install it and use it.

What a dumb analogy. My mother can use Windows very well, it doesn't mean she could also install it. The same rule applies to most Windows users. That's why it comes preinstalled, and not with an attached bootable USB stick.

UX of recent Windows versions is crap. The bearish tendency started with 8 and have never recovered, with Windows 11 being the cherry on top of the crap. Telling that as a user of almost every Windows version since 3.11. Microsoft completely changes user interface with every recent version, this is an anti-pattern in UX world. How is that I can smoothly switch between Debian and macOS major updates, and when Windows does the same it is a nightmare? "Oh no, where are the network settings again..."

AlienRobot5• 9 months ago

I wouldn't compare the installation process since most people can't install Windows, but Linux does have an astounding gap in basic usability.

Every time I see a gnome app without a menubar I can't help but feel like Linux shoots itself in the foot just because Windows has two feet.

pessimizer3• 9 months ago

Watch someone who is not familiar with Linux and how it works attempt to install it and use it. Do not intervene. Now do that with a dozen different people on a dozen different machines which you do not preselect.

Have you done this, or is this just a science fiction story? Have you watched a dozen people install Windows on a dozen different machines?

The reason people sorta know Windows is because they've already used it, not because it is good. And if you don't give them something straightforward like MATE or Cinnamon as a Linux desktop, you might as well compare it to new Vista users, not Win11 users.

You don't have to convince me that Gnome is bad. But everything else now pretty much follows the WinXP paradigm that we're all used to.

keyringlight3• 9 months ago

I think just saying "installing the OS" is a bit of a trap, that's step one, and important step but then you get to all the different subsets of features and software that they use, including not included in the OS or its repos.

When you're looking at consumer usage of a PC for anything that remotely makes sense to do on that platform I think windows has the advantage of decades of a different software ecosystem. Cumulatively there's a huge broad library of software that linux can't touch, or gets partway there but falls short. For example I can tag music files on linux, but it's painful compared to something like Mp3tag (which has been going for about 17 years). Or if I want fan control on my 9 year old intel platform I need to learn about and add a kernel parameter and manually detect sensors before I get started whereas it's straightforward on software available on windows.

SirFatty• 9 months ago

If that really was the case, then this would finally be the year of the Linux Desktop(tm).

baobun3• 9 months ago

2025 is it!

m_rpn2• 9 months ago

Every year is the YOLD!

trenchpilgrim• 9 months ago

It honestly is, Linux is great on desktop. However, most people have laptops now which are a mixed bag.

AlienRobot5• 9 months ago

To me it's sad that Linux never became a good desktop OS, Windows just became worse and worse until it became worse than Linux :(

When I upgraded to 7 I tried Linux and I simply hated that I had to deal with the terminal and install strange third-party programs from strange forums to get anything working. Then I had to upgrade to 11 and I had to run strange terminal programs to install it without without creating a Microsoft account, and everyone recommends using some third-party Windows power tools to fix what Microsoft did to Windows. I could not believe it. IT IS THE SAME THING!

Now I'm using Linux, and I don't like it, but least it isn't spyware.

hamandcheese• 9 months ago

When I upgraded to 7 I tried Linux

Most Linux distros have come a long way in the last decade and a half. Windows is worse, yes, but Linux is also better.

duxup2• 9 months ago

If find that if it doesn't work out of the box, you're still in for a very clumsy time in Linux land.

scuff3d4• 9 months ago

It's funny how we see these threads every few months, and it's always the same thing (referring to the discussion below this comment as well).

Linux people (myself included) are utterly blind to the rough edges on Linux. Even something like Mint, which is probably the best starting place for someone coming from Windows, can have weird issues depending on your hardware.

On the other hand, Windows users are hilariously misinformed about the state of the Linux Desktop. To hear them talk you'd think we're still back in 1997.

All of that said, for anyone curious, it is 100% worth trying out. Linux has come a LONG way. Mint is great for general usage, Bazzite is a good choice for gaming. Unless you're playing competitive shooters it's basically a guarantee the games you want to play run on Linux. There will be some rough edges and stuff to get use to, but IMO it's worth a try at least.

my_brain_saying• 9 months ago

To be fair to Linux, Windows has many, many rough edges as well. The difficult part for newbies is that those rough edges are _different_. In the long run I feel pretty confident saying that Linux is overall better, and that's because of the customizability. Ultimately, with some experience, one can essentially choose one’s own rough edges :P

TheCoelacanth• 9 months ago

Installing windows has been harder than Linux for at least 15 years. Windows just came pre-installed for most people.

joduplessis• 9 months ago

I wiped Win11 from my Ideapad and installed Ubuntu. I love Gnome & it's the closest it'll get to MacOS (am a Mac user mainly). Win11 was absolutely wild though - around every corner was some ad for Office365 or Copilot or some other shit product. You don't own Windows (anymore) - you borrow it.

breve4• 9 months ago

Guide for setting up KDE like macOS (or you can install a macOS theme):

https://www.howtogeek.com/heres-how-i-made-linux-feel-more-l...

bsimpson• 9 months ago

As a lifelong Mac user, I'm mildly tempted to do something like this in SteamOS, but with limited real estate: two panels feels like potentially wasting pixels, and the bottom edge is probably easier to reach on a touchscreen gaming handheld. I'll do some tweaking, but the ultimate UX has to feel right on this device, not just familiar to what I use elsewhere. Plus, I mostly use Desktop Mode for Chrome, which doesn't really use the menu bar.

But I appreciate the share!

MangoToupe• 9 months ago

Obviously missing things:

1. Needs to fix keybindings, including setting readline shortcuts across all gui textfields. May be effectively impossible with so many gui toolkits floating around. 2. Needs a gui to manage configuration of startup items, login items. 3. Portable application distribution rather than futzing with installing a third party package source (may be effectively impossible for gui apps). 4. Cleaner systemd configuration tooling and especially documentation, even if it can't be expressed via a gui. 5. Cleaner process management. 6. Cleaner user management via GUI.

The look and feel mostly doesn't matter tbh; you'll just end up with something that looks like macos but still mostly functions like windows but without consistent keybindings or behavior or system management.

kgwxd2• 9 months ago

Oh no, all the 10 minute videos that should be 10 bullet points in plain text?

IAmBroom4• 9 months ago

Plus ads?

kgwxd2• 9 months ago

I'm not supposed to interact with non-Premium members but, yeah, I forgot about those :)

alyxya2• 9 months ago

The main issue is how opaque the system is, though that may also be a feature to limit people’s abilities in figuring out how to bypass various restrictions. No one should have to risk the existence of their channel and livelihood to some unknown automated algorithm. Although the reddit post only cites videos from one person running into this issue, the first video link has comments referencing someone else so I found a video from that other person as an additional data point.

https://youtu.be/vQ-RXzzU9u0

amarcheschi• 9 months ago

At least in eu, one should be able to access and contest the decisions made to remove your content, I don't know if this is the same outside eu

alyxya2• 9 months ago

I imagine youtube has the same automated system comply with eu, but the videos linked in the reddit post mention how quickly the appeals were denied, so accessing and contesting decisions alone doesn’t fix the automated system problem.

keepamovin• 9 months ago

I made some videos of installing Windows 95, 98 and NT on DosBox-X on macOS ARM: https://youtube.com/watch?v=RBMSW1B6hKk

And a GitHub repo: https://github.com/BrowserBox/windows-dosbox-x

I tried different AIs to make the scripts to automate installs in DosBox-X as long as you have a product key and ISO or other media.

Most interesting to me was the different quirks between OSeS. NT was the most tricky in getting to work on DosBox-X and syncing up internet, IIRC. But overall a very fun project. Brings back nostalgia of 3.5" disks and seeing those install screen. Very cool times in the 90s ha! :)

sd95• 9 months ago

In my domain (motorsports), almost all software is ancient 3rd party stuff only available as windows desktop apps.

I’ve tried emulators but performance is abysmal for these apps. There are also all sorts of weird networking things that don’t work.

And generally when you work with a new team which has a different tech stack, there just isn’t time within the context of a race weekend to faff.

I’m unfortunately locked in.

agigao• 9 months ago

Try Omarchy with Windows VM: https://learn.omacom.io/2/the-omarchy-manual/100/windows-vm

sd95• 9 months ago

Thank you. I haven't tried this. I'll look into it.

herbstein• 9 months ago

I hope you don't mind being a bit curious about this, as a hobby driver.

At what level of motorsports are you working? It sounds like you both semi-regularly work with new teams. And are you working with them as a programmer? I'd be curious to know what kind of applications you're then working on, if so.

sd95• 9 months ago

I work primarily with GT3 teams across the highest level championships (WEC, IMSA, DTM, GTWC, ALMS), with a variety of manufacturers.

With a small team of software engineers and data scientists, I'm building a cloud based motorsports data analysis platform which eliminates the friction involved in handling motorsports data and the differences between different manufacturers' software systems, and quickly gives drivers & coaches insights on how to improve their driving. So this involves getting into the weeds of a lot of this legacy software.

There are a few teams I work more closely with where I've set up their entire trackside network/tech stack, although nowadays I'm more focused on the software. Over the years I've done a bit of everything at the track, up to and including physically laying cables in a bare garage or setting up the systems on the car, although I don't do anything related to vehicle dynamics.

criticalfault• 9 months ago

Would this help you?

https://reactos.org/

This is an open source reimplementation of winxp. I think they can even run drivers made for windows now.

beAbU• 9 months ago

If the software is as ancient as you say, then surely you should be able to get away with installing an old copy of Win7 or even older? When you say "weird networking" do you imply internet as well? If it's all offline and only locally networked I see no reason why you need to run a modern version of windows.

sd95• 9 months ago

Yes, I could probably run Win7

vintermann3• 9 months ago

Having once worked with maintaining an ancient 3rd party windows desktop app, I'm surprised you don't have problems with them on recent windows. I guarantee you the developers do. They must be truly heroic maintainers if none of those frustrations bleed through to you.

A time will come when the easiest way to run these beasts is in a docker container running wine, and I don't think it will be long.

sd95• 9 months ago

Plenty of frustrations pass along to me, but I am sure that the developers maintaining the software are also putting in a massive shift to make it all keep working. These companies are often quite small, or small underfunded teams within larger organisations, and I believe that they are doing a fantastic job working with what they have.

New features are few and far between, but that doesn't mean that they're not doing a good job. The current state of the industry is not a reflection of the developers working on it today, it's a decades long legacy.

naikrovek5• 9 months ago

The number of Linux fanboys coming out of the woodwork to complain about Windows (and to provide anecdotes about Windows which are clearly exaggerated) is very high.

Please read the Linux Advocacy HOW-TO.

Shitting on Windows and MacOS does not make you look authoritative, honest, or credible. It makes you look like you have a very strong opinion and shut off from anything that does not conform to your opinion.

mumber_typhoon• 9 months ago

Windows and macOS will happily do everything they can to take your money and keep you in their ecosystem but shitting on them is a crime ?

naikrovek5• 9 months ago

no, of course not. I swear to God, reading comprehension among Linux fans falls lower and lower every year.

shitting on them makes anything you say about a competing operating system appear like fully biased opinion, rather than fact. if you want people who you have not already captured to listen to you, you must do your best to appear unbiased. shitting on anything is 100% bias. and if you have opinions like that, how can someone you're trying to win over trust that the positive things you're saying about this other thing aren't also 100% opinion?

Stick to the facts if you want to ever hope to do anything other than make Linux fans appear like they are rabid dogs who attack anything they don't like on sight.

You can do that if you want, I don't care. But I don't go to rabid dogs for their opinions when it comes to choosing things, and no one else does either.

You say things like this to get a mob going, and I want you to admit that. you all shit on things you don't like because you want to feel heard by others who also shit on those same things. but people who aren't like that come here and they read this stuff, too. And you're shitting on them in the process.

sharas-2• 9 months ago

Is this year of the Linux yet?

sharas-2• 9 months ago

use bottles.org to run windows apps on Linux. All games run on Linux with it.

poisonborz• 9 months ago

Correct url is https://usebottles.com/

WhereIsTheTruth• 9 months ago

The parody of Techno-feudalism

Havoc• 9 months ago

Thank you Microsoft for your efforts towards making year of the Linux desktop a thing

itomato2• 9 months ago

Set your sights on GitHub, VSCode and npm.

1010082• 9 months ago

They have been taking down a lot of YouTube videos with Bob Dylan botlegs in the recent days, so maybe the platform is becoming more restrictive with everything, not just Windows 11 installs

FergusArgyll• 9 months ago

The times they are a-changin'

sigwinch• 9 months ago

It’s possible AI moderation called the Windows videos unsafe. Next might be routine car maintenance.

ksherlock• 9 months ago

The Bootleg Series Volume 18: Through The Open Window, 1956-1963 will be released on Friday. If it's material in that timeframe, it's probably a Sony/Columbia DMCA issue or from google music file matching songs that are (soon to be) officially released.

1010082• 9 months ago

Yeah, no, they've been taking down a lot of material that's not included in tthe new bootleg series.

PeterStuer2• 9 months ago

Fwiw I had to report one of those "free win11 activated" videos as it was having users download and run a script from a suspicious source and handing full domain admin to a 3rd party.

codeulike2• 9 months ago

This is probably youtuber drama about some random youtube algorithm led takedown and likely nothing to do with Microsoft or the actual content of the video that got taken down

FugeDaws2• 9 months ago

it literally is this. Nothing to do with Microsoft, it's youtube relying on AI to take down videos now

nonethewiser6• 9 months ago

Seems very plausible. Still, you wonder why it got flagged.

itomato2• 9 months ago

A game is fun. Software that prevents you from doing what you want with it is neither of those things.

kotaKat• 9 months ago

Step 1: https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/ Set up an unattend script how you want it to install Windows 11 Education, the only sane build of W11 with most AI shit turned off.

Step 2: Install W11 with the autounattend.xml.

Step 3: Powershell as admin -> irm https://get.activated.win | iex

Brett_Riverboat10• 9 months ago

For those who care at the first setup screen instead of answering any of the questions press Shift + F10

CMD will open

Type (no quotes) “net user Prefferedusername /add” (replacing Prefferedusername with the user name you wish to use) and press enter.

Next type “net localgroup administrators Prefferedusername /add” and press enter.

Next type “net user Prefferedusername /active:yes” and press enter.

Next type “net user Prefferedusername /expires:never” and press enter.

Next type “net user administrator /active:no” and press enter.

Next type “net user defaultUser0 /delete” (this is case sensitive make sure the "U" is capitalized) and press enter.

Next type "regedit" and press enter.

This opens registry editor, navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE"

Delete "DefaultAccountAction", "DefaultAccountSAMName", and "DefaultAccountSID"

Right click on "LaunchUserOOBE" and rename it to "SkipMachineOOBE" and make sure the value is set to "1".

Close registry editor and type "shutdown /r /t 0"

xd1936• 9 months ago

There's that Microsoft UX we know and love!

esbeeb• 9 months ago

People complain about how they hate to use the command line in Linux. But they don't similarly complain about these ultra obscure, ugly commands. When Microsoft necessitates commands, somehow it's different.

larrik3• 9 months ago

"Linux is too hard for people"

conartist6• 9 months ago

Take it down before Windows is ruined for everyone! Show not the devil's commands! All hail our Lord and Savior, constant surveillance without consent!

mcintyre19944• 9 months ago

To play devil's advocate, I'm guessing if you can get users to type stuff they don't understand into cmd and regedit then you can do some pretty damaging stuff. I can see why google would be concerned about malicious versions of these videos being posted, and being difficult to differentiate quickly from ones with the legitimate instructions.

Or if those malicious videos were posted and reported, then I can see why a fairly dumb AI system would see the similar legitimate ones as the same thing. Probably a particularly bad scenario for automated moderation.

AlexandrB2• 9 months ago

What you're describing applies to just about every programming tutorial out there.

antiloper5• 9 months ago

Then maybe Microsoft should add a "Use local account" checkbox to the installation screen.

nonethewiser6• 9 months ago

To play devil's advocate, I'm guessing if you can get users to type stuff they don't understand into cmd and regedit then you can do some pretty damaging stuff

Are you just playing devils advocate or do you actually believe this?

jpalawaga2• 9 months ago

So you'd advocate for github to remove any install script that users wget + curl, and any documentation references that instruct users to wget + curl? That's much worse than a handful of limited commands in which you're modifying your own user account.

notyourwork• 9 months ago

Google is here to protect Microsoft OS users? Where do we draw the line on what Google (owner of Youtube) is responsible for.

17186274405• 9 months ago

It is easier to understand what a command does, than to derive how it is called from first principles.

chkaloon• 9 months ago

LAN Manager legacy still hanging around after 40+(?) years

totetsu• 9 months ago

So setting up windows is just like what I studied for that redhat cert now.

mapcars3• 9 months ago

Upvoting before it gets deleted /sarcasm

nonethewiser6• 9 months ago

What does this accomplish?

Brett_Riverboat10• 9 months ago

gets you a local account

MattTheRealOne2• 9 months ago

It lets you use your computer without requiring a Microsoft account.

saghm2• 9 months ago

I guess I'm old and out of touch after only a bit over three decades, because I can't figure out why this would helpful to have as a video in the first place over the text summary you posted here. I could see screenshots maybe being slightly helpful, but to having this sort of thing as a video feels like an extreme inconvenience; I'd much rather see all of it at once and be able to visually scan (or even better, ctrl+f) to find specific parts over having to scrub around if I wanted to go back to a previous part or skip ahead. My eyes also don't require any sort of manual timing to pause on something I want to copy.

duxup2• 9 months ago

Youtube creators want to cover this, youtube is their chosen path, so video it is.

Not so much about the best way to communicate as much as the creators see it as their best option, for them.

I've seen a lot of tutorials that really just seem to be infotainment / social media news. Often forgetting critical steps and describing why you do a thing incorrectly. It's frustrating.

dylan6049• 9 months ago

Videos get higher rankings in Google's search. Remember those?

Definitely says something about your age though complaining about video versions of anything. Kids today don't even know what Google's search page looks like. They search in YouTube, TikTok type apps first. Since the location bar has also become the search bar while theGoogs pays browsers to be the default search, lots of people are not even aware they are doing a google search.

Also, some people will try things that are technically above their abilities normally. Having a video typing the commands in can be easier for them to replicate as it'll look just like the video. Text only from some webpage won't have those visual clues.

I much prefer text for this stuff too, but at least I can understand why something else is preferred by someone not me. I might be elder, but I'm not obstinate

gspencley• 9 months ago

I share your bias, but something to consider is the prevalence of smart phone usage these days, and the fact that reading text on a smart phone can be as awful as trying to watch a video on a desktop when all you want is a quick text summary.

I've always hated the trend of moving towards video as well. But if my desktop was currently in the process of installing the operating system, leaving me without a web browser, and all I have is my phone as a secondary device ... I might actually prefer watching a quick video over trying to read text on a tiny screen and having to pinch zoom and horizontal scroll. Of course this depends a lot on how the text is presented, but in general I think video is easier to absorb on a phone and text is easier to skim / read / zoom / copy-paste on a desktop.

ratelimitsteve2• 9 months ago

it's easier to monetize a video, and if this information is going to have value and be presented for free there has to be someone giving someone money somewhere.

Galanwe• 9 months ago

I can't figure out why this would helpful to have as a video in the first place over the text summary you posted here

For the creator: videos can be monetized trivially

For the search: YouTube results are often highlighted top of the page on Google search results.

Brett_Riverboat10• 9 months ago

My guess is some of the better videos will post the text in the description and some folks are very visual and need to be able to reference an image or video.

But that aside I appreciate the compliment (or at least I'm going to take it as a compliment).

ryandrake• 9 months ago

It's telling that most of the responses to this question center around why the YouTube video creator would want to make a video instead of a simple text description, not what the OP asked: why the user would want to intake the information by way of video.

Says a lot about what is broken, incentive-wise, about the modern Internet.

scuff3d4• 9 months ago

I think non-technical people, who may have literally never seen a commandline, like seeing someone walk through it (and probably explain context along the way). Helps ensure them they are doing the correct things.

NoPicklez2• 9 months ago

I guess I'm out and out of touch

I don't know why this is being put in this "I guess I'm old" bucket. Its just another form of content and a different way of following something. Perhaps if they put the text commands in the video description you would get the best of both worlds.

I like both, but following along watching someone else is helpful. YouTube tutorials on how to do things are extremely helpful.

If you find the video an inconvenience, just don't use it.

8note• 9 months ago

you could do screenshots, but my preference would be a video with the text instructions as the description, with timestamp links.

text with images is a pain to scroll, and in video form you have one more channel of info - sound.

the visuals are there to tell you where it is you find the different things, or so you dont go hunting for a button that doesnt actually exist on a gui, but also so you can match the confirmation, and get an idea on if its running at about the right speed

bsder• 9 months ago

I can't figure out why this would helpful to have as a video in the first place over the text summary you posted here.

Because a bucketload of people only interact with the Internet using a device with a tiny-ass screen and super-shitty keyboard.

So, what you are actually asking is "Why the hell are people using phones to look this shit up instead of a laptop?"

Which, to be fair, is a valid question.

Hard_Space• 9 months ago

TextSniper on Mac and PowerToys OCR on Windows have eased my frustration with rasterized text in 'engagement'-obssessed videos that should have been blog posts.

tim333• 9 months ago

As a beginner doing tech things I quite like youtube video. There are various problems with text. It'll say just type this into that but sometimes you don't know what to click to get 'that' to open. Then you find the instructions don't work because they've either skipped over something they think is obvious, or the software version has changed since they wrote it or their setup is different from yours.

At least with a recent video you can see what they click, it's probably up to date and you see all the stuff they do and you can see if it actually works.

I was trying to install jupyter notebook a few months ago and all the how tos failed because macos had updated some nonsense. At least with youtube you can try to find a recent one where they mention that.

hulitu2• 9 months ago

I guess I'm old and out of touch after only a bit over three decades, because I can't figure out why this would helpful to have as a video in the first place over the text summary you posted here

It is because "modern" search engines will retrieve only links to SEO spam. The only thing that, somehow, works (50% of the time) is youtube search.

Enshitification.

AngryData• 9 months ago

Its not as helpful, but youtube will give far better discoverability. Facebook isn't mostly the right audience, and everyone else is fractured up among many other social media companies. Not even reddit is a great place anymore for this sort of thing because so many older users and tech enthusiasts have abandoned it.

plorg• 9 months ago

I'm coming here from a follow up post. I would find it difficult to follow a YouTube version of these instructions, but I might resort to searching for it because it is much easier to find this kind of information on YouTube than through a search engine, whose results are hopelessly polluted by LLM spam that has the deficiencies of often being just subtley wrong enough as to void it's usefulness, misrepresenting chronology in a way that makes it difficult to identify the up-to-date methods, and answering questions that are popular and easy to answer over ones that are difficult or unsolved, while failing to identify the difficult problem or its sticking point.

spacechild1• 9 months ago

This is ridiculous! I'm still on Windows 10 Pro without a Microsoft Account. Back then I had to jump some hoops, but it wasn't that bad. Seems like they really doubled down with Windows 11.

lelanthran5• 9 months ago

What is the singular goal of doing all that? Avoid online-only accounts?

mrguyorama3• 9 months ago

I have a microsoft account. I made it for Windows Live to play Halo 2 for Windows Vista back in the day.

Except, then Microsoft adjusted their account infrastructure, and now it's also an Xbox Live account. Then it became also a Windows Messenger account. Then it was required to login to Visual Studio. Then it ate my perfectly working Mojang account. Now I need it to install stuff from the Windows store like the damn Windows debugger you use to analyze BSOD dump files

I do not want my computer preferences saved across machines. I want to set up each computer separately. I do not want cortana. I do not want to connect my local computer to my account.

I gain nothing by using my microsoft account to log in to my local computer.

The singular goal is that I just want to use my damn computer, to do local computer things.

17186274405• 9 months ago

Has Microsoft removed the option to disable Microsoft Accounts via the Group Policy Editor?

Brett_Riverboat10• 9 months ago

A few typos were brought to my attention in my previous comment and as the time frame to edit it has passed I am replying with the required edits so that if anyone does want to attempt this they don't have to wonder what went wrong

I originally had “ net user Prefferedusername/active:yes” but there should have been no space before "net" and I should have put a space before the "/" after prefferedusername.

so the corrected instructions are below. (hopefully without typos this time)

at the first setup screen instead of answering any of the questions press Shift + F10

CMD will open

Type (no quotes) “net user Prefferedusername /add” (replacing Prefferedusername with the user name you wish to use) and press enter.

Next type “net localgroup administrators Prefferedusername /add” and press enter.

Next type “net user Prefferedusername /active:yes” and press enter.

Next type “net user Prefferedusername /expires:never” and press enter.

Next type “net user administrator /active:no” and press enter.

Next type “net user defaultUser0 /delete” (this is case sensitive make sure the "U" is capitalized) and press enter.

Next type "regedit" and press enter.

This opens registry editor, navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE"

Delete "DefaultAccountAction", "DefaultAccountSAMName", and "DefaultAccountSID"

Right click on "LaunchUserOOBE" and rename it to "SkipMachineOOBE" and make sure the value is set to "1".

Close registry editor and type "shutdown /r /t 0"

yohbho• 9 months ago

Good guide, thanks!

präferiert (dt.) is often pronounced praefferiert in my head, too, but it is always written with only one f, in german and in english.

OptionOfT• 9 months ago

And this actually makes sure that the folder in `C:\Users\<username>` matches your username and does not become `firstname000` like Microsoft does.

auguzanellato2• 9 months ago

Do people actually do this instead of just switching to linux?

I thought Windows was the "user friendly" choice

dingaling• 9 months ago

Windows will never succeed on the desktop if it relies on arcane CLI configuration...

anticensor2• 9 months ago

Next type “net user administrator /active:no” and press enter.
Next type “net user defaultUser0 /delete” (this is case sensitive make sure the "U" is capitalized) and press enter.

Why do we have to delete them?

Brett_Riverboat10• 9 months ago

defaultUser0 is used by windows for the OOBE if you don't delete it along with the registry keys it will just boot back to the OOBE again. defaultUser0 gets removed by the OOBE after setup leaving your system vulnerable. The administrator account is a built in account that is disabled by default but won't be disabled if you completely bypass the OOBE or don't use the old local account setup which you no longer can do because of microsofts removal of the feature.

t0bia_s• 9 months ago

Too complex.

Download .iso of LTSC version of Win. Make bootable install disk via Rufus and tick options to create local account during install. Install Win from created bootable device. Done.

nothercastle• 9 months ago

Not all heroes wear capes. You are a local hero

Brett_Riverboat10• 9 months ago

Hey thanks, I needed a little boost today. You have been my little ray of light in a sea of darkness.

neuralRiot• 9 months ago

Or use Rufus to create the install media, it will ask you what mods you want applied, after installing run win11 debloater, it will ask you what mods you want to apply. Then if you’re a sane person that just doesn’t want to learn to navigate your OS with every update, install openshell.

StoneWhisper2• 9 months ago

I found an Italian website that offers this and other procedures. To automate the modification, it suggests pressing SHIFT+F10 and then using the built-in Windows curl command to download a simple cmd script: https://www.ilsoftware.it/focus/windows-11-con-account-local... The cmd file can be run with the no-oobe username option, allowing you to choose the name of the local user account to be created. I hope this is helpful.

Brett_Riverboat10• 9 months ago

Nice find.

Those sort of thing always make me nervous however because it's not easy for the average user to tell if its running any sort of malicious scripts in the process. This one seems to be safe and I'm going to give it a try to see what happens.

The article also suggests that

"reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1"

still works as well which would be even better because thats local and easier to verify its integrity. that being said I think these are both valid suggestions if they work and I'm going to give them a try.

ThePowerOfFuet2• 9 months ago

Or just install Fedora Kinoite and don't look back.

nilslindemann• 9 months ago

If this Hack is necessary to use Windows 11 without registering online, then there will never be a Windows 11 for me.

sgjohnson3• 9 months ago

When the $699 MacBook launches, oh boy it's going to sell well.

bigyabai4• 9 months ago

People say this every time. There were people on HN who thought the M1 Macbook Air would permanently cannibalize PC market share, and basically nothing happened: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_share_of_personal_compu...

sgjohnson3• 9 months ago

It won't "cannibalize" the PC market share. But I would argue that the overall market share is irrelevant. Most people don't even use Adblock/UBlock for Web browsing, so they don't even know what's best for them, and therefore are likely to just go for the cheapest option that gets the job done. Apple won't win them over, because that's not how Apple operates.

Another huge segment is people who just use whatever their work provides.

Laptop users who 1. care enough, 2. have the means, and 3. have the inclination to even get a personal laptop are a solid minority. Which coincidentally is how Microsoft gets away with the disaster that Windows 11 is. They have about _no_ user-customers left.

I know plenty of PC-hardliners that have switched from Windows to a Mac in recent years. And exactly nobody who has switched in the opposite direction.

I'm also pretty sure that most people who have personal laptops keep them around for 5+ years before upgrading. I myself had a 2015 15" MacBook Pro that lasted me until 2022 when Ventura support was cut off. I only upgraded it in 2023 when Apple launched Advanced Data Protection, which I was very keen to use, and had to make a choice between logging out of iCloud or buying a new MacBook. So seeing that the 2015 model had indeed reached it's useful life for me, I got myself a M2 Max 16", which I also fully expect will last me 7+ years.

So as long as IT procurement in most companies will keep buying whatever cheap PC laptops they can by weight, PC market share is safe, and Microsoft is doing the best they can to keep it that way. Apple can only compete for users who have the will and the choice. And the $699 MacBook will quite likely capture a few of them.

Additionally - I have a PC too. All it does is it runs videogames. In fact I use my personal PC a lot more often than I use my personal MacBook.

maglite77• 9 months ago

Does anyone have links to "how-to's" for Linux in the enterprise? Password/MFA management, central app management, the equivalent of group policy, device management, etc.? IME, these are the areas in the enterprise where Windows "wins" with the IT teams, but it's been a long time since I've been close to the rollout side of the house. TIA

whalesalad• 9 months ago

There isn't really a polished and comprehensive singular thing to accomplish this the same way you would with Active Directory in Windows world. Then again, AD is really not a polished thing either its more of a duct-taped stack of crap.

Mirroring "the unix way" it is often a collection of single-purpose tools composed together to achieve the desired goal. Samba is quite powerful these days, it does more than just SMB sharing. FreeIPA is another software tool that I believe is more common in Red Hat deployments.

antiloper5• 9 months ago

Closest is probably RedHat Satellite: https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/management/satellite

mrweasel• 9 months ago

My understanding was that you can install Windows 11 Pro, and tell it that you want to join a domain and in that case you're prompted to create a local account. That generally seems like the easiest option, even if the $45 price difference seems a little much.

foofoo12• 9 months ago

Youtube also took down videos for Adobe a few months ago and HN deleted posts/comments about it: https://tech.yahoo.com/cybersecurity/articles/google-adobe-a...

jajuuka• 9 months ago

Considering I can find plenty of nonstandard Windows 11 install guides on youtube I don't think this guys video was taken down for that reason. Most likely hit with automated moderating and he probably said "kill" in the video while giving instructions. That could trigger the violence filter and now he gets tons of more views from idiots thinking Microsoft and Google are working together to protect Win11 from a supposed massive wave of people going around the sign in requirement. Or whatever other grievence they have with Windows.

codeulike2• 9 months ago

Exactly, such a lot of pearl-clutching going on in this HN thread, its just a random algorithm-led youtube takedown

jpalawaga2• 9 months ago

One thing I do not understand about HN and other online tech communities is how much they hype up linux as some paragon of usability and ease of use, when it's just obviously not the case.

"You don't need windows for gaming, 90% of games work on linux!" -- except the 10% that DON'T are all of the new, massive titles that people want to play. It's like saying "90% of the gears in the car work fine, just not 1st gear".

"There are 0 driver problems" -- obviously not true as some hardware only ships with windows hardware. Yes it's true your new network card or mouse won't have issues, but a lot of hardware simply doesn't have support, and a lot might be supported if you spend enough time fanagling.

"it's just as easy use as windows or mac" -- until you need to change one of many settings that hasn't been included in a control panel, because linux users have been more than happy to drop to config files and cli usages to tweak things (i.e. lots of stuff left out of system GUIs)

I don't know why people do this. Especially in communities that are technical (and thus tend to be "technically correct" about things), why people essentially lying (by omission, if nothing else) about Linux?

Nifty3929• 9 months ago

I was with you until "essentially lying." That's not fair. You can disagree - but calling people liars who express good faith beliefs is uncalled for. Many people genuinely believe that Linux is the better desktop OS.

But yeah, I run Windows as my daily-driver for pretty much the reasons you give.

IAmBroom4• 9 months ago

OK, they aren't lying. They're just saying untruthful things to support their cause.

Linux is not a 100% replacement for Windows, and the reverse is equally true. LibreOffice is not MS Office except for being open-source. Your pocket tool is not functionally equivalent to a full toolbox. A turducken is not a pheasant. Etc.

bigyabai4• 9 months ago

the 10% that DON'T are all of the new, massive titles

That's not true? Arc Raiders, arguably the most-hyped game of 2025, is day-one compatible with Linux devices. I played the Server Slam free weekend on my NixOS machine, clearly not all of the new massive titles are broken.

You can't abuse hyperbole like this while accusing other people of lying.

npteljes• 9 months ago

I wonder if they supported piracy as well in those videos, or something breaking their EULA or something. People always come out swinging, fuck corpos, etc, but oftentimes there is something shady going on as well, either consciously, or unconsciously.

indymike• 9 months ago

It's as if the web as we known it has outgrown it's usefulness to individual people beyond interacting with companies and government.

Time for something new. No idea what, but we need a way for people to share with people... That's what made usenet, then the web so awesome. Both were mostly wrecked by the same commercialization.

randomNumber7• 9 months ago

Time for something new

How should that look like and what could one make differently?

What we currently have could easily used to share with people (like it was years ago). Nothing really changed but people use it differntly now...

another_bear• 9 months ago

I like to think ActivityPub is a good candidate.

Terr_• 9 months ago

In my bright-eyed geeky youth, I kept thinking that clever technology was usually enough to solve problems.

Nowadays, I feel many problems are emergent from economic and legal structures, and a new software project is often just temporarily treating a symptom.

antiloper5• 9 months ago

90% of software does run on Linux, but if the software you really care about/need for your job/need for your hobby doesn't, then it might as well be 0%. You are going to use Windows then.

jacksavage• 9 months ago

We need a Linux Subsystem for Windows

insane_dreamer• 9 months ago

if only WSL existed ...

zzo38computer• 9 months ago

In some cases, you might be able to find (or write) an alternative program (or modify an existing one to do what is needed). This is not always so easy, but sometimes it can be done, and it can sometimes be done better than the Windows version. (It is what I did with the one Windows program I did want to run on Linux.)

gethly• 9 months ago

Windows 11 is definitely not in my future so I do not care about this, but it's the same crap as when they removed downvotes due to Disney and Biden's Whitehouse getting ratioed to hell. YouTube/Google is not your friend and does not care about you. As long as you understand that, you should not be surprised as you always expect things like this.

lkramer• 9 months ago

This is actually a good thing. Competitive Windows is a thing and these people are ruining it for the rest of us.

klazutin• 9 months ago

Oddly enough, I had the simplest experience of installing Windows 11 25H2 on a new ThinkPad just recently. Apparently the Windows ISO doesn't have the WiFi drivers for that specific machine out of the box, so during setup when it couldn't find an internet connection, it simply offered to create a local account.

So I would assume, if there is a way you can temporarily disable networking (e.g. in BIOS), then that would be the easiest way to avoid creating a Microsoft account.

auguzanellato2• 9 months ago

They already have the local account button, they just need to consistently expose it, even if a machine has a working internet connection.

MattTheRealOne2• 9 months ago

I wonder if that is something new in 25H2 then. My computer also does not have working network drivers out of the box and when I installed 24H2, it just gave me a screen to install the network driver from a flash drive. There was no way to skip or continue without it.

SilverElfin2• 9 months ago

YouTube and other large platforms should be regulated like public utilities. Otherwise the abuse will continue.

hulitu2• 9 months ago

YouTube and other large platforms should be regulated like public utilities

But they are in private hands, aren't they ? Welcome to capitalism my friend. And don't forget to vote on the next election.

SilverElfin2• 9 months ago

We regulate many privately owned utilities. They aren’t allowed to just deny you power or water based on your politics or pressure from another corporation or whatever.

brnaftr361• 9 months ago

There isn't presently a good solution to this. I think regulations like that will probably have downstream effects, kicking the can down the road.

Google is already bad enough at government collusion, divulging data, as are other infrastructure providers.

Best-case is gutting Alphabet and breaking it up to the effect of decentralization of its pieces.

I think if anything regulating the current instruments would just harden their social/political position which furthers their interests more than anything.

bodiekane• 9 months ago

Regulations will just make it easier for the powerful incumbents to control what content the platforms are allowed to host.

Deregulation is the solution here- get rid of DMCA and all the other laws that are used to bankrupt any competitor to YouTube, so that instead of a single video hosting site, we have tens, hundreds or thousands.

The dream of the early web was that everything would be resistant to censorship and centralized control because it was a true network of many independent hosts, globally distributed, independent from the whims of any government. Then we let a few billionaire copyright holders and authoritarians who want to control what is published and seen gradually strangle the open web and replace it with a handful of corporate sites that can be controlled.

17186274405• 9 months ago

Regulation helps the people against the power. The power will already get it's way without regulation.

bfkwlfkjf• 9 months ago

Stallman was right.

Teslazar• 9 months ago

To install Windows 11 with a local user and/or to install it without the TPM 2.0 requirement, what I found easiest was using Rufus to prepare a flash drive with the Windows 11 ISO. Rufus asks if you want to create a local user and what the user name is. It also asks if you want to skip some of the Windows 11 requirements. Then when you install Windows 11 using the flash drive it just works.

genter• 9 months ago

Be sure that it's not connected to the internet while installing. Otherwise it will install updates and turn it into a normal install.

neop1x• 9 months ago

Like a drug addict. Finding out unsupported ways to get a standard dose of Windooze, despite it now being more toxic.

b3lvedere• 9 months ago

A bit late eh? That genie left the bottle quite some time ago. And there are still other methods available.

CommanderData• 9 months ago

Is Windows 10 LTSC a thing still?

YouTube is taking down videos on performing nonstandard Windows 11 installs

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