*** Microsoft Windows 11 Thoughts & Discussion Thread ***

[darael]

Microsoft has an official bypass for Windows 11 installs without internet, Microsoft Account - Neowin

Rather than quoting the entire article, I'll quote the important part:

Meanwhile, another user has discovered yet another way to bypass this. This is similar to the BYPASSNRO one but involves going to the Registry and tweaking it.

Yet another bypass for the Windows 11 OOBE Microsoft Account screen

Shift + F10 --> regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE

HideOnlineAccountScreens --> 1

Works on both Windows 11 Home & Pro#Windows #Windows11 #MicrosoftAccount #Microsoft pic.twitter.com/uou1JvGff4

— XPower7125 (@xpower7125) March 30, 2025

Upon finding this, Neowin looked around and found that Microsoft's own official documentation explains how this works. The company notes that by default, the HideOnlineAccountScreens value is set to "false" such that the sign-in page appears during the OOBE. So for the bypass to work, one has to change it to "true". Microsoft notes that this is "primarily for enterprises" for running unattended installs, but it should work for all users.

All I did was launch the registry editor as soon as the OOBE launched, applied that registry key and continued without restarting. The OOBE seemed to continue perfectly fine and only asked me to create a local account, as though the internet was disconnected.

 

[FatRakoon]

I am going to jump into thios conversation uninvited and just have a whine like a fat git that I am.

Frankly however, I dont care.

I have stuck with Windows 10 for some time. I put Windows 11 onto a few systems and a laptop as mostly trials more than anything and I have preferred to stick with Windows 10 if I am honest.

I have also stuck with the same install for a few years now, as Windows 10, has annopyingly, been absolutely rock solid for me, and even when I swapped over the Mobo, I kept the install even thigh I went from Intel to AMD! - Now, one thing that id id, that I was surprised about, was that the newer AMD Mobo is Win 11 compatible and I forgot all about that with thios one, and so I got rid of that as I have no intention of going Win11.

Anwaym I have had this for some time now, and earlier this morning, I didnt clcik at first, but the bloody thing has gone and put windows 11 onto it for me, even though I did not want it.

I am absolutely willing to give it a fair run, but my pc is now very very much nowhere near as responsive as it was... Its not massive slower, but when you get used to doing things that are absolutely instant and now it pauses for everyuthiong, its a huge pain in the bum.

Even the most simple thing like taking a screenshot and then pasting that into Paint and then cutting the bit you wanted out and then saving that was now a bit of a chore in comparison!

You see, I have 4 tickets to print off, and rather than p[rinting off 4 pages of A4 junk, I just get the bits I want, and then print those 4 tickets on one sheet... This saves paper but it also saves a fortune in inks.

Now, this usually takes me about 2 or 3 minutes but this time I took a good 20 minutes just because the PC was seemingly struggling to go between pages and reopening up paint... It takes about 2 seconds for paint to start up each time, and I know thats onlyt 2 seconds, but I am used to it being on the screen before my finger has even l;eft the mouse after dounl;e clicking it.

Sure, I am having a moan and thats all it is, but this is absolutely piddling me off.

I have 4 PCs all connected to my KVM and they are Windows, Linux, Test Machine, and the Server.
The Linux machine has very much everythign setup the same as the Windows machine and even the games that I play are Linux compatible with the Proton under steam and so I do quite often use Linux instead, and there are a few apps that you cannot get for Linux, and thankfully, under Wine, they run just fine.

So, I think that I will give Windows 11 a week maybe, and if these slow down issues are not resolved in that time, I think that I am about to hit the end of my Windows days.

I just checked when Windows was installed on this PC and it was done on May 2019

Anyway as I said, its a whione and an ignorant rant at that! I just wanted to vent my anger and nothing more really!

 

[Christmas themed thank]

I didn’t really see the point in upgrading from 7 to 10. And now I feel the same with 11.

I use my PC fundamentally in the same way, none of these operating systems seem to actually improve core functionality anymore.

 

[FatRakoon]

This is so true.
You really have to ask...

What does the latest version actually give you, thats truly better than the previous version?

They always give you the usual verbal diarrhea about security and safety, but then what are updates for? What are antiviruses for?

What exactly does windows 10 do, that Windows 7 did not?

I can name a few things for sure, but what I cannot name, is a reason why I needed to update?

Its all a ploy... Games need this and that in order to run the graphics card to its fullest... They wont put it into the OS and so you need the latest OS that does have it!

You need thos or that CPU in order to do the other and you need bit X and bob Y in order to install program Z

The simple facts are that its built in obsolevence

I agree, that there is only so far you can do some things with some software, but there is absolutely ZERO ned for you to keep going out any buying the latest and greatest PC or card or software... Thats absolute tosh!

I thankfully cannot play the latest games, and while this has indeed destroyed my gaming life, I have found that one of my favourite games is the Warhammer Dawn of War Series as these can be played with a mouse and a few keypresses.. Its obviously more than that, but there are the basics

The earlier games and actually, even the latest version of Dawn Of War 3 can be played with varying levels of success, even on a copmuter that has onboard Graphics... Mot eve na gaming graphics card. Now, it does noeed to be a half decent onboard GPU I grant you, but the card... Now I have a few ATI 7770 Card as I found them to be fairly good cards and so I got a handful of them and they do basic crossfire for giggles, and sure, these are now very long in the tooth, however, they do play most newer games too!

What I am saying is that if you just want to play the odd game, then you absolutely do not need to pay out £500 or more for the latest and greatest card... Its all crap.

Thats not even the half of it... If you take gaming absolutely seriously, and you are very skilled and you want to have the best keyboard and the best mouse, and you want the best Audio and graphics card and obviously, the best CPU and board etc etc etc then go for it.. hell, I have done it more than once, but the end result is that you wont have the best for tyhat long and in a few weeks, you will just be another idiot that hjas forked out hundreds of pounds when the card you just bought can now e be had for half the price.

Im looking at my old PCs that are sat in here with me, and I think about the thousands and thousands that I have spent on them, and they are now just sitting there doing nothing ( Some are,some are not ) and then I think... What has that one not been able to do, that this one does? Why is that one doing nothing? Why did I stop using that one, and so on...

In truth, they can all do anytying and everything that my main PCs can do, its just that maybe with some things, this one can do it in 20 seconds when that one takes a whole... 22 seconds! - 99% of the time,. I start a task, and go make a brew and its done when I get back, so in other words, the newer one is just set there longer after its finished its jobs...

So why the hell did I upgrade then? Every time its been like this, and each time its bee nmoney spent on sily things when I could have been spending on something better!

Oh god, ?I wont half waffle like a moron!

 

[Murphy]

I am absolutely willing to give it a fair run, but my pc is now very very much nowhere near as responsive as it was... Its not massive slower, but when you get used to doing things that are absolutely instant and now it pauses for everyuthiong, its a huge pain in the bum.

Not only that but it really seems have screwed with your keyboard or spell checker.

 

[ED209]

@fat

Not only that but it really seems have screwed with your keyboard or spell checker.

That's called rage typing lol

 

[FatRakoon]

LOL yeah, it probably IS Rage Typing.

But I do have a genuine reason for the way I do these things... I type as I am thinking, and also my hands are a bit mentaland so, in my head, I am typing things 100% accurately, but my fingers have so often either pressed a key too quickly or too slowly. This is because I had an accident a few years ago and it left me both physically, and mentally messed up!
( Thsts true )

 

[ezekial]

I hate how the taskbar eventually combines apps even when I told it not to. I had to download a plugin to replicate w10 taskbar..m

 

[mrk]

Has to be said again, but the winget command is just so useful:

 

[brendy]

I hate how the taskbar eventually combines apps even when I told it not to. I had to download a plugin to replicate w10 taskbar..m

Ive been unsing classic shell/open shell for years now, just never liked the W8 metro til now representation of the start menu.

 

[Vimes]

Did anyone have this automagically update....

2025-03 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 11 Version 24H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5053656)

for a few boots mine had a strange Windows welcome type screen, as though it had updated and was wating for me to make default select options, like deny cloud services etc etc. But it just paused on that screen for some time and then went to the normal desktop. This occurred, as noted, a number of times.
I went into Windows update to noticed that the noted updated was available and was just trying to figure out how to stop it from downloading, I certainly did not press the button for it start to download and install. BUT, it automagically did just that. At least, having gone through the setup screen on reboot once, for real this time, it no longer seems to appear on subsequent boots.

Just as surprisingly, Windows still seems to work..!

 

[mrk]

I manually installed it as it was in optional updates. Installed fine and rebooted once then back into desktop as normal.

 

[Throrik]

Has to be said again, but the winget command is just so useful:

The only downside is (and there may be a workaround, I rarely use Windows) is the constant UAC requests if the app needs it, compared to brew or apt on other OS.

 

[Vimes]

I manually installed it as it was in optional updates. Installed fine and rebooted once then back into desktop as normal.

It was optional for me, until my copy of W11 decided to download and install it, although it did work out...!

 

[Nevakonaza]

Anyone reckon windows 12 will be subscription model?
I have a feeling it will,with them trying to force new install to have online accounts seems to me like they want to get as many people with accounts set up now so it's seamless transition for subscriptions .

Personally ,I hate the way windows is going,it's a privacy nightmare, and definitely don't want any subscription model in future windows.
Imagine paying to be spied on.

 

[TNA]

The way it is going now I can see myself just using it just for gaming in the future.

 

[platypus]

Has to be said again, but the winget command is just so useful:

Hmm I wonder if I should start looking at it again. I stopped using it after just ending up having issues with it. It always felt like a side project, as apps would get on there but not be updated, or the binaries broken or what have you.

Perhaps it is much better these days though.

 

[mrk]

Personally not had any problems with it, there are some installs where it cannot get the version number so have to update those manually, but otherwise all good!

 

[Tetras]

Anyone reckon windows 12 will be subscription model?
I have a feeling it will,with them trying to force new install to have online accounts seems to me like they want to get as many people with accounts set up now so it's seamless transition for subscriptions .

Personally ,I hate the way windows is going,it's a privacy nightmare, and definitely don't want any subscription model in future windows.
Imagine paying to be spied on.

It seems likely, yeah, but maybe that would finally give enough of a push for us all to get off Windows for good.

 

[Trig]

Anyone else noticed on Windows 11 having Local Disk appearing randomly, just a drive letter, no space, and if I look at the hardware info for it it says its part of my 970Evo+ even though, its not...

WEird AF and rather annoying as its having knock on effects with removable drives where they don't appear in My PC, but I can see them in drive management, but with no drive letter assigned...