this is not a guide about creating an extremely stripped-down, telemetry-free version of Windows; we stick to the things that Microsoft officially supports turning off and removing. There are plenty of experimental hacks that take it a few steps farther—NTDev's Tiny11 project is one—but removing built-in Windows components can cause unexpected compatibility and security problems, and Tiny11 has historically had issues with basic table-stakes stuff like "installing security updates." //

During Windows 11 Setup, after selecting a language and keyboard layout but before connecting to a network, hit Shift+F10 to open the command prompt (depending on your keyboard, you may also need to hit the Fn key before pressing F10). Type OOBE\BYPASSNRO, hit Enter, and wait for the PC to reboot.

When it comes back, click "I don't have Internet" on the network setup screen, and you'll have recovered the option to use "limited setup" (aka a local account) again, like older versions of Windows 10 and 11 offered. //

Rufus is a venerable open source app for creating bootable USB media for both Windows and Linux. If you find yourself doing a lot of Windows 11 installs and don't want to deal with Microsoft accounts, Rufus lets you tweak the install media itself so that the "limited setup" options always appear, no matter which edition of Windows you're using.

"The ESU program for consumers will be a one-year option available for $30," Yusuf Mehdi, EVP and Consumer CMO, said in a blog post. "Program enrollment will be available closer to the end of support in 2025."

HDGraph helps you to free disk space : it finds for you the largest folders on your drive.

It's a free tool allowing to graphically display the hard disk space usage : it shows all the directories and subdirectories of the hard drive on a single graph, allowing to see the largest directories at a glance.

It is compatible with all storage visible in the Windows explorer : folder of hard disk drive, USB key, network folder, CD, DVD, etc...

Pour a cup of cocoa and settle down for another episode of Microsoft Storytime. Why do codenames sometimes linger on in the implementation of products?

"Chicago" was Microsoft's codename for Windows 95. During its development, Microsoft's new operating system went by several names externally – Windows 4.0 and Windows 93, to name but two – but internally, it was named for the windy city.

The successor to Windows 3.x debuted 29 years ago as Windows 95, but during its development, engineers needed a name – not least for drivers. And so, lurking in the Signature entry of .INF files was $Chicago$.

The entry indicates the operating systems for which the INF is valid, and could also be $Windows NT$. As far as Microsoft was concerned, both values meant "All Windows operating systems." But why $Chicago$?

0patch does not replace executable files or modify them in any way. It corrects them only in memory, which can be done without relaunching them. //

• quickly fix "0days" and unpatched vulnerabilities,
• micropatch end-of-life and unsupported products (such as Office 2010 or Java runtime),
• provide patches for legacy OSes and applications (such as Windows 7, Server 2008 R2),
• patch what’s exploited in the wild,
• fix vulnerable 3rd party components and customized software. //

0.00 EUR
per agent, per year
personal,
non-profit educational
and testing use
0patch Agent
free patches only
community support. //

Pro
24.95 EUR +tax
per agent, per year

In your screenshot the "Read-only" checkbox is indeterminate because the graphical dialog never sets this attribute on directories, only on files (as the read-only flag has no effect on directories anyway and is repurposed for something else instead), so the dialog pretends that directories can't even be queried for its state. Either way, even if the files inside had this flag, it would only deny 'write' access but wouldn't stop you from opening the file for reading.

WSL2 runs as a VM guest and its access to /mnt/c is only through a filesystem proxy, which runs under your own Windows account and only has the same access as you do – no matter which Linux user does the access. The inability for WSL2 to bypass Windows access controls is intentional (even more so because the entire WSL2 VM is under your control, as that would otherwise turn it into a trivial security bypass).

The file permissions shown for /mnt/c in WSL are meaningless; there's no translation done from NTFS ACLs to Linux ACLs. (It would be a very lossy translation due to several mismatching semantics, anyway – even if you had used getfacl instead of ls -l, some things like inheritance or the 10+ fine-grained permissions cannot be expressed through "POSIX draft ACLs" that Linux implements. Some Unix-like systems implement NFSv4 ACLs which are 95% the same as Windows, but Linux unfortunately does not.)

Not even a week ago, Microsoft doubled down on its policy that requires PCs to have TPM 2.0-compatible hardware in order to install Windows 11. But now, in an unexpected and puzzling move, the company is issuing instructions for installing Windows 11 on incompatible PCs.

You can find those official instructions on this support page. However, Microsoft begins the instructions with a direct warning:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/installing-windows-11-on-devices-that-don-t-meet-minimum-system-requirements-0b2dc4a2-5933-4ad4-9c09-ef0a331518f1. //

For anyone who updates to Windows 11 despite not meeting the requirements, Microsoft offers the opportunity to return to Windows 10. However, this is only possible for 10 days after upgrading.

The option to revert can be found in Settings under System > Recovery > Recovery options. The step-by-step process will then take you back to Windows 10. However, you should create a backup before upgrading to be on the safe side in case something goes wrong.

Based on AlmaLinux, the operating system — which is the successor to Oreon Lime — has been designed with simplicity and familiarity in mind, bridging the gap between the ease of use people expect from Windows and the power and flexibility of Linux.

The brand new operating system sports an intuitive interface that will be instantly recognizable to Windows users, and it offers seamless compatibility with popular applications, and solid performance. Oreon 10 promises to make transitioning to a Linux environment not only approachable but (whisper it!) enjoyable.
https://oreonproject.org/download/

reset Windows admin password, promote user to admin:
'''
sudo apt-get install chntpw
cd /media/...mount.../...sys.../Windows/System32/config
sudo chntpw SAM
'''

If your Administrator account is locked—and it is by default—type 4 at the prompt and press Enter to unlock it. Type y at the confirmation prompt and press Enter to confirm.

You’ll have to run the sudo chntpw SAM command again to get back into the program. Type 1 and press Enter at the prompt to clear the Administrator’s password and make it blank. Type y at the prompt and press Enter to confirm again. Important: Do not use the change password option here, as it could cause problems.

You can now log into Windows with the username Administrator and a blank password. From there, you can open the Control Panel and reset other user account passwords.

QTTabBar is a Shell-Extension to add Tab functionality to Windows Explorer - folder window.
Besides, QTTabBar provides various features that certainly help you deal with files and folders.

What can it do?

Most of the functionalities are activated when you enable the toolbars offered by QTTabBar in a folder window.

Tab Bar realizes ... the tabbed browsing of folders. Command Bars offer various command buttons including ones added by Plug-Ins. Extra Views show extra folder view in a folder window.

Once you enable them, QTTabBar installs some kind of hooks into the folder window and change the behavior of the Explorer to suit the need of advanced users.

For example, a new tab will be opened by middle-clicking on a folder icon. Preview tooltip is displayed when you point image, text, and movie file by mouse cursor. Do you want to mark an important file? Change the color of the name of it. When you move mouse cursor over folder icons, you'll see a square with blue arrow. Click and access to contents of the folder instantly!

Creating and using a VHD from scratch

Supported or not, new or old, this is everything you need to know.

But there are three things about the end of Windows 10 support that are slightly different from other recent end-of-life dates:

1. A historically short time window between when the operating system was replaced and when security updates stopped.

2. A historically large percentage of the user base still actively uses the fading operating system. //

3. Many Windows 10 PCs can't (officially) be updated to Windows 11 because they don't meet the system requirements. //

All of these factors taken together are setting us up for something we haven't really seen in the Windows ecosystem before: a majority or a large minority of active Internet-connected PCs that will suddenly stop getting security updates, leaving either paid support, a new PC, or a switch to an entirely different operating system as the easiest paths forward.

Now that we're a year out from the end of Windows 10, and because Windows 10 does not appear to be going anywhere, we're publishing a series of articles exploring alternatives to spending money, either on a new PC or on continued Windows 10 updates.

Microsoft will officially end support for its most popular operating system in 2025. Here's what you should do with your Windows 10 PCs that fail Microsoft's Windows 11 compatibility tests before that day arrives. //

Business customers will need to pay dearly to stick with Windows 10. A license for the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program is sold as a subscription. For the first year, the cost is $61. For year two, the price doubles, and it doubles again for year three. The blog post doesn't do the math on those, probably because the total is uncomfortably high. A three-year ESU subscription will cost $61 + $122 + $244, for a total of $427.

In the original announcement of Extended Security Updates last year, a Microsoft spokesperson said that there will be a version of this program for consumers, but the company has yet to provide any additional details.

0patch does not replace executable files or modify them in any way. It corrects them only in memory, which can be done without relaunching them. //

• quickly fix "0days" and unpatched vulnerabilities,
• micropatch end-of-life and unsupported products (such as Office 2010 or Java runtime),
• provide patches for legacy OSes and applications (such as Windows 7, Server 2008 R2),
• patch what’s exploited in the wild,
• fix vulnerable 3rd party components and customized software.

So now we understand the problem. RuntimeBroker.exe crashed (due to heap corruption, according to the call stack in the RuntimeBroker.exe crash dump, shown to the right) and it took more than 15 seconds to upload the crash dump, presumably due to my flaky hotel WiFi. During this time my start menu was inoperable.

This deserves reiterating. My start menu was hung due to the combination of heap corruption and WerFault.exe deciding that it needed to upload the crash dump before releasing the old process so that a new one could be started. //

Klaus Kjærgaard on January 18, 2023 at 7:19 am
I had some of the same issues – just with start menu being too slow. I disabled web search for start menu, and it works, is fast, only finds apps (and other local stuff; documents, folder, settings – but only when you navigate to that specified search target).
Bottomline – turning off web search in start menu = speed

regedit/use at own discretion:
HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
“DisableSearchBoxSuggestions”=dword:00000001 //

Aaron Avery on January 18, 2023 at 11:56 am
Thanks for researching that, Bruce. It’s been quite a while since my start menu was that bad (or even non-functional). I landed on Keypirinha as my configurable third-party launcher of choice and it provides a much better experience for most things. Once in a while I’ll want some control panel (Settings) page that it refuses to find and I go back to the start menu for that. But having it index things like RDP machine names and Putty sessions saves time.

The WSL commands below are listed in a format supported by PowerShell or Windows Command Prompt. To run these commands from a Bash / Linux distribution command line, you must replace wsl with wsl.exe. For a full list of commands, run wsl --help.

But what should you do to fix the problem when you have deleted an administrator account on Windows 10 by mistake? //

1. Click on the Start button to open Start menu.
2. Press the Shift key and hold it.
3. Choose Restart from the Start menu.
4. Wait for the rebooting until you enter the Windows Recovery Environment.
5. Choose Troubleshoot and Advanced Options to see the window shown below.
6. Select Command Prompt and repeat step 4 ~ 8.
7. Type net user administrator /active: yes and hit Enter.
8. Wait for it to complete.
9. Type net localgroup administrators UserName /add (please replace UserName with your current account name) and hit Enter.
10. Create a new user account with administrator rights.
11. Type net user username * /add

For those feeling stuck on older hardware still running windows 10 because of Microsoft’s hardware requirements, be aware that you can upgrade to windows 11 fully legally and without breaking any Microsoft rules.

I did this on a 10 year old I3 machine with 6gb of ram a few months ago. Windows updates automatically continue to run just fine monthly and windows defender updates come through nearly daily just fine also. The only downside I am aware of is that once you upgrade to let’s say windows 23h2, windows will not automatically try to take the machine to windows 24h2 when it comes out. You will need to do that type of upgrade manually using these same instructions. Microsoft is supporting windows 11 sub releases (like win11 23h2) for 2 years after they come out.

My memory is there are 2 requirements to do the upgrade: at least tpm ver 1 and a uefi boot machine (not a master boot machine)

Here is where I got the instructions:
https://dongknows.com/steps-for-windows-11-upgrade-on-unsupported-hardware/

Here are my notes on what I did and where I got good information:
https://lsattle.wordpress.com/2024/09/11/windows-11-upgrading-older-hardware-to-windows-11-and-not-braking-any-rules/
Reply →

Fr00tL00ps
September 12, 2024

Thank you Lynn, Bravo. This is an excellent post and should be pinned to the top so it gets more attention. These resources/links pretty much cover everything you need to know to get Win 11 running on older hardware particularly those on a tight budget who possess a DIY mindset. It is not hard, just follow the instructions.

For context I refuse to replace my Mothers 12 year old Asus N53SV laptop (2nd Gen i5 & 8Gb RAM). It was purchased with Vista and over the years has since had Win 7, Win 10 and currently Win 11 and Office 2007 installed, all with the same product key/s. The only hardware mods it has received is 4Gb extra RAM, an SSD and USB wifi adapter prior to Win 10 fresh install and it has never missed a beat.

Admittedly I am an IT professional and she has very basic needs ie. email, social media and solitaire, but regardless it is still possible. Even paying your local IT technician would be cheaper than purchasing a new machine.

Some other points to consider which aren’t mentioned in your links;

• Win 11 is resource hungry so adding extra RAM would be a benefit.
• Likewise, replace/upgrade OS HDD to an equivalent SSD.
• Disconnect internet cable/wifi connection prior to install. This will force Windows to create a local user account to login rather than signing in with a Microsoft account, which you DO NOT need.
• Once logged in, change two power settings;
  a. create custom power profile and set it to high performance (Microsofts default settings may cause performance issues on older hardware)
  b. disable fast startup. (Caching previous sessions can be a security issue and if you have an SSD there will be negligible gain)
  • Chris Titus Tech’s Windows Utility is an amazing open source tool for home users and it costs nothing. A single Powershell command allows you to; Bulk install/update all your commonly used standard software via Winget. Debloat all your unwanted Microsoft crapware/telemetry/utilities. Tweak many hard to find settings such as Windows updates and repositioning the start button. Watch videos at these links;
    https://christitus.com/windows-tool/
    https://christitus.com/windows-utility-improved/

In Windows Vista or later, you can create a "junction folder"/"Symbolic link" to redirect the contents of one to another.

Simply type:

 mklink /d "c:\data\network docs" "\\server\shareddata\"

You must have Admin privileges when you run CMD.