Can't run Windows 11? Don't want to? There are surprisingly legal options

Windows 7 - updated to Jan 2020, Jan 2021, Jan 2022, or Jan 2023

Scheduled future adoptions:

Windows 10 v22H2 - Scheduled for adoption in October 2025

O&O Syspectr is a simple cloud application that lets you remotely connect and manage your IT! As soon as there is an issue with your PC or an update available, O&O Syspectr lets you know or automatically acts!

To register, all you need is an email address. In less than 5 minutes, you are all set-up – it’s that easy! You can manage your PCs remotely from any internet capable device, including cell phones and tablets!

O&O ShutUp10++ means you have full control over which comfort functions under Windows 10 and Windows 11 you wish to use, and you decide when the passing on of your data goes too far. Using a very simple interface, you decide how Windows 10 and Windows 11 should respect your privacy by deciding which unwanted functions should be deactivated.

O&O ShutUp10++ is entirely free and does not have to be installed – it can be simply run directly and immediately on your PC. And it will not install or download retrospectively unwanted or unnecessary software, like so many other programs do these days!

This step-by-step guide will help you get started developing with remote containers by setting up Docker Desktop for Windows with WSL 2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux, version 2).

Docker Desktop for Windows provides a development environment for building, shipping, and running dockerized apps. By enabling the WSL 2 based engine, you can run both Linux and Windows containers in Docker Desktop on the same machine.

Unix introduced / as the directory separator sometime around 1970. I don't know why exactly this character was chosen; the ancestor system Multics used >, but the designers of Unix had already used > together with < for redirection in the shell (see Why is the root directory denoted by a / sign?).

MS-DOS 2.0 introduced \ as the directory separator in the early 1980s. The reason / was not used is that MS-DOS 1.0 (which did not support directories at all) was already using / to introduce command-line options. It probably took this usage of / from VMS (which had a more complicated syntax for directories). You can read a more detailed explanation of why that choice was made on Larry Osterman's blog. MS-DOS even briefly had an option to change the option character to - and the directory separator to /, but it didn't stick.

/ it is recognized by most programmer-level APIs (in all versions of DOS and Windows). So you can often, but not always get away with using / as a directory separator under Windows. A notable exception is that you can't use / as a separator after the \\? prefix which (even in Windows 7) is the only way to specify a path using Unicode or containing more than 260 characters.

Some user interface elements support / as a directory separator under Windows, but not all. Some programs just pass filenames through to the underlying API, so they support / and \ indifferently. In the command interpreter (in command.com or cmd), you can use / in many cases, but not always; this is partly dependent on the version of Windows (for example, cd /windows works in XP and 7 but did not in Windows 9x). The Explorer path entry box accepts / (at least from XP up; probably because it also accepts URLs). On the other hand, the standard file open dialog rejects slashes. //

The underlying Windows API can accept either the backslash or slash to separate directory and file components of a path, but the Microsoft convention is to use a backslash, and APIs that return paths put backslash in.

MS-DOS and derived systems use backslash \ for path separator and slash / for command parameters. Unix and a number of other systems used slash / for paths and backslash \ for escaping special characters. And to this day this discrepancy causes countless woes to people working on cross-compilers, cross-platform tools, things that have to take network paths or URLs as well as file paths, and other stuff that you'd never imagine to suffer from this.

Why? What are the origins of this difference? Who's to blame and what's their excuse?

Why does Windows use backslashes for paths and Unix forward slashes?
– phuclv Commented Aug 13, 2018 at 16:55

While your question is perfectly reasonable, your phrasing seems to imply that you think the UNIX approach was already a de facto standard and MS-DOS was unique in deviating from it. See, as a counter-example, how the Macintosh OS used : as its path separator until MacOS X introduced POSIX APIs. This question goes into the history of that decision and answers point to : and . as path separators predating UNIX's use of /.
– ssokolow Commented Aug 1, 2022 at 20:10

@ssokolow UNIX was there with its forward slashes long before MacOS and DOS were created.
– SF. CommentedAug 2, 2022 at 8:13

@SF. And, as the answer phuclv linked says, DOS got it from CP/M, which got it from VMS. I don't know why VMS chose \ when UNIX chose / seven years before VMS's first release (going by Wikipedia dates), but it wasn't a settled thing. Other designs were using : and . in the mid-60s, half a decade before UNIX decided on /, and UNIX broke from Multics's > because they wanted to use it for shell piping.
– ssokolow Commented Aug 3, 2022 at 5:31

Use of UNIX back then wasn't nearly as ubiquitous as it is today. Almost all of industry and many schools used manufacturer-written and -supplied operating systems, especially from DEC. And within the more well-known CS schools (not that it was called "CS" then) there was also a lot of use of homegrown OSes. So the influence of UNIX wasn't as pronounced as it is today, as well - that took many years to develop.
– davidbak Commented Aug 3, 2022 at 16:51

A:

PC/MS-DOS 1 used the slash (/) as the command line switch indicator (like DEC's RSX11 and DG's RTOS before), so when DOS 2.0 introduced subdirectories, they did need a new one. Backslash () came somewhat natural - at least on US keyboards.

With 2.0 IBM/Microsoft also tried to reverse that decision and introduce a syscall (INT 21h function 3700h and 3701h) and a CONFIG.SYS option (SWITCHAR=) to set a different switch indicator. All manufacturer supplied commands would obey that new char. Set to a hyphen (-) would make the syntax more like Unix.

In fact, in paths, the OS didn't care. All dedicated path names, like in syscalls, can be written with either slash. It's only within the command line scan of each command, that simple slashes get interpreted as switch indicators. The idea was that people could/should migrate to a Unix-like style, but that didn't catch on.

With DOS 3.0 the SWITCHAR= option got removed fom CONFIG.SYS, but the syscalls are still availabe up to today. //

A:

The README.txt file in the MS-DOS 2.0 source code, which was apparently intended to guide OEMs on how to build custom DOS builds for their hardware, indicates that the decision to use backslash was requested by IBM: Microsoft had been originally intending to use forward slash, and the change happened late in the development process. This is probably why the kernel ended up supporting the use of either character -- it was, presumably, too late to change over fully.

The user manual contains some significant errors. Most of these are due to last minute changes to achieve a greater degree of compatibility with IBM's implementation of MS-DOS (PC DOS). This includes the use of "\" instead of "/" as the path separator, and "/" instead of "-" as the switch character.

This is true, but very widely misinterpreted – the forward slash as an option character did not come from IBM, IBM's own operating systems (mainframe and minicomputer) never used that syntax. What IBM objected to, was Microsoft's proposal in DOS 2.0 to change it from slash to dash – IBM cared about backward compatibility. But IBM wouldn't have had a problem if Microsoft had made it dash all along, starting with DOS 1.0; IBM didn't care what the syntax was in the initial version, but they didn't want it changed in a subsequent.
– Simon Kissane Commented May 26, 2023 at 1:47

The sound of Windows 95 about to disappoint you added to Library of Congress significant sound archive

Along with Celine Dion and Elton John - plus some good music too

...

And here’s what The Library of Congress had to say about the significance of the Windows boot chime:

The 1990s witnessed the beginning of ubiquitous use of personal computing that is a familiar aspect of the world today. This revolution gained significant momentum in August 1995 with the release by Microsoft of the Windows 95 operating system. This iteration brought more of the computer’s operation under a graphical user interface (GUI), making a home computer more accessible to a non-specialist audience of consumers.

To mark this and other improvements, Microsoft chose to incorporate a brief start-up sound that would play when Windows 95 booted up. The company chose the ambient music creator and prolific music producer Brian Eno to compose this sound. Eno, now a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has also been a pioneer in the creation of ambient and electronica music. Eno delivered 84 sound elements to the Microsoft designers, who ultimately selected a sound almost twice as long as requested but which they felt conveyed the sense of welcome, hopefulness and progress that they envisioned. //

The OS was, however, often unstable. Users hearing the sound now deemed historically significant will likely have memories of hearing it more often than they wanted to – and often at inconvenient moments.

https://youtu.be/86CLkoDcyAc

chiasticslide Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
14y
191
Subscriptor++
If seeing is believing, they're just removing the actual script from the installer. But the script is only a 3-liner CMD. Hopefully entering this manually should still work. Or slipstreaming it into the ISO somehow. Or switching to a different OS.

Code:
@echo off
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown /r /t 0

As you may have gathered, Super Display turns almost any Android device (and Chromebook) into a portable monitor connected to a Windows PC or laptop via a USB cable or Wi-Fi network. //

Super Display consists of a Windows driver and an Android app. You’ll need to install both for it to work. Once that’s complete, the host Windows machine views the Android devices as another monitor. This includes access to the regular array of display settings, including resolution, refresh rate, location of the monitor in the array, and even customization options. Super Display also includes some limited quality adjustments if the connection drags for any reason. //

As mentioned, Super Display is a puzzle of two parts. You’ll first need to install the Windows driver and then the Android app.

1. Download the Super Display driver on your Windows PC.
2. Once the driver is installed, install the Android app on whichever device you want to connect.
3. Once the app is installed on your phone, open it.
4. Grab a USB-C (or micro-USB) cable and connect your Android device to your PC.
5. Follow the prompts on your Android device’s screen.
   Super Display includes a three-day trial, which is more than enough time to determine its usefulness. However, you’ll need to invest $14.99 to unlock it for life.

7+ Taskbar Tweaker allows you to configure various aspects of the Windows taskbar.
Most of the configuration options it provides can’t be tweaked using the taskbar properties or the registry.
The tweaker is designed for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

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. //

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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.

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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.