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Windows-as-a-nuisance: How I clean up a “clean install” of Windows 11 and Edge

Accepted submission by mendax at 2024-02-24 22:24:42 from the Windows-as-a-boot-sector-virus dept.
Software

Ars has a story [arstechnica.com] containing tips and tricks for making Microsoft leave you alone while you use your PC in Windows 11. To wit:

I've written before about my nostalgia for the Windows XP- or Windows 7-era "clean install," when you could substantially improve any given pre-made PC merely by taking an official direct-from-Microsoft Windows install disk and blowing away the factory install, ridding yourself of 60-day antivirus trials, WildTangent games, outdated drivers, and whatever other software your PC maker threw on it to help subsidize its cost.

You can still do that with Windows 11—in fact, it's considerably easier than it was in those '00s versions of Windows, with multiple official Microsoft-sanctioned ways to download and create an install disk, something you used to need to acquire on your own. But the resulting Windows installation is a lot less "clean" than it used to be, given the continual creep of new Microsoft apps and services into more and more parts of the core Windows experience. [...]

[T]his [article] is not a guide about creating a minimally stripped-down, telemetry-free version of Windows that removes anything other than what Microsoft allows you to remove ... but [one that demonstrates how to] remov[e] built-in Windows components can cause unexpected compatibility and security problems...."

I am a long-time macOS user, and willingly pay the hefty Apple "tax" to use it because macOS behaves itself, but I am forced to use Windows 11 at work and I hate it for many of the reasons outlined in this article. Windows, like DOS before it decades ago, has become a boot-sector virus. Windows delenda est!


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