Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 347 posts

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#331

Post by eviks »

xcv123 wrote: post #64
jchw wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In a few minutes That's a pretty big understatement to be honest. I don't use Windows anymore, but I still occasionally set up Windows for other people and there's so many annoyances that it's difficult to even enumerate all of them. Off the top of my head: - MSEdgeRedirect to stop Windows from opening Edge even when it's not your defualt browser. - Shutup10++ to quickly disable a bunch of crapware/unwanted feature…

Takes less than a few minutes with this PowerShell script: https://github.com/n1snt/Windows-Debloater

It takes more time to find the proper script and even more to tweak it not to break stuff you need

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#332

Post by dartharva »

genocidicbunny wrote: post #291
dartharva wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still have a debloated Windows 11 setup without the bloat by just selecting "English (World)" in the localisation option during installation. Add to that the "no@thankyou.com" trick while signing in to Microsoft account and you'll have an option of a fresh, clean locally-administered install.

Didn't they fix the English (World) trick at some point? Regardless of that, supposedly for this you just need to set your region to somewhere in the EU during initial installation; Though that can't be changed post-install.

I installed Windows 11 just this month, the trick is still working.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#333

Post by heavyset_go »

Aerbil313 wrote: post #327
heavyset_go wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It feels like you don't really own this system but use it in some kind of public library. You don't, commercial OS manufacturers want you to see and treat your computers as app consoles, similar to game consoles. They successfully got you to view phones and tablets as app consoles, the rest of your computers are next. > What also caught my eye so much is the amount of branding around – there are Spotify, TikTok, Am…

> They successfully got you to view phones and tablets as app consoles, the rest of your computers are next. Yes. Because it’s only logical. Go and watch what any person outside of tech circles do with their computer. Office, Chrome, Spotify, Steam, Minecraft. That’s it. Saying this as a hardcore Linux and FOSS user. Plenty HN folks cannot wrap their minds around that the world is in fact, changing once again from wh…

> Go and watch what any person outside of tech circles do with their computer. Office, Chrome, Spotify, Steam, Minecraft. That’s it.

This has always been the case.

What's new is how OS manufacturers are forcing profitable and restrictive paradigms upon users that will allow them to capture ~30% of every software sale and online payment ever made on any phone, tablet or computer.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#334

Post by PoignardAzur »

hnhg wrote: post #294
PoignardAzur wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... sigh. Lobbying isn't equivalent to corruption. While the two can get very similar in the US because US elections have no campaign spending cap, therefore politicians (and even some civil servants) have a constant need for massive political donations, in general lobbying is a lot more complex than "spend money, get law you like". It usually involves a high amount of, you guessed it, waiting around in lobbies. In t…

Your post didn’t require the impolite sigh and reads much better without it.

That's fair, I could have worded my annoyance better (or skipped it altogether).

Too late to edit.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#335

Post by bee_rider »

TheCapeGreek wrote: post #138
julianeon wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who’s been on Linux on and off for close to a decade (full time last few years) I’ve noticed something interesting. Now that so many apps have a browser version and prioritize the mobile version, the isolation caused by being on Linux keeps decreasing. Between your phone and your browser, that’s not quite 100% coverage, but it’s very good and improving all the time. You use your phone when you need a work…

I've been on linux for the better part of the last 6 years. Legitimately the only times I can recall _not_ being able to do something on Linux were a handful of use cases: - Multiplayer games: Steam Proton largely solves compatibility for a lot of games now, but the included DRM and anti-cheat for some multiplayer games made them unplayable. - Certain specialist tools like Photoshop, some CAD software, etc. Open sour…

Something occasionally seems to go wrong in web services even on Linux; for example the Amazon music web application is just so laggy in my combination of Linux and Firefox.

I’m not sure where the problem is, it could be anywhere between my window manager to the extensions I have installed, but it is too much of a pain to explore all that. Instead I switched to Pandora and then buy albums if I really like them, which works fine.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#336

Post by tonymet »

jchw wrote: post #22
tonymet wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a few minutes you can make Windows 11 look pretty close to Windows 7 (or 10) by disabling personalization, content , widgets, new tab content. In edge disable all of the new tools and bing integration. You’re right about the hassle of doing it manually, and I wish there were a global “Windows 2k mode” that ran the OS as lean as possible.

> In a few minutes That's a pretty big understatement to be honest. I don't use Windows anymore, but I still occasionally set up Windows for other people and there's so many annoyances that it's difficult to even enumerate all of them. Off the top of my head: - MSEdgeRedirect to stop Windows from opening Edge even when it's not your defualt browser. - Shutup10++ to quickly disable a bunch of crapware/unwanted feature…

I agree MS is moving in the wrong direction here. Hopefully with the telemetry data on people disabling these features, they will consider better transparency and control over the online features like personalization, content in start menu, edge , etc.

MS needs to make a profit on Windows. Apple can give away MacOS for free and make up the costs on hardware margins.

Windows can make money by charging consumers, by licensing to OEMs, by upselling other MS products, or by selling ads & content.

The only way MS will stop ads would be if consumers pay for Windows directly.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#337

Post by redder23 »

Windows will now "always use customers' configured app default settings for link and file types"

This is really the most disgusting thing they did, they really tried soo hard to make people you Edge that they open links from the windows search I think, no matter what default browser you have set. Strangely search is not working for me, might be because of Explorer Patcher because they are so fucking stupid the removed the ability to have the task bar on top in win11. It was a hidden setting that you can enable with a reg tweak then they completely remove it. Like WHY WTF?

I need my taskbar on top, it makes so much more sense. Window bars are top, closing windows is top, browser tabs are top ... Like how many mouse miles do you use more by going all the way to the button of your screen, I hate dumping things down, I do not mind the win11 task bar but I am forced to use a hacky windows 10 one just to move it top ...

Did I say I hate M$ already?

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#338

Post by heavyset_go »

aalimov_ wrote: post #326
pavlov wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone home screen performs the same function as the Windows Start menu. A news widget on one is the same as a news widget on the other.

Swiping away (to the right) from the Home Screen, will take you to the widget area from which you can immediately remove the news widget with two or so taps, and that setting will get preserved. So not really the same as pressing start to search for an app to launch. I think in your example the equivalent would be going to the iOS App Library list and then seeing ads and widgets there, which does not happen.

You have to open the widget board on Windows to be shown the news widget that the OP was talking about. There's separate Start and widget board buttons in the taskbar.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#339

Post by heavyset_go »

vbeeaz wrote: post #229
magnio wrote: post #53

Maybe I'm overthinking this, but how on earth did the EU pass a regulation[0] with such far-reaching implications? First Apple opening up to third-party app stores and RCS, now Microsoft giving users a bit more leeway. How come none of the big tech lobby against it in the EU? If it survives the waves of appeals, the DMA will probably change the entire technology landscape in the near future. Not that I'm complaining…

Because the EU does not have a tech sector, so they can pass any tech regulations without any fear for blowback.

If you're using a processor that was manufactured in the last decade, it was built using machines that the entire world depends upon that are only designed and produced in the EU.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#340

Post by lostmsu »

orthoxerox wrote: post #202
cookiengineer wrote: post #178

Pro Hint: due to licensing issues and EU regulations, "Windows Pro Education N" is pretty much the most bloatware free version, as it's also compliant with HIPAA. - No media codecs - No AI recording/transcription features due to missing media codecs - No cortana - No Teams upselling, no Office upselling, no Skype - No self installing games

I installed the N version once, and the lack of media codecs was infuriating. Most programs assume they are always present, so the error messages they give are cryptic and the average user won't guess the problem lies in their Windows having been N(eutered). What's worse, Microsoft website provides several guides that explain how to install the codecs, and they all contradict each other. I think https://support.micro…

Speaking as a dev, I recently hit that. In N editions even the APIs to query installed codecs do not work with a generic E_CLASS_NOT_REG. The docs for the API never mention that they are not available in N editions.
Post reply on HN